How to Export Your Notes to Markdown (2026 Guide)

Markdown is plain text with lightweight formatting — and it's the most portable, future-proof format for personal notes. Files stored as Markdown (.md) can be opened in any text editor, read by any Markdown renderer, and imported into Obsidian, VS Code, Typora, Bear, iA Writer, and dozens of other applications. They're not locked to any vendor's format.

Exporting your notes to Markdown is the starting point for migrating away from a proprietary notes tool, moving to Obsidian, or simply creating a portable backup of your knowledge base. This guide covers how to export to Markdown from the major notes tools knowledge workers use.

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Why Export Notes to Markdown?

Portability: Markdown files work everywhere. A .md file you write in 2026 will be openable in 2046 without worrying about whether the app still exists or whether you can export from a deprecated format.

Tool independence: If your notes tool raises prices, gets acquired, shuts down, or degrades in quality — you can leave without losing your notes. Proprietary formats (Evernote's .enex, Notion's internal format) require conversion and may lose formatting.

Obsidian compatibility: Obsidian, the most powerful personal knowledge base tool, works natively with Markdown files. Exporting notes to Markdown is the first step for anyone migrating to Obsidian.

Version control: Markdown files can be tracked with Git. Your notes history, diffs, and branches are possible with plain text in a way that's impossible with database-backed notes tools.

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Exporting from Notion to Markdown

Notion supports Markdown export for individual pages and for your entire workspace.

To export a single Notion page:

1. Open the page.
2. Click the three-dot menu (...) in the top-right.
3. Select Export.
4. Choose Markdown & CSV as the format.
5. Click Export.
6. A .zip file downloads containing the page as a .md file.

To export your entire Notion workspace:

1. Go to Settings & Members → Settings → Export all workspace content.
2. Choose Markdown & CSV.
3. Click Export.
4. A .zip file downloads containing your entire workspace as Markdown files, with folder structure preserved.

What exports well: Text, headings, lists, code blocks, toggles, and most basic formatting. What doesn't export perfectly: Databases export as CSV files alongside Markdown, but the relationship between database and page isn't fully preserved in Markdown. Linked databases, synced blocks, and embedded content may lose some fidelity. Images: Exported as local file references or hosted URLs depending on the export settings.

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Exporting from Evernote to Markdown

Evernote exports in its own .enex format (XML-based). A direct Markdown export isn't built in — you need a conversion step.

Option A: Export as .enex and convert:

1. In Evernote, select the notes or notebook you want to export.
2. File → Export Notes → Export as ENEX.
3. Use a converter tool to convert .enex to .md:
   • yarle (open source, GitHub: akosbalasko/yarle): most reliable .enex to Markdown converter
   • Evernote2md: another open source converter
4. Run the converter on your .enex file to produce .md files.

Option B: Migrate through Notion: Import Evernote notes into Notion (Settings → Import → Evernote). Then export from Notion as Markdown (see above). This two-step process produces cleaner Markdown than .enex conversion for some note types.

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Exporting from Bear to Markdown

Bear stores notes internally as Markdown but doesn't make the raw files directly accessible in the Finder (they're in a SQLite database). Export brings them out as .md files.

To export from Bear:

1. Select a note or select all notes (Cmd+A).
2. File → Export Notes (or right-click → Export).
3. Choose Markdown as the format.
4. Choose a destination folder.

Bear's export produces clean .md files. Tags in Bear export as #tag text within the Markdown, which Obsidian also recognizes.

Bulk export: Export all notes at once by selecting all (Cmd+A) and exporting. Bear creates one .md file per note in the destination folder.

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Exporting from Apple Notes

Apple Notes does not have a direct Markdown export. The available options:

Option A: Export as PDF (not Markdown): Select note → File → Export as PDF. Not Markdown, but the most reliable export path.

Option B: Copy and paste manually: For individual notes, select all text (Cmd+A), copy, paste into a text editor, and save as .md. Works for small libraries; impractical for hundreds of notes.

Option C: Third-party tool — Exporter app (Mac App Store): "Exporter" is a Mac App Store application ($3.99) that exports Apple Notes to plain text or Markdown files in bulk. It's the most practical option for migrating from Apple Notes to Obsidian.

Limitation: Apple Notes' formatting (tables, checklist items, drawings, attachments) doesn't map cleanly to Markdown. Some fidelity is lost in export.

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Exporting from Obsidian (Already Markdown)

Obsidian notes are already Markdown files in a folder on your device — there's nothing to export. Your Obsidian vault is a folder of .md files you own. To "export," simply copy the vault folder.

