Apple Notes importer not working #144

franknu · 2023-10-19T17:51:22Z

I was really looking forward to using the new Apple Notes import option in Importer. But unfortunately it's not working for me. When I follow the instructions and click Open on the popup for "group.com.apple.notes", the importer creates all the folders that are present in my Apple Notes but after that doesn't do anything anymore. The progress bar with the statistics remains on all zeros, no matter how long I leave it running. I've tried it with Apple Notes running and closed, doesn't make a difference. My notes are not locked. Any idea how to troubleshoot?

rtblair · 2023-10-19T18:04:11Z

I've encountered similar behavior.

In my case, it creates one folder and a sub-folder, but no files within either. The importer progress counts all remain at 0.

For me, Apple Notes contains 1200+ notes in ~50 folders. So, it's failing pretty quickly.

There is a detail that is perhaps notable and worth exploring. The subfolder in question contains two of the oldest notes in my library, dating from 2015. Both of those notes have multiple images inserted inline.

kepano · 2023-10-19T18:17:47Z

@mirnovov

kepano · 2023-10-19T18:18:35Z

@franknu @rtblair can you provide debug info? Go to the command palette and choose Show debug info then copy/paste that here. Which version of macOS are you using?

rtblair · 2023-10-19T18:20:43Z

MacOS 14.0 @kepano

SYSTEM INFO:
	Obsidian version: v1.4.16
	Installer version: v1.4.13
	Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 23.0.0: Fri Sep 15 14:42:57 PDT 2023; root:xnu-10002.1.13~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8112 23.0.0
	Login status: logged in
	Catalyst license: insider
	Insider build toggle: on
	Live preview: on
	Legacy editor: off
	Base theme: light
	Community theme: Minimal v7.3.2
	Snippets enabled: 0
	Restricted mode: off
	Plugins installed: 10
	Plugins enabled: 10
		1: Actions URI v1.3.1
		2: Advanced URI v1.38.1
		3: Calendar v1.5.10
		4: Convert url to preview (iframe) v0.5.0
		5: Dataview v0.5.61
		6: Importer v1.5.2
		7: Minimal Theme Settings v7.3.0
		8: Natural Language Dates v0.6.1
		9: Tag Wrangler v0.6.1
		10: Templater v1.16.4

RECOMMENDATIONS:
	Custom theme and snippets: for cosmetic issues, please first try updating your theme and disabling your snippets. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community theme and snippets.
	Community plugins: for bugs, please first try updating all your plugins to latest. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community plugins.

franknu · 2023-10-19T18:21:44Z

SYSTEM INFO:
	Obsidian version: v1.4.16
	Installer version: v1.4.13
	Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 23.0.0: Fri Sep 15 14:41:34 PDT 2023; root:xnu-10002.1.13~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 23.0.0
	Login status: logged in
	Catalyst license: insider
	Insider build toggle: on
	Live preview: on
	Legacy editor: off
	Base theme: light
	Community theme: Prism v3.4.1
	Snippets enabled: 2
	Restricted mode: off
	Plugins installed: 22
	Plugins enabled: 22
		1: Better Word Count v0.10.0
		2: Calendar v1.5.10
		3: Citations v0.4.5
		4: Dataview v0.5.61
		5: Day Planner v0.12.1
		6: Kanban v1.5.3
		7: Pandoc Plugin v0.4.1
		8: Reading Time v1.1.1
		9: Readwise Official v2.0.1
		10: Recent Files v1.3.8
		11: Style Settings v1.0.7
		12: Minimal Theme Settings v7.3.0
		13: Hider v1.3.1
		14: QuickAdd v1.4.0
		15: Tag Wrangler v0.6.1
		16: Outliner v4.8.0
		17: Zotero Integration v3.0.11
		18: Excalidraw v1.9.24
		19: Importer v1.5.1
		20: Projects v1.16.5
		21: Shortcut Launcher v1.0.1
		22: Tasks v4.9.0

RECOMMENDATIONS:
	Custom theme and snippets: for cosmetic issues, please first try updating your theme and disabling your snippets. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community theme and snippets.
	Community plugins: for bugs, please first try updating all your plugins to latest. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community plugins.

I'm on MacOS 14.0 (Sonoma).

mirnovov · 2023-10-19T19:23:57Z

@franknu @rtblair Does it show any errors in the developer console? (This can be shown via View -> Show Developer Tools)

franknu · 2023-10-19T19:33:41Z

I'm not sure where to look in the console. Does this help?

app.js:1 Uncaught (in promise) Error: File name cannot contain any of the following characters: \ / :
    at jy (app.js:1:696095)
    at t.checkPath (app.js:1:703345)
    at t.<anonymous> (app.js:1:706008)
    at app.js:1:237027
    at Object.next (app.js:1:237132)
    at app.js:1:236048
    at new Promise (<anonymous>)
    at v (app.js:1:235793)
    at t.createFolder (app.js:1:705896)
    at hr.createFolders (plugin:obsidian-importer:62:2451)
    at hr.resolveFolder (plugin:obsidian-importer:86:411)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async hr.import (plugin:obsidian-importer:72:69)
    at async HTMLButtonElement.eval (plugin:obsidian-importer:200:9812)

mirnovov · 2023-10-19T19:41:09Z

Yes! It appears that your folder name contains some characters that means it can’t be created. The plugin should take care of this so I’ll work on an update but in the meantime, I’d try removing \ / or : from your folders temporarily.

franknu · 2023-10-19T19:51:27Z

Oddly enough my folder names don't contain any of those three characters. They did contain + and < and - and I removed those, but it still doesn't work. I get the same error in the console. Does the same restriction go for the individual notes? I can image I might have used / \ or : in one of the titles of the 459 notes I have.

