Why I Moved My Notes Out of CherryTree

For years I wrote every course note, certification study guide and project log in CherryTree, a free note-taking app for desktop computers. By this year it held about 46,000 pages. Then I bought a tablet to study from, and hit a wall: CherryTree has no app for iPad or Android. My notes were stuck on one computer.

So I moved everything to Joplin, a free notes app that works on computers, phones and tablets. I didn’t want my notes on someone else’s cloud, so I set up my own sync server at home instead. Now I can open, search and edit my notes on both tablets, at home or away.

This post walks through how I planned the move, what each piece does, what went wrong, and a checklist you can use if you’re thinking of switching note apps yourself. You don’t need to be a programmer to follow it. I’ve kept the technical parts in a separate post for developers.

The pieces, in plain words

Think of the home server as a post office for notes. Every device drops off its changes there and picks up everyone else’s. The tunnel is a private road that only my devices can use.

CherryTree is only used once, as the source of the move. After that the server holds the notes, and a second computer at home gets a fresh copy every night in case anything breaks.

How I did it, in six steps

1. Took stock. I counted what I actually had before choosing anything: 284 notebooks, about 46,000 pages, 14,000 pictures, and some password-protected notebooks I’d almost forgotten about.
2. Compared the options. I looked at Joplin, Obsidian and staying with CherryTree. If I only needed to read notes on the tablet, exporting web pages from CherryTree would have been enough. I wanted to edit too, so I chose Joplin.
3. Converted the notes. With an AI coding assistant, I wrote a small program that copies every CherryTree page into Markdown, a plain-text format almost every notes app can open. It took 8 seconds for the whole collection.
4. Checked nothing was lost. I didn’t trust “it worked.” The program compared every page before and after, word by word. 99.97% of the words matched, and the few differences were pages I’d pasted in from elsewhere.
5. Set up my own sync server. Joplin Server runs on an old desktop at home that’s always on. A free tool called Tailscale lets my tablets reach it securely from anywhere, without opening my home network to the internet.
6. Started small. Instead of moving everything at once, I’m moving two notebooks first and using them on the tablets for a few weeks. My old notes stay untouched in CherryTree until I’m sure.

I’m on step 6 now. Once the trial goes well, I’ll move the rest and retire CherryTree.

What went wrong, and what it taught me

What happened	What I learned
My first count missed four notebooks, because the password-protected ones use a different file type.	Look for every kind of file before you plan. The ones you forget are often the most personal.
The first “before and after” check said 0.4% of words were missing. Most of that was a bug in the check, not the notes.	Test your test. A checker can be wrong too.
Notes full of computer code had symbols like # and $ that Markdown treats as formatting, so some lines turned into giant headings.	Plain text isn’t always plain. Spot-check pages with lots of symbols.
The server would only answer at its exact web address. Typing its home-network number showed “404”.	Some apps only answer at one exact address. Use the full name you set up.
The server couldn’t send email, so I never got the “confirm your account” messages.	Self-hosting means owning the boring parts too: email, backups, passwords.
The tablet app said “invalid password”, but the same login worked in the browser. The keyboard had quietly changed the email address.	When a login works in one place but not another, retype it by hand.
Importing pictures on the home server was dozens of times slower than on my desktop, because it has an old spinning hard drive.	Old hardware is fine for running a server, but do the heavy lifting on your fastest machine.

Planning your own move: a checklist

Whatever app you’re leaving or joining, these questions save the most pain. Tick them off before you move anything.

• What do I actually need? Reading on a tablet and editing on a tablet are different problems, and the first may not need a migration at all.
• Where are all my notes? Count notebooks, pages and pictures. Look for locked or password-protected files.
• What will I lose? Colors, fonts and page order often don’t survive a move. Decide what you can live without.
• Where will my notes live? A paid cloud service is easiest. Your own server gives you control, but you look after it.
• How will my devices reach it? At home only, or anywhere? For anywhere, use something safe, like Tailscale, rather than opening your router.
• What’s my backup? A sync service is not a backup. Keep a separate copy, and try restoring it once.
• Can I try it small first? Move one or two notebooks, live with them for a couple of weeks, then decide.
• When do I stop using the old app? Pick a day, then make the old notes read-only. Editing in two places creates two versions of the truth.

Glossary

Term	In plain words
CherryTree	A free desktop notes app that keeps each notebook as a tree of pages.
Joplin	A free notes app for computers, phones and tablets, which can sync your notes between them.
Markdown	A simple way to format plain text, like **bold**. Most notes apps can read it, so it’s a good “moving box” for notes.
Sync server	A computer that keeps the master copy of your notes and hands updates to each device.
Self-hosting	Running a service like a sync server on your own machine instead of paying a company to run it.
Tailscale	A free tool that links your devices into a private network, so your tablet can reach your home server from anywhere without exposing it to the internet.
Docker	A way to run server software in neat, self-contained boxes that are easy to start, stop and update.
Git	A tool that records every change to a set of files, so you can see or undo the history.
Backup	A separate copy you can restore from. Sync copies mistakes too, so it isn’t a backup.
Pilot	A small trial run before the real move.