I’d like to export some of my notes from Devonthink 3 to Notion but don’t seem to be able to do that. I am trying one at a time to see what might work. I saved one as a rtd file and that didn’t work, and also as a markdown file, and that didn’t work either. I tried to import them and the screen seemed to show it uploaded 100% until at the end it said “import failed.” I converted it to a pdf to see if I could upload it that way, but couldn’t.
I thought one of the pros of DT was that once my data was in DT it could easily be exported to other platforms. However, I’m not finding any way to export any of my data. Any suggestions?
If I understand you correctly, you export from DT as either md or rtf (there’s no “rtd”, afaik) and then import these files into Notion. It seems the import step is not working.
First off, PDF is not supposed to be importable into Notion (see https://www.notion.so/Import-data-into-Notion-18c37b470e8941789548b68049af750b).
Second, it seems to me after I have read the text referenced above that Notion imports from apps, not from the file system. I may be wrong here, but I think you should explore that further.
In any case, you could just provide a basic markup file like
# My title
my only line of text
with TextEditor (or any other tool you like), save it on your desktop and then import it into Notion. If that works, there’s a problem with DT. If it doesn’t, you should ask the Notion people about it.
In that case, you haven’t looked enough. Right click on a record, share menu. Select a record, select “send per e-mail” or “show in Finder” from “Data” in the menu bar. Select a record, select any of the “Export…” options from the “File” menu. There’s plenty of choices to export your data.
Thank you for helping me to understand this better.
Maybe here is another solution: Is there some kind of a direct link where I could just copy some meta-data and paste that into Notion to take me directly into DT to that note, while still keeping the note in DT and not exporting/importing it? Nothing I have tried so far has done that, but maybe I’m not trying the right option.
You want to export files from DT and import them then into Notion. You also say that " that didn’t work" (regarding a MD file). I suggest that you create a simple MD file outside of DT somewhere in the file system (e.g. on the Desktop) and that you then try to import this into Notion.
I tried that for you: importing an MD file from iAWriter into Notion works. Exporting an MD file from DT to the desktop and importing it into Notion did not work. It imported 100% and then presented an error messages that was completely useless. The exact same file imports just fine into Marked 2 and Drafts (I didn’t bother to try any other apps, given that it is just a text file).
So you might want to take this up with the Notion people – they should know why they can import one file but not the other.
Without you explaining what you did, nobody can know if you’re trying “the right option” or not.
should being operative hiere When I tried it out, it worked with one MD file and failed with another. In the latter case, the error message was completely useless and appeared after the progress indicator went up to 100%.
Importing a BBEdit-created markdown file works fine.
And importing a DEVONthink-created makdown file works too. Tested with both export methods (via dragging and via menu), Notion imported both without problems.
Well, no, actually. I have tried several files: youtube videos, emails from Outlook, and an rtf file. None of those worked by the method of downloading it that I saw and deciphered in the Dutch (?) above – saving the “files and folders” on my desktop and then trying to import each of them. I also tried saving them as an OPML and that didn’t work. I’m not sure how else to convert it to a markdown text.
The file formats that can directly be imported in Notion are:
There might be other formats, if so then those can only be imported directly from one of the apps that Notion supports for its import. Notion does not support DEVONthink, so you can’t import any of the file formats you’ve tried.
Also if you have to
why don’t you ask what the english menu names are? If we couldn’t tell you the english names I’m sure someone else could do it. Doesn’t make much sense trying to help you if you don’t tell me that something’s not clear enough.
Could you please do the following steps:
in DEVONthink:
Menu Data > New > Markdown
Write some text into the Markdown record
Menu File > Export > Files and Folders
in Notion:
Click “Import”
Choose “Text & Markdown”
Choose the Markdown file you exported from DEVONthink
I exported a mail via File > Export > As text and Notion didn’t import it successfully.
First converting the same mail via Data > Convert > Markdown and then exporting it via File > Export > Files and Folders yielded a successful Notion import.
So to avoid unnecessary problems you should first convert records in DEVONthink and then export via File > Export > Files and Folders.
Thank you for your patience and help. I now have successfully exported and imported the email and the converted rtf file. I will just have to open the youtube videos and do those directly. Thank you.
When I tried it out, it worked with one MD file and failed with another. In the latter case, the error message was completely useless and appeared after the progress indicator went up to 100%.
