Migrate from OneNote to Joplin | by Peter van Barneveld

I recently moved all my OneNote notes to Joplin successfully. OneNote worked fine, but I was curious how good an open source alternative would actually be. There's a lot of talk about digital autonomy, but I often miss the concrete solutions. So why not figure it out myself? I really like digital puzzles, so the game was on.

Why Joplin Appealed to Me

First of all, because it's open source. Additionally, because it supports markdown for both editing and viewing, alongside a "normal" editor. And there were many positive reviews.

During my first test, it worked pretty straightforward. I quickly created some notebooks and notes, trying to replicate my OneNote structure. A hierarchy in notes is an important requirement for me. But when I decided to actually move from OneNote, the real challenge began.

But when I decided to try to move from OneNote, the real challenge came.

Setting Up Sync Was the Real Work

Installing Joplin is straightforward. The challenge wasn't Joplin itself, but achieving the same seamless multi-device experience that OneNote provides out of the box. With OneNote, you install the app, sign in, and your notes are just there on every device. With Joplin, that seamlessness requires real configuration work. Much harder and initially much less user-friendly. But I succeeded, and I'm genuinely happy with the result.

By design, Joplin works locally. Your notes live on your device. Which is fine, even preferable for data ownership. But using the same notes across multiple devices means setting up synchronization yourself. For me, that's Windows and iPhone.

Luckily Joplin supports multiple sync methods: Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud, WebDAV, and others. WebDAV worked best for me because my kDrive subscription includes it.

The setup involved:

Creating a dedicated folder in kDrive for the notes
Generating an app password through the kSuite admin portal
Finding the correct WebDAV URL

That last part took some puzzling. Using Perplexity, I found kDrive's official documentation, which got me unstuck quickly. Modern AI assistants excel at cutting through documentation to find exactly what you need.

Once I had the right URL, I configured Joplin on Windows first. After the first successful sync, I added my iPhone with the same settings. It worked perfectly. The synchronization has been reliable since. No conflicts, no lost notes.

As a user, I only needed a short time to adjust to how Joplin organizes notebooks and notes. After a few days, it was already part of my note-taking routine.

Migrating Content from OneNote

The actual migration also took some puzzling, because OneNote's default export wasn't usable for a complete migration where the entire structure is preserved and can be imported into Joplin. Yet it went surprisingly smoothly.

Perplexity directed me to a tool called md exporter, a console application specifically designed for this purpose. The process:

Select a OneNote notebook
Export it to a Joplin Raw folder
Import that folder into Joplin
Keep OneNote open while exporting

What I really loved was that the complete hierarchical structure remained intact. Sections, subsections, pages, everything maintained its organization. That detail really made me happy. Years of accumulated notes, properly structured, moved cleanly to a new system.

I repeated this for several notebooks. Depending on the size, exporting can take considerable time per notebook, but that's just waiting. In the end, all my OneNote content now lives in Joplin, fully accessible and searchable.

Making Sure Your Notes Stay Safe

For backing up my notes, I first thought the synchronization folder in my kDrive could serve as backup. However, if that folder gets corrupted, you can't rely on it as a true backup.

Luckily Joplin has a built-in backup tool. Configuring a backup folder in my kDrive was straightforward, and it became part of my daily backup schedule with Duplicati. This setup gives me confidence that my notes are well protected. In a future guide, I'll cover Duplicati in more detail.

When Does This Approach Make Sense?

If you're not afraid of some configuration work, Joplin is an excellent open source alternative to OneNote. Budget two to three hours for the complete setup and migration. If you have large OneNote notebooks, the actual export and import can take considerably longer.

The synchronization requires upfront effort, but once configured, it just works. Your notes remain under your control, and you can export them anytime to markdown, PDF, or other formats.

One disclaimer: my storage solution, kDrive, isn't open source. It comes from a Swiss company. I'm planning a follow-up guide about my complete kSuite journey and why I chose that path.

What Challenges Should You Expect?

The configuration work is real. You need comfort with following technical instructions, finding WebDAV URLs, generating app passwords, entering settings correctly, and configuring the backup. An AI assistant helps enormously here, but you still need to understand what you're configuring.

Sharing notes requires more manual work than OneNote's built-in sharing capabilities. You can export notes to share them, but real-time collaboration isn't Joplin's strength. If you collaborate heavily on notes, this is an important limitation.

What's the Real Result?

The system works reliably. My notes now sync seamlessly between devices, just like OneNote, and Joplin feels noticeably faster. The difference is that I own the data much more completely now. I can export everything to standard formats anytime I want. No vendor lock-in.

Most importantly: the effort paid off. I gained confidence that open source alternatives can compete with commercial tools for daily use. Sometimes the setup requires more work, but the ongoing experience can be just as smooth. And with AI assistants, these kinds of migrations have become much more accessible than a few years ago.

What I'm Considering Exploring Next

The success with Joplin reinforces my broader experiment with digital autonomy. Next up: sharing my complete kSuite migration for email and file storage, why I chose this, and which other tools like Duplicati are part of it.

I'm also very curious about alternatives to tools like Confluence. That's Atlassian's wiki and knowledge management platform where teams collaborate on documentation. Finding an open source option for collaborative knowledge bases would complete another piece of the puzzle.

About the Author

Peter van Barneveld is a Group Innovation Manager exploring practical paths to digital autonomy. He tests what actually works in real daily use. His approach: figure it out, document the journey, share honest results.

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn or join the discussion on r/Dimaginar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Joplin work offline like OneNote? Yes, and even better. Joplin's local-first design means it works fully offline by default. Everything is stored on your device. Sync happens when you're connected, but you never lose access to your notes.

Can I still share notes with others? Sharing requires more manual work than with OneNote. It relies on Joplin Cloud, which is a paid feature. Alternatively, you can export notes to markdown, PDF, or other formats. I recommend using Joplin primarily for personal use. For collaboration, there are probably better alternatives.

What happens if kDrive or my sync service disappears? Your notes remain stored locally in Joplin. They're not tied to any single service. You can switch to a different sync method like Dropbox, Nextcloud, or another WebDAV provider, and everything continues working.

Is markdown really necessary, or can I use rich text? Joplin uses markdown for editing, but it's simpler than it sounds. Learning the basics takes maybe thirty minutes, and then it quickly becomes second nature. If you prefer, Joplin also has a rich text editor that handles the markdown for you.

Will this work with my Android device? Yes. Joplin supports Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. The sync configuration process looks similar across all platforms.

Can I go back to OneNote if this doesn't work? Your original OneNote data remains untouched during migration. Keep it as a backup until you're confident in Joplin. Migrating back from Joplin to OneNote is considerably harder due to limited import and export options on Microsoft's side.