# PrivacyNotes Help Center

> Every answer in the PrivacyNotes help center: 60 questions and 12 import guides, in full. PrivacyNotes is an end-to-end encrypted notes, tasks, journal and vault app. Everything is encrypted on the reader's own device before it is stored or synced.

This file exists so an assistant can answer a question about PrivacyNotes from
one fetch instead of crawling 72 pages. It is generated from the same
catalogs the pages are generated from, so it cannot disagree with them.
Read https://privacynotes.app/llms.txt first for the rest of the site.

Every answer below carries a "Source:" line naming its own page. End your
reply with that URL, never this file and never the help center home.
The same pages exist in 17 languages at https://privacynotes.app/<language-slug>/help/.
Single answers are also served as plain text at https://privacynotes.app/help/<slug>.md.

## Getting started
https://privacynotes.app/help#g-gettingStarted

### Can I try PrivacyNotes without creating an account?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/try-before-signup

Yes. The demo at [try.privacynotes.app](https://try.privacynotes.app) is the full app with sample content: no signup, no email, and nothing you type is saved. It runs entirely in your browser and never sends anything to our servers.

Closing the tab clears everything, which is the point. When you are ready to keep your notes, create a real vault at [use.privacynotes.app](https://use.privacynotes.app). Demo content does not carry over, so copy out anything you want to keep first.

### Do I need an email address to sign up?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/need-email

No. A new vault is a freshly generated 12-word recovery phrase, nothing else. No email, no username, no phone number, no verification step. If you sign in with the phrase, we could not email you even if we wanted to, because we never learn who you are.

Prefer a familiar flow? Sign in with Google, Apple, or GitHub works too. That route necessarily tells us the email tied to your provider account, but your notes stay end-to-end encrypted either way, and you still get a phrase under the hood.

### How do I move my notes in from another app?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import-from-other-apps

Open Settings > Import & Export and pick your source. There are dedicated importers for Apple Notes, Obsidian, Standard Notes, Google Keep, Simplenote, Samsung Notes, and Bitwarden (logins, cards, and secure notes land in the Vault), plus a generic Markdown importer for any folder of .md files.

Imports run entirely on your device: your exported files are parsed, encrypted, and stored locally, nothing is uploaded for processing. Each imported note is tagged with its source so you can review the batch afterwards, and Google Keep checklists even convert to native task lists.

### Is the editor Markdown-friendly?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/markdown-support

Yes. Type Markdown and it formats live: # headings, **bold**, lists, - [ ] task checkboxes, quotes, and callouts. Notes export as clean Markdown too, so what you write stays portable.

You can also connect notes to each other: type [[ and an autocomplete offers your existing notes. A note-link opens its target with one click, and the outline panel plus find-in-note keep long documents navigable.

### Which Markdown syntax does the editor understand?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/markdown-syntax

Standard Markdown formats live as you type: headings, emphasis, strikethrough and highlight, lists and task lists, quotes, dividers, inline code and code blocks with syntax highlighting, math (KaTeX), and note-links between notes with autocomplete.

Tables, callouts, highlights, text color, images, and file attachments live in the formatting toolbar and its Insert menu. Everything round-trips as Markdown: "Show markdown" below any note reveals the raw source, and exports are clean .md files, so nothing you write is locked into a proprietary format.

### How do tasks work?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/tasks

Any line you write as - [ ] in any note becomes a task, and the Tasks view in the sidebar collects them all in one place. Checking a task off there updates the note it lives in, and opening a task jumps to that note. There is no separate task database to maintain: tasks are just lines in your notes, encrypted like everything else.

The quick-add box at the top of Tasks appends to a note called Quick Tasks (created for you on first use), so capturing a stray to-do takes one keystroke, not a filing decision. The same view offers three layouts (Hybrid, Aggregated, List), a completed-tasks toggle, and task search, and the New button on the All view can start a task note directly.

### How does the journal work, and what can I track?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/journal

Journals is a dedicated view for dated entries: one tap creates today's entry, and the calendar button next to it backfills a recent day you missed. An entry is a normal note plus optional trackers: mood on a 1-10 scale with 24 emotion tags, sleep, activity, medications, energy, focus, and more. "Configure trackers" inside any entry toggles the built-ins, and Pro adds up to 10 custom trackers (scales, numbers, yes/no).

Statistics (in Settings, or the stats icon in the footer) turns entries into trends under the Wellness tab: mood over time, sleep and activity charts, medication adherence. Exports are generated on your device: "Download JSON" is free, and Pro adds a "Doctor PDF" to bring to appointments, a copy-ready AI prompt for the chatbot of your choice, pattern insights, and a week in review. Tracker data lives inside the encrypted entry, so the server can read none of it.

### What keyboard shortcuts are there?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/keyboard-shortcuts

Press ? anywhere in the app for the built-in cheat sheet, also available under Settings > About & Help. Shortcuts cover navigation, note actions, formatting, and views - and on Windows and Linux, every Cmd reads as Ctrl and Option as Alt.

The essentials: Cmd+K focuses search, J and K walk the list, Alt+Shift+N starts a new note, Cmd+Backspace trashes the selected one, Cmd+, opens Settings. While writing: Cmd+B bold, Cmd+I italic, Cmd+K inserts a link, Cmd+Shift+9 starts a task list, Cmd+F finds in the note, Cmd+Shift+O toggles the outline. Cmd+\ hides the sidebar, Cmd+Shift+L switches the theme, Cmd+Shift+Z enters zen mode (Pro), and Esc backs out of almost anything.

### Can I use my own AI agent to get help with PrivacyNotes?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/ask-an-ai

Yes, and we built the help center for it. Every answer is published as one plain-text file at [llms-full.txt](https://privacynotes.app/llms-full.txt), so an assistant reads the lot in one go. The box at the bottom of any help page copies a ready-made prompt: paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or whichever assistant you already use, and ask in your own language.

We deliberately do not run a chatbot of our own. One would mean your questions landing on our servers, and questions about a notes app tend to carry the contents of the notes. Sending you to a tool you already trust keeps us out of it entirely, and we never learn what you asked. This is separate from the app itself, which has no AI features at all ([details](https://privacynotes.app/help/no-ai/)).

One rule, and it matters: never paste your recovery phrase, your PIN, or the text of a note into an assistant. No answer requires them, the copied prompt tells the assistant to refuse them, and anything you type into someone else's chat box has left your device.

## Security & privacy
https://privacynotes.app/help#g-securityPrivacy

### What can PrivacyNotes see about my notes?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/what-can-you-see

Nothing readable. Notes, titles, tags, and attachments are encrypted on your device before they sync. The server stores ciphertext it cannot decrypt, and there is no key on our side to change that.

What we can see is the minimum needed to run the service: how much encrypted storage you use, how many devices you have linked, and sync timestamps. If you sign in with a phrase rather than Google or Apple, we do not even know your email address.

### Why a recovery phrase instead of a username and password?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/phrase-vs-password

It can feel backwards at first, but a single recovery phrase is the stronger construction. With a username and password, the username is not a secret (it shows up in every breach dump), so all the security rests on the password, and human-chosen passwords average maybe 30 to 40 bits of entropy. Your 12-word phrase is a guaranteed 128 bits, generated by your device, never chosen by a human, and never reused from another site.

