Switching

From Evernote to Plainva

Evernote exports to ENEX, and Plainva reads it directly — notes, tags, checklists and the dates they were written. Checklists come across in both of the shapes Evernote has used over the years, ticked and unticked, which is worth saying because the unticked ones are the ones that usually vanish.

Getting your notes out

Select what you want. In Evernote, pick a notebook — or select the notes themselves.
Export as ENEX. File → Export notes… and choose the ENEX format. Large notebooks are easier in a few pieces than in one.
Point Plainva at the files. You can hand it several .enex files at once; it recognises the format without being told.

What comes across

Your notes, as Markdown.
Tags, as tags.
Checklists, ticked and unticked — including the --en-todo shape the newer Evernote apps write.
The created and modified dates, with the time of day, not just the day.

What does not come across

Attachments are not imported. Everything you attached to a note stays in the ENEX file, and the report lists it so you know what is still there.
Evernote's rich formatting is converted to Markdown. Tables and simple styling survive; unusual layout does not.
Notebooks do not become folders. Every note in an export lands directly in the target folder. If you want them kept apart, import one .enex file at a time, each into its own subfolder.
Saved searches, reminders and shared-notebook settings have no counterpart and are not carried over.

Why bother

Plain files, no account

Your notes are Markdown in folders. Nothing expires, nothing is tied to a subscription, and reading them needs no particular app.

Search that keeps up

Full-text search runs as you type, locally, over the whole vault — with operators and no round trip to a server.

One place for everything

Notes, tasks, calendar and mail live in the same window, and a mail can become a note without leaving it.

Try it with a copy first

The import can write into a brand-new vault, so nothing you already have can be touched — and undoing the whole thing is deleting one folder.

Download Plainva Read the import guide

Coming from: Notion · Google Keep · Obsidian