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Export Memos to Markdown files

10/2/2025•2 min read

A huge advantage of self-hosting applications is that you have full access to your data—until you find yourself using a tool that no longer fits your needs. When you decide to migrate your data, you may realize the application doesn’t have an export feature. This is the situation I faced when I wanted to migrate my notes from Memos . If you’re in a similar situation, this guide is for you.

Prerequisites

Access to the Memos data files (memos_prod.db)
Python installed on your machine

Exporting memos to markdown files

Create a new file: process-memos.py
Add the following to the created file:

process-memos.py


import os
import sqlite3
 
# Paths
memos = 'memos_prod.db'
export_folder = 'memos_export'
 
# Ensure export folder exists
os.makedirs(export_folder, exist_ok=True)
 
# Connect to SQLite database
con = sqlite3.connect(memos)
cur = con.cursor()
res = cur.execute("SELECT id, content FROM memo")
rows = res.fetchall()
con.close()
 
# Process each memo
for row in rows:
    id = row[0]
    content = row[1]
    if not content.strip():
        continue  # Skip empty content
 
    first_line = content.split('\n', 1)[0].strip()
    if not first_line:
        first_line = f"memo_{id}"  # Use ID if first line is empty
 
    # Sanitize filename
    filename = "".join(c for c in first_line if c.isalnum()
                       or c in (' ', '_', '-')).strip()
    filename = filename[:50]  # Limit filename length
    filepath = os.path.join(export_folder, f"{filename}.md")
 
    # Write content to file
    with open(filepath, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as out_file:
        out_file.write(content)

The script is looking for the memos_prod.db file and will export to the memos_export folder. If you want, you can modify it under the # Paths comment in the script

Open a new terminal in the directory where you created the file
Run python ./process-memos.py
Your exported markdown files are available in the memos_export folder

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