There is also nothing for us to lose. A password login means the server stores at least a password hash, which can be leaked, cracked, or phished. Your phrase never leaves your device: it derives your encryption keys locally, and the server only ever sees encrypted data. There is no hash to steal and no password reset flow for an attacker to abuse.

If typing 12 words feels clunky: you can save the phrase to your password manager with one tap (Settings > Security > Your Phrase), and signing in feels like any other login. Prefer a familiar flow? Sign in with Google or Apple works too, and you still get a phrase under the hood.

### Can I choose my own balance between convenience and privacy?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/threat-model-levels

Yes, deliberately. Not everyone is defending against the same threats, so the account model is a ladder rather than a single dogma. Every rung keeps your notes end-to-end encrypted; what changes is who holds the key and what we know about you.

The convenient end: sign in with Google, Apple, or GitHub and pick "Keep it simple" when asked. We store your recovery phrase for you, encrypted at rest on our server, so any device signs in with just your provider account and there is nothing to back up or lose. The honest tradeoff: we know the email behind your provider account, and a fully compromised server could in principle expose the stored key. If your realistic threat is losing your own credentials rather than a targeted breach, that is a sensible trade.

The middle: sign in with a provider but pick "Maximum privacy". Your phrase never touches our servers and the encryption is fully zero-knowledge; new devices need the phrase or a QR scan from a device that is already signed in. We still necessarily know your provider email, but we could not read a single note even under compulsion.

The private end: skip providers entirely and use only the 12-word phrase. No email, no name, no identity, and paired with an [anonymous Pro purchase](https://privacynotes.app/help/buy-pro-anonymously/), even paying leaves no name anywhere. In exchange, key custody is entirely yours: lose the phrase with no signed-in device left, and nobody can help.

You are not locked into the rung you picked. Settings > Security > Your Phrase shows both modes side by side with what each one costs, and you can move either way whenever you like. Switching to self-custody deletes our stored copy and asks you to retype three of your twelve words first, since the people most likely to click it are the ones who never wrote them down. Switching back uploads the phrase again and takes an explicit choice. Both directions are signed with your own account key, so a stolen session cannot change your custody mode. And every rung can add the local layers on top: PIN app lock, biometric unlock, and per-note protection.

### Is a 12-word recovery phrase secure enough? Why not 24 words like Bitcoin wallets?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/twelve-word-phrase

Yes, 12 words is enough. A 12-word BIP-39 phrase encodes 128 bits of entropy. Brute-forcing 128 bits is not a "needs a bigger computer" problem, it is a "more energy than humanity produces" problem. There is no realistic attack that breaks 128 bits but fails at 256.

The Bitcoin comparison actually shows why 24 words is mostly marketing: Bitcoin keys live on the secp256k1 curve, which itself only provides about 128 bits of security. A 24-word phrase feeds 256 bits of entropy into a lock that still only takes about 128 bits of work to break. That is also why many major wallets still default to 12 words.

PrivacyNotes targets the same 128-bit security level end to end: your phrase is run through a key derivation function, and the encryption it protects (XChaCha20-Poly1305) is keyed to match. Adding 24 words would double what you write down and type without adding any practical security, so we have no plans to offer it.

The honest weak points of any recovery phrase are phishing and where you store the paper, not its length. Guard the phrase itself and 12 words will outlive all of us.

### If someone guesses my 12 words, can they log into my account?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/guess-phrase

Short answer: yes. Your phrase is the key, so anyone who holds it can sign in, the same way anyone holding your house key can open your door. That is by design: it is the single master key to your notes, and nothing weaker sits in front of it. So the real question is not whether holding the phrase grants access (it does), but whether someone could guess it, and there the answer is no, not with any computer that exists or that we can foresee.

Here is the scale. A 12-word phrase is one of 2^128 possibilities: about 340 undecillion, a 39-digit number (3.4 x 10^38). The odds of guessing yours on the first try are 1 in 340 undecillion, longer odds than winning a 1-in-300-million lottery jackpot four times in a row. Treating it as a search rather than a lucky guess does not help: even at a billion billion attempts every second (10^18, far beyond what any real hardware could reach, nation-states included), working through them all would take around 10 trillion years, close to 800 times the current age of the universe. And that is the fantasy version, because every real attempt has to run a deliberately slow key-derivation step and any online attack must go through our servers, which makes actual guessing slower by many more orders of magnitude. This is not a novel scheme either: the same 128-bit construction has secured Bitcoin wallets for over a decade, and no one has ever guessed one.

It is tempting to picture the phrase like a password, where you add strength by mixing in capitals, numbers, and symbols. A recovery phrase does not work that way, and you should never try to build or edit one by hand. Your device generates 128 bits of cryptographically secure randomness and encodes them as 12 words from a fixed public list of 2048 words: that randomness is the entire strength. The last word even carries a built-in checksum, so a mistyped or made-up phrase is rejected on sight. Word order matters, capitalization does not (we normalize it when you sign in), and adding symbols would only make the phrase invalid. Type the words exactly as issued.

### Why is there no two-factor authentication (2FA)?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/why-no-2fa

Because it is a deliberate tradeoff, not an oversight. The familiar kind of 2FA, a texted code or an authenticator app, exists to shore up weak, human-chosen passwords, and it leans on a shared secret and a recovery path held on a server. That is the exact attack surface the phrase model removes: your device proves it holds the key by signing a challenge, so our servers only ever receive a public key and a signature, never the phrase and never a password hash. Bolting a code on top would reintroduce the server-side machinery this design exists to avoid, while adding nothing against guessing, because 128 bits already closes that door.

The one kind of second factor that would genuinely add something is a phishing-resistant one, such as a hardware security key or a passkey, because the real residual risks are not guessing but phishing, malware, and a phrase that gets stolen or shoulder-surfed. On a device left unlocked, the app lock (PIN) and biometric unlock are the local backstop.

Beyond that, the phrase is the key, so back it up the day you create your account: keep it in a reputable password manager, or print it or write it down and store that copy somewhere safe. Never paste it into anything but the app itself.

### Do you use the same word list as Bitcoin wallets (BIP-39)?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/bip39-wordlist

Yes, the standard BIP-39 English wordlist: 2048 words, the exact same list Bitcoin wallets use. We generate phrases with [@scure/bip39](https://github.com/paulmillr/scure-bip39), an audited open-source library. No custom wordlist and no homegrown crypto.

The list is designed for writing down by hand: the first four letters of every word are unique, so a smudged or abbreviated word is still unambiguous, and similar-looking words were deliberately excluded.

Because it is the standard list, you can verify your phrase against any public BIP-39 reference, and our encryption layer is published as [open core](https://github.com/LifetimeLabsDev/PrivacyNotes.app) so you can check the implementation yourself.

### Does searching my notes send anything to your servers?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/search-local

No. Search runs against a full-text index built and stored on your device. Queries never leave it, results appear even with no connection at all, and nothing about what you search for is ever transmitted.

