Apple Journal Importer for Obsidian

An Obsidian plugin that imports your Apple Journal export into your vault as clean Markdown notes — media included.

---

What it does

Apple Journal lets you export your entries as a folder containing HTML files and a media archive. This plugin reads that export and converts it into organised Markdown notes inside your vault:

Journal/
  2024-08-28 - Evening outing to Vacuno Carnes/
    2024-08-28 - Evening outing to Vacuno Carnes.md
    media/
      photo.jpg      ← converted from HEIC
      video.mov
  2024-08-30/
    2024-08-30.md
    2024-08-30 (2).md   ← multiple entries on the same day
    media/
      ...

Each note includes YAML frontmatter, embedded media, and the full body text from the original entry:

---
date: 2024-08-28
title: "Evening outing to Vacuno Carnes"
tags:
  - journal
---

📍 Vacuno Carnes - Mercadoteca
![[media/photo.jpg]]

![[media/video.mov]]

- Had a great dinner with friends
- Walked along the waterfront

---

How to export from Apple Journal

1. Open the Journal app on your Mac or iPhone
2. Go to Settings → Export
3. Tap Export All Entries
4. Save the resulting folder somewhere accessible (e.g. ~/Downloads/AppleJournalEntries)

The exported folder will contain an Entries/ subfolder with HTML files and a Resources/ subfolder with all your media.

---

Installation

From the Obsidian Community Plugins directory (coming soon)

1. Open Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins → Browse
2. Search for Apple Journal Importer
3. Install and enable it

Manual installation

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page
2. Unzip and copy the folder into your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory
3. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin under Settings → Community plugins

---

Usage

1. Click the book icon in the ribbon, or open the Command Palette and run "Import Apple Journal"
2. Paste the path to your export folder (e.g. /Users/you/Downloads/AppleJournalEntries)
3. Click Next — the plugin will verify the folder and show you how many entries were found
4. Click Import and watch the progress bar
5. When done, you'll see a summary of imported entries and any errors

---

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Target folder	Journal	Vault folder where entries are created
Convert HEIC to JPEG	On	Converts Apple's HEIC format to JPEG so Obsidian can render images inline. Uses the built-in macOS sips command.
Media subfolder name	media	Name of the subfolder inside each entry folder

---

Asset type handling

Apple Journal asset	Output in Markdown
Photo	![[media/photo.jpg]]
Video	![[media/video.mov]]
Audio	![[media/audio.m4a]]
Location / Map	📍 Place Name + embedded map image
State of mind	🧠 State of mind
Activity	🏃 Activity recorded
Workout	💪 Workout
Contact	👤 Contact

---

Requirements

• Obsidian 1.4.0 or later
• macOS — required for HEIC conversion (uses the built-in sips command). Apple Journal itself only runs on Apple platforms, so exports always originate from macOS. HEIC conversion can be disabled in settings if you prefer to skip it.

---

Roadmap / Ideas for contribution

See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to get started.

Open ideas:

• Windows/Linux HEIC conversion — replace sips with a cross-platform WASM-based decoder (e.g. heic-convert) so the plugin works on non-macOS systems
• Selective import — let users preview and select/deselect individual entries before importing
• Duplicate detection — skip entries that were already imported in a previous run (compare by date + title)
• Date format options — let users choose the note filename and frontmatter date format (ISO, US, EU, etc.)
• Custom frontmatter — let users add extra fields or tags per import
• Journal template support — apply a user-defined Obsidian template after creating each note
• Dataview compatibility — add optional inline fields (e.g. location::, mood::) alongside the standard frontmatter
• Progress persistence — resume an interrupted import from where it left off
• iCloud path auto-detection — automatically suggest the default Apple Journal export location
• Periodic notes integration — optionally merge imported entries into existing daily notes instead of creating new files
• Localisation — the plugin currently recognises only the English Apple Journal export format; add support for other locales

---

Contributing

Pull requests and issues are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions.

---

License

MIT