Apple Notes to Obsidian, kept in sync

Apple Notes keeps your notes in a database only Notes is made to open, and its own export is one note at a time. Obsidian wants a folder of Markdown files. Exporter turns every note into one: folders stay folders, attachments are copied beside the note, links between notes become wikilinks, and the created and modified dates become Properties.

Steps

1. In Finder, make a folder for the export inside your vault, like Vault/Apple Notes. With no vault yet, make an empty folder and open it with Obsidian’s “Open folder as vault” first.
2. In Exporter, press “Connect” beside Apple Notes (on first launch the welcome leads there), then “Open Apple Notes Folder” and “Select This Folder” in the panel that opens.
3. On “Choose Where the Files Go”, pick “My Obsidian Vault”, press “Use This Folder” and choose Vault/Apple Notes in the panel. Leave the format on Markdown.
4. Press “Sync Now”. From then on every edit in Apple Notes is written to the vault while Exporter runs, window open or closed. Settings > “Open at Login” keeps it going after a restart.
5. Optional: “install companion plugin” on Exporter’s Obsidian card (or in Settings > OBSIDIAN) adds sync status inside Obsidian and opens any note back in Apple Notes.

What you get

Vault/
  .obsidian/
  Apple Notes/
    Studio/
      Poster, first pass.md
      attachments/
    bases/
      all-notes.base
      photo-notes.base
      all-attachments.base
  My own note.md

Each note’s front matter shows as Properties, with created and modified as real dates that sort and filter, and cover pointing at the note’s first image. Your #tags stay in the text, where Obsidian reads them as tags. source_url reopens the note in Apple Notes.

Pitfalls

• Choose a folder of its own, not the vault’s own folder, so your notes and Exporter’s stay apart. A “Full Resync” removes only the files Exporter wrote: the notes you wrote in Obsidian and .obsidian with your settings and plugins stay.
• An edit to an exported file goes nowhere: Exporter replaces it the next time it writes that note. Write in Apple Notes, and keep your own notes outside the export folder.
• The bases filter by file type, so they list your own notes too, and they are rewritten on every export: to change one, copy it under a new name.

Moving to Obsidian for good? Its free Importer copies Apple Notes once. Every field in the files, and each problem with its fix, is in the Apple Notes docs.