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Importing Notes#

FoldNotes can import notes from plain .txt files, Markdown, TextBundles, Bear, and Obsidian. 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, import options are under File > Import. 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 > 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 image 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 > 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
PDFs and other files Silently skipped — note text is still imported
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.

All imported Bear notes are tagged #imported/bear 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 images, tags, and front matter metadata.

Importing#

  1. Choose File > Import > 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, tags, and images were found.
  4. Confirm the import. You can optionally collapse paragraph breaks (recommended — Obsidian uses double-spaced paragraphs).

What Gets Imported#

Content Imported? Notes
Note text Full Markdown content preserved
Images Copied to .attachments/, ![[image]] embeds and ![](path) references rewritten
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
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.

Skipped Content#

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

  • Configuration directories — .obsidian/, .trash/, .git/, 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 files larger than 5 MB

Import from Capacities#

Capacities import is available on macOS only.

  1. Export your data from Capacities (produces a folder with subfolders like DailyNotes, AtomicNotes, etc.).
  2. Choose File > Import > Import from Capacities.
  3. Select the unzipped export folder.
  4. Confirm the import.

Capacities notes, tasks, people entries, images, and daily notes are all imported. Tags are derived from the Capacities folder structure and front matter. Daily notes with date conflicts offer append or overwrite options.

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, the importer appends a number: My Note, My Note 2, My Note 3, and so on. Existing notes are never overwritten (except Capacities daily notes, which offer an explicit choice).

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