How to migrate from Evernote to another note taking software

[Koandco 18]

Hello,

 

I'm considering migrating to Notion. 

Will I be able to export all my notes and files properly? I fear I will lose stuff. 

I think I'm done with Evernote. It's no longer working well enough. 

The search is broken. 

I constantly have to quit and reopen to write in it. 

I've lost the fonts I loved using. 

 

I'm ready to quit. 

Can someone please tell me how to make sure I bring all my stuff when I move ?

[Koandco 18]

Ahhh, that might be a problem as I have notes that are hugely long and being able to search in them is a must...

[lkarbo 3]

Same here. I recently lost my specialized fonts, and the conversion of web clips to images instead of readily-editable text is really frustrating. I'm looking into other options as well.

[Koandco 18]

Actually, I've just made a test to export some notes on my desktop and then import to Notes (Mac) and it's great. ALL is there, pics, links, and the search is amazing. 
So when I have the courage to do it, I'll move over for good. It's free, so I'll be saving a couple of dollars! 

 

[DTLow 5,736]

You should be discussing this in the Notion forums with users of that product
Many service/applications support direct conversion of data from Evernote

fwiw  You may want to reinstall the Evernote Legacy product     
           It provides more options

[lkarbo 3]

Thanks for sharing, Koandco!

[ArjenC 124]

1 hour ago, Koandco said:

Actually, I've just made a test to export some notes on my desktop and then import to Notes (Mac) and it's great. ALL is there, pics, links, and the search is amazing. 
So when I have the courage to do it, I'll move over for good. It's free, so I'll be saving a couple of dollars! 

 

Data transfer to Notion worked OK, some notes where somewhat strange but all was transferred. Searching is great, but not within documents. For me that was one of the big issues with Notion. But it depends on your use of Evenrote/Notion if this a problem or not.

 

[tavor 668]

8 hours ago, Koandco said:

Will I be able to export all my notes and files properly? I fear I will lose stuff. 

Whether it's Notion or any other app, the best thing to do is try and see. If it works to your satisfaction, great. If not, no problem, all your data is still in Evernote.

And even if you do move to another note app, you can still leave your existing notes in Evernote (just don't edit them there if you will be editing them in the new app). That way if you find certain notes didn't import well, you can always go back to see the originals in Evernote.

Moving between note apps isn't like moving from one house to another, so don't stress. It doesn't have to be in one shot, you can always go back, even if you move, all your original notes are still back in EN; etc.

Another option is don't move all your notes. Just move your current working notes and use Notion as your daily driver for a few weeks and see how you like it (referencing notes in EN as needed). If it turns out you prefer Evernote, you only have to move maybe a few dozen notes from Notion to EN. Using this approach, you can test drive multiple note apps one after the other and see what's out there and how it compares to the green elephant.

[Koandco 18]

Yes good idea. 

Here's my update. I've exported 50 notes from an important folder over to Notes from Mac. It's brilliant, all is there. And the search inside a note is brilliant. 

My problem is I can't export more than 50 notes at a time. Does anyone know how to export ALL my 4003 notes?

[lkarbo 3]

1 minute ago, Koandco said:

Yes good idea. 

Here's my update. I've exported 50 notes from an important folder over to Notes from Mac. It's brilliant, all is there. And the search inside a note is brilliant. 

My problem is I can't export more than 50 notes at a time. Does anyone know how to export ALL my 4003 notes?

Thanks for the update! I'd love to hear the answer to that question as well. I have almost 3000 notes would like to move more than 50 at a time.

[Koandco 18]

I think we need to do it one notebook at a time. It was discussed here: 

 

[tavor 668]

12 minutes ago, Koandco said:

I think we need to do it one notebook at a time. It was discussed here: 

 

Yes, do it by notebook. You could do it by selecting all notes in v6/Legacy, but the enex export file you create does not contain any notebook data for the notes. Whatever app you import into cannot recreate the notebook structure because it's not in the enex. So might as well skip installing v6/Legacy and just export by notebook in v10 - then whatever apps you import to will drop all those notes in one notebook, so you can preserve your notebook structure as you move across.

If you have too many notebooks to make this feasible, you could use the notebook name to tag all the notes in that notebook. Then you can dump several notebooks worth of notes into one notebook (though I wouldn't try to move 5k notes in 1 notebook, and would prefer to do them in smaller batches - again, there's no rush, take your time). This assumes the app you're moving to has tags and picks up tags from the enex (test it out first with one note or a small batch of notes). Then once notebook is imported, you create new notebooks to match your old structure in Evernote. Select all the notes containing each tag that represents an individual notebook's name, and move those notes to the corresponding notebook. Rinse, repeat for all the notebook-tags you moved across in that import. Hopefully that makes sense.

