The import goes notebook by notebook. In Evernote you export one notebook as a file, and you hand that file to Arciva. Each note becomes a case.
First: export from Evernote
Export each notebook on its own as an ENEX file. The reason is in the next paragraph: the file name becomes a sticker, so one file should hold whatever is meant to carry one sticker later.
The file name becomes the sticker. Arciva takes the name without .enex and turns it into the sticker that every case from this notebook will carry. If the file is called Flat.enex, the sticker is called Flat. An addition such as (192 notes) in the file name ends up in the sticker too. That need not bother you: the figure is a useful note to self after the export, and a sticker can be renamed in Arciva at any time.
Tick every one of the note attributes. Untick them and you lose dates, tags and tasks in Arciva – only the title, the text and the attachments would be left. ⚠️ Arciva says nothing about it, it cannot tell “missing” from “never there”: the cases would then carry the date of the import and lack the stickers made from the tags. Leave Split file size off: otherwise every part file is an import of its own.
Put the file where the device can open it: on the Mac in any folder, on iPhone and iPad in the