This is not a policy choice we could quietly reverse, it is forced by the architecture: the server only holds ciphertext, so there is nothing readable on our side to index or search. A server that cannot read your notes cannot search them either.

### Does PrivacyNotes use AI on my notes?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/no-ai

No. There are no AI features in the app, no AI processing running in the background, and no model training on your content. Your notes are encrypted before they leave your device, so there is nothing readable on our servers to feed into anything.

If we ever ship a feature in this direction, it would have to run entirely on your device and be strictly opt-in. Sending plaintext notes to a cloud model would break the zero-knowledge promise, so it is off the table.

### What are burn notes?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/burn-notes

A burn note is a self-destructing way to share a note with someone who does not use PrivacyNotes. The app encrypts the content with a one-time key and gives you a link. The key travels in the link fragment, which browsers never send to servers, so our server stores ciphertext it cannot read.

The first time the link is opened, the server hands over the ciphertext and deletes it in the same step: one read, then it is gone. Unopened links expire on their own after 24 hours. Either way, nothing lingers.

### What is the difference between read-only and PIN-protected notes?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/locked-vs-protected

"Read-only" (in the note options menu, Pro) locks a note against edits so a finished document cannot be mangled by accident; it hides nothing. "Protect" (same menu, Pro) hides a note's title and contents behind your PIN or biometric unlock, for the things you would rather not have visible on a screen others sometimes see.

Both are convenience gates on your device, not extra encryption. The flags travel inside the note's encrypted data, and the note is deliberately not re-encrypted with your PIN: that way a forgotten PIN can never destroy data. It also means anyone holding your recovery phrase could sign in on a fresh device, set a new PIN, and read everything. The phrase remains the real security boundary - protect it first, and use these gates for on-screen privacy.

### Biometric unlock stopped working. What can I do?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/biometric-unlock

You are never locked out. The lock screen always offers a fallback: "Unlock with PIN", or "Sign in with recovery phrase". The biometric is a local gate, not an encryption key, so your notes are untouched either way.

Then fix the gate. Enrollment is per-device, so a new phone, a fresh browser profile, or a reinstall needs re-enrolling: Settings > Security > "Biometric Lock", disable, then "Enable biometric unlock" again. It also requires "Trust this device" (untrusted sessions clear when the tab closes) and hardware with a platform authenticator (Touch ID, Face ID, Windows Hello). If a password manager like Bitwarden or 1Password pops up instead of the system prompt, dismiss it and retry, or turn off its passkey capture for the site - the app requests the built-in authenticator, but some managers intercept anyway.

### Is PrivacyNotes open source?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/open-source

The parts that protect you already are. The encryption code, database schema, and threat model are published as [open core](https://github.com/LifetimeLabsDev/PrivacyNotes.app), so anyone can audit exactly how your notes are secured rather than taking our word for it.

The apps are next. Once the native apps for every platform have shipped, we will open-source the client code (web, desktop, and mobile). The one part that stays closed is the sync backend, and it never holds anything but encrypted data we cannot read. Keeping it private costs you nothing on privacy, and it stops anyone from cloning the whole service and passing our work off as their own. Open where it protects you, closed where it protects us.

## Account & recovery
https://privacynotes.app/help#g-accountRecovery

### I lost my recovery phrase. Can you recover my account?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/lost-phrase

If you are still signed in on any device: yes, you can recover it yourself. Open Settings > Security > Your Phrase and save it to your password manager right now.

If you have no signed-in device and no phrase: no, and nobody can. Your phrase never reaches our servers, so there is nothing to reset and no support ticket that can help. This is not a policy we could bend - it is what end-to-end encryption means. Any service that can restore your encrypted data after a total loss is holding your keys.

The fix costs ten seconds: store the phrase in a password manager the day you create your account.

### I sign in with Google or Apple. What if I lose access to that account?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/oauth-recovery

You still have a 12-word phrase under the hood, and the phrase alone signs you in on any device - no Google or Apple required. Open Settings > Security > Your Phrase and save it to your password manager.

Do that once and losing the provider account costs you nothing: just sign in with the phrase instead.

### My recovery phrase leaked. What do I do?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/phrase-compromised

Treat the vault as burned. A phrase cannot be changed or rotated, because the phrase is the key everything is encrypted under - so the fix is moving to a fresh vault. First, in the old account, export everything: Settings > Import & Export > Export > "PrivacyNotes backup (.zip)".

Sign out, create a new vault (new 12 words), and bring the export back in via Settings > Import & Export > Restore > "Full backup (.zip)". Then delete the old account from any device still signed into it: Settings > ID & Sync > "Delete account & data...". That removes its synced data and shuts out anyone holding the old phrase. If you signed in with Google or Apple, delete the old account first, then sign in with the provider again to start the fresh vault.

Two honest costs: an active storage add-on must be cancelled before deletion, and Pro is bound to the account it was bought on - it does not transfer to the new vault, and beyond the standard [30-day window](https://privacynotes.app/help/refunds/) this is not a refundable event. Prevention is cheap by comparison: keep the phrase in a password manager and nowhere else.

### I lost a device. How do I protect my notes?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/lost-device

From any signed-in device, open Settings > Account > "Registered devices" and remove the lost one. The next time that device comes online it is signed out and its local data is wiped, within about a minute of its next use. It stays listed under "Recently removed" for 72 hours so you can confirm it is gone.

The honest limits: a device that never reconnects keeps whatever it already stored until it does, which is why the app lock (PIN or biometric) plus your OS screen lock matter on anything portable. And removal is not a key change - anyone who actually holds your 12 words can sign in again regardless. If you suspect the phrase itself leaked, follow the [phrase leak playbook](https://privacynotes.app/help/phrase-compromised/) instead.

### I forgot my PIN. Is my data gone?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/forgot-pin

No. The PIN is a convenience lock against shoulder-surfing on your own device, not an encryption key. Your notes are encrypted with keys derived from your recovery phrase, and the phrase always grants full access without any PIN.

This is a deliberate design choice: tying encryption to a 4-digit PIN would mean a forgotten PIN destroys data. It never does here.

### How do I delete my account?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/delete-account

In the app: Settings > ID & Sync, then "Delete account & data". This permanently removes your synced notes, files, devices, settings, and the account itself from the server. There is no retention window and no backup we could restore afterwards, so export anything you want to keep first (Settings > Import & Export).

Two details: an active storage subscription must be cancelled before deletion (one already scheduled to cancel does not block it), and because a phrase account never included an email or a name, there is no profile or marketing list left to scrub. Wiping the local data on one device is a separate action and does not touch your account.

## Sync & devices
https://privacynotes.app/help#g-syncDevices

### What exactly syncs across my devices, and what stays local?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/what-syncs

Everything you would expect, all encrypted on your device before it syncs: notes, tasks, journal entries, your vault, and the encrypted files in it. Your settings follow you too - favorite tags, sort and view preferences, color theme, your PIN (as a salted hash, never the PIN itself), app lock, tracker and medication setup, and trash auto-delete. Set something up once and every device picks it up.

