Moving your library into Tenoa

The one rule

Your export never leaves your computer. Not to me, not to a Tenoa server, not to anyone. The import runs on your own machine, and you can do it with the wifi off.

So nothing on this page asks you to send me your library. If anyone offers to "convert it for you," including me on a bad day, say no. The whole point of the move is that the files end up with you.

Every tool section has the same shape: get the export, put it in its own folder, then jump to Check what you got. Pick your tool below.

mymind

Importer status: ready. Proven on 16,352 cards and 13,906 images and PDFs with zero failures.

mymind exports the original files plus one spreadsheet. It has to be done on a desktop, in the latest Chrome or Edge. Safari and Firefox do not work for this, and neither does the phone.

1. Make an empty folder first, for example ~/mymind Export. mymind will not export straight into Desktop or Documents, it needs a subfolder.
2. Go to access.mymind.com and click the cog icon in the left corner to open your Account page.
3. Click Export my mind, bottom right.
4. Pick the folder you made and follow the prompts. The browser will ask permission to write into it.

You end up with every image and PDF you saved, plus cards.csv, which holds your notes, quotes, bookmarks, highlights, tags, and save dates. Large libraries take a while. Mine was 8 GB and I left it running.

mymind has no import. Once you close the account you cannot put it back, so check the export before you cancel. Spaces do not export, but your tags do, and they cover most of the same ground.

Notion

Importer status: planned. Notion's Markdown export is good, so this one is mostly about images and databases. Email me if it is your tool.

1. Open Settings from the sidebar, then General under Workspace.
2. Click Export all workspace content and choose Markdown & CSV.
3. Notion emails you a download link when it is done. Big workspaces can take hours. The link expires after seven days, so download it promptly.
4. Unzip into its own folder.

Pages come out as Markdown, databases as CSV, and images and files are included. To export just one page, use the ••• menu in the top right of the page, Export, Markdown & CSV. "Include subpages" on a single-page export needs a Business or Enterprise plan. The whole-workspace export does not. If your workspace owner has switched exports off under Security, you will need to ask them.

Obsidian Web Clipper

Importer status: planned, and the smallest job on this page. Your clips are already Markdown files on your disk.

There is no export step. The clipper writes each clip straight into your vault, by default into a folder called Clippings, or wherever your template's folder setting points. Each file has the title, author, source URL and date at the top.

1. Find the folder. In Obsidian, right-click the Clippings folder and choose Show in system explorer (Finder on the Mac).
2. Copy that folder somewhere outside your vault, so the importer works on a copy and your vault is untouched.

The importer's job here is small: read the fields at the top of each file, fetch nothing, and write the copy into your Tenoa library with the metadata Tenoa expects. Images the clipper saved into your vault come along.

Raindrop

Importer status: next in line. Get the export now, it does not expire, and email me so I know you are waiting.

Raindrop keeps two things in two places: the bookmarks with their tags, collections, highlights and notes, and separately the files you uploaded.

1. In the web app go to Settings, then Backups, and click Create new. Raindrop emails you when it is ready and you download it from the same page.
2. Pick CSV if you are offered a choice. It carries tags, collections, notes and dates in one file. HTML is for moving to another browser, TXT is bare URLs.
3. If you uploaded PDFs or images, they are not in the backup. Open All Bookmarks, click Export, choose ZIP. Put the zip in the same folder as the CSV.

A single collection exports the same way from inside that collection, and you can export a hand-picked set by ticking the boxes and using Export in the toolbar. Automatic daily backups need Raindrop Pro, but the one-off export does not.

Readwise

Importer status: next in line, alongside Raindrop. Same advice: export now, email me which tool.

Readwise is highlights first, so the export is highlights first. Both Markdown and CSV are offered.

1. In Readwise, open the Export page from your account menu.
2. At the bottom of the page choose Markdown. It opens a formatting page. The defaults are fine, click through to download.
3. Or choose CSV, which downloads immediately with every highlight in one file. If you are unsure, take both.
4. Unzip into its own folder.

