Apple Notes · on your Mac
Bring your Apple Notes into Cohestry.
Years of notes, connected. Choose the Apple Notes folders to bring in, and Cohestry imports them, keeps them up to date while it runs, and starts finding how they relate. Your originals stay exactly where they are.
Five steps
How to import.
- 1
Open Settings → Apple Notes
In Cohestry on your Mac, open Settings and choose the Apple Notes tab, then click Connect Apple Notes.
- 2
Allow access to Notes
macOS asks whether Cohestry may control Notes. Allow it. Cohestry uses this Automation permission only to read the folders you choose; it never needs Full Disk Access.
- 3
Choose your folders
Pick each folder to import, including any subfolders. Folders you create later stay unselected until you choose them.
- 4
Import selected folders
Cohestry brings in each note's title, text and dates, and copies its attachments if Include attachments is on (the default).
- 5
Keep writing anywhere
While Cohestry runs on your Mac it checks for changes every minute; Refresh now runs one immediately. The window can be closed. Imports sync to Cohestry on your iPhone through iCloud.
Your notes, connected
Keep writing in Apple Notes on your iPhone. Cohestry brings the text from your selected Mac folders into your workspace.
Choose each folder you want to import, including any subfolders. Newly created folders stay unselected.
- Notes212
- Garden journal38
- Reading61
- Family24
- Recipes17
Photos, audio and files in your notes are copied into Cohestry (up to 20 MB each) and sync to your iPhone like any attachment.
Changes in Cohestry are kept here; they are not written back to Apple Notes.
Settings → Apple Notes, recreated with example folders.
What comes across
Exactly what's imported.
Imported
- Note titles and text
- Created and modified dates
- Attachments (photos, audio and files up to 20 MB each), when Include attachments is on
- Notes in subfolders of the folders you choose
- Later edits you make in Apple Notes, on the next refresh
Not reproduced
- Rich formatting and checklist state
- Drawings and scans
- Password-protected notes (skipped, and counted in the report)
- Edits made in Cohestry are not written back to Apple Notes
Good to know
How importing behaves.
Apple Notes stays read-only
Cohestry never edits, moves or deletes anything in Apple Notes. It reads the folders you chose and makes its own copy.
If both sides change
If a note changed only in Apple Notes, the import updates it and keeps the previous Cohestry text in its history. If you also changed it in Cohestry, your Cohestry text is kept and the incoming version is saved alongside it, so nothing is lost. Settings lists these conflicts.
Removing things
Deleting a note in Apple Notes, or deselecting its folder, keeps the imported copy. Archive an import in Cohestry to stop refreshing it.
One Mac
Connect Apple Notes on one Mac. Cohestry's own iCloud sync carries the imports to your other devices.
Not the same as Apple's Markdown export
Apple Notes on the Mac can export a single note as Markdown. That's a one-off file. Cohestry's import is a living connection to whole folders that keeps refreshing, and the imported notes join your Brain.
Troubleshooting
If something doesn't come through
I clicked Don't Allow on the permission prompt
Use Open Automation settings in Settings → Apple Notes, turn on Notes under Cohestry, then connect again.
Some notes are missing
Check the report under the import button. Password-protected notes are skipped even if unlocked, and a note that was changing while being read is retried on the next refresh.
New notes aren't arriving
Refreshes run while Cohestry is open on your Mac (its window can be closed). Changing folder selections pauses automatic refresh until you click Import selected folders again. A connection error also pauses it until you reconnect.
My attachments didn't come across
Make sure Include attachments is on. Files over 20 MB are skipped, and the report says how many.
Can I import on my iPhone?
Import runs on the Mac. Notes you write in Apple Notes on your iPhone reach your Mac through iCloud, get imported there, and then appear in Cohestry on your iPhone.
Moving from Apple Notes for good? See how Cohestry compares.
Bring the archive. Find the connections.
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