How do I import from Standard Notes?

Harbor imports Standard Notes directly. Standard Notes keeps your notes and your file attachments in two separate exports, so you’ll download two files from Standard Notes and hand both to Harbor. There’s nothing to zip or combine — Harbor takes it from there.

The steps are identical whether you’re on a Mac or a PC.

1. Export your backup from Standard Notes

This file holds your notes, tags, and folders.

In Standard Notes, open Preferences → Backups. Under Data backups, choose Decrypted, then click Download backup.

Why decrypted? Standard Notes encrypts everything, and Harbor can’t read an encrypted backup. The decrypted download is plain text that Harbor can import. It lands in your Downloads folder like any other file — keep it somewhere safe and delete it when you’re done.

2. Export your notes with their attachments

The backup above doesn’t include your files. To bring your images, PDFs, and audio across, export the notes too.

Select all your notes (click one in the list, then press ⌘A on a Mac or Ctrl+A on a PC), right-click, and choose Export.

In the dialog, set the format to HTML and Embedded files to Export separately, then click Export.

You now have two files in your Downloads folder: the backup from step 1 and this notes export.

3. Bring both into Harbor

In Harbor, open Import & export from the sidebar and choose Standard Notes under Import from. Pick your two files:

• Standard Notes export — the backup from step 1.
• Attachments (optional) — the notes export from step 2.

Then click Start import.

That’s it. Your notes, tags, folders, and attachments arrive together — a big import keeps running in the background, and Harbor can email you when it’s done.

Once imported, everything gets Harbor’s full treatment: attachments run through OCR so the words inside them become searchable, and it all syncs to every device you use.

A few things worth knowing

• The backup alone works. If you skip step 2, your notes and tags still import — only the attachments come up missing. You can always re-run the import later with the notes export added.
• Exactly what carries over — notes, tags, folders, dates, and attachments — is spelled out in What comes across in a Standard Notes import?
• Prefer to keep it encrypted end-to-end? Turn on Encrypt notes as they import on the import screen. Your notes are encrypted in your browser before they ever reach Harbor’s servers — see How does encryption work in Harbor?
• Take it at your own pace: a common path is to import once as a test, look around, and you’re done — there’s nothing to undo.