Can anybody help with migrating RemNote to obsidian?

[lopa]

RemNote has had some major issues with their latest update causing data loss for some people so I’m considering a switch to Obsidian. I have a decently large database (a few hundred thousand rems) and easily millions of links. Has anybody done this?

Also interested in contracting somebody to just help do it for me if anybody is interested

[Susanne]

Hi @lopa I’m in the same situation, the RemNote upgrades are one catastrophe after the other. I wonder if it’s just because of the sunken cost fallacy that I’m still using it…

Have you tried PKMigrator/Remnote2Obsidian at main · AnweshGangula/PKMigrator · GitHub ?

[Susanne]

Hi @lopa, I’ve migrated successfully to Obsidian now. I’ve used the markdown export of the Top-Level REMs, the Regex Find-And-Replace functionality (for folders) in Sublime and the Note Refactor Plugin to extract sub-REMs to their own file if needed. I’m syncing to a Github Repository from two Linux laptops and two Android devices. Works like a charm

I have removed all the spaced repetition marks and will start with new flashcards (using the Obsidian - Anki sync) as I write new notes because if I migrated the existing flashcards, all my progress would be resetted and I would have to learn the “old” cards again. So I’ll continue to repeat those in RemNote.

Do you still need help with your migration? I could write a longer “tutorial”, if needed.

I know it seems a lot of work but I’m so happy I did it. The longer I would have waited, the more work it would be. My notes are so much cleaner and more inviting, and I observe myself writing more and more elaborate notes because it’s just fun and I’m not afraid anymore that they could be lost.

[Sawbones]

Hey

I’m sorry but could you show me how you did it? step by step if possible (I’m a novice in coding)

I’m in the same boat; spend a lot of time making notes in remnote, actually one of the reasons I liked it was because it seemed less intimidating than obsidian but now I’d like to switch but I can’t really reformate all my notes

[Susanne]

Hi @Sawbones, it’s been 3 months now so I don’t remember everything but luckily I made a note in Obsidian

You start with a complete export of your RemNote Knowledge Base to markdown.
You tick the box where it says that you want your own files for all top level REMs.
You unzip the file and delete all folders (you only keep the top level REM exports as single files which are in the top folder). Then you open the whole folder in Sublime.

Now the big problem is that RemNote does not export valid markdown. It’s quite a mess. I had opened several issues about this but they don’t have priority of course. Every tool wants to keep it’s customers so they facilitate import and make the export hard or neglect it. (With the good exception of Obsidian of course).

You do not need any coding skills but you do need to know Regular Expressions (Regex) and how to activate them in the find + replace UI in Sublime. You can use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + F to find and replace in all files in a folder in Sublime. I always tested my Regex in one file before I applied the Replace on all files.

Now you can start the cleaning up… for example:

• Replace ^^ with ** (^^ is used by RemNote for highlighting)
• there were tags where RemNote would generate a space between # and tag name
• delete lines that only contain a hyphen: Replace ^-\s+$ with an empty string
• Replace → ↔ and ↓ with an empty string (used for spaced repetition in RemNote)
• Remove the “link_generated_on_download” links that RemNote generates for some reason.

When your markdown looks more or less okay (don’t try to make it look perfect at this step), import your files to Obsidian and use the “Note Refactor” Plugin and it’s Function “Extract Selection to New Note” to split the files up. This is the step that requires most thinking because you have to decide what belongs into its own file.

I also used the “Toggle Bullet List” function a lot so I made a shortcut for it. Every REM is a bullet point but in Obsidian it looks tidier without bullet points.

I still have some notes that look ugly because they are still like RemNote exported them but I do it only when I encounter the note again. If I never meet the note again, is it really important to have it pretty?

I hope this helps… if you have any questions or problems just answer to this thread or write me a personal message!

[Sawbones]

Okay, that sounds great. I’ll try following these instructions and I’ll let you know. I’m in the middle of exams right now so I don’t want to mess with my notes too much, but I’ll definitely switch afterward. Thanks again >.>