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Importing Notes#

FoldNotes can import notes from Obsidian, Bear and Capacities, and from plain .txt files, Markdown, TextBundles and Bike outlines. The import process creates copies in your FoldNotes collection — original files are never modified.

Platform Availability#

Import Source macOS iOS
Import Files (.md, .txt, .textbundle, .bike1)
Import from Bear
Import from Obsidian
Import from Capacities

On macOS, the importers are in the File menu: Import Files… (Shift+Cmd+I), Import from Bear…, Import from Capacities… and Import from Obsidian…. On iOS, tap the import button (down-arrow icon) in the navigation bar.

Import Files#

The general-purpose file importer handles individual files and folders. Supported file types:

  • Markdown (.md, .markdown)
  • Plain text (.txt, .text)
  • TextBundle (.textbundle) — text and images are imported together
  • Bike (.bike) — converted to Markdown automatically

How It Works#

  1. Choose File > Import Files… (macOS) or Import Files (iOS).
  2. Select one or more files, or a folder. Folders are scanned recursively for importable files.
  3. Confirm the import. You can optionally collapse Markdown paragraph breaks (double newlines become single).
  4. Each file is written to your current collection with FoldNotes front matter.

What Happens to YAML Front Matter#

Many Markdown editors (Obsidian, Jekyll, Hugo, Logseq, and others) add YAML front matter between --- fences at the top of a file. FoldNotes detects and strips this foreign front matter during import.

  • The title: value, if present, is used as the note title.
  • All other foreign fields are discarded.
  • FoldNotes generates its own front matter with a unique id, created timestamp, and title.
  • The body text below the closing --- fence is preserved as-is.

If the file has no YAML front matter, the filename becomes the note title.

Tip

Foreign front matter is stripped because FoldNotes manages its own metadata schema. See Front Matter for details on what FoldNotes stores.

Where Files Are Imported#

Imported files are added to your currently active collection. If you're working in a secondary collection, the notes appear there — not in your default collection.

Encoding#

Files are read as UTF-8. If that fails, macOS Roman encoding is attempted as a fallback.

Import from Bear#

Bear is a popular note-taking app for macOS and iOS. FoldNotes imports from Bear's TextBundle export format, which preserves note content and attachments.

Exporting from Bear#

Bear export is macOS only — Bear for iOS does not offer TextBundle export.

  1. Open Bear on your Mac.
  2. Select the notes you want to export, or select all with Cmd+A.
  3. Go to File > Export Notes.
  4. Choose TextBundle as the format.
  5. Select a destination folder (e.g. your Desktop or Downloads).
  6. Bear creates one .textbundle folder per note.

Importing into FoldNotes#

  1. Choose File > Import from Bear… (macOS) or Import from Bear (iOS).
  2. Select the folder containing the exported .textbundle files.
  3. Confirm the import. You can optionally collapse paragraph breaks.

What Gets Imported#

Content Imported? Notes
Note text Full Markdown content preserved
Images Copied to .attachments/, paths rewritten. A picture that is already there with the same contents is reused, not copied again
PDFs and other documents PDFs, Office and iWork documents and audio files are copied like images. Other file types, and anything over 20 MB, are skipped and listed when the import finishes
Tags Bear strips tags from exports (see below)
Backlinks [[wiki-links]] in note text are detected

Tag Limitation#

Bear does not export tag information

Bear removes #tags from the note body during TextBundle export and does not include tag data in the bundle metadata. There is no Bear export format that preserves both tags and attachments.

Imported Bear notes are tagged #imported/bear — or #imported/bear/<folder> when they sit in a subfolder of the export — so you can find them easily.

If you need Bear's tag hierarchy, Bear's Markdown export (not TextBundle) can create a folder structure based on tags — but that format does not include images.

Import from Obsidian#

FoldNotes can import an entire Obsidian vault, including attachments, tags, and front matter metadata.

Importing#

  1. Choose File > Import from Obsidian… (macOS) or Import from Obsidian (iOS).
  2. Select your Obsidian vault folder (the one containing the .obsidian/ directory).
  3. Review the summary — FoldNotes shows how many notes and tags it found, and how many attachments your notes use. Only those are copied; files in the vault that no note uses are left behind.
  4. Confirm the import. You can optionally collapse paragraph breaks (recommended — Obsidian uses double-spaced paragraphs).

The import is quick, and a progress window counts the notes as they're imported.