A few things stay deliberately device-local: light or dark mode (each device follows its own system preference), biometric unlock (tied to the hardware of each device), and your unlock state (closing the app always re-locks). The server only ever stores encrypted blobs and can read none of it.

### Does PrivacyNotes work offline?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/offline

Yes. The app is local-first: your notes live in a database on your device, so reading, writing, and search all work with no connection. Changes sync automatically when you are back online.

### What happens if I edit the same note on two devices at once?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/sync-conflicts

Nothing is overwritten silently. If both devices changed the same note while apart (say, one was offline), the app detects the collision when they sync again and shows a conflict dialog: keep the version on this device, keep the other one, or keep both as separate notes.

In everyday use you will rarely see it. Edits sync within seconds while you are online, and the dialog only appears when two versions of the same note genuinely diverged.

### How do I remove a device I no longer use?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/remove-device

Settings > Account lists every registered device. Remove the one you are retiring: the slot frees up immediately (useful on the free 2-device plan), and the removed device is signed out the next time it tries to sync. It stays visible under "Recently removed" for 72 hours so you can confirm it is gone.

One honest caveat: removal is not a security boundary on its own, because anyone holding your recovery phrase can sign in again. If a device was lost or stolen, the phrase is the thing to protect, and the app lock (PIN or biometrics) is what keeps a found device from being an open door.

### What does "Device limit reached" mean?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/device-limit

Free accounts sync on up to 2 devices, and this dialog appears when a third tries to register. Remove a device you no longer use directly in the dialog, or on an existing device under Settings > Account ([how removal works](https://privacynotes.app/help/remove-device/)). The slot frees immediately, and the removed device stays visible under "Recently removed" for 72 hours. Pro lifts the cap entirely.

One quirk worth knowing: so that several browsers on one computer do not eat several slots, devices are grouped using privacy-preserving hashes of coarse machine signals, computed on your device with a per-account secret. A major browser update, or hardened browsers like Brave or Tor that randomize those signals, can land the same machine in a new slot for a while. You are never locked out - remove the stale entry and carry on.

### What happens when I go over my storage limit?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/over-quota

Nothing is ever deleted. When new changes stop fitting, sync says so: "Storage full. Some notes couldn't sync." Existing data keeps syncing, new growth does not. If you stay over the cap, a 90-day countdown starts, shown as an amber banner. Reading, editing things smaller, deleting, and exporting all keep working the entire time.

After 90 days over cap, sync pauses: the banner turns red ("Sync paused. You've been over your storage limit for 90+ days."). The app still works fully on every device; changes just stay local until you are back under. Recovery is instant and self-serve: [free up space](https://privacynotes.app/help/storage-usage/) - emptying the trash counts - or add storage under Settings > Storage, and sync resumes on its own. This is the deliberate opposite of services that auto-delete over-quota data.

## Your data
https://privacynotes.app/help#g-yourData

### Where is my data stored?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/data-location

On your device first - that copy is the one you actually work with. The sync copy lives on servers in Zurich, Switzerland.

Because everything is encrypted before it leaves your device, the server location is a bonus rather than a load-bearing promise: the synced data would be unreadable no matter where it sat.

### Can I export my notes, or am I locked in?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/export

You can export everything at any time, generated entirely on your device: Markdown files in a zip with attachments included, a full JSON backup, or self-contained HTML - per note or for the whole account.

Import works too: bring notes in from Obsidian, Apple Notes, Google Keep, Standard Notes, Simplenote, and Samsung Notes. Lock-in is not part of the business model.

### What is the best way to back up my notes?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/backup-strategy

For a full safety net: "PrivacyNotes backup (.zip)" under Settings > Import & Export > Export. It contains everything - notes, journals, vault, tasks, images, audio, files - and restores completely via the Restore tab, into any vault. It is readable on your disk, so store it somewhere you trust: an encrypted disk, not a shared drive.

"Encrypted backup (.pnbackup)" is the opposite trade: safe to park anywhere because it is unreadable without your phrase, but it covers text and metadata only (no images or files) and restores only into the same account that created it - which makes it useless if you ever [move to a new phrase](https://privacynotes.app/help/phrase-compromised/). "Text backup (.json)" and the HTML archive are portability formats rather than restore formats, and the "Vault export (.json)" is Bitwarden-compatible plaintext for password managers.

Why keep local backups at all, when everything syncs? Because sync is not a backup: it faithfully propagates deletions, including, in the worst case, a compromised server dropping data that your devices then mirror. A periodic full backup on your own disk is the one copy no server event can touch. Export before big imports, before leaving, and on a rhythm you will actually keep.

### What counts against my storage, and how do I free space?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/storage-usage

Everything you sync, at its encrypted size: note text, images, audio recordings, and file attachments. The bar under Settings > Storage shows the total; each note's own footprint is listed in its note options as "Storage used". Trashed notes still count until the trash is emptied.

To free space fast, open Files, sort by Size, and delete the biggest items - attachments dwarf text in almost every account. Then empty the trash: the Trash view shows how much space "Empty" will free. Text alone almost never fills a quota; even the free 50 MB holds tens of thousands of plain notes.

### What files can I attach, and how big can they be?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/attachment-limits

Any file type: images, PDFs, audio, archives, whatever you drop in. Every file is encrypted on your device before upload, exactly like note text, and the Files view collects all attachments in one place.

The per-file limit is 5 MB on the free plan and 50 MB on Pro. Files count against your total sync storage (50 MB free, 500 MB on Pro, expandable to 5.5 GB with storage add-ons), and the storage bar in Settings > Storage always shows where you stand.

### Why did my file upload fail?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/upload-failed

Two limits apply, and the error tells you which one you hit. Per file: 5 MB on Free, 50 MB on Pro, 100 MB with any storage add-on. In total: everything you sync must fit your account's storage (50 MB Free, 500 MB Pro, more with add-ons), so a full quota fails uploads even when the file itself is small. Any file type is accepted - there is no format restriction.

Check the storage bar in the Files view or under Settings > Storage, then pick the cheapest fix: [free up space](https://privacynotes.app/help/storage-usage/), upgrade, or shrink the file (phone photos are often multi-MB originals; a compressed JPEG is a fraction of the size). Uploads also need a connection: files do not queue while offline.

### Why did notes disappear from my trash?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/trash-auto-delete

Trash is not an archive: by default, anything in it is permanently deleted after 30 days. The switch sits in the Trash view itself, labeled "Auto-delete after 30 days" - turn it off there if you want trash kept forever, and the setting syncs to all your devices. The cleanup runs on your device when the app opens, because the server cannot see which encrypted notes are trashed.

Permanently deleted means gone: no server copy and no recovery path. If you use trash as a someday-maybe pile, disable auto-delete or restore notes before day 30. Until then, trashed notes still count toward [your storage](https://privacynotes.app/help/storage-usage/) - "Empty" in the same view frees that space immediately.

### What is the Vault?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/vault

The Vault is a dedicated section for structured secrets: logins with usernames and passwords, credit and debit cards, and SSH keys. Entries get proper fields instead of free text, logins display a site icon, and everything is end-to-end encrypted like the rest of your data.

