Import from Drafts

Help
1

I am not clear on how to import other markdown files into an existing vault. What I would like to do is import my notes from Drafts into a sandbox vault I have for testing stuff.

When I open the Markdown Importer, it threatens to overwrite everything. I can’t even tell how to go get anything into the folder.

Any direction or help would be appreciated.

ADDING SOLUTION

per @Luhmann and a few of my own notes

  • Export from Drafts iOS app. (This gives you the json export option. It also gives you the option to save directly to your Mac via Airdrop)
  • Import into Bear (Go to “Export from” and select “Drafts.” File is likely in Download folder)
  • Create a new folder somewhere to export to
  • Export from Bear. NOTE: It defaults to exprt as “txt.” Change that to “Markdown”
  • Go find your new folder with all your Drafts notes in it.
  • I pulled the folder and everything into my Vault. You could also simply select all the files and drag them in.
    You’re done!
1 Like
2

You can just drag and drop markdown files into the vault folder in the finder/file manager. No need to use an importer, except to convert some non-standard markdown code.

The bigger issue is how to get Markdown notes out of Drafts. I haven’t tried this yet, but here is a discussion. There is also an “export” option under the file menu in the desktop and under the preferences on mobile. It seems the more complicated ways of doing it are more related to preserving various forms of metadata. Importing a JSON file to Bear and then exporting from there seems like a good way to do this. (Note: I couldn’t find JSON export on the desktop version of Drafts, only on iOS.)

2 Likes
3

@Luhmann Thanks…this worked. Out of Drafts on iOS (which has json export) and exported straight to my Mac. Import into Bear. Export out of Bear (My only mistake was exporting from Bear as a .txt file. I just needed to change the option to md, and it was flawless). I then just dragged the folder into my current vault. If I had initially exported from bear as md, this whole process would have taken about 3min.

Thank you very much for the help!

2 Likes
4

Once I get the file into a vault what’s the next step? In order to see contents.

5

In case someone wants another approach, you could try my python-based exporter script, forum thread here.