# 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

1. Open Bear on your Mac.
2. Choose File > Backup Notes...
3. Save the file. You get one .bear2bk file that holds your whole library.
4. 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](https://privacynotes.app/help/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](https://privacynotes.app/help/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

1. Open PrivacyNotes and go to Settings > Import & Export.
2. Pick **Bear** as the source.
3. Drop in the file you just exported, or click to browse.
4. Check what the preview says will arrive, then start the import.

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Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/bear