Backing Up Notes Outside of Notability Cloud

Use Third-Party Backup to back up your notes to one of several cloud storage services. 

This is a one-way backup, and deleting a note in Notability does not delete the backup copy. Similarly, deleting a backup does not delete the original note in Notability. 

Enable Third-Party Backup

  1. In Notability's Library, select menus-settings-outline.svg.
  2. Select Connected Services
  3. Enable Third-Party Backup
  4. Select a cloud service to select it:
    • Box
    • Dropbox
    • Google Drive
    • OneDrive
    • WebDAV servers
  5. Select Backup Off to disable Third-Party Backup.

Destination Folder

Backups go to a folder named Notability by default, but you can choose a different folder.

  1. Select your connected backup service (in the row below the Third-Party Backup toggle) to configure your backup settings.
  2. Under settings, select Destination.
  3. Navigate to the desired destination folder.
  4. Select Back Up To [folder's name].

File Format Options

You can back up your notes in one of several file formats.

  1. In Third-Party Backup's settings, select File Format.
  2. Select a format:
    • NTB
      Notability's native format. The best format for backing up and sharing with other Notability users.
    • PDF
      To include background lines and colors, enable the Paper toggle after you select PDF as your file format. Bookmarks and audio recordings will not be included.
    • PDF + Recording
      This makes .zip files that contain a PDF and a folder of .m4a audio files. This is a good way to share recordings with people who don't use Notability. Notability can't open .zip files, so you'll have to unzip them to import their contents back into Notability.

Restoring Backups

Notability can't restore folders from a backup automatically, so they must be remade manually. You can import an entire folder of backup files into Notability at once by following this guide.

FAQ

If I delete a note in Notability, is the backup copy deleted?
No. The backup copy stays in your backup service.

When are notes backed up?

  • When you enable Third-Party Backup or change its settings, all of your notes are backed up.
  • When you edit a note and return to the Library, that note is backed up.

 

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