Questions

Connect an app, choose an export folder, grant a folder, start the MCP server or buy an unlock. Those happen in the app, by a person. The command line never prompts: a missing step stops the run with exit code 2 and one line saying what to do.

No. Each app unlocks with a one-time in-app purchase a person makes inside Exporter. There is no web checkout, no license key and no agent payment. Tell the person; the next run picks the unlock up.

Anything that runs shell commands can drive exporter. Anything that speaks MCP over HTTP can connect to the server: Claude Code with one command, Cursor and VS Code from buttons on the app's MCP Server card, Claude Desktop through a copied mcp-remote entry.

The command line and the server run on the person's Mac and read their exports there; the server listens on 127.0.0.1 only. The skills tell the agent to report counts and paths, and to quote notes or messages only when the person asks. Privacy.

Your first 100 notes and 100 contacts, your 50 most recent conversations, your 10 most recent days of Screen Time and your 10 most recently modified documents. Bear and Logseq are free with no limit. Each other app unlocks with a one-time purchase, priced per country.

Yes. Every app has its own export folder, set on its card in the app: any folder, including one in your Obsidian vault.

Messages, Contacts, Screen Time and Logseq are always Markdown. Apple Notes and Bear write Markdown or HTML, one at a time, and Documents can write both in one sync, as you tick them on its card.

Only the Mac App Store.

No, and no iPad version. Exporter reads the apps' data where your Mac keeps it.

No. A person installs the app and pastes the command line install line once; an agent can do the rest. For agents.

Each App Store storefront has its own price, in its own currency. The card at the top of this page shows the one for your country, and Prices in every country lists the Apple Notes unlock in every storefront.

Contacts, Messages, Screen Time and Documents are separate unlocks, each priced the same as the Apple Notes unlock. Your App Store shows each one's local price before you buy.

Everything you already exported keeps syncing, free. New items past the allowance are left out, and the card says the free limit is reached; the app does not count them, but exporter sync prints how many it skipped. Free allowances and unlocking.

In every App Store storefront in the table. Exporter is not sold in Russia or Belarus.

Yes. Exporter exports every note at once, with its folders, tags, smart folders and attachments, and keeps the files in sync as you write. Apple Notes itself exports only the notes you select, once. Locked notes stay out until you remove the lock.

Yes, read-only, so it cannot change your notes.

No. Exporter reads your notes and writes the files on your Mac. No account, no server.

Yes, into a folder of its own inside the vault, so your own notes and Exporter's stay apart. Dates arrive as Obsidian date properties, and the export includes three bases. Apple Notes to Obsidian, kept in sync.

Importer is free and copies Apple Notes into Obsidian once, which is enough if you are leaving Apple Notes. Exporter keeps the Markdown current while you keep using Apple Notes, in any folder, and serves it to your agent over MCP.

Your first 100 notes export and keep syncing free. Unlocking Apple Notes is a one-time purchase, priced per country.

No. Exporter reads the Messages database and writes the files on your Mac. No account, no server.

Your 50 most recent conversations export and keep syncing free. Unlocking Messages is its own one-time purchase in Exporter. After it, the next sync writes every conversation.

Media that was never downloaded to this Mac cannot be copied, so the file lists it by name instead of embedding it.

Yes. Exporter's local MCP server serves the exported conversations to Claude, and a search for a person's name finds your conversation with them. Connect it.

No. You select Mail's folder in a panel once, and Exporter reads only what is in it. No mail permission, no account sign-in.

Your newest 1,000 emails export and keep syncing free. Unlocking Mail is a one-time purchase in Exporter.

No, the email's text and links are. Attachments stay in Mail. An email whose body Mail never downloaded says so in its file instead of being left out.

Yes. They are plain Markdown with front matter, so Obsidian reads them as notes and AI apps read them over Exporter's local MCP server.

No. Exporter reads your mail and writes the files on your Mac. No account, no server.

Use vCard to move cards to another address book: select contacts in Contacts, then File > Export > Export vCard. A .vcf file is made for importing. The Markdown files are for reading, searching and linking.

Your first 100 contacts export and keep syncing free. Unlocking Contacts is a one-time purchase in Exporter.

No. Exporter reads your contacts and writes the files on your Mac. No account, no server.

Not from Apple: Screen Time only shows its charts in System Settings. Exporter's files are Markdown tables with the totals in YAML, which scripts, Dataview and spreadsheets can read.

The 10 newest days you ticked at your first sync. They stay the free ten, so later days need the unlock, a one-time purchase in Exporter.

No. Exporter reads Screen Time and writes the files on your Mac. No account, no server.

The lines are standard Markdown checkboxes with Dataview inline fields, so Tasks, Dataview and plain search all read them. Exporter never writes back to Reminders.

Your first 100 reminders export and keep syncing free. Unlocking Reminders is a one-time purchase in Exporter.

No. Exporter reads your lists and writes the files on your Mac. No account, no server.

No. Exporter reads Calendar's own store through the folder you grant, not through EventKit, so no permission dialog appears and no other app's calendars are touched.