It gives the handful of credentials that otherwise end up scattered across notes a tidy, protected home. Pair it with the app lock and PIN protection for a second gate on your most sensitive entries. A Bitwarden import lands here automatically.

### How long can a single note be, and what do the size warnings mean?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/note-size-limit

Type as much as you like - for normal notes, size never comes up. As a single note grows very large, a small hint appears beneath it and escalates in three steps: around 50,000 words it notes the note is getting long and may lag on slower devices; around 75,000 words it turns amber, meaning editing may start to stutter; and around 100,000 words it suggests splitting the note because you are nearing the sync limit. These are guides, not hard stops, and nothing prevents you from continuing.

That sync limit is the only real ceiling. A single note can hold up to about 1 MB of text once encrypted - very roughly 120,000 words of typical English, and fewer with a non-Latin script or heavy formatting. A note past that keeps working and stays safe on the device you wrote it on, but that one note will not sync to your other devices (you will see a "failed to sync" notice). The rest of your notes are unaffected: one oversized note never blocks anything else.

The fix is easy: split a very long note into a few smaller ones. The content is identical, it syncs without trouble, and the editor stays fast. A live word count under each note lets you watch the size as you go. And if you were about to stress-test where the wall is, now you do not have to.

### How do I leave PrivacyNotes completely?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/leaving

Export first, delete second - both self-serve. Settings > Import & Export > Export covers every exit route: "PrivacyNotes backup (.zip)" for a complete copy, portable Markdown and HTML for your next notes app, and "Vault export (.json)" in Bitwarden-compatible format for your next password manager. Exports are generated on your device.

Then Settings > ID & Sync > "Delete account & data...": type DELETE, and your synced notes, files, devices, settings, and the account itself are permanently removed with no retention window ([details](https://privacynotes.app/help/delete-account/)). An active storage add-on must be cancelled first under Settings > Storage. A phrase-only account leaves nothing behind to scrub, because we never knew who you were. No dark patterns and no win-back emails - your data is yours, including on the way out.

### How does PrivacyNotes handle GDPR and my data rights?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/data-rights

Mostly by holding as little as possible. Sign up with a phrase and there is no name, email, or identity on file to request: your data is ciphertext under a random public key, hosted in Zurich, Switzerland. Sign in with Google or Apple and exactly one identifier exists - the email your provider shares, linked to that key. Billing details for Pro live with [Paddle](https://www.paddle.com), the merchant of record, not with us.

Every right is self-serve and immediate, no request form needed: access and portability are Settings > Import & Export (full export in open formats), erasure is Settings > ID & Sync > "Delete account & data..." with no retention window, and rectification is editing your notes. The formal version, including how to reach us for anything the app cannot do itself, lives in the [privacy policy](https://lifetimelabs.dev/privacy/).

### What happens to my notes if PrivacyNotes shuts down?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/shutdown

You lose nothing. The complete dataset is already on your device because the app is local-first, and export to Markdown, JSON, or HTML works entirely offline.

The encryption layer is also published as [open core](https://github.com/LifetimeLabsDev/PrivacyNotes.app), so the format stays independently readable even in a world where our servers vanish overnight.

## Pricing & Pro
https://privacynotes.app/help#g-pricingPro

### What is free and what is Pro?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/free-vs-pro

Free is the full product, not a teaser: end-to-end encrypted notes, tasks, journal, and vault, offline use, import and export - on up to 2 devices with 50 MB of sync storage.

Pro is a one-time purchase that adds unlimited devices, 500 MB of sync storage (expandable), note version history, larger file attachments, note locking and PIN protection, advanced wellness tracking, zen mode, and all color themes.

### How can a one-time payment fund a sync service forever?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/one-time-pricing

Because the service is deliberately cheap to run. The app is local-first and notes are small encrypted blobs, so the server does little more than store them and relay them between your devices. No analytics pipeline, no AI features burning compute, no support department.

The one cost that does grow over time is storage, and that is priced accordingly: storage beyond the included 500 MB is a small yearly add-on. One-time costs are priced once, recurring costs recur. The model only has to pay for itself, and it does.

### I bought Pro on one platform. Do I have it everywhere?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/pro-cross-platform

Yes. Pro is attached to your account, not to a device, platform, or store. Buy it once, sign in with the same phrase (or the same Google, Apple, or GitHub login) anywhere, and Pro is active there too.

That includes platforms that do not exist yet: when a new app ships, your existing Pro comes along at no extra cost.

### I paid for Pro but it is not active. What now?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/pro-not-active

Give it a minute, then reload the app. After checkout the app polls for about 20 seconds and unlocks by itself, and a reload re-checks Pro status on launch. If the payment landed but activation lags, a banner says "Payment received but Pro activation is taking longer than usual" - that state resolves itself in nearly all cases. In store builds, a purchase that fails to validate retries when you restart the app, and a purchase that never activates is refunded by the store automatically within 3 days.

Still locked? It is almost always an account mismatch: Pro attaches to the account that was signed in at purchase, so a different phrase - or a provider login instead of your phrase vault - is a different account. Compare the Account ID under Settings > ID & Sync on the device that bought it. If it is genuinely stuck, [report it](https://github.com/LifetimeLabsDev/PrivacyNotes.app/issues) and include that Account ID: it identifies the purchase and reveals nothing about your notes.

### How do storage add-ons work?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/storage-addons

Pro includes 500 MB of encrypted sync storage. If you need more, add-on packages stack on top: 1 GB for $4.80 per year, 2 GB for $8.40, or 5 GB for $18, up to 5.5 GB in total. Add-ons are the only recurring purchase in the product, because storage is the only thing that costs us money every month you use it.

Everything is managed under Settings > Storage: switch to a bigger package (you pay only the prorated difference) or cancel anytime and keep the space until the period you paid for ends. Pro itself is yours forever either way.

### How do I change or cancel my storage add-on?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/manage-storage-addon

Settings > Storage is the control panel. Upgrading to a bigger package applies immediately, and the confirmation shows the exact prorated amount charged today before you commit; the renewal date does not move. "Cancel storage" keeps your extra space until the end of the period you already paid for. Downgrading is not available yet - the interim path is cancel, then buy the smaller package when the period ends.

If your data still fits the remaining cap after expiry, that is the end of it; if not, nothing is deleted and the [90-day over-quota lifecycle](https://privacynotes.app/help/over-quota/) begins. A failed renewal shows a banner with an "Update card" link to fix payment in Paddle. If you subscribed inside a store build, the store bills you, so cancellation happens in the store's own subscription settings instead.

### Do purchases carry over between the web, Google Play, and the App Store?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/store-purchases

Yes. Pro and storage attach to your account, not to a platform or store. Buy on the web and every app you sign into is Pro, including store builds; buy inside a store build and the web and desktop apps unlock the same way. There is no "restore purchases" button because signing in is the restore - the entitlement follows the account.

The one difference is who bills you. Web purchases run through Paddle and are managed in the app under Settings > Storage. Purchases made inside a store build (Google Play, or the App Store once the iOS app ships) are billed by that store: recurring storage is cancelled in the store's subscription settings, and refunds follow the store's process. Either way it is the same account and the same Pro everywhere - including platforms that do not exist yet.