Uncaught (in promise) Error: File name cannot contain any of the following characters: \ / :
    at jy (app.js:1:696095)
    at t.checkPath (app.js:1:703345)
    at t.<anonymous> (app.js:1:706008)
    at app.js:1:237027
    at Object.next (app.js:1:237132)
    at app.js:1:236048
    at new Promise (<anonymous>)
    at v (app.js:1:235793)
    at t.createFolder (app.js:1:705896)
    at hr.createFolders (plugin:obsidian-importer:62:2451)

mirnovov · 2023-10-19T19:55:34Z

No, since it creates the folders first and then the files. Do your folders have any other sort of special characters in their name? Theoretically this shouldn’t be an issue but it seems to be having difficulty with something in the folder name.

franknu · 2023-10-19T20:11:16Z

These are the folders in Apple Notes and after the import in Obsidian. Not all folders are apparently imported. And in Obsidian two folders are added: Geïmporteerd and Geïmporteerd 1 (in Dutch; imported and imported 1 in English).

mirnovov · 2023-10-20T05:16:07Z

Not sure why one of your folders is failing in particular. Anyway, I've made a change so it handles illegal characters in folder names better. And if it fails on a specific folder, it will now show a more visible error in the importer log, keep going, and put the notes inside it in the root folder.

franknu · 2023-10-20T05:26:52Z

Okay thanks, I'll give it a try. Is the updated plugin version 1.5.2?

mirnovov · 2023-10-20T07:58:26Z

@franknu Its not been merged yet I’m afraid, it’ll be 1.5.3

scarrillo · 2023-10-23T18:35:43Z

Thank you all for the amazing work on this plugin.

Just confirming that this is a problem for both folder and file names. I have many folders and file names that contain colons and dates. For example, a folder named: 1:1 (For one on one meetings).

The Obsidian/Chrome debugger does report the error as mentioned above.

Edit:
I've updated a few folders, but there are many files that contain both characters. The option to use a single substitution character would suffice (for me), though this would be highly subjective. :)

Ex: "RCA: issue title 5/2023" > "RCA- issue title 5-2023".

mirnovov · 2023-10-24T09:20:31Z

@scarrillo files work for me - are you sure the error isn't being caused by just the folders?

kepano · 2023-10-24T17:33:11Z

This should now be fixed if you update to Importer 1.5.3

franknu · 2023-10-24T18:36:46Z

It works now! Thanks 🥳

scarrillo · 2023-10-25T00:56:31Z

Apologies for the late response. Confirmed fixed.

I was using an older version of Obsidian (1.4.14). Today I upgraded both Obsidian (1.4.16) and Importer (1.5.3) before testing. Previously Importer stalled with no updates, today Importer finished with a clear log of issues that I was able to resolve by tweaking a few Apple Notes.

Note errors which were easily resolved:

"because unexpected end of file"
"because cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'zhexdata')"
"because incorrect header check"

Thank you! ❤️

mackinra · 2024-07-07T08:25:24Z

"because incorrect header check"

@scarrillo I'm running into many imported Apple Notes failing this check, but don't understand it. The note looks fine to me. How did you resolve them?

scarrillo · 2024-07-09T06:45:30Z

"because incorrect header check"

@scarrillo I'm running into many imported Apple Notes failing this check, but don't understand it. The note looks fine to me. How did you resolve them?

Unfortunately, I do not remember how I resolved this. I believe it was something obvious by checking, updating, and saving a few samples.

From my notes:

Was on older version - 1.4.14
1.5.3

Resolution -

Made changes in each file
Deleted a few

Issues

Apple Notes with only a really long title (happens..)
- The title is truncated with an ellipsis during the import. This combined with the option to "omit first line" means some content from the original note is lost.

Errors

"because unexpected end of file" - Removed a special character that even notes had trouble rendering.
"because Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'zhexdata')"
because incorrect header check
because note is password protected

kepano added the bug Something isn't working label Oct 19, 2023

mirnovov mentioned this issue Oct 20, 2023

Fix Apple Notes bugs #146

Merged

ericaxu added the apple notes label Oct 23, 2023

lishid closed this as completed in #146 Oct 24, 2023

philippgille mentioned this issue Aug 16, 2024

Apple Notes import fails to read data from group.com.apple.notes (MacOS 10.13) #215

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Apple Notes importer not working #144

Apple Notes importer not working #144

franknu commented Oct 19, 2023

rtblair commented Oct 19, 2023 •

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kepano commented Oct 19, 2023

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rtblair commented Oct 19, 2023 •

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franknu commented Oct 19, 2023 •

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mirnovov commented Oct 19, 2023

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franknu commented Oct 19, 2023 •

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mirnovov commented Oct 20, 2023 •

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franknu commented Oct 20, 2023

mirnovov commented Oct 20, 2023

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mirnovov commented Oct 24, 2023

kepano commented Oct 24, 2023

franknu commented Oct 24, 2023

scarrillo commented Oct 25, 2023

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Apple Notes importer not working #144

Apple Notes importer not working #144

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franknu commented Oct 19, 2023

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