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Switching/Moving from Evernote to Microsoft OneNote

Update 4 (25-Apr-2016): Microsoft now provide their own tool for migrating you data from Evernote to Microsoft OneNote. See here: https://www.onenote.com/import-evernote-to-onenote

Update 3 (13-Apr-2014): A lot of people in the comments noted a recent issue with the software prompting for both Evernote and LinkedIn passwords unnecessarily. I won’t be updating this post any further due to it’s age and no longer recommending the conversion software.

Update 2: Microsoft have released a native client for Mac OS X. Also OneNote for Windows is detached from the Office suite and available for free.

Update: A lot of people had issues with this post in that it either they had issues or it did work at all. Problem here is that newer versions of OneNote may have issues with this process. There may be other issues that I am unable to test for.

When doing this guide, keep in mind that it will attempt to export to a new OneNote file. Each notebook in Evernote will become a new OneNote file. Some manual processes may be required here.

Other than that, if you have any issues, please let me know below.

I have been using Evernote for about a year now and I can honestly say that it has been one of the truly useful tools and cloud solutions on the internet. This single point location to store simple yet important information has grown from a single page of notes, to a expansive array of notes and notebooks. And I mean that in good way.

Evernote

At the same time, Microsoft have had a long running note taking solution called OneNote as part of the Office suite. And not many people know that this is also in many ways, just as free to use as EverNote.

OneNote is available on multiple platforms like Evernote:

  • Microsoft Windows
    • Universal App (through the Microsoft Store, free)
    • With Microsoft Office suite
  • Mac OS X (native)
  • Web-based app
  • Android
  • Apple iOS
  • Windows Phone

Import/Export (Windows)

Microsoft now provide their own Importer tool for migrating your data from EverNote to OneNote.

See Here: https://www.onenote.com/import-evernote-to-onenote

So first up let me show you easiest method to move from EverNote to OneNote.

Ever2One Importer

  1. Download Ever2One Converter as mentioned in Update 3, I am no longer recommending this software.
  2. Install
  3. Run and convert your notebooks to a OneNote file
  4. Enjoy
This software will turn each EverNote notebook into a single OneNote file, however OneNote software is smart enough to treat this as a single collection of notebook, not lots of individual ones.

OneNote after EverNote Import

Why Change?

This will be done to personal preference. On the base level, both software packages do wonderful jobs and doing the basics well is a strong point. Evernote does keep it simple while OneNote does have advanced options which will benefit others.
Mum and Dad, stick to EverNote. Keeping recipes and other important notes, Evernote will not let you down.
If you are techie or student (for example), OneNote will handle screenshots, equations snips and other more advanced notes than just the basic text much better.
If you have some further insight into this, please feel free to leave a comment. If you found this blog useful, consider leaving a donation.

21 thoughts on “Switching/Moving from Evernote to Microsoft OneNote

  1. My apologies. I thought I saw that it was apart of the Office for Mac suite. I will make the edits. However, you will be able to use the Office Web Apps for this.

  2. Maria, I was unable to get it to work with OneNote 2013 either, FYI. I get an error trying to connect to my Evernote account.

  3. Yeah this converter doesn't work. For me the problem was just connecting to Evernote – after entering your password and giving the app permissions to your account it throws up an error and you can't see/select any of your Evernote notebooks for conversion. I'm using OneNote 2013, but it seems like the problem is with the Evernote end before OneNote even comes into the picture…

  4. Phew, I finally got my ~2000 notes from Evernote into OneNote. It took a whole week researching and finding workarounds to the problems that arose, but eventually it all got in there.

    1. Ever2One will NOT work with OneNote 2013. Luckily, I had a copy of OneNote 2007 on a different computer, so I had to use Ever2One there, then copy all the .one files that it produces onto a flash drive and copy it onto my main computer.

    2. By far the most annoying, it seems that Ever2One can only import to about 150 notes at a time, as after that it comes up with an error. I suspect it's a limitation with Evernote than anything, as you have to wait about 30-40 minutes until you can import again. This also meant that I couldn't just hit import, leave it on for the night, and have it ready by the next morning.

    3. Ever2One will ONLY import 50 notes from a Notebook. I sadly realized this after importing everything, so I had to go to Evernote, divide notebooks that had more than 50 notes into separate notebooks (each containing 50 notes), then import AGAIN. Luckily, Evernote shows you how many notes you have selected, so this wasn't that big of a pain. Once all your Evernote notebooks are in OneNote (as sections), all you have to do is merge them together to get your original Evernote structure back.

    This was the only method I found that would retain tags, retain attachments, properly title the pages and create one page per note (instead of having one Evernote Notebook on a single OneNote page). Now, the only problem is how to insert every PDF I have as a printout so they're actually searchable… But that's relatively simple compared to getting the notes into OneNote in the first place.

    There's an alternative program called OneNote Batch, created by OneNote Gem and mentioned by Anonymous in the comments, but the free version only imports one note of a notebook. Considering their main Gem add-in crashes on me several times a day, the shotty look of their site, and the fact that it costs $25, I refused try it. Who knows though, it may just work out and save you a whole bunch of time, since it doesn't import the notes from the server, but from exported .enex files (no Evernote server limit, if that was what Ever2One's problem was). It's also a better risk if you don't have access to OneNote 2007 or 2010.

  5. Sunny,

    I hope you still read this. How did you able to get Ever2One to sign in with permission? I tried with OneNote 2007 and OneNote 2010 on WIndows 7, I keep getting the window to re-authorize. Any suggestions?

    Others experience the same thing from this link.

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-onenote/evernote-to-onenote-converter-available/ecde0da0-c7a9-4464-a45e-b9b7dbb0c103?page=5

    You can reply here or email magic12share gmail com
    Thanks for your help.

    Ken

  6. updated to iOS7 and suddenly evernote now just crashes when I open it.
    Now ive moved to Surface abd evernote on RT wont allow sharing, rubbish!
    So, hoping to switch to one note – sounds like im in for a bit of work though!
    Paul

  7. Ever2One does not work (Windows 8.1, OneNote 2013). Also throws up a second login screen FORCING you to log in to Linked In or create a linked in account to proceed. It feels like phishing software to me. I'm changing my account passwords on both Evernote and Linked In, and suggest anyone who has installed Ever2One do the same.

  8. you're right, I did the same thing myself.
    I left them a message in thier facebook page regarding this buggy tool.

  9. Does not work with Windows 7 64 bit. I got the same double log in which I completed against my better judgement but it could not retrieve any notebooks. Are there any intentions to repair this importer?

  10. Same problem, just had not read this post… looks like phishing, so I canceled login (linkedin) and reset password for Evernote.

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