notelet
Download

Leaving Google Keep

Notelet gives your Keep notes folders, a full reminders app, and installed apps for Mac, Windows and Linux as well as your phone. This guide covers exporting from Keep with Google Takeout, and what comes across and what doesn’t.

Last checked , from each app’s own help pages, for Notelet 0.10.21.

Keep on a computer, and Notelet

Google Keep is quick and free, and on a computer it runs in a web browser: Google’s help lists the browsers Keep works in, and no app. Notelet is an installed app on Mac, Windows and Linux as well as iPhone and Android, and it works offline.

It organises differently, too. Keep has labels, colours and pins; Notelet has folders, subfolders and smart folders as well as #tags and pins. Keep puts a reminder on a note; Notelet’s reminders are an app of their own beside your notes.

Exporting from Keep with Google Takeout

  1. Go to takeout.google.com and sign in.
  2. Deselect everything, then select Keep, and choose Next step.
  3. For the delivery, choose a download link by email, a one-time export and the .zip file type, then choose Create export.
  4. Download the archive from the link Google emails you. Google says most people get it the same day, and the archive lasts about a week.

Google’s help lists what the export holds: each note’s text and list items, its attachments (images, drawings and voice recordings), its colour, whether it’s pinned or archived, who it’s shared with, and your labels.

Bringing them into Notelet

  1. In Notelet on a computer, choose File › Import and Export › Import from Files… (on a phone, Settings › Import and Export › Import from Files…).
  2. Pick the downloaded .zip, or the Takeout/Keep folder inside it once it’s unzipped.
  3. Notelet shows what’s there, folder by folder, and you choose what comes in. Nothing changes until you choose Import.
  4. Your notes arrive in a new folder, Imported Notes, with archived ones in an Archive folder inside it.

Takeout also saves each note as a web page; Notelet skips those copies, so nothing comes in twice. A very large Takeout is best imported a part at a time.

What comes across

  • Titles, or the first line when a note has none
  • The text, and lists as checklists, ticked or not
  • Pictures and the other attachments Takeout saves with a note
  • Labels, as #tags
  • Pins, and archived notes in an Archive folder
  • The dates each note was made and last edited

What doesn’t

  • Reminders: Google exports them apart from your notes, as Google reminders, and Notelet doesn’t read that export
  • Colours
  • Sharing: a shared note comes across as your own copy, and Notelet can’t share notes yet
  • Formatting: Notelet reads each note’s plain text, so bold, underlines and headings come in as plain words
  • Notes in Keep’s Bin, which are left out

Your reminders, in an app of their own

Keep’s reminders don’t come across, so set them up again in Notelet’s Reminders: lists of your own, smart lists for Today, Scheduled, Flagged and All, repeats, subtasks, sections, priorities and flags, with notifications. They sit beside your notes and sync with them.

On every computer

Notelet runs on Mac (macOS 13 or later), Windows (10 or 11, x64 and Arm64) and Linux (.deb, .rpm and AppImage), as well as iPhone, iPad and Android, each in that system’s own design. It syncs through Notelet Cloud or storage you already have, and on a computer where you can’t install apps, app.noteletapp.com runs it in the browser. See every download.

What Keep does that Notelet doesn’t

Sharing a list with someone is a tap in Keep, and Keep sits in a side panel in Gmail and Docs. Sharing is on Notelet’s roadmap.

Common questions

Is there a Google Keep app for Windows or Mac?

Google doesn’t make one: on a computer Keep runs in a browser. Notelet has installed apps for Mac, Windows and Linux, and imports your Keep notes from Google Takeout.

Do my Keep reminders come across?

No. Google exports reminders apart from your notes, and Notelet doesn’t read that export. Set them again in Notelet’s Reminders.

What happens to my labels?

Each becomes a #tag on its notes. Notelet also has folders, and a smart folder can gather every note with a tag.

Can I share a list with someone, as in Keep?

Not yet: sharing is on Notelet’s roadmap. Today Notelet syncs your notes between your own devices.

Is Notelet free?

Yes. Everything Notelet does today is free, on every system, and it stays free. Syncing through storage you already have (your own S3 or WebDAV server, or a folder Dropbox, iCloud Drive or OneDrive keeps in step on a computer) is free for good. Every Notelet Cloud account has 1 GB free, and Notelet Plus has 50 GB, for £3.49 a month or £29.99 a year.

Read next

Sources

Each read on 27 October 2026. Spot a mistake? Write to hello@noteletapp.com.