# Migrate from Apple Notes

> How to migrate or export your notes from Apple Notes to Bear app. Download our Automator workflow to import your Apple Notes entries to Bear in a few minutes.

Source: https://bear.app/faq/migrate-from-apple-notes/

Beginning with macOS and iOS 26, Apple Notes includes a native option to export notes as Markdown files, including any attachments and images. However, on iOS this feature is limited to exporting one note at a time. Earlier versions of macOS do not provide a built-in method to export multiple notes simultaneously, but we offer an Automator script to address this limitation.

## Migrating from macOS 26

- In Apple Notes, select the folder you want to export from the sidebar.
- Select any note in the list and press CMD + A to highlight all notes in that folder.
- Navigate to File > Export As > Markdown, then choose a destination folder.
- In Bear, go to File > Import From > Markdown Folder and select the folder you exported previously.

## Migrate from macOS 15 or older versions

**[Download our Automator Workflow](https://sf-applications.s3.amazonaws.com/Bear/utils/NotesExporter.workflow.zip "Export Apple Notes to HTML - macOS Automator Workflow from Shiny Frog")**
Minimum system requirements: macOS 10.14 Mojave

We built an Automator Workflow for macOS that can export all your Apple Notes as HTML files. This will include most note contents, but not all. See the breakdown below:

- Text, lists, and photos should be included
- **Note**: only macOS 10.15 Catalina supports photo export. On earlier macOS versions, Apple Notes will not export photos
- Task lists convert into bulleted lists
- Rich media links will convert to plain text links
- Non-photo attachments like PDFs or other files **are not supported** and will be excluded from export to HTML files. They will remain safely in Apple Notes

In case your HTML files or the imported notes show an incorrect encoding in Bear, please try to run the following command in your HTML files directory using Terminal

```
find . -name \*.html -type f | \
(while read file; do
iconv -f UTF-16 -t UTF-8 "$file" > "${file%.xxx}-utf8.html";
done);
```


### How to use the Automator Workflow

- Download our AppleScript
- Double-click it to open Automator
- Press the **Play** button
- Choose or create a new folder to store your exported Apple Notes
- In Bear, click **File \> Import Notes**
- In the dialog that opens, find the folder containing your exported notes
- Select the folder containing the exported files
- (Optional) Adjust any import features such as whether to keep the original creation date, and whether to use the first line or file name for note titles
- Click **Import Notes**

### How to select multiple items on a Mac

Here’s a bonus tip for working on a Mac. In the macOS Finder and many apps, there are a couple ways to select multiple items, including in some file dialogs like this:

- **Select a large group of items**: Click the first file, hold **Shift**, then click a second file. All files in between will also be selected
- **Select multiple, individual items**: Hold **Command** and select multiple files. Only those files will be selected
- **Select all items**: In a file dialog like the one above, click anywhere in the folder, then press **⌘ + A**

### About privacy and this AppleScript

One nice thing about this AppleScript is that it runs entirely on your device. None of your notes pass through our hands, it simply creates HTML files in a folder of your choice.

On **iOS** you can access the importers using the **More (⫶) menu** in the sidebar.