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Exporting from Roam Research

Roam supports Markdown export for your entire graph:

1. Click the three dots in the top-right.
2. Select Export All → Markdown.
3. Download as a .zip.

Note: Roam's block-based structure (bullets within bullets) exports as nested Markdown lists. Indentation-heavy Roam notes may look unusual as flat Markdown.

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Exporting from Logseq

Logseq is already built on Markdown (or Org mode) files in a local folder. Like Obsidian, there's no export needed — your notes are already plain .md files in a local directory.

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What to Do After Exporting

Importing to Obsidian:

1. Open Obsidian.
2. Create a new vault pointing to the folder containing your exported .md files (or a parent folder).
3. Obsidian reads all .md files in the folder as notes. Internal links (formatted as [[Note Title]]) will work if your export preserved them.

Cleaning up after export:

• Most exports produce some formatting artifacts. A brief review of important notes identifies anything that needs cleanup.
• Images may have been exported as linked files or Notion URLs — verify important notes have working image references.
• Tags exported as #tag inline text work in Obsidian natively.

Version control with Git: After exporting to Markdown and moving to a local folder, you can initialize a Git repository: git init in the vault folder. From then on, your note history is tracked with every commit.

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Worked Example: Migrating Notion Research Notes to Obsidian

Scenario: A researcher has 200 Notion pages of research notes from a two-year project. They want to move to Obsidian for local-first storage and bidirectional linking.

Step 1 — Export from Notion: Settings → Export all workspace content → Markdown & CSV → Export. Download the .zip file (~50MB for 200 pages with images).

Step 2 — Unzip and review: Unzip to a folder. Review the folder structure — Notion exports maintain the page hierarchy as nested folders. Images are exported as a subfolder of assets.

Step 3 — Open in Obsidian: Create a new Obsidian vault pointing to the unzipped folder. All pages appear as notes in Obsidian's file explorer.

Step 4 — Fix internal links: Notion's exported links use file paths. In Obsidian, internal links work best as [[Note Title]]. The Markdown Links to Wikilinks plugin (Obsidian community plugin) can batch-convert links.

Step 5 — Verify images: Open a few notes with images. If Notion exported them as local files, they display correctly. If exported as Notion CDN URLs, they require internet access to view.

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Mistakes to Avoid

Don't delete your original notes before verifying the export. Run the export, open 20-30 notes in Obsidian, check that formatting and images look correct. Only then retire the original tool.

Don't expect perfect fidelity. Databases, embedded content, and advanced formatting (Notion's synced blocks, Evernote's encrypted notes) don't have Markdown equivalents. They'll either export as tables, plain text, or placeholder text.

Don't try to convert PDFs in your notes library. If you have PDFs attached to notes, export the .md files separately from the PDFs. PDFs don't convert to Markdown — save them in a folder alongside your vault.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does Notion Markdown export preserve all formatting? Text formatting, headings, lists, code blocks, and tables export cleanly. Databases export as CSV. Embedded files, synced blocks, and Notion-specific blocks (callouts, toggles) have partial or imperfect Markdown equivalents.

Can I export Notion to Obsidian directly? There's no direct Notion → Obsidian bridge, but Notion's Markdown export produces files that Obsidian opens without any conversion. The primary work is cleaning up internal links after import.

What happens to images after Markdown export? Notion exports images to a subfolder with local file references. Bear and Evernote handle images differently by tool. In all cases, verify that image references in your exported Markdown files point to the correct locations before deleting the original notes.

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Key Takeaways

1. Notion, Bear, and Roam support direct Markdown export — one-step process.
2. Evernote requires conversion from .enex format — use yarle or Evernote2md.
3. Apple Notes requires a third-party app (Exporter) for bulk Markdown export.
4. Obsidian and Logseq already use local Markdown files — no export needed.
5. Verify the export before deleting source notes — some formatting loss is expected.
6. Clean up internal links after importing to Obsidian — Notion's file-path links need conversion to [[wikilinks]].

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Conclusion

Exporting your notes to Markdown is the most important step you can take toward tool-independent knowledge management. Markdown files are yours permanently, work with every major notes tool, and can be version-controlled, synced, and shared without depending on any vendor's continued existence.

For most knowledge workers, Notion's Markdown export is the cleanest starting point. For Apple Notes users, the Exporter app is the most practical path. Once in Markdown, Obsidian provides the full bidirectional linking and plugin ecosystem that makes a Markdown vault genuinely powerful.

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