NotesExtractorMac

Bulk export your Apple Notes from macOS into plain text files for easy backup, migration, or analysis.

Features

• Extracts all Apple Notes in bulk from the macOS Notes database
• Converts notes to clean plain .txt files (removes gibberish/binary lines)
• Preserves note titles as filenames
• Handles Apple Notes' compressed storage format

Requirements

• macOS
• Python 3.7+
• html2text

Setup

1. Clone this repo:

   git clone https://github.com/chrisperkles/NotesExtractorMac.git
   cd NotesExtractorMac

2. (Recommended) Create a virtual environment:

   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install html2text

Usage

1. Grant Full Disk Access to Terminal:

   • Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access.
   • Add Terminal (or your IDE) to the list and enable it.
   • Restart Terminal.

2. Run the script:

   python export_apple_notes.py

3. Your notes will be exported as .txt files in the exported_notes_txt directory.

Troubleshooting

• If you see authorization denied, double-check Full Disk Access is enabled for your terminal.
• If output is still unreadable, your notes may be encrypted or in a newer Apple format not yet supported.

Disclaimer

This script is for personal use. Use at your own risk. Apple may change the Notes database format in future macOS versions.