Best Way to Download Evernote Notes for Local Backup
After years of trusting Evernote with your notes, you might start wondering: what if something goes wrong? Here's how to think about local backups and which export format actually makes sense for your needs.
Why Long-Time Evernote Users Start Thinking About Local Backups
If you've been using Evernote for five, eight, or even ten years, you've likely accumulated thousands of notes. Meeting notes, research materials, personal journals, receipts, project documentation - it all adds up. And at some point, a thought creeps in: what happens to all of this if something goes wrong?
It's not paranoia. Over the years, Evernote has gone through significant changes - ownership transitions, pricing restructures, feature removals, and interface overhauls. While the service continues to operate, these changes remind users that cloud services are not permanent.
There are several scenarios that make people nervous:
- Account issues: Accidental deletion, sync conflicts, or account lockouts can happen
- Service changes: Features you rely on might be deprecated or moved to higher pricing tiers
- Company uncertainty: No SaaS company is guaranteed to exist forever
- Data portability: You might want to migrate to another app someday
- Offline access: Sometimes you need your notes without an internet connection
Having a local backup isn't about abandoning Evernote. It's about having peace of mind that your years of accumulated knowledge won't disappear overnight.
Official Evernote Export Options and Their Limitations
Evernote does provide built-in export functionality, but it comes with significant limitations that make comprehensive backups challenging.
The Manual Export Process
In the Evernote desktop app, you can select notes and export them to ENEX format. The process works like this:
- Open a notebook or select specific notes
- Right-click and choose "Export Notes"
- Select ENEX format and save the file
- Repeat for each notebook
The Limitations
This manual approach has several drawbacks:
- Time-consuming: With dozens of notebooks, exporting everything takes hours of repetitive clicking
- No automation: There's no way to schedule regular backups or export everything at once
- No incremental updates: Each export is a full dump; you can't just backup what changed
- Selection limits: Some versions have limits on how many notes you can select at once
- No progress tracking: Large notebooks may timeout or fail silently
Note: Evernote's web clipper content and some note metadata may not be fully preserved in manual exports. Always verify your exported files contain what you expect.
For users with a handful of notebooks and a few hundred notes, manual export might be acceptable. But for heavy users with years of accumulated data, this approach quickly becomes impractical.
Why ENEX Files Are Not Ideal for Long-Term Reading
ENEX is Evernote's native export format, and it's often the first thing people reach for when backing up. However, ENEX files have a fundamental problem: they're designed for data transfer between Evernote clients, not for human consumption.
What ENEX Actually Is
An ENEX file is an XML document that contains:
- Note content in ENML (Evernote Markup Language)
- Attachments encoded as base64 strings
- Metadata like creation date, tags, and location
- Note attributes and recognition data
The Readability Problem
If you open an ENEX file in a text editor, you'll see raw XML with base64-encoded attachments. It's not readable. You can't just double-click an ENEX file to browse your notes. This creates a dependency problem: to read your backup, you need software that can parse ENEX files.
ENEX File Example (Simplified)
<note>
<title>Meeting Notes</title>
<content><![CDATA[<?xml version="1.0"?>
<en-note><div>Discussion points...</div></en-note>
]]></content>
<resource>
<data encoding="base64">iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAA...</data>
</resource>
</note>Long-Term Concerns
Consider this scenario: it's 2035, and you want to access notes you wrote in 2020. If those notes are in ENEX format:
- Will Evernote still exist to import them?
- Will current note apps still support ENEX import?
- Will you remember what software to use?
ENEX is great for migrating between note apps today. It's less ideal as a format for long-term archival where you might need to access content without specialized software.
What Makes a Backup Truly Useful
Not all backups are created equal. A backup file sitting on your hard drive is only useful if you can actually access and use its contents when you need them. Here's what distinguishes a practical backup from a theoretical one.
Key Characteristics of a Useful Backup
1. Readability Without Special Software
The ideal backup format can be opened with tools that will exist in 10 or 20 years. HTML can be read by any web browser. Markdown works with any text editor. These formats don't require proprietary software or rely on any company's continued existence.
2. Preserved Structure and Organization
Your notes are organized in notebooks for a reason. A good backup maintains this structure as folders, making it easy to navigate thousands of notes. Tags, creation dates, and other metadata should be preserved where possible.