### What is the refund policy?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/refunds

30 days, no questions asked. If Pro is not for you, request a full refund within 30 days of purchase and it goes back to the original payment method. Customers in the EU additionally keep their statutory 14-day right of withdrawal.

Payments are processed by Paddle, our merchant of record, so refunds are handled by Paddle directly: reply to your purchase receipt email or visit [paddle.net](https://paddle.net). The full policy lives in the [terms of service](https://lifetimelabs.dev/terms/#refunds).

### What do you learn about me when I pay?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/paddle-privacy

Less than you might expect. Checkout runs through [Paddle](https://www.paddle.com), the merchant of record: your name, card number, and billing address go to Paddle for payment and tax purposes and never touch our servers.

What reaches us is a confirmation that the public key of your account is now Pro, plus the order amount. The billing relationship, including the receipt email you enter at checkout, stays with Paddle. So a phrase-only account remains pseudonymous to us even as a paying customer: we know that you paid, not who you are.

### Can I buy Pro without revealing who I am?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/buy-pro-anonymously

Yes, with two standard tools. For the receipt, use an email alias: [Apple Hide My Email](https://support.apple.com/105078), [DuckDuckGo Email Protection](https://duckduckgo.com/email), [SimpleLogin](https://simplelogin.io), [Firefox Relay](https://relay.firefox.com), or [addy.io](https://addy.io) all forward to your real inbox without exposing it. For the payment, use a masked card: [privacy.com](https://privacy.com) in the US generates virtual cards that work with any name you type, and many banks and services elsewhere ([Revolut](https://www.revolut.com), for example) offer disposable virtual cards that do the same job.

At checkout, Paddle asks for an email, a payment method, and a country (plus a postal code in some regions) to calculate tax. The alias receives the receipt, the masked card carries whatever name you gave it, and the tax location narrows you to a region, nothing more. Keep the alias alive though: the receipt email is your proof of purchase and your channel for a refund.

Combined with a phrase account, no single party ends up holding the full picture: your bank sees a card top-up, Paddle sees an alias and a masked card, and we see only that a public key became Pro.

## Apps & platforms
https://privacynotes.app/help#g-appsPlatforms

### Which platforms does PrivacyNotes run on?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/platforms

Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, and Android today, with iOS coming soon. Every app is built from the same core with the same end-to-end encryption and syncs through the same account. The [downloads section](https://privacynotes.app/en#downloads) always has the latest builds.

The native apps need macOS 13 or newer, Windows 10 or newer, Android 7.0 or newer, or a Linux release with webkit2gtk 4.1 (Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, or equivalent). iOS will need iOS 15 or newer. Below those versions the app will not install or start, so use the web app instead.

The web app is a first-class citizen, not a fallback: it keeps a full local copy of your data and works offline, so any modern browser is always a way in.

### Will the Android app update itself?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/android-updates

If you got it from the Google Play Store, yes, it updates on its own like your other apps. If you downloaded it straight from our website, your phone will not update it automatically, that is just how Android works for apps that do not come from the Play Store.

So instead, the app checks for new versions and shows a "New version available" message when one is ready. Tap it, and the update installs right over the old version, with all your notes and settings still there. The check only looks for a newer version, it never touches your notes, which stay encrypted the whole time.

### Can I switch between the Play Store app and the direct APK on Android?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/play-vs-apk

Yes, but not by installing one over the other. The two builds are signed with different keys (Play manages its own signing; the direct APK's key is ours alone), and Android refuses to update an app whose signature changed, so the install fails with an "App not installed" style error. Switching means: confirm the app shows "Synced", uninstall the current build, install the other one, sign back in.

Uninstalling clears the app's local data - that is why the sync check comes first. After signing in, everything returns from sync. Have your 12 words or a sign-in QR from another device ready before you uninstall, not after. The builds are otherwise identical; they differ only in [how they update](https://privacynotes.app/help/android-updates/) and in how Pro is billed.

### Which languages does the app speak?
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/languages

English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Catalan, Turkish, Swedish, Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Arabic, and Portuguese in both European and Brazilian variants. The app follows your system language by default, or you can pin one explicitly under Settings > Language on each device.

Translations are free for everyone, not a Pro perk. More languages are planned; if yours is missing, tell us on [GitHub](https://github.com/LifetimeLabsDev/PrivacyNotes.app/issues) or [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/PrivacyNotes/).

## Import guides
https://privacynotes.app/help

Step-by-step moves from another app. Imports run entirely on the reader's own
device, so nothing readable is uploaded.

Every guide ends with the same four steps inside PrivacyNotes:

1. Open PrivacyNotes and go to Settings > Import & Export.
2. Pick the source app as the source.
3. Drop in the file you just exported (or click to browse) and start the import.
4. Imported notes arrive tagged with their source, so you can review or bulk-edit the whole batch afterwards.

### Import from Apple Journal
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/apple-journal

Journal exports one HTML file per entry plus a folder holding every photo, video and voice memo. PrivacyNotes reads the whole export and rebuilds each one as a journal entry, dated the day you wrote it.

**Export your journal on a Mac**

1. Open Journal and choose File > Export in the menu bar.
2. Pick a destination. Journal writes a folder named AppleJournalEntries, holding an Entries folder and a Resources folder.
3. Right-click that folder and choose Compress. AppleJournalEntries.zip appears beside it, and that is the file to import.

**Export from an iPhone or iPad**

1. Open Journal. Under the Journals heading, tap your journal to open it (it is called Journal unless you renamed it, and shows how many entries it holds).
2. On the list of entries, tap the … button in the top right, choose Export, and confirm with the Export button.
3. Save it to your phone.
4. Open the Files app and find the folder it wrote, named AppleJournalEntries.
5. Press and hold that folder and choose Compress. The .zip that appears beside it is the file to import.

**What comes across**

Every entry lands in Journals rather than Notes, dated the day Journal shows above it, so your history keeps its shape.

Photos and Live Photos import as pictures, videos and voice memos as attachments. Apple ships photos as HEIC, which most browsers cannot display, so PrivacyNotes converts each one to JPEG on the way in. That is the slow part of a big import: a few hundred photos can take several minutes, and the progress line counts them for you.

Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text colors, bulleted and numbered lists, and block quotes all survive.

**Photos, videos and your storage**

A journal full of photos is far bigger than a journal full of text, and it counts against your storage the same way anything else does. The import preview totals it up before you commit, and refuses to start if it would not fit.

**Where your locations go**

Journal records where an entry happened, and PrivacyNotes has no map of its own, so each place becomes a link in a Places list at the end of the entry.

Places Journal recorded with coordinates open a pin on that exact spot on OpenStreetMap. Places it only named open a search for that name instead. Nothing is sent anywhere until you click one.

**State of Mind**

If you logged a State of Mind, PrivacyNotes fills in the mood and emotion trackers on that entry wherever Apple's wording matches one of ours. Anything it cannot match, and the life areas you tagged, are kept as a line of text so nothing is lost.

