Move Evernote notes to Obsidian

Export a notebook from the desktop app

Evernote’s web app does not export notebooks. Open the Mac or Windows app, select a notebook, and choose Export from its menu. Select ENEX and include the metadata you want to keep, such as tags and dates. Save the export somewhere outside the Obsidian vault.

Choose a notebook you recognize well. A useful first batch contains ordinary text, a web clipping, an image, a PDF, and a link to another note. Those examples reveal more than a folder full of plain text. Keep the original export unchanged; rerun conversions from it rather than editing the ENEX file.

Import the ENEX file

Create a new vault for the migration so the result is easy to inspect. In Obsidian, open Settings, find Community plugins, and install the official Importer plugin. Enable it, then open Importer from the command palette or its ribbon icon.

1. Select Evernote (.enex) as the file format.
2. Choose the ENEX file you exported.
3. Review the import template and the note preview.
4. Run the import, then inspect the generated notes in the vault.

This route is documented by Obsidian. The exact controls may differ with the plugin version; the official instructions are linked below.

Keep notebook stacks and nested tags

An ENEX export does not include the notebook-stack structure. Obsidian documents a filename convention for recreating it: a notebook called Clients inside a Work stack can be exported and named Work@@@Clients.enex. The importer uses that pattern to produce nested folders.

Nested tags need a separate decision. Obsidian’s guide describes flattening them with a slash, such as Work/Clients. If you change tags in Evernote to use that route, make the change deliberately before exporting; do not assume the old hierarchy is already inside the file.

Check five notes before the next batch

Open the examples from the first step. Confirm the text is complete and that the attached PDF opens. Follow the internal note link. Check a clipped article for readable headings and images. Compare a note date or tag that you rely on for retrieval.

Do not compare the number of files in the vault with the number of Evernote notes: attachments add files too. Compare note counts within the imported notebook, then investigate exceptions separately. A missing image can be a missing resource or a broken link to a file that is already present.

If the result is wrong

Keep the failed sample and the plugin version. Try the same small export in a fresh vault after changing one setting. Reimporting everything into the existing vault can produce duplicates and make the original problem harder to isolate.

Yarle is an alternative when you need different conversion options or a more configurable Markdown output. It already has desktop applications. Compare the same sample before switching converters; changing tools does not remove the need to inspect links and attachments.

Move the rest in batches

Once the sample is acceptable, export and import the remaining notebooks with the same settings. Keep a list of exported notebooks and unresolved notes. Back up the finished vault together with its attachments, and retain the ENEX exports as a separate copy.

Run a few everyday searches in the new vault before closing the old workflow.

ENEX to Markdown without committing to a new app

ENEX is an Evernote export format; renaming an ENEX file to .md does not convert its content. Obsidian Importer produces Markdown within a vault, while Yarle is another configurable conversion route. Start with a note containing an image and an internal link. Keep the generated resources with the notes, and open the Markdown in a text editor to inspect paths. The output can be useful beyond Obsidian, but another Markdown reader may handle links and properties differently.