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How to Convert Obsidian to Joplin

Obsidian stores your notes as local Markdown files, which makes moving easier than with most tools. Joplin is free, open source, and encrypted by default, with sync across every platform. Learn how to convert your Obsidian notes to Joplin in a few simple steps below.

Locate your Obsidian vault

Your notes are stored as Markdown files inside your vault folder. Open Obsidian, then go to File → Open Vault… and look at the path it shows — for example /Users/you/Documents/Obsidian Vault on macOS, or C:\Users\you\Documents\Obsidian Vault on Windows. On iPhone or iPad, compress the vault folder into a .zip file.

Convert your notes

With your vault located, 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 Obsidian. Click Open Folder… and select your Obsidian vault folder, or, if you compressed your vault, click Open File… and select the .zip file. If you only need to convert one individual note, click Open File… and select that note's .md file. Notes Convert reads them straight from disk.

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

Import into Joplin

  1. Open Joplin on your computer: Import is available in the desktop app.

  2. Go to File → Import: If you exported your notes as Joplin, choose ENEX - Evernote Export File (as Markdown) and select the .enex file Notes Convert produced. If you exported them as Joplin (Markdown) instead, choose MD - Markdown (Directory) and select the folder with the .md files Notes Convert produced.

  3. Find your imported notes: Joplin places everything into a new notebook named after the imported file or folder, ready for tags and reorganization.

Done

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

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