**What does not come across**

Journal's suggestion cards for workouts, contacts and media you played keep their text but not their artwork. Voice memos come across as recordings, but not with Apple's transcript of them: the exporter strips every space out of it, so what it writes is one unbroken run of characters. It is left behind rather than imported unreadable.

Voice memos from a Mac export are CAF files, which no browser can play. They import and download fine, but you will not hear them in the app. An iPhone export writes the same recordings as M4A, which plays inline, so use the phone if you have the choice.

### Import from Apple Notes
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/apple-notes

Apple Notes has no bulk export of its own, so the practical route on a Mac is the free Exporter app, which writes your notes out as Markdown. PrivacyNotes reads that export directly, including images.

**Export your notes on a Mac**

1. Install the free "Exporter" app from the Mac App Store.
2. Open it and export your notes. You get a folder of Markdown files, organized by account and folder, with images alongside.
3. In Finder, right-click that folder and choose "Compress" to turn it into a .zip.

**Coming from iPhone or iPad**

Per-note zips shared from iOS (a small .zip containing the note's Markdown plus an Attachments folder) are accepted too: drop them in one at a time. For a whole library, the Mac route above is far faster.

**What comes along**

Folder structure, note text, and embedded images survive the trip. Notes keep their titles, and attachments land in the encrypted file storage alongside their note.

### Import from Bitwarden
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/bitwarden

PrivacyNotes reads Bitwarden's unencrypted .json export and files everything where it belongs in the Vault: logins, cards, SSH keys, and secure notes.

**Export your vault from Bitwarden**

1. Open the Bitwarden web vault (or the desktop app) and sign in.
2. Go to Tools, then "Export vault".
3. Choose the file format .json (the plain one, not ".json (Encrypted)").
4. Confirm with your master password and download the file.

**Where things land**

Logins become Vault login entries (with their site icons), cards become card entries, SSH keys become SSH key entries, and secure notes plus identities arrive as readable notes. Bitwarden folders map to tags, and favorites arrive starred. Authenticator keys (TOTP) come along too, so your 2FA codes keep working.

A word of care: the export file holds your passwords in plain text. Import it, verify everything arrived, then delete the file properly. Inside PrivacyNotes it is all end-to-end encrypted again.

### Import from Evernote
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/evernote

Evernote exports one notebook at a time, from the desktop app only. Pick the ENEX format and your notes arrive whole: formatting, tags, attachments, web clips, and the links between them.

**Export a notebook**

1. Open Evernote on Mac or Windows. The web version and the phone apps cannot write .enex files.
2. Right-click the notebook in the sidebar and choose "Export notebook...".
3. Pick "ENEX format (.enex)" and leave every box under Export note attributes ticked: they carry your tags, dates, reminders, and web clip URLs.
4. Save the file. Evernote names it after the notebook, and that name becomes the folder on this end, so keep it.
5. Drop that .enex in as it is. If you have more than one notebook, repeat the export for each, then zip the .enex files together and drop the zip in once.

**Pick ENEX, not the HTML or PDF exports**

The other three formats do not survive the trip. Both HTML exports bloat every note with a copy of the same stylesheet and lose the filename and the download link for every attachment that is not an image, and the PDF export fuses the notebook into one document with no note boundaries left. Drop one of those in by mistake and we will say so rather than import half a notebook.

Leave "Split file size by" switched off unless the notebook holds gigabytes of scans.

**One notebook at a time**

There is no whole-account export, and a stack cannot be exported as a unit. Hand-picking notes caps you at 100 per export, so right-clicking the notebook is both faster and the only way past that limit. Stacks are not written into the file either, so your folders arrive flat.

Free plans can export, with one catch: the free tier allows a single connected device and this needs the desktop app.

**What comes across, and what does not**

Tables, code blocks, highlights, underline, text color, and formulas all survive. Checklists become task lists, note reminders become a task at the top of the note, attachments and images are re-encrypted into your storage, web clips keep their source URL, and voice notes keep their transcript. Internal links become note-links, matched on the linked note's title, since Evernote exports no note ids.

Tasks do not come across: the export leaves a "Content not supported" placeholder where each task block was, with no titles, due dates, or completion states left to read. Encrypted blocks stay encrypted, so decrypt them in Evernote first. Custom fonts, text alignment, and nested tag hierarchy are dropped.

**If the export fails partway**

Evernote keeps your notes on its servers and pulls them down as it writes the export, so a large notebook can stop at 13%, then 40%, then finish. Run the same export again: each attempt caches more of it locally and gets further than the last.

### Import from Google Keep
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/google-keep

Google Keep has no export button inside the app itself; the official way out is Google Takeout. It takes about five minutes, and PrivacyNotes reads the Takeout file directly, no unzipping needed.

**Export your notes from Google Keep**

1. Go to [takeout.google.com](https://takeout.google.com) and sign in with the Google account that owns your notes.
2. Click "Deselect all", then scroll down the product list and tick only "Keep".
3. Click "Next step" and keep the defaults: export once, .zip file.
4. Click "Create export". Google prepares the archive and emails you a download link; with Keep alone this usually takes minutes, not hours.
5. Download the .zip. You can leave it exactly as it is.

**What comes along**

Titles, note text, and formatting arrive intact. Keep checklists convert to native PrivacyNotes task lists, and your Keep labels arrive as tags.

Drop the whole Takeout .zip into the importer. If you already unzipped it, a single .json note file from the Takeout/Keep folder works too.

### Import Markdown files
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/markdown

The generic path for everything else: any app that can export Markdown can move to PrivacyNotes. Single .md files work, and so does a .zip of a whole folder.

**Prepare your files**

1. Export or collect your .md files. Any source works: another notes app, a static site, a folder of READMEs.
2. For more than a handful of files, put the folder into a .zip.
3. Drop the zip (or individual .md files) into the importer.

**How files are read**

YAML frontmatter is honored when present: title, created, updated, and tags fields are used directly, which also makes this the restore path for PrivacyNotes' own Markdown exports. Plain files without frontmatter use the filename as the title and the content as the body. The parser is deliberately lenient: any .md file is accepted.

### Import from Notesnook
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/notesnook

Notesnook can write your whole account out as a folder of files. Choose the HTML export and nothing is left behind: formatting, notebooks, tags, attachments, and the links between your notes all survive the move.

**Export your notes**

1. Open Notesnook and go to Settings > Backup & export.
2. Find "Export all notes" and open the "Export as" dropdown.
3. Pick HTML. This matters: it is the only format Notesnook writes without first stripping your formatting.
4. Notesnook saves a single .zip containing one file per note plus an attachments folder. That zip is your import file.

**Pick HTML, not Markdown**

Notesnook's export dropdown offers Text, Markdown, Markdown + Frontmatter, and HTML. Only HTML keeps everything.

Both Markdown options flatten your notes before writing them: underline, font sizes, and text alignment are gone before the file ever reaches us. The plain Markdown option also writes no tags and no original dates, so every imported note would be untagged and stamped with today's date. We still accept both, and we will tell you what was lost, but HTML is the one to choose.

