snbackup 1.3.0

CLI tool to backup Supernote note files

Simple utility to backup notes from a Supernote device over WiFi

I created this cli tool to backup notes from my Supernote Nomad (A6 X2) over WiFi. No accounts, mobile apps, or third party cloud service providers are necessary. It will probably work on any of the Supernote devices running the most up-to-date software.

Versioned releases are on PyPi but the most up-to-date info is found on Github: snbackup

The purpose is to download notes from a Supernote device and save them locally for backup and safe keeping. This is different than exporting notes as it does not attempt to convert notes to a different format. It's only meant to download the note files (with a .note extension) exactly as they are found on the device. If you are interested in converting your notes to PDF or PNG after downloading, see another project called supernote-tool.

It works by using the builtin Browse & Access feature available on the Supernote device. This feature creates a small web server directly on the device and makes it possible to browse its files through a web browser. The Supernote device and your computer must be on the same local network.

Steps:

1. Install Python 3.10 or newer along with pip

2. Setup your Python virtual environment and install with pip install snbackup

3. Create a folder on your computer to store your Supernote note backups

4. IMPORTANT: Create a file called config.json or edit the one provided with this project. This file is required to determine where to save your backups and where to access the device on the network. For example, I place my config file in the same directory as my backups.

Example config.json:

{
    "save_dir": "/Users/devin/Documents/Supernote",
    "device_url": "http://192.168.1.105:8089/"
}

All note backups, metadata files, and logs are located under the save_dir directory.

It should work the same for Mac, Linux, or Windows machines. Use forward slashes just like in the example config above even on Windows.

The device_url needed will be displayed on the Supernote when Browse & Access is enabled. Use that URL from your device here.

5. Make sure the Supernote device is connected to WiFi with the Browse & Access feature turned on

6. There are two main ways to run the command from your terminal or command line:

   • This will look for config.json in your current working directory
     snbackup

   • This optionally specifies the location of the config.json file
     snbackup -c /the/path/to/config.json

The first run may take a few minutes or more as it will attempt to download all notes. Subsequent runs only download new or modified notes; this greatly speeds up future backups.

You can always force a full backup of all notes by running snbackup -f or snbackup --full

The notes are stored as is under your local save directory setup in the config.json file.

If a note called Ideas is found under a folder called Stuff on your Supernote device, it will be backed up locally as /Users/devin/Documents/Supernote/<YYYY-MM-DD>/Note/Stuff/Ideas.note

On a Windows machine this would translate to C:\Users\devin\Documents\Supernote\<YYYY-MM-DD>\Note\Stuff\Ideas.note

Downloaded notes are separated by days in the format YYYY-MM-DD within your save_dir directory

Some additionl options:

• Show all available command line options
  snbackup -h

• Inspect new notes to be downloaded from device and quit without downloading
  snbackup -i

• EXPERIMENTAL: Purge old backups from your local save_dir directory and keeps only the number requested here. In this example, all but the 5 most recent backups are removed.
  snbackup -p 5

• EXPERIMENTAL: You can optionally add num_backups to your config.json file to have it automatically remove old backups from your backup directory without needing to specify using the -p flag. Be advised, this deletes your old backups! Handle with care.

{
    "save_dir": "/Users/devin/Documents/Supernote",
    "device_url": "http://192.168.1.105:8089/",
    "num_backups": 3
}

Future plans:

• Add a first time setup option to build config.json file
• Persist note metadata in sqlite instead of json file
• Add note validation option to ensure local and remote notes are identical
• A restore device feature to bulk move local backups back to device