Bring your words across
You've got years in another app. You can bring them here.
Pick your app below. Each page says what arrives, what stays behind and why, and how to start the export.
None of it is urgent. Start writing in River, and bring the archive later, once you know it's working for you. An import is a copy, taken once, so your other app carries on exactly as it is.
One thing to know first. River has one focused note for each calendar day. Dated notes can be matched to those days. Anything else for that date arrives as an ordinary note. It is not thrown away. Those notes live in Work, where there is no limit on loose notes.
Day One entries file onto their days because they are already dated that way. A folder of Markdown does the same when the filenames carry dates. Most other exports arrive as ordinary notes, and where one of those turns out to be one entry a day, River offers to file it into days and lets you decide.
| from | what arrives | what stays behind |
|---|---|---|
| Agenda | notes, with dates and project names as tags | Agenda's calendar views |
| Apple Notes | exported Markdown or HTML; the database is never opened | the Notes database, and locked notes you did not export |
| Bear | note text and Bear tags | encrypted notes, until you decrypt them in Bear |
| Craft | Markdown pages from a Craft export | block layout, nesting, and Craft page design |
| Day One | journal entries filed onto the days you wrote them | video, PDFs, and photos the zip named but did not include |
| Drafts | draft text, tags, and dates | trashed drafts, actions, and workspaces |
| Evernote | note text, dates, tags, and the notebook name | encrypted blocks, PDFs, and missing attachments |
| Google Keep | note text, titles, dates, and labels as tags | PDFs, reminders, and files Takeout named but did not include |
| iA Writer | a Markdown or TextBundle export, if you want one | library organisation and the live library |
| Markdown | Markdown files; date-named ones become days | anything that is not in the folder you exported |
| Mem.ai | titles, Markdown bodies, tags, and dates | automation, and remote-only attachments |
| Notion | page Markdown; databases come back as CSV files | views, rollups, filters, and synced blocks |
| Obsidian | a Markdown folder, if you want one; the vault stays put | the graph, plugins, and the live vault |
| OneNote | HTML or MHT page exports | native .one packages, which are never opened |
| Reflect | titles, bodies, dates, and tags | the graph, and attachments that were only a remote link |
| Simplenote | note text, tags, and dates | trashed notes, by default |
| Standard Notes | a decrypted backup — titles, bodies, tags, dates | encrypted backups, which are never opened |
| Ulysses | exported sheets as Markdown or TextBundle | locked sheets, and anything you did not export |
| Word | Word text as Markdown | files that could not be converted, and non-image embeds |
| River JSON | your own River export, including days | nothing the backup did not contain |
nothing goes missing quietly
Anything that cannot come across as a file is handed back to you. When the import finishes you get a leftovers file — a zip holding the actual files, with a short note against each one saying why it stayed behind.
Empty notes, and notes River already holds — say the same item is coming through again — are counted rather than packed. A matching title is not the same note. Extra writing for a day you already have arrives as an ordinary note, not as leftovers.
Download the leftovers file before you carry on. It's held for fifteen minutes after the import, and then it's gone. It lives in the page for that window — a refresh lets it go early — and it is never written into your browser's storage.
Pictures stay in the note on every plan, up to its image allowance. Free has 100MB of retained encrypted image storage; pictures beyond that come back in the same leftovers file, with the writing still in River. Paid has no ceiling on the total. Voice recordings come across on every plan. Audio in a format River does not support, or recordings larger than it can keep, come back in the leftovers file.
The same fifteen minutes is your window to undo. One tap, then a confirm, and the whole import goes to deleted. After that, the notes are yours, and can be deleted one at a time or in multiples like anything else.
staying where you are is fine too
Some tools sit beside River rather than against it. iA Writer and Ulysses are for the long work. Drafts catches a line before it vanishes. Obsidian is a vault you shaped yourself. Standard Notes can stay where it is, or come across from a decrypted backup. River is for an active creative life — somewhere to write, speak, gather what emerges and carry it forward.
Keep both. See which one you open.
questions you might have
Do I have to leave the app I already use?
No. An import is a copy, taken once. Your other app carries on exactly as it is, and nothing you write in either one from now on reaches the other. Some tools sit beside River rather than against it. Keep both. See which one you open.
How big an export can I bring?
Keep, Day One and Notion take a zip up to 500MB. Evernote takes an ENEX up to 500MB. Markdown takes a zip up to 500MB, or loose files up to 20MB. A JSON file takes 10MB, and so do other loose files. Other zips take 100MB. If the file is larger, export a smaller notebook or split the zip, then drop the next part.
Can I undo an import?
Yes, for fifteen minutes. One tap, then a confirm, and the whole import goes to deleted. If a note or two will not go, River says how many, and you can try again inside the window. The offer follows you out of the import screen, so you can start writing and still change your mind. After that, the notes are yours and can be deleted one at a time or in multiples like anything else.
Why is import signed-in only?
The words are encrypted to your account as they arrive. Guest writing stays on this device. Bringing an archive across needs a place that can hold it.
start here
Write today, even if nothing has come across yet. Drop a few words in and see how it feels. The archive can come when you're ready.
Your own place to write, with your writing saved to your account.