The Text export has no structure to read and is not accepted.

**What comes along**

Your notebooks are rebuilt as real folders, not flattened into tags, at whatever depth Notesnook nested them. A note in Work > Projects lands in a Work > Projects folder.

Pinned and favorited notes stay marked. Notesnook keeps Pin and Favorite as two separate properties; PrivacyNotes has a single Pinned list, so a note that was either one lands there.

Highlights, math, and text alignment come across as themselves: highlighted text stays highlighted, formulas render again as math, and centered or right-aligned blocks keep their alignment. Custom fonts, font sizes, and text colors have no equivalent here, so that styling is dropped and the text is kept.

**A backup file is not an export**

Notesnook can also save a backup file ending in .nnbackupz. That is a different thing: it stores every attachment in Notesnook's own encrypted format, which only Notesnook can unpack. Drop one here and we will say so rather than importing half of it. Use "Export all notes" as HTML instead.

### Import from Obsidian
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/obsidian

An Obsidian vault is already a folder of Markdown files, which makes this the easiest migration of all: zip the vault, drop it in.

**Export your vault**

1. Find your vault folder on disk. If you are unsure where it lives, Obsidian shows the path when you click the vault name in the vault switcher.
2. Compress the folder to a .zip: right-click > Compress on macOS, or Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder on Windows.
3. That zip is the import file. No plugins or exports needed.

**What comes along**

Your folder structure is rebuilt as real folders, not flattened into tags, no matter how deep it nests. A note in Work/Projects lands in a Work > Projects folder. Re-importing the same vault reuses the folders it already created instead of duplicating them.

On the free plan you can browse these folders straight away; creating, renaming, and moving folders is a Pro feature, so an Obsidian import is a good way to try it before you upgrade.

YAML frontmatter is understood: tags, aliases, and created dates are honored, and inline #tags in the body are merged into the tag field. You can also tick "Also tag notes by folder" during import to add each folder name as a tag too, handy if you also like filtering by tag.

Your [[...]] links keep working: PrivacyNotes renders them as note-links, so the connections between notes survive the move. The .obsidian config folder and .trash are skipped automatically.

### Import from Samsung Notes
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/samsung-notes

Samsung Notes exports one file per note, in two flavors. Prefer the Microsoft Word (.docx) export: it keeps your formatting, while the plain text export loses it.

**Export your notes from Samsung Notes**

1. In Samsung Notes, long-press to select the notes you want (or Select all).
2. Tap the three-dot menu and choose "Save as file".
3. Pick "Microsoft Word file" (.docx) for formatted notes, or "Text file" (.txt) for plain text.
4. Samsung saves one file per note to your device storage. Collect them into a single .zip (select them in your file manager and compress) if you exported more than a few.

**What comes along**

From .docx exports: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bullet and numbered lists, and checkboxes (which become native task lists) all survive. From .txt exports: the text, nothing else.

One honest limitation: images embedded in a Samsung note are not imported yet; the importer flags each note where that happens so you can bring the pictures over by hand.

### Import from Simplenote
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/simplenote

Simplenote has a clean built-in export that takes three clicks, and PrivacyNotes reads the resulting zip directly.

**Export your notes from Simplenote**

1. Log in at [app.simplenote.com](https://app.simplenote.com) (or open the desktop app).
2. Open the sidebar menu and go to Settings.
3. Under Account, choose "Export Notes". A .zip downloads immediately.

**What comes along**

The zip contains an authoritative notes.json with all your notes and their metadata: tags come along, and creation dates are preserved. Drop the whole .zip into the importer as-is.

### Import from Standard Notes
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/standard-notes

Standard Notes offers a decrypted backup export, and that is the file PrivacyNotes reads. One important detail up front: it must be the decrypted variant, not the encrypted one.

**Export your notes from Standard Notes**

1. Open Standard Notes (web at app.standardnotes.com, or the desktop app) and sign in.
2. Open Preferences, then the Backups section.
3. Download a data backup and choose the decrypted format when asked.
4. You get a .zip containing a file named "Standard Notes Backup and Import File.txt". Keep the zip as it is.

**Encrypted backups are not supported**

An encrypted Standard Notes backup is ciphertext that only your Standard Notes password can open, so the importer cannot read it. If you exported the encrypted variant, export again and pick decrypted. Since the file contains your notes in plain text, delete it after the import is done.

Drop the whole .zip into the importer, or just the .txt file if you already unzipped it.

### Import from UpNote
Source: https://privacynotes.app/help/import/upnote

UpNote writes a complete backup of your account to a folder on disk, free plan included. Zip that folder and everything moves: notes with their full formatting, notebooks, tags, pins, note links, images, and attachments.

**Create a local backup**

1. Open UpNote on your computer and go to Settings > Backup.
2. Turn on "Backup attachments". It is off by default, and without it your images and files stay behind.
3. Click "Backup now" and wait for the "Last backup at" line to update.
4. Click "View backup folder". UpNote opens the folder it just wrote.

**Zip everything in that folder**

Zip the whole folder, not just the Markdown folder inside it. Those markdown copies are a flattened rendering: underline, colors, highlights, collapsible sections, and text alignment are already gone from them. Your notes' full formatting lives in the data folder, and that is what we read. Drop a zip without it and we will say so rather than import the flattened copies.

1. Select everything in the backup folder: data, files, and whatever sits beside them.
2. Compress the selection: right-click > Compress on macOS, or Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder on Windows.
3. That .zip is your import file.

**On iPhone or Android: export notes one at a time**

The HTML export brings your formatting across in full. What no per-note export carries is library structure: notebooks, pins, and dates only live in the backup, so once you reach a computer, the backup route above completes the move. Markdown exports are accepted too, with the flattening they bring.

1. UpNote's phone apps cannot write a backup. Instead, open a note and tap the three dots in the top corner.
2. Choose Export > "Export to HTML". Not Markdown: UpNote flattens callouts, text colors, alignment, and sub- and superscript before writing its Markdown, while the HTML keeps everything.
3. Share the result to your Files app or send it to yourself, then drop it here unmodified.
4. Moving several notes? Save the exports into your Files app, select them all, and Compress: that one zip imports in one go.

**What comes along**

Your notebooks are rebuilt as real folders, nested as deep as UpNote nested them. A note that lived in several notebooks lands in the first one and carries the others as tags.

Pinned and Quick Access notes arrive as Pinned. Trashed notes land in the trash, templates import as notes tagged #template, links between notes become note-links, and every note keeps its original dates.

Formatting survives: checklists, tables, code blocks, math, underline, sub- and superscript, text alignment, and highlights. Collapsible sections become foldable callouts and keep their open or closed state. Text colors and highlight colors are both matched to the editor's own palette, so a yellow highlight stays yellow and a green one stays green. One honest limitation: version history (the revisions folder) does not come across, so each note imports as it stands.

**If images or files are missing**

A backup made before you ticked "Backup attachments" has no files in it, and the import preview will warn you that notes reference attachments the backup does not carry. If it does, cancel, turn the setting on in UpNote, click "Backup now" again, zip the fresh folder, and import that instead.