Convert Evernote Notes (.enex) to Markdown

How to convert Evernote ENEX to Markdown

1. Export from Evernote: select your notes or notebook, choose Export, and save as .enex — then drop that file onto the dropzone.
2. Local processing: fast-xml-parser reads the note list, metadata is lifted, and each ENML body is sanitised and converted to Markdown in a Web Worker.
3. Copy or download: copy the Markdown or save it as a .md file. Multi-note exports are separated by a thematic break, which is the seam to split on for one file per note.

Why Convert Evernote to Markdown with MD Convert?

• Checkboxes become GFM task lists, not lost markup

  A dedicated Turndown rule maps <en-todo checked="true"/> to - [x] and an unchecked or absent attribute to - [ ]. Because each checklist row is its own block element, adjacent task lines are then rejoined into a tight list rather than left as loose paragraph-wrapped items.

• Tags, created and updated dates preserved

  Every <tag>, both timestamps and the clipped source-url are lifted from the note. A single-note export receives them as YAML frontmatter — what Obsidian reads as properties — while a multi-note export gets an H1 per note with the same metadata inline beneath it, tags rendered as #hashtags.

• ENML parsed correctly, CDATA and all

  Note bodies are ENML wrapped in a CDATA section, which parses to an object rather than a string. Lifting the CDATA payload explicitly is what produces a real note body instead of the literal text [object Object], and the proprietary en- elements are allow-listed through the sanitiser so their state survives to the conversion rules.

• A migration with no third party involved

  An Evernote archive is often the most personal file a person owns. Reading the file, parsing the XML, sanitising the ENML and running Turndown all happen in a Web Worker on your device — no upload, no account, no server-side record of what you converted.

Understanding the Evernote Format: Evernote ENML DTD

Format

Evernote Export Format (ENEX) / ENML

Specification

Evernote ENML DTD

Media type

application/enex+xml

Parser used

fast-xml-parser + Turndown

# Batch convert Evernote ENEX notebooks to Obsidian Markdown using yarle CLI
npx -p yarle-evernote-to-md yarle --enexSource=notebook.enex --outputDir=./notes

# Programmatic ENEX parsing and Markdown extraction using Python
# requires: pip install html2text
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
import html2text

tree = ET.parse("notes.enex")
converter = html2text.HTML2Text()
converter.body_width = 0

for note in tree.findall(".//note"):
    title = note.find("title").text if note.find("title") is not None else "Untitled"
    content = note.find("content").text or ""
    markdown = converter.handle(content)
    print(f"# {title}\n\n{markdown}\n---")