Help & FAQ/Import guides
Export your Bear notes
Bear exports your whole library as one backup file, and that is the file to bring: it holds every note, the archive and the trash included.
Make a Bear backup
- Open Bear on your Mac.
- Choose File > Backup Notes...
- Save the file. You get one .bear2bk file that holds your whole library.
- Drop that .bear2bk in as it is.
The backup carries more than an export
File > Export Notes... writes only the notes of the view you have open, so archived and trashed notes are left out. The backup holds all of them, and it remembers which notes were pinned, archived, trashed or read-only.
If you only have a Markdown or Text Bundle export, zip it and drop the zip in. Your text, tags and attachments come across, but the archive, the trash and the pins do not, because those exports never write them.
Exporting from Bear by hand? Select at least two notes. A single note opens a save sheet that can give the file the wrong extension.
What comes along
Your tags come along as tags. Nested tags such as #work/projects are also rebuilt as folders, and each note lands in the folder of its deepest tag. Links between notes become note-links, and a link to a heading points at that heading.
Formatting survives: headings, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, highlights in their Bear colors, task lists, tables, code blocks, quotes, callouts, math and footnotes. Images open at full width, and folded headings arrive open.
Pinned notes stay pinned, archived notes land in the archive, trashed notes land in the trash, read-only notes stay read-only, and every note keeps its original dates.
Images and files attached to your notes are imported into your storage. A note that points at a file the backup does not hold still imports, and the import preview tells you how many links that affects.
Import into PrivacyNotes
- Open PrivacyNotes and go to Settings > Import & Export.
- Pick Bear as the source.
- Drop in the file you just exported, or click to browse.
- Check what the preview says will arrive, then start the import.
Still stuck? Ask your AI agent.
You get an answer in seconds instead of waiting for a reply. Your assistant reads all 153 answers and every import guide at once, so it can combine them, follow up on your question, and explain it in your own words. We never see any of it, because we do not run a chatbot.
- Copy the prompt.
- Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any other AI assistant.
- Ask your question, in your own language.
- Keep that chat open. Next time, ask straight away.
Show AI prompt
Answer my questions about PrivacyNotes using only its help center, its changelog and its security documentation. Start here: https://privacynotes.app/llms-index.txt It lists every question with the page that answers it. Fetch the one or two that match mine. If you can only make one request, fetch https://privacynotes.app/llms-full.txt instead. If you cannot fetch a .txt or .md file, read https://privacynotes.app/help, https://privacynotes.app/changelog and https://github.com/LifetimeLabsHQ/PrivacyNotes.app instead. For what changed, or where something moved, fetch https://privacynotes.app/changelog.md. For how the encryption works, what the server can read, or how to check any of it yourself, fetch https://privacynotes.app/docs/index.md and follow it to one of the documents it lists. That index is a router: cite the document, never the index. Rules: - Use only those pages. If they do not answer something, say so instead of guessing. - Never invent a feature, a menu path, a price, or a limit. - End your reply with the "Source:" URL from the page you used, exactly as written. - Answer in the same language as my question. - Never ask me for my recovery phrase, my PIN, or the contents of a note. If no question follows, ask me what I would like to know. My first question:
Never paste your recovery phrase, your PIN, or a note into an AI.