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  "path": "/link/535/17349356/rescue-your-nvalt-notes-and-settings-database",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-27T12:42:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://brett.trpstra.net",
  "tags": [
    "nvUltra",
    "nvalt-export",
    "Download NVALT Export (latest release)",
    "project repo",
    "Marked",
    "latest release",
    "README on GitHub",
    "Twitter",
    "Click here if you'd like to help out.",
    "Mastodon",
    "Bluesky",
    "GitHub",
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  "textContent": "Despite my frequent warnings, a lot of nvALT (and Notational Velocity) users keep their notes in a database instead of individual files. And people are finding themselves unable to launch nvALT, meaning that database with all their notes is inaccessible. So I made a tool to rescue it.\n\nIf you ever lived in **nvALT** or **Notational Velocity** , your notes might lived in one opaque blob: the `Notes & Settings` file. It is a keyed archive full of rich text, labels, and encryption options — not exactly something you can port to another app (like nvUltra).\n\nI built **nvalt-export** to pull those notes out as plain Markdown files. One `.md` per note, labels preserved, RTF and rich text converted along the way. There is a small GUI app if you do not want to live in Terminal, and a CLI if you do.\n\n### Why bother?\n\nnvALT was great until it wasn’t. Maybe you still have the database sitting in `~/Library/Application Support/Notational Data`. Maybe you exported to a folder of `.rtf` files years ago and forgot. Either way, you want:\n\n  * **Readable files** you can open anywhere\n  * **A path off macOS-only formats** without retyping everything\n  * **Support for encrypted databases** (with the password you hopefully still remember)\n\n\n\nnvalt-export handles the single-database format, folder-based storage (`.txt`, `.rtf`, `.rtfd`, `.html`), and skips the formats that never made sense to convert (legacy `.blor`, Word docs).\n\n### Download the app\n\nThe easiest way to get started is the notarized DMG on GitHub:\n\n**Download NVALT Export (latest release)**\n\nOpen the app, point it at your notes folder or the `Notes & Settings` file directly, pick an output folder, enter a password if you encrypted the database, and hit **Export to Markdown**. When it finishes, **Reveal in Finder** takes you straight to the results.\n\nRequires macOS 13 or later.\n\n### Prefer the command line?\n\nInstall or build from the project repo, then:\n\n\n    nvalt-export -o ~/exported-notes\n\nThat defaults to the classic Notational Data location. Some useful variations:\n\n\n    # Specific notes folder nvalt-export -o ~/exports -p 'my secret' ~/Notes/nvALT # Point at the database file itself nvalt-export -o ~/Desktop/nvalt-md ~/Library/Application\\ Support/Notational\\ Data/Notes\\ \\&\\ Settings # RTF files only (no database) nvalt-export -o ~/rtf-notes ~/Documents/PlainTextNotes\n\nEach note becomes its own `.md` file.\n\n### What happens under the hood\n\nFor the big `Notes & Settings` archive, the tool unarchives `FrozenNotation`, decrypts and decompresses if needed, then walks the `NoteObject` list. Note bodies go from `NSAttributedString` to HTML to Markdown using the same `HTMLToMarkdownConverter` pipeline I use in Marked. RTF files on disk get the same RTF → HTML → Markdown treatment, with `textutil` as a fallback when AppKit needs a nudge.\n\nDecryption borrows from the nvALT lineage (thanks to Zachary Schneirov’s original work). It is macOS-only because keyed archives and AppKit types do not travel well, but that’s where your notes are anyway.\n\n### Honest limitations\n\n  * **Legacy`.blor` databases** are not supported. Import into nvALT first, then export.\n  * **`.doc` / `.docx` storage** in the database is skipped.\n  * **macOS only.** This is a rescue tool for data that never left the platform.\n\n\n\n### Go rescue something\n\nIf you have a dusty nvALT library or a `Notes & Settings` file backed up on a drive, grab the latest release and point it at your notes. The README on GitHub has build instructions if you want to compile the CLI yourself.\n\nYour future self will thank you the first time you can `grep` a decade of quick captures without opening a dead app, and for those eventually making the switch to nvUltra, this will be the path to port all your notes. I’d love for people to help test, even if nvALT is still working for you, so I can be sure this solution works for everyone.\n\nLike or share this post Twitter.\n\n* * *\n\nBrettTerpstra.com is supported by readers like you. Click here if you'd like to help out.\n\nFind Brett on Mastodon, Bluesky, GitHub, and everywhere else.",
  "title": "Rescue your nvALT Notes & Settings database",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-27T12:42:00.000Z"
}