3. Intact Attachments
Many notes contain images, PDFs, and other files. A useful backup extracts these as regular files you can open directly, rather than encoding them in a database or XML blob.
4. Searchability
With thousands of notes, you need to find things. Text-based formats (HTML, Markdown) can be searched by your operating system's built-in search. Some backup approaches also generate an index for easier browsing.
5. Portability
A backup you can only use on one computer isn't very useful. Plain files in folders can be copied to any device, stored in any cloud service, or burned to archival media.
Key insight: The best backup format depends on your primary use case. Ask yourself: "If Evernote disappeared tomorrow, what would I actually do with these files?"
ENEX vs HTML vs Markdown: Choosing the Right Format
Each export format serves different purposes. Understanding their strengths helps you choose the right one for your situation - or use multiple formats for different needs.
ENEX Format
Strengths
- + Complete data preservation
- + Maintains all metadata
- + Widely supported for import
- + Best for migrating to other apps
Weaknesses
- - Not human-readable
- - Requires software to view
- - Large file sizes
- - Attachments are encoded
Best for: Migration to other note apps (Notion, Joplin, Apple Notes), maintaining a complete archive for potential future import.
HTML Format
Strengths
- + Opens in any web browser
- + Preserves formatting exactly
- + No software dependencies
- + Can include searchable index
Weaknesses
- - Not ideal for editing
- - Harder to import elsewhere
- - More storage space needed
- - Many individual files
Best for: Long-term archival, offline reading, sharing notes with others, creating a browsable knowledge base.
Markdown Format
Strengths
- + Plain text, future-proof
- + Works with Obsidian, Logseq, etc.
- + Easy to edit and extend
- + Version control friendly
Weaknesses
- - Some formatting may be lost
- - Complex tables may not convert
- - Embedded content needs handling
- - Varies by conversion tool
Best for: Migration to Obsidian or other Markdown-based apps, users who want to continue editing notes, developers and technical users.
| Criteria | ENEX | HTML | Markdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human readable | No | Yes | Yes |
| Formatting preserved | Full | Full | Partial |
| Easy to edit | No | Possible | Yes |
| App migration | Excellent | Poor | Good |
| Long-term archival | Medium | Excellent | Excellent |
A More Practical Approach Some Users Take
Rather than choosing a single format, many experienced users adopt a multi-format backup strategy. This provides flexibility and covers different use cases.
The Multi-Format Strategy
A comprehensive backup might include:
- ENEX: Keep one copy for potential migration to other apps
- HTML: For browsable offline access and long-term archival
- Markdown: If you're planning to use Obsidian or want editable files
Automation Matters
Manual exports are fine for a one-time backup, but your notes change over time. Ideally, your backup process should:
- Run regularly (weekly or monthly)
- Only download changed notes (incremental sync)
- Handle all notebooks automatically
- Export to your preferred formats
Storage Considerations
Where you store your backup matters almost as much as the format:
- Local drive: Fast access, but vulnerable to hardware failure
- External drive: Good for archival, but can be lost or damaged
- Cloud storage: Redundant and accessible anywhere (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud)
- NAS: Best of both worlds for technical users
3-2-1 Backup Rule: Keep 3 copies of your data, on 2 different types of media, with 1 copy stored offsite. This principle applies to your Evernote backup too.
Summary and Final Thoughts
Backing up your Evernote notes is about more than just downloading files. It's about ensuring that years of accumulated knowledge remain accessible regardless of what happens to any particular service or company.
Key Takeaways
- Manual exports work but don't scale well for heavy users
- ENEX is best for migration, not for reading or archival
- HTML provides readable, browser-accessible backups
- Markdown is ideal for users moving to Obsidian or similar apps
- Consider keeping multiple formats for different purposes
- Automation and regular backups beat one-time exports
The Bottom Line
The "best" backup method depends on your specific needs. If you're primarily concerned about long-term access, HTML gives you files that will open in any browser for decades to come. If you're planning to migrate to Obsidian, Markdown is the clear choice. If you want to keep your options open for moving to another note app, ENEX provides the most complete data preservation.
Whatever approach you choose, the most important thing is to actually do it. A imperfect backup that exists is infinitely better than a perfect backup strategy you never implement.
Your notes represent years of thinking, learning, and documenting. They deserve the same care you'd give to important physical documents - which means not relying on a single point of failure, no matter how reliable it seems today.