[Koandco 18]

I tried exporting per Notebooks. It's impossible. 

All I can do is rename the stack. I'll just call support. They must have more than one person needing to do that before quitting Evernote. 

 

[tavor 668]

2 minutes ago, Koandco said:

I tried exporting per Notebooks. It's impossible. 

Paging @PinkElephantor someone else using v10. Or like you said, since you're a Premium sub, you should be able to get support from EN directly.

[lkarbo 3]

52 minutes ago, tavor said:

Yes, do it by notebook. You could do it by selecting all notes in v6/Legacy, but the enex export file you create does not contain any notebook data for the notes. Whatever app you import into cannot recreate the notebook structure because it's not in the enex. So might as well skip installing v6/Legacy and just export by notebook in v10 - then whatever apps you import to will drop all those notes in one notebook, so you can preserve your notebook structure as you move across.

If you have too many notebooks to make this feasible, you could use the notebook name to tag all the notes in that notebook. Then you can dump several notebooks worth of notes into one notebook (though I wouldn't try to move 5k notes in 1 notebook, and would prefer to do them in smaller batches - again, there's no rush, take your time). This assumes the app you're moving to has tags and picks up tags from the enex (test it out first with one note or a small batch of notes). Then once notebook is imported, you create new notebooks to match your old structure in Evernote. Select all the notes containing each tag that represents an individual notebook's name, and move those notes to the corresponding notebook. Rinse, repeat for all the notebook-tags you moved across in that import. Hopefully that makes sense.

Thank you!

[lkarbo 3]

48 minutes ago, Koandco said:

I tried exporting per Notebooks. It's impossible. 

All I can do is rename the stack. I'll just call support. They must have more than one person needing to do that before quitting Evernote. 

 

Yikes! I hope they can help. I'm going to revert to Legacy and see how that goes.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, Koandco said:

I tried exporting per Notebooks. It's impossible. 

What does "impossible" mean?

I access the Notebook panel (click on the notebook icon)
right-click a notebook and select export

[Koandco 18]

Maybe for you, not for me. 

Are you using windows? 

check my screen grab. 

[tavor 668]

7 minutes ago, Koandco said:

Maybe for you, not for me. 

Are you using windows? 

check my screen grab. 

I think the problem is you are trying to export the stack. A stack is not a notebook (Evernote does not have hierarchical notebooks). Go into the stack and try to export one of the notebooks.

[Koandco 18]

If I go into a stack then I have all my notes, I select all but only 50 will export at at time. Are you with a Mac? You must be with Windows. 

In any case, I'll ring them in the morning. 

 

[Koandco 18]

I'm probably working in the sidebar? 

[Koandco 18]

I promise you I have opened the panel. 

I think we're not understanding one another. Are you on Windows? That would explain why I can't seem to see what you see. 
I have version 10.8.5

 

[tavor 668]

1 hour ago, Koandco said:

If I go into a stack then I have all my notes, I select all but only 50 will export at at time. Are you with a Mac? You must be with Windows. 

In any case, I'll ring them in the morning. 

 

I'm on Windows, v6, so yeah, I'm not seeing what you are. Yeah, try them - support is part of what you pay for. Let us know how it goes.

What menu options do you see when you try this on a notebook instead of a stack? If you see export option, then you can create a notebook, move it into the stack, then move the notes in the stack into that notebook, and then export that notebook.

[ArjenC 124]

6 hours ago, Koandco said:

I promise you I have opened the panel. 

I think we're not understanding one another. Are you on Windows? That would explain why I can't seem to see what you see. 
I have version 10.8.5

 

If you are use the web version (win of mac) you cannot export, option is not available

When using the v10 app, only per notebook you'll see (normally) the export option. When you select the whole stack you cannot export, need to select a notebook..

When using the legacy app, all works like before... when exporting for data migration legacy is the best option IMHO.

 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

... just be aware that you loose the note-notebook information when using legacy as well.

So you end up with a heap of notes without knowing the notebook where they were located, or you do it notebook by notebook. Name each export file with the notebook name to be able to reproduce where the content belongs. Some use scripting, but for a one-timer this is probably an overkill.

Ah, and when using legacy the local data base will be used. So make first sure it is intact - there are extended help options available to run database checks and correct for issues. On the Mac hold down the alt/opt key before opening the help menu. The new options appear below the standard help menu items. On Windows it was by holding down Strg/ctrl, if I am not mistaken.

