How to transfer your Evernote notes to Apple Notes

Evernote didn't make too many friends following its recent decision to raise prices on its paid services and limit the free version of its app to just two devices.

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If you ask me, there's no compelling reason for most iPhone and Mac users to pay for Evernote when Apple Notes offers a lot of the same features and costs nothing. (Apple Notes does use your iCloud account storage, but it'll take up a negligible amount of space.)

evernote and apple notes
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So, how do you make the switch if you've been an Evernote user all this time? Luckily, it's really easy to migrate your Evernote notes to Apple Notes.

First, make sure you have the Mac version of Evernote and log in. Also make sure your Mac is running El Capitan, the current version of the Mac OS that includes the updated version of Apple Notes. You can upgrade to El Capitan in the Mac App Store. You should also be running iOS 9 on your iPhone or iPad.

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Open Evernote. Click Edit > Select All to select all your notes.

switch from evernote to apple notes
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You can select all your notes in an individual notebook or all your notebooks at once. I suggest going through this process one notebook at a time so you have them organized the same way once you import to Apple Notes.

Click File. Then click Export Notes...

switch from evernote to apple notes
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Choose a file name and location to save your notebook.

transfer evenote to apple notes
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I recommend naming the file the same thing as your original notebook. I'm saving my "Recipes" notebook in this case.

Open Apple Notes and click File. Then click Import Notes...

import evernote to apple notes
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Select the Evernote file you just saved.

import evernote to apple notes
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Boom!

import evernote to apple notes
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Apple Notes will call the imported notebook "Imported Notes", but you can rename it by control-clicking on the notebook name.

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Make sure you have Apple Notes turned on in iCloud.

icloud sync apple notes
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Go to System Preferences > iCloud. Make sure you check the box next to Notes. This will sync your notes across all your Apple devices.

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