A year is a few hundred events and twelve files you can read. A file each would be a folder of one-line notes.

Your first 100 events export and keep syncing free. Unlocking Calendar is a one-time purchase in Exporter.

A line says how many people are on an event. Their names and replies stay in Calendar.

No. Exporter reads your calendar and writes the files on your Mac. No account, no server.

For a one-time copy, use it: Bear exports Markdown itself, for free. Exporter keeps a folder current without repeating the export.

No. Bear notes are written as Bear stores them, with no YAML added. The other apps' files carry front matter.

Yes. Bear export in Exporter has no limit and no purchase.

If the plain files are enough, use them. Exporter adds YAML front matter from page properties, real checkboxes, namespaces as folders and a link back into Logseq.

Yes. Logseq export in Exporter has no limit and no purchase.

Yes. pandoc is free and open source, runs in Terminal, and converts Word, OpenDocument and EPUB files to Markdown one command at a time. Exporter is for a whole folder that stays converted, PDFs and scans included, without a command per file.

Your 10 most recently modified documents convert free. Unlocking Documents is a one-time purchase in Exporter.

No. Export those from their own apps to Word, Excel or PowerPoint, or PDF, and Exporter converts the result.

No. There is no share sheet, no file and no button: a screenshot is the only other way out, and it is not text.

No. Exporter reads the passes in your Wallet folder: boarding passes, tickets, store cards. Card numbers and payment history are not on the Mac at all.

Your 20 most recent passes export and keep syncing free. Unlocking Wallet is a one-time purchase in Exporter.

No. Exporter reads your passes and writes the files on your Mac. No account, no server.

Claude Code writes one JSONL file per session under ~/.claude/projects, in a folder named after the working directory, and deletes it thirty days after its last line. Exporter reads that folder and nothing else in ~/.claude.

Your 50 most recent sessions export and keep syncing free. Unlocking Claude Code is a one-time purchase in Exporter.

No. Exporter reads the logs and writes the files on your Mac. No account, no server.

You selected a folder other than the one the panel opened in. Press "Try Again", then "Select This Folder" without opening anything. Other apps say it in their own words, like "no chat.db in that folder"; the fix is the same, and for Logseq select the graph folder that holds db.sqlite or pages/.

The folder Exporter remembered was moved, deleted, or is on a drive that is not mounted. Connect the app again, or mount the drive.

The card needs a folder in export to, one press of "Sync Now" (real-time sync starts after it) and something ticked in its list. On Messages, "Sync Now" waits for the first pass over your history. The Export log (the clock icon) shows the error that stopped a failed run.

That is the free allowance: what was exported keeps syncing, and new items are left out while the card says "free limit reached". The app does not say how many it left out; exporter sync prints the count. Unlock the app on its card (pricing).

Press "Sync Now" on the card: the next sync writes everything, every Messages conversation included. On another Mac, press "Restore Purchases" first.

Exporter has to be running: closing the window is fine, quitting stops syncing (exporter sync catches up). Real-time sync starts after the first "Sync Now" on that card. The item may also be unticked or past the free allowance. Each app's page under Apps lists its own problems and fixes.

Its file is not on this Mac yet, for example one Apple Notes or Messages has not downloaded; the Export log lists it as "source file not found". Open the note or conversation so it downloads, then sync again.

Every app removes them on the next sync, Bear's retagged notes and Logseq's renamed pages included; press "Sync Now" if Exporter was not running. Screen Time keeps every day on purpose, and an item you untick keeps its last file.

A sync removes only old files of the format it writes, so switching formats leaves the other ones behind. Give each format its own export folder.

Only the files Exporter wrote in the export folder. Then it exports again and picks the free items again. Anything else in the folder stays: your own notes, a vault's .obsidian, a folder of documents.

The MCP server runs inside the app, reads Markdown only, and serves only the export folders next to the Apple Notes one. Keep the folders side by side, then press "Stop" and "Start" on the MCP Server card. The MCP server has the rest.

Press "Copy Install Command" on the Command Line card, paste it in Terminal and open a new window: the sandboxed app cannot write to your PATH itself. In cron, use the full path exporter help cron prints. When the card says "needs reinstall", or a backup tool sees exit code 19, paste the install command again.

Nothing to fix: the app already keeps the folders current, so sync does nothing. For a separate copy while the app runs, use exporter export --dest.

--dest must be inside a folder granted on the Command Line card: press "add folder…" under "Export Destinations". exporter list dests shows what is granted.

No. It only reads your apps, the Apple Notes database read-only, and writes only into the export folders you choose, where it removes only files it wrote itself. There is no account and no upload (privacy).

Macs with macOS 15 or later. Since version 3.23 it is built for Apple silicon only; 3.22 was the last version for Intel Macs. There is no iPhone or iPad version.

In the app, Help & Support (the question mark) sends a problem, an idea or a question, and exporter@tinysend.com reaches Anton directly. From Terminal, exporter report --send --email you@example.com sends a diagnostic report with no note contents.