Description
A full export correctly places all notes — including epoch-dated ones with no folder metadata — into the standard account folder (e.g. iCloud/Notes/). However, an incremental export creates a directory named literally Unknown Folder for any notes it cannot resolve to a named folder:
iCloud/
Notes/
Holiday plans.html
... ← epoch-dated notes land here on full export
Unknown Folder/ ← created only by incremental export
2001-01-01.html
2001-01-01 (2).html
...
2001-01-01 (8).html
Steps to reproduce
Run a full export — all notes appear in iCloud/Notes/, no Unknown Folder created
Without changing anything in Apple Notes, point a fresh export folder at the same notes and run with --incremental
A small number of notes (in this case 8) appear in iCloud/Unknown Folder/ instead of iCloud/Notes/
What these notes have in common
Filename is 2001-01-01 — the Apple Cocoa epoch date, indicating no valid date is recorded in Apple Notes' database
Exported HTML contains no meaningful body text
The full exporter resolves these to iCloud/Notes/ without issue; the incremental exporter does not
Impact
The full and incremental exporters produce different folder structures for the same set of notes — third-party tools built on the export structure encounter an unexpected directory that only appears after incremental runs
The notes sort to the bottom of any date-sorted view as an anonymous cluster under an unfamiliar folder name
Reference
Discovered while building apple-notes-viewer, a local viewer for apple-notes-exporter output.
Happy to provide further diagnostic output if useful.
Description
A full export correctly places all notes — including epoch-dated ones with no folder metadata — into the standard account folder (e.g. iCloud/Notes/). However, an incremental export creates a directory named literally Unknown Folder for any notes it cannot resolve to a named folder:
Steps to reproduce
Run a full export — all notes appear in
iCloud/Notes/, no Unknown Folder createdWithout changing anything in Apple Notes, point a fresh export folder at the same notes and run with
--incrementalA small number of notes (in this case 8) appear in
iCloud/Unknown Folder/instead ofiCloud/Notes/What these notes have in common
Filename is
2001-01-01— the Apple Cocoa epoch date, indicating no valid date is recorded in Apple Notes' databaseExported HTML contains no meaningful body text
The full exporter resolves these to
iCloud/Notes/without issue; the incremental exporter does notImpact
The full and incremental exporters produce different folder structures for the same set of notes — third-party tools built on the export structure encounter an unexpected directory that only appears after incremental runs
The notes sort to the bottom of any date-sorted view as an anonymous cluster under an unfamiliar folder name
Reference
Discovered while building apple-notes-viewer, a local viewer for
apple-notes-exporteroutput.Happy to provide further diagnostic output if useful.