Markdown gives you one file per book or article with the highlights and your notes inside it, which is close to what Tenoa writes anyway. For one document at a time, use the down arrow beside it in your Library and pick Export Highlights. Reader documents (the saved articles themselves, not the highlights) export separately from Reader's own settings.

Recall

Importer status: ready. This was the first library I moved.

Recall exports to Markdown, which is already most of the work. Use the web app, not the phone app. The export buttons only exist on the web.

1. Open Recall in your browser and sign in.
2. Open the main app menu and choose Settings.
3. Click Export. A zip file downloads with every card as a Markdown file.
4. Unzip it into its own folder, something like ~/Recall Export. If the zip will not open, 7-Zip or The Unarchiver handles it.

One card at a time also works: open the card, use the menu in the top right, click Export to Markdown. Useful for a test run before you do the whole library.

From my own export: summaries came through, YouTube transcripts came through as text, and those transcripts turned out to be most of the value. Recall's automatic connections between cards do not export. Neither do quizzes.

Check what you actually got

Open the folder before you delete or cancel anything. An export you never opened is not a backup.

• Markdown exports (Recall, Readwise, Notion, Obsidian): open a few files in any text editor. Look for the source link, the date, and the body you expected. On Recall video cards, look for the transcript.
• Spreadsheet exports (mymind, Raindrop, Readwise CSV): open the CSV in Numbers or Excel and make sure the row count is close to your card or bookmark count.
• Files: spot check that the images or PDFs folder is not empty and that a few open.
• Dates: you want the day you saved each thing to survive. It does in every export on this page.

Some things do not export from any tool: Recall's connection graph, mymind's Spaces, Raindrop's collection nesting beyond the name, Notion's page permissions. None of it is the content, and Tenoa builds its own related-items view from the content.

Import into Tenoa

Honest status as of launch week: the importer is a small program that runs on your Mac, not yet a button inside the app. It reads your export folder and writes one Markdown file per item into your Tenoa library, moving the original images and PDFs in beside them. It needs nothing installed beyond what ships with macOS.

1. Install Tenoa and finish first run, so a library folder exists. ~/Tenoa is the default and the one I recommend.
2. Email hello@tenoa.app and say which tool you are leaving. I send you the importer for that tool and a two-line command. I never ask for the export.
3. Run the dry run first. It writes samples into its own folder, touches nothing in your library, and prints what it would do: how many items, how many assets, anything it plans to skip.
4. Run it for real. It is resumable, so if your Mac sleeps halfway through, run it again and it continues.
5. Open Tenoa. The items appear as the library reindexes, each tagged with where it came from so you can filter them.

The button-in-the-app version is on the roadmap. Until it ships, this is the path, and it is the same path I used on my own library.

What carries over

Rows for Raindrop, Readwise, Notion and Obsidian describe what the importers are being built to do. The Recall and mymind rows are what shipped.

After the import

• Open the library folder in Finder. Every item is a readable Markdown file. That is the proof, and it is the reason to do this at all.
• Keep the export folder for a few weeks. Once you trust the library, delete it or archive it.
• AI summaries and search by meaning run on your Mac and catch up in the background. A big library takes a while the first night. It is your machine doing the work, not mine.
• Cancel the old subscription when you are ready, not before you have checked the export.

Questions people ask

Can I export my data from Recall?
Yes. In the Recall web app, main menu, Settings, Export. You get a zip of Markdown files. Recall's own docs mention no paid plan requirement.

Can I export my data from mymind?
Yes. Account page, Export my mind, pick an empty folder. Desktop Chrome or Edge only. You get your files plus cards.csv.

Can I export from Raindrop without Pro?
Yes. Settings, Backups, Create new is on the free plan. Only automatic daily backups are Pro.

Does importing into Tenoa send my library anywhere?
No. The importer runs on your computer and has no network code in it. Turn the wifi off and it still works.

Will you convert my export for me?
No, and please do not send it. I send you the tool, you run it.

What if the importer skips something?
It tells you. The dry run and the real run both write a report listing every item it could not place and why. Nothing is silently dropped.

My tool is not on this page.
Email me which one. The order these get built in is decided by who asks.