Automate export to markdown?

[aloomens]

Is there a way to automate an export to markdown? I would like to just save my notes as a zip file, once a day, to a Goggle drive folder. Thanks.

[dosubot[bot]]

You can automate daily exports of your Trilium notes to markdown (as a zip file) using the ETAPI and external scheduling tools. Here’s how:

1. Export to Markdown Zip via ETAPI:
   Use a script like this (replace <YOUR_ETAPI_TOKEN> with your token from Trilium’s Options → ETAPI):

   curl -H "Authorization: <YOUR_ETAPI_TOKEN>" \
     "http://localhost:8080/etapi/notes/root/export?format=markdown" \
     -o /path/to/export/trilium-export-$(date +%F).zip

   This will export your entire note tree as markdown in a zip file. You can schedule this script to run daily using cron (Linux/macOS) or Task Scheduler (Windows) reference.

2. Automate Upload to Google Drive:
   Trilium does not have built-in Google Drive integration reference. To automate uploading the exported zip, use a tool like rclone. After configuring rclone with your Google Drive account, add a command to your script:

   rclone copy /path/to/export/trilium-export-$(date +%F).zip remote:your-google-drive-folder

   Replace remote:your-google-drive-folder with your rclone remote and folder path.

3. Scheduling:

   • On Linux/macOS, add your script to your crontab for daily execution.
   • On Windows, use Task Scheduler to run a batch file with the curl and rclone commands.

Tips:

• Keep your ETAPI token secure.
• Use unique filenames (like with $(date +%F)) to avoid overwriting.
• Check rclone’s documentation for setup and troubleshooting.

This approach is the recommended and supported way to automate markdown exports and save them to Google Drive reference.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[aloomens]

@dosu

I am using the following:

curl -H "Authorization: " "http://userver:8080/etapi/notes/root/export?format=markdown" -o "C:\Users\1234\My Drive\Notes\trilium-export.zip"

It runs and saves the trilium-export.zip fil, but it seems it's not complete. The zip file is much smaller than when I export manually, and it says it is an invalid zip file. I have the Trilium server running on a Linux box. I am running the command from my PC.

What am I doing wrong?
Thanks!!!

[dosubot[bot]]

The most common cause for an incomplete or invalid zip file from the ETAPI export is an authentication issue—if the Authorization header is incorrect, Trilium returns a JSON error (like "Not authenticated") instead of a zip, which gets saved as a corrupt file example.

To fix this:

1. Open the .zip file in a text editor—if you see a JSON error, it's an authentication or URL problem.
2. Make sure your curl command uses the raw ETAPI token (no Basic or Bearer), like this:

   curl -H "Authorization: <YOUR_ETAPI_TOKEN>" -X GET "http://userver:8080/etapi/notes/root/export?format=markdown" --output "C:\Users\1234\My Drive\Notes\trilium-export.zip"
   

3. Add -v to your curl command to see HTTP status codes and headers for troubleshooting.
4. Double-check that your ETAPI token is valid and hasn't changed in Trilium's Options → ETAPI.
5. If possible, try running the curl command directly on the Linux server to rule out network/firewall issues.

If you still get a small or invalid zip, check the Trilium server logs for errors during the export source.

Let me know what you find in the .zip file or if you see any error messages in the curl output!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[aloomens]

@dosu
You are correct. Here is what is in the .zip file: "{"status":401,"code":"NOT_AUTHENTICATED","message":"Not authenticated"}"
I put the ETAPI token in brackets, like: "Authorization: ". I think that's why the Not authenticated error. If I leave out the brackets, it seems like it is downloading, but never finishes and never write the .zip file.
I get the same thing running the command on the Linux server.

[dosubot[bot]]

The 401 error is caused by using brackets around the ETAPI token—make sure the Authorization header is just the raw token, no brackets or prefixes. If you remove the brackets and the curl command hangs or never writes the .zip file (even on the server), this usually means the export is very large and Trilium is building the export in memory before streaming, which can take a long time or hit server resource limits. This is a known limitation: large exports can cause the process to hang or fail without clear feedback, especially if the server is low on memory or the export is huge reference.

To troubleshoot:

• Try exporting a smaller subtree or note to see if the export completes.
• Run curl with the -v flag to check for HTTP status and headers.
• Check the Trilium server logs during the export attempt for errors or warnings.
• Confirm your Trilium version and that the ETAPI token is still valid in Options → ETAPI.

If a small export works but the full export hangs, it's almost certainly a resource or size issue. For large exports, increasing server memory or splitting the export into smaller parts may help, but there are hard limits due to how Trilium processes exports in memory reference.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[aloomens]

@dosu
Go it. There was a reference to a note (or notes) that was not found.

10:10:17.183 ERROR: get /api/notes/:noteId/blob threw exception: 'Blob eKrATgwDPvY1MAYjCubb for notes '2OiqpiRAk4SN' was not found.', stack: NotFoundError: Blob eKrATgwDPvY1MAYjCubb for notes '2OiqpiRAk4SN' was not found.

Once I found and deleted those, it worked fine.
Thanks.

[dosubot[bot]]

Glad to hear it’s working now! If you ever run into similar export issues, missing blobs or attachments are a common cause—checking the server logs for “not found” errors can help pinpoint the problem quickly. If you need anything else, just let me know!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[aloomens]

Not really an issue with Trilium... The only thing is that "trilium-export-$(date +%F).zip" does not append the date (on Windows) but writes it exactly as specified. That must be for Linux? Is there an easy way to specify the date on Windows? If someone know, please share. Thanks!!!