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How to Convert Notion to Bear

Notion is a flexible workspace for notes, databases, and wikis, but it's proprietary and cloud-only. Bear brings clean Markdown editing with flexible tags to iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Learn how to convert your Notion notes to Bear in a few simple steps below.

Export your Notion notes

  1. Open Notion: Use the desktop app or any browser, and open the workspace that holds your notes.

  2. Open Settings: Click Settings in the left sidebar, then open the General tab.

  3. Start an export: Scroll down to the Export section and click Export all workspace content to move everything, or open a specific page and use the More (…) menu → Export to export just that page.

  4. Choose Markdown & CSV: Set the format to Markdown & CSV, turn on Include subpages, and pick your content scope. Click Export. Notion packages everything into a .zip file with one Markdown file per page.

  5. Download the export: When Notion finishes, the notification saying "Your workspace export is ready" appears in your Notion Inbox. Open it, click Download, and save the .zip file.

Convert your notes

With your notes exported, the conversion itself takes seconds. We'll use our app Notes Convert, the only notes conversion tool on the market, that runs entirely on your device. You can download Notes Convert here. It's free for 50 notes, and inexpensive for unlimited notes.

  1. Import into Notes Convert: Open Notes Convert and set the import format to Notion. Click Open File and select the .zip file from Notion's export. Notion support in Notes Convert is currently experimental, so it's a good idea to spot-check a few converted notes after the move.

  2. Choose Bear and convert: Pick Bear as the output format, click Convert, choose where to save your notes, and wait for the conversion.

Import into Bear

  1. Open Bear on your Mac: Import is easiest on macOS.

  2. Import your notes: If you exported your notes as Bear, go to File → Import Notes…, select the .enex file Notes Convert produced, and click Import notes. If you exported them as Bear (Markdown) instead, go to File → Import From… → Markdown Folder and select the folder with the .md files Notes Convert produced.

  3. Add tags: Once your notes are in, add Bear's #tags to organize them the way you like.

Done

Your Bear notes are ready to be used any way you want. Enjoy!

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