How to move Evernote to OneNote
OneNote has no Evernote import of its own any more. Here are the ways that still work, on Windows and on a Mac, and how to keep your notebooks, checklists and attachments.
No Windows PC, or years of notes? this2that writes your Evernote export straight into OneNote from the browser: each notebook a section, each note a page. The first 50 notes are free.
Evernote to OneNote →Before you start
- You need the Evernote desktop app. Evernote only exports from its app for Mac and Windows, not from the web or your phone. Install it, sign in, and let it finish syncing.
- Microsoft's own importer is gone. Microsoft once had an Evernote conversion tool for OneNote, but it has been dropped. Guides that send you to it are out of date.
- On Evernote Free? The free plan is now 50 notes and one notebook, but over the limit you can still view, edit and export your notes.
- Your notebooks live in OneDrive. OneNote keeps notebooks in your OneDrive, so check there is room for your notes and their attachments.
Step 1: Export your notebooks from Evernote
- Open the Evernote desktop app and go to Notebooks.
- Right-click a notebook (or open its More actions menu) and choose Export Notebook.
- Choose ENEX as the format and save the file into one folder you keep for the export.
- Repeat for every notebook.
Evernote exports whole notebooks, or up to 100 notes you pick by hand, so go notebook by notebook. Our guide to exporting all your Evernote notes covers the 100-note limit, phone and web accounts, and a free tool that exports a whole account at once.
Method 1: A free Windows tool
The free route is a community tool, Evernote2Onenote, from the EvImSync project. It reads your .enex files and adds the notes through the OneNote desktop app, so it needs Windows with OneNote for Windows installed.
- Install OneNote for Windows and sign in with your Microsoft account.
- Download the latest Evernote2Onenote release, unzip it, and run the program.
- Choose Import ENEX file and pick one of your exported notebooks.
- Wait for it to finish, then repeat for the next notebook.
- Open OneNote and find the new notebooks in your list; rename them if you like.
Office Watch, who tried it, found that some notes stopped the export completely; the fix was to delete the problem note in Evernote and export that notebook again.
When it is enough: a few notebooks, on a Windows PC with OneNote installed.
Method 2: Copy and paste
For a handful of notes, open each in Evernote, select everything, and paste it into a OneNote page. Check each page afterwards, attach any files by hand, and note that every page gets today's date. It stops being practical after a few dozen notes.
Try it now
Every notebook, from any computer
this2that writes your .enex files into OneNote through your Microsoft account: each notebook a section, each note a page with its photos, files and checklists. Your first 50 notes are free.
Method 3: this2that, straight into OneNote
This is the tool we make, so weigh this section accordingly. It does not connect to Evernote: it works from the .enex files you exported in Step 1, and it runs in the browser, on a Mac as well as Windows.
- Open Evernote to OneNote, sign in, and add all your .enex files at once.
- Browse your notebooks and notes like folders and preview how any note will look in OneNote. Tick whole notebooks or single notes.
- Connect your Microsoft account. Microsoft's sign-in screen asks you to let this2that read and write your OneNote notebooks; we make the From Evernote notebook and add to it, and never see your password.
- Press Convert. Your notes appear in OneNote as they are written, and we email you when the last one is in.
What you get:
- A new notebook called From Evernote, so your other notebooks are not touched.
- Each Evernote notebook as a section, notebooks in a stack as a section group, each note as a page.
- Checklists as OneNote to-do tags, ticked or not, with headings, tables, colours and links.
- Photos and PDFs on the page where they were, and each page dated as the note was created.
- Tags and the address of clipped pages on a line at the top of each page.
- Files over about 3.5 MB, more than one request to Microsoft can carry onto a page, in a download, with a line on the page saying which file was there.
Microsoft limits how fast any app can add pages, so this2that writes about 350 notes an hour. It keeps going in the background and picks up where it left off. Links from one note to another keep their text but do not open the other page yet.
Your first 50 notes are free. After that you buy a one-time pack by number of notes: up to 1,000 notes $29, up to 10,000 notes $49 and up to 50,000 notes $99. Packs stack, and a note counts once, so converting the same notes again for another app costs nothing.
Which method should you use?
- A few notebooks on a Windows PC with OneNote: the free tool. It is free and it is enough.
- A handful of notes: copy and paste them.
- A Mac, many notebooks, or notes the free tool stops on: this2that, from the browser, with every notebook in one go.
Weighing other apps too? See how to move Evernote to Obsidian and how to move Evernote to Apple Notes.
After the move
- Compare the number of pages in each section with the notes Evernote shows in that notebook.
- Open notes with photos, PDFs and checklists and check they look right.
- Drag any large files from the download onto their pages, if you want them there.
- Keep your Evernote account, and your .enex files, until you are sure nothing is missing.