What Gets Imported#

Content Imported? Notes
Note text Full Markdown content preserved
Attachments Pictures, PDFs and other documents your notes use are copied to .attachments/, and ![[image]] embeds and ![](path) references are rewritten. Importing the same vault again doesn't copy them twice. Files over 20 MB are skipped
YAML front matter tags Prefixed under imported/obsidian/
Inline #tags Prefixed under imported/obsidian/
Folder structure Converted to tag hierarchy (e.g. Projects/Work/ becomes #imported/obsidian/Projects/Work)
[[backlinks]] Preserved and resolved where target notes exist
Aliased links [[note|display]] Converted to [[note]]
Front matter title: Used as note title
Front matter date: / created: Used as creation date
Daily notes as ordinary notes An Obsidian daily note such as 2026-03-30.md comes in as an ordinary note with that name — not as a FoldNotes daily note. Your FoldNotes daily notes are never changed
Excalidraw files Skipped

Tag Handling#

Obsidian notes can have tags from three sources — all are preserved:

  1. Folder structure — A note at Projects/Work/meeting.md gets the tag #imported/obsidian/Projects/Work.
  2. YAML front matter — Tags listed in the tags: or tag: field are prefixed with imported/obsidian/.
  3. Inline tags — #tags in the note body are prefixed with imported/obsidian/.

Notes with no tags from any source receive a base #imported/obsidian tag. Characters FoldNotes can't use in a tag — such as _, . or & in a tag or folder name — become -, so #to_read is imported as #imported/obsidian/to-read.

Skipped Content#

The Obsidian importer only processes .md files. Everything else is silently ignored, including:

  • Configuration directories — .obsidian/, .trash/, .git/, .github/, node_modules/
  • Hidden files — any file or folder starting with .
  • Canvas files — .canvas (Obsidian's visual canvas format)
  • Plugin data — JSON configuration files, database files, and other plugin-generated content
  • Empty notes and notes larger than 5 MB

Import from Capacities#

Capacities import is available on macOS only.

Importing#

  1. Export your data from Capacities as Markdown and unzip it. The export is a folder with subfolders such as DailyNotes, AtomicNotes, People and Tasks, and Images/Media for pictures.
  2. Choose File > Import from Capacities….
  3. Select the unzipped export folder. If its notes sit in a Notes folder inside it, FoldNotes finds them.
  4. If FoldNotes already has daily notes for some of the export's dates, choose what happens to them (see Daily Notes below).
  5. Review the summary — how many notes and daily notes will be imported, how many attachments your notes use, and how many notes are skipped because they are already in FoldNotes. Confirm the import. You can optionally collapse paragraph breaks (recommended).

The import is quick, and a progress window counts the notes as they're imported.

What Gets Imported#

Content Imported? Notes
Notes (atomic notes and other object types) Tagged by type and Capacities tags, e.g. #imported/capacities/atomic-notes/bike-app
Daily notes Become FoldNotes daily notes, so they appear in the calendar
Tasks Become task lines: Done → - [x] with a done: date, In Progress → - [/], and priority: is kept
People Phone, email, category, organisations and memory jog are listed under the name
Links between objects Become [[wiki-links]]
Pictures and files in Images/Media Only the ones your notes use are copied to .attachments/. Importing the same export again doesn't copy them twice. Files over 20 MB are skipped
Created date Taken from Capacities' createdAt
Collections, Queries, PDFs, Files, Weblinks, Tables folders Not imported

Daily Notes#

A Capacities daily note becomes the FoldNotes daily note for its date. Its Capacities tags are added under #imported/capacities/.

If FoldNotes already has a daily note for one of the export's dates, you are asked once for the whole import:

  • Append adds the imported text to the end of your daily note, under the heading Imported from Capacities. The date heading Capacities puts at the top is left out.
  • Overwrite replaces the text of your daily note with the imported text. The note itself stays: links to it, its properties and its favourite are kept.
  • Skip These Days leaves your daily notes for those dates exactly as they are, and imports everything else.
  • Cancel stops the whole import. Nothing is imported.

Importing the same export again

Choose Skip These Days. Append would add the same text to those daily notes a second time, and Overwrite would replace anything you have written in them since.

If your daily note for a date is in the Trash, that day is skipped whatever you choose, so you can still restore your note.

Notes Already in FoldNotes#

A Capacities note whose title matches a note already in your collection — including one in the Trash, which you may want to restore — is skipped, so running the import again only brings in what's new. The summary says how many were skipped. Daily notes follow your choice above.

After Importing#

All importers create FoldNotes front matter for each note, including a unique id and created timestamp. Notes appear in your document list immediately after import.

Organising imported notes

Imported notes are tagged under #imported/bear, #imported/obsidian, or #imported/capacities so you can browse them by source. On macOS and iPad, you can drag notes from an imported tag path to any other tag in the tag browser — the tag in the note body is updated automatically. This makes it easy to reorganise imported notes into your own tag structure over time.

Import into a separate collection (macOS)

On macOS, consider creating a secondary collection (File > New Collection) to import notes into. This lets you review and organise imported content before committing to your primary collection. On iOS, notes are always imported into your home collection.

Duplicate Handling#

If a note with the same filename already exists in your collection, Import Files, Bear and Obsidian add a number: My Note, My Note 2, My Note 3, and so on. Capacities skips a note whose title is already in your collection instead (see Notes Already in FoldNotes). Existing notes are never overwritten — except Capacities daily notes, where you choose Append, Overwrite or Skip These Days.

  1. .bike (Bike Outliner) import is macOS only. ↩