[DTLow 5,736]

11 hours ago, Koandco said:

Maybe for you, not for me. 

Are you using windows? 

check my screen grab. 

Your screenshot shows a right-click on a stack    
Try right-clicking a notebook

[lkarbo 3]

18 hours ago, Koandco said:

If I go into a stack then I have all my notes, I select all but only 50 will export at at time. Are you with a Mac? You must be with Windows. 

In any case, I'll ring them in the morning. 

 

I hope they were able to help you. Even in Legacy (on a Mac) I can only export 50 notes at a time from a given notebook.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Don’t know what you call legacy, or how much horsepower your Mac has got.

Just tried it on my Mac - with legacy I could select and export several hundreds of notes without a sweat.

[Koandco 18]

I'm sort of afraid of going back to legacy and losing all my notes...?

 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Legacy is using the same data base on the server.

When you log in with the same account your notes will be downloaded from the EN server, and a local data base will build from it.

The only proven cases of notes not showing are when people use a wrong login information (one typo is enough), and instead of logging into their account by accident create a new one. Which is empty, of course.

The only usage that can lead to conflicting notes is when you use legacy and v10 at the same time, and edit the same note by accident on both clients. I am using both clients side by side and had no issues up to now.

[Koandco 18]

 

Thank you PE. I've just chatted with Evernote support. He said they're working on adding that feature to the new Evernote. The only way to export all notes is with the Legacy version, which I've downloaded. 

I also asked him if he was aware how disgruntled people are with the new version, and referred him to this post: I'm sure they are aware by now. 

In any case, thank you everyone for all your help. 

I'm not sure I'll be participating much longer. 

 

Katherine

 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

I am pretty sure that among the first people who know about user happiness there is everybody in support. In the peak they had a reaction time of 10 days, which means working down a queue of 10 days full of unhappy issues.

About leaving EN: It is not about leaving this or using that - everything is about how to get things done. Even when the new EN client may not be the same we all got used to, it may be that it is still the best alternative. Or maybe it is not. 

This depends on your use cases, so don’t be too umpresse with what others tell about THEIR use cases. Just think about the 10 or 15 most important uses of EN YOU are applying, write them on a sheet of paper, then add a column for EN v10, and more columns for the alternative solutions you are looking at. Evaluate which software does what, and take a decision.

[Koandco 18]

Indeed. I was a power user. Couldn't live without Evernote. Now that Notes in Mac, on both desktop and app, is super more elaborated and has great search, and is free, I prefer to go with that now. Instead of paying 150 CAD$. 

I'll wait to make sure I can do the same thing with all my notes and then make the move. I totally respect this app, it's just time to move on, especially with this new version that caters to different needs. 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Probably the main difference is that Apple Notes does not know tags. For some this is an issue, for others not.

[Koandco 18]

ahhh, but the search seems fantastic and in note searching too. But thanks for pointing that out. I realise how much I missed my old EN version. Maybe thay should still offer it to us for a bit cheaper...

[Tao Jones 3]

Anyone had success exporting tasks (into whatever - let's say Notion or even Apple Notes) and had them still be functional (with reminders and so forth)?

Am absolutely NOT happy about having to leave, but this price increase borders upon the offensive.  I'd always planned to use Evernote until either cataracts or some other malaise made it prohibitive.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

AN has no tasks. You would need to split tasks away and import them into Apple Reminders or a 3rd party task manager.

Notion is a database with an application builder. Doing tasks is a DIY project.

An automated transfer is not possible.

[ElleEmm 1]

I’m transferring to google docs. I’m tired in investing in apps that break, I’m looking for stability and predictability. Being with Evernote over the last decade (more actually) has been an ever-deteriorating experience.

the transfer is slow and painful because the internal hyperlinks don’t transfer. They won’t even indicate with color that it’s supposed to be a hyperlink in the new doc. I’ve got to painstakingly go thru and fix things.

Anyone else migrating to google docs and finding workarounds to this?

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Feel free to do what you want.

But Google ? Not really known to care and nourish services and products they once promoted.

[ElleEmm 1]

I am tickled by the notion that google would discontinue google docs. 

I primarily rely on hyperlinks, and I would be shocked to see them discontinuing that feature.

The instability and constant breakage at Evernote is egregious, and I’ve been burned so badly, I need to prioritize stability.

In any case, I am here for tips on how to migrate, not debate Evernote stans