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Importing from Apple Notes, step by step

You'll need: .txt

  1. 1

    Get your recipes out of Apple Notes

    Apple Notes has no export, so copy the text out: open a recipe note, select all (Cmd/Ctrl+A) and copy.

  2. 2

    Paste into a plain text file (TextEdit → Format → Make Plain Text, or Notepad) and save it as a .txt. Put several recipes in one file with a line of dashes (------) between them.

  3. 3

    Give each recipe a title on the first line and the headings 'Ingredients' and 'Method' so we can split them correctly.

  4. 4

    Open Import → Upload a file

    On RecipeFiler, tap Import in the top menu and choose Upload a file. Don't unzip or rename your export. Drop it exactly as your app saved it.

  5. 5

    Drop your file

    Drag the file onto the box or tap it to choose. Files up to 500MB work, photos included. Big files upload in pieces with a progress bar. If your connection drops, it carries on by itself, and if you close the tab, pick the same file again within 24 hours to carry on where it stopped.

  6. 6

    Let us read it

    Small files take seconds. Large files with lots of photos can take a few minutes, and you'll see 'Reading your file and saving photos…'. If you're signed in and it takes over a minute, we save everything for you and email when it's done.

  7. 7

    Check the preview

    Every recipe we found is listed and ticked. Untick any you don't want. Anything already in your cookbooks is marked 'Already in “…”'.

  8. 8

    Choose where they go and save

    Leave it as a new cookbook (you can name it) or pick one of your existing cookbooks, then tap Save. Everything stays private until you choose to share. The free plan holds 10 recipes; bigger imports will ask you to pick a plan.

Good to know

  • A zip full of .txt or .md notes (for example from a notes-export app) works too.
  • Recipes with handwritten photos? Use Import → Screenshot instead.
Le Creuset - the utimate cooking dish