Google Keep Import

Google Keep Import Plugin

Google Keep Import is a plugin for Obsidian that enables easily importing an exported set of backup notes and related attachments from Google Keep.

Please note that this plugin is no longer being maintained. Unless you need certain import customisations that this plugin offers, try using the official Obsidian Importer plugin instead. As I helped implement the Keep import functionality in that plugin also, it's import capability is similar, and likely more up to date.

🖥️ Requirements

• Minimum Obsidian Version: 1.1.10 (Anything downloaded after Jan 13th 2023)

🛠️ Usage

1. Install this plugin from the community plugins section of Obsidian's settings.
2. To export your files from Google Keep, open Google Takeout and select only Google Keep files (Depending on the amount of notes and attachments, this might take a while)
3. Once you have the exported zip, unzip it so you have all the files separately.
4. In Obsidian, press CMD+P and select the Google Keep Import action.
5. In the modal that opens, drag in all the unzipped files and follow the instructions import the files.

🎉 Features

Error log

The plugin will always give you a real-time log of any files it is unable to import or that it believes aren't supported so that you can cancel the import immediately if needed, or find the files later to edit or convert.

Imports binary files irrelevant of Keep notes

The plugin will import any binary files like images even if there isn't a corresponding Keep note. This means you can use the plugin as a batch import for a folder of files that didn't come from Keep if needed.

Unsupported files

The plugin can import any file it sees regardless of whether ut cam from Keep or Obsidian supports it. You can turn this on if needed in the settings, but it's off by default and will let you know which file it skips.

⚙️ Customisable settings

The plugin provides a settings page that is also accessible during the import process. This allows you to tailor what gets imported and how dates, colours, tags, and more from the Keep files are treated in Obsidian.

Settings:

Basics

• Note import folder: Defines the Obsidian folder where notes will be imported.
• Attachment import folder: Defines the Obsidian folder where note attachments will be imported.
• Unsupported attachment import folder: Defines the Obsidian folder where note attachments that aren't supported by Obsidian will be imported.
• Note creation date: Defines which date should be used as the 'created on' date for each new Obsidian note; The date of Obsidian import, or the original Google Keep creation date.

Inclusions

Whether to import specific types of notes or ignore them.

• Import archived notes
• Import trashed notes
• Import unsupported files:
  • Import html files: Unsupported (and html files) aren't imported by default as they will usually be invisible in Obsidian. HTML files from Google Takeout exports are also duplicates of other files so they do not need to be imported.

Tags

Whether to apply tags to notes in Obsidian to represent these attributes of the original Google Keep notes.

• Add label tags
• Add colour tags
• Add pinned tags
• Add attachment tags
• Add archived tags
• Add trashed tags

Character Mapping

Allows mapping any characters in titles to valid characters for use in your notes filenames. This is set to make files valid for all operating systems by default.

• Problem characters These characters may not break the import, but the wil degrade functionality in certain places within Obsidian.
• Invalid characters These characters in the titles of your imported notes can prevent import on certain operating systems.

❤️ Support

If you find this plugin saves you time or helps you in some way, please consider supporting my development of plugins and other free community material like this. A simply way is to follow and message me on twitter at @daledesilva or Mastadon at indieweb.social/@daledesilva, and you can also support with a donation below.

🤖 My other work

You can find links to my other projects on designdebt.club, where I blog about design and development, as well as release other plugins like this one. You can also find my writing at at falterinresolute.com where I combine philosophy and animation.

👨‍💻 Technical details

Manually installing the plugin

The plugin is listed in Community Plugins within your Obsidian install, however, if for some reason you would like to manually install it instead, you will need to follow the How to Contribute section below in order to build the plugin, and then copy the dist folder into your Obsidian vault's plugins folder.

How to contribute

• Clone this repo.
• npm i to install dependencies
• npm run dev to start compilation in watch mode.
• Copy the dist folder to your vault's plugins folder, or read the instructions inside src/static/.hotreload/