Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON

Re:Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data a... by polyrand on Monday March 27, 2023 @04:18AM (#35324195)

Hey! I remember reading your blog post a few months ago, and it inspired me to try to create a CMS using Apple Notes + the IMAP syncing features[0]. But everything felt like a hack all the time. Many features are not supported when syncing over IMAP. I wanted to have access to the SQLite database, so I can't have a non-macOS VM syncing and processing notes continuously (or at least I couldn't find a tool that can do that). Parsing the data seems like a lot of work, I was also a bit worried that Apple could introduce a change in the format that would break the current tools. Linking between notes is not well-supported, etc.

At some point, I also had some issues syncing notes between different iCloud accounts when the folder had 100s of notes, and that was probably the tipping point. As I was struggling to make it work, I kept thinking that if I just had a bunch of Markdown files I could move around, the whole process would have been easier.

I eventually realized I didn't need most features of Apple Notes, and moved to Obsidian[1]. It feels quite snappy too, and now I can easily publish some of my notes. It can also use iCloud Drive for syncing between Apple devices. It's missing some collaborative features, but I also didn't need those.

[0]: https://ricardoanderegg.com/posts/apple-notes-blog-cms/ [1]: https://ricardoanderegg.com/posts/apple-notes-to-obsidian/

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Re:Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data a... by oneearedrabbit on Monday March 27, 2023 @11:52AM (#35328253)

I second your sentiment that it is a hack, and here be dragons. At the same time, I had an honest conversation with myself about the dilemma, and whether I am worried about changes to the database or not. I ended up answering that it is a low-risk factor especially for the project of that kind.

I am sure that Apple won’t be making any substation breaking changes to a database structure unless they have to, there is a price to pay. Such changes will always be tied to a major macOS/iPhone release, and it doesn't happen very often.

That said, I had to put this project on the back burner, it was not immediately clear what is the ROI especially considering there is a long tail of databases to parse. It starts with Mountain Lion and then adds up quickly.

I need to release my source code to Github--ORM approach was worth exploring, it is a concise declaration that is relatively easy to update and manage.

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