Mac app · Paid

Turn ten years of Apple Notes into something you can search and think with.

VaultDrop exports your notes to Markdown, sets up Obsidian and the Smart Connections plugin for you, and gets AI-powered search ready — in a few clicks.

Coming soon

Before you start: VaultDrop needs "Full Disk Access" on your Mac, because Apple Notes keeps its data in a protected place. It reads only your Apple Notes data, and nothing from your notes is ever sent over the internet. Tested on macOS 15 (Sequoia); designed for macOS 13+ (13 and 14 not yet tested). Password-protected notes are skipped.

Who it's for

You have thousands of notes in Apple Notes and often think "I wrote that down somewhere…"
You'd like to brainstorm with AI using your own past notes
You're curious about Obsidian, but setting up plugins sounds like a project

What it does

Exports all your Apple Notes to Markdown, keeping your folder structure
Sets up Obsidian for you (downloaded from the official site if it isn't installed)
Gets search ready by configuring the Smart Connections plugin

You do two things: click "Start setup", and click "Trust" once inside Obsidian. When it's ready, Obsidian's side panel lists notes related in meaning to the one you're reading — even when the wording differs. Regular text search works too.

Real numbers (author's Mac)

About 12,000 notes exported in a few seconds
Indexing everything took about 14 minutes, in the background. Results vary by Mac.
Indexing runs entirely on your Mac

Updating later

Re-export to the same place to bring in only new and changed notes. Notes you deleted in Apple Notes are moved to a folder, not erased. Notes you edited in Obsidian are never overwritten. We recommend using Obsidian read-only to avoid confusion.

What it isn't

Built for text-centric notes. Images, tables and attachments are not exported yet.
Apple Notes and Mac only.
Obsidian or plugin updates can occasionally break the automatic setup. The app then shows manual steps, and VaultDrop gets updated.

Privacy and safety

VaultDrop writes only to the folder you choose and never modifies your Apple Notes data. It connects to the internet only to download Obsidian and the Smart Connections plugin from their official sources. Obsidian and Smart Connections are separate products by other authors; VaultDrop automates their setup and does not bundle or redistribute them.

FAQ

How is this different from Obsidian's official Importer?
VaultDrop doesn't stop at export: it also installs Obsidian and prepares search, in one pass.

Are my notes sent anywhere?
No. Indexing happens on your Mac.

What if setup fails?
The app shows where it stopped, lists the remaining manual steps, and offers "Try again".

Windows?
Mac only.