Move from Notion
Betelgeuse imports a Notion export: your pages and sub-pages, databases and their rows, icons, covers, colours, callouts, toggles, columns, images and the links between them. Everything lands under one new page, as Markdown files on your computer, in a single git commit you can undo.
1. Export from Notion
- In Notion, open Settings → General → Export all workspace content. To move only part of your workspace, open that page's ••• → Export instead.
- Set Export format to HTML.
- Set Include content to Everything, and turn on Include subpages and Create folders for subpages.
- Click Export. For a big workspace, Notion emails you a download link when the export is ready.
Choose HTML. Notion's Markdown & CSV export works too, but it leaves out page icons, covers, text colours, highlights, callout colours, toggles and columns, and Betelgeuse has to guess each database property's type from its values.
2. Import into Betelgeuse
- Click Import at the bottom of the sidebar, or open Settings → Import.
- Under Notion, click Choose .zip… and pick the download. You don't need to unzip it, even when Notion puts zips inside the zip. If you already unzipped it, click Unzipped folder… instead.
- Wait for it to finish. Betelgeuse says how many pages, databases and files it brought in, and offers to open them.
Everything goes under a new Notion import page, so the rest of your workspace isn't touched. Move pages out of it wherever you like.
What comes across
| In Notion | In Betelgeuse |
|---|---|
| Pages and sub-pages | Pages and sub-pages, in the same order. Each page is a .md file; its sub-pages are in a folder of the same name. |
| Links and @mentions of pages | Links between pages ([[Page]]), so backlinks work straight away |
| Page icons and covers | Icons and covers. Notion's built-in icons become matching icons in the same colour. |
| Text colours and highlights | Text colours and highlights |
| Headings, lists, to-dos, quotes, dividers, code | The same blocks |
| Callouts | Callouts, with their icon and colour |
| Toggles and toggle headings | Toggles |
| Columns | Columns, with their widths if you resized them |
| Tables | Tables |
| Images and files | Copied into the workspace's .assets/ folder |
| Images shown from the web (gallery covers, hosted pictures) | Downloaded into .assets/, so nothing depends on Notion any more |
| Bookmarks and embeds | Links |
| Equations | LaTeX, in code |
| Databases | Databases, with every row as a page |
| Inline and linked databases | Database embeds in the page |
Databases
- Properties keep their type: text, number, select, multi-select and status (with their option colours), date, checkbox, URL and email.
- Created and edited times become dates.
- Relations become relations when they link to rows of another database you imported, so rollups can follow them. Otherwise they become the names of the linked pages.
- Formulas, rollups and people come across as the values they showed when you exported. They don't recalculate. Betelgeuse has rollups (add them again on the relation), but no formulas yet.
- Views: each database gets a table view, plus a board view if it has a Status or Select property and a calendar view if it has a date. Notion's own views, filters and sorts aren't in the export, so add yours again. See Databases.
- An empty database comes across empty, and a database whose rows were exported without it is rebuilt from them.
What doesn't come across
Notion's export doesn't include these, so they stay in Notion:
- comments and discussions
- sharing, permissions and guests
- page history
- reminders
- synced blocks, which come across as ordinary copies of their content
- button blocks
- automations, forms and integrations
After importing
- Check the report. Images that couldn't be downloaded (usually because they no longer exist online) keep their web address, and the report lists them.
- Tidy up. Move pages out of Notion import, or rename it. Links follow the pages you move.
- Undo if you need to. The whole import is one commit. To start again, delete the Notion import page, or restore an earlier version from git.
- Use it everywhere. Connect a git repository to have your workspace on your other computers and phone. See History and sync.
- Connect your AI agents. They can now search and update your notes, and only the pages you share. See Connect your AI agents.
If something looks wrong
- Pages are missing their icons, colours or columns. The export was Markdown & CSV. Export again as HTML and import that.
- Sub-pages are missing. Include subpages was off when you exported.
- A link goes nowhere. It points at a page that wasn't in the export, such as a page in another workspace or one you didn't include.
Still stuck? Open an issue with what you expected and what you got. A small export that shows the problem helps a lot.