Apple Notes to Markdown files. What changes?
Apple Notes can export a note as Markdown. That helps. A Markdown folder changes the daily routine: every note is already a file, so search, backups, git, and Claude do not wait for another export.
Last updated by Thomas Sivilay.
Export helps once. Files help every day.
Export gives you a snapshot. Writing in Markdown keeps the file current every time you edit the note.
What changes after the move?
The folder becomes the system.
Instead of opening one app to reach the notes, you can open a folder. Backups, sync choices, scripts, and editor choice become easier to understand.
Search is no longer app-only.
Raven has search, but so does your operating system, terminal, editor, Claude, and Cursor. The note text is available wherever text files are available.
You can see what changed.
Put a vault under git and major edits become reviewable. That helps with research notes, project plans, writing drafts, and Claude-assisted edits.
Do not migrate everything first.
Move the notes that benefit from portability. Leave scans, drawings, locked notes, and shared lists in Apple Notes until there is a clear reason to move them.
Start with a working vault.
A small Raven vault with your active projects is more useful than a messy archive migration. You can always export older notes later.
A practical migration order.
Start with notes that matter outside Apple Notes: project notes, research, writing, prompts, and recurring meeting notes.
Export individual Apple Notes as Markdown using Apple's Export as Markup flow.
Save the resulting .md files into a Raven vault folder.
Clean up headings and links only where they will help search or Claude context later.
Keep Apple Notes for scans, handwritten notes, shared lists, and locked notes if you still use them.
Source note.
Apple documents Markdown export in the iPhone User Guide. Once export exists, the next question is whether your daily notes should require it at all.
Make the Markdown folder your default.
Raven gives you a native Mac and iPhone notes app around the files, without turning export into a weekly chore.