# Importing your notes

> Bring existing notes and memory archives into Poly Mind from Notion, Obsidian, Evernote, Bear, and more.

Your second brain does not need to start from scratch. Upload your existing notes and archives to **Home**, or drag their files and folders into Poly. Keep whatever organization works for you: by project, year, topic, or the structure you already have.

Poly automatically reads the files and derives memories from them. You do not need to move everything into the Mind folder or rewrite your notes into a special format.

## Bring your notes into Poly

1. Export your notes from their current app, or find the folder where they are already stored.
2. If the export is a ZIP archive, extract it first. Keep the notes and their attachments together.
3. Open **Home** in Poly, choose any folder, and upload or drag in the exported files and folders.
4. Let the upload and processing finish, then open [Mind](https://poly.app/mind) to explore your memories.

Markdown is a good choice when your app offers it: dated Markdown notes can appear directly as journal entries. Poly uses dates inside imported notes or their creation timestamps to place them in your memories. Other documents can contribute useful context through memory annotations.

Your personal memories draw from **Home** and **Mind**, including their subfolders. Shared drives are outside this personal memory collection.

## Notion pages and teamspaces

For a teamspace, export its top-level pages with their nested pages included:

1. Open a top-level page and choose **Export** from its three-dot menu.
2. Select **Markdown & CSV** and enable **Include subpages**.
3. Repeat for any other top-level pages you want from the teamspace.
4. Extract the downloaded archives and upload the resulting folders to Home.

For a whole workspace, open **Settings**, then **General** under Workspace, and select **Export all workspace content**. Choose Markdown and CSV for the export when prompted, download it, and extract it before uploading.

Exports contain only content available to the exporting account, and teamspace settings can restrict what is included. If the export option is missing, check with the workspace or teamspace owner. See [Notion's export guide](https://www.notion.com/help/export-your-content).

## Obsidian vaults

An Obsidian vault is already a folder containing Markdown notes. There is no special export conversion required. Find the vault folder on your computer, then upload a copy of its notes, subfolders, and attachments into Home. You can keep the vault's existing organization.

The hidden `.obsidian` folder contains application settings; you can leave it out of your notes import. See [how Obsidian stores data](https://help.obsidian.md/Files+and+folders/How+Obsidian+stores+data).

## Evernote notebooks

Use the Evernote desktop app on Mac or Windows:

1. Select the notes or notebook you want to bring over.
2. Right-click and choose **Export**.
3. Choose **multi-page HTML**, and include useful attributes such as creation dates.
4. Upload the exported HTML files and their resource folder together into Home.

This gives Poly individual documents and their attachments to read. Evernote's web app does not provide this export. See [Evernote's export instructions](https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/209005557-Export-Notes-and-Notebooks-as-ENEX-or-HTML).

## Bear notes

On a Mac, select the notes you want, then choose **File → Export Notes** and select Markdown. To export everything, open the Notes section and select all notes first. Upload the exported notes, along with any exported attachments, into Home.

On iPhone or iPad, select notes in the note list and use its export action. See [Bear's export guide](https://bear.app/faq/export-your-notes/) for the available formats and steps.

## Start using what you already know

Once your notes have been processed, try asking your agent:

- “What did I decide about the home office project?”
- “Find my notes about the places I wanted to visit.”
- “Remind me what I learned while working on my last project.”

You can review and correct the results in Mind. See [Managing your memories](/mind/managing-your-memories), [Journaling](/mind/journaling), and [Integrating with your agent](/mind/integrating-with-your-agent). For how your data is handled, read [Privacy & Security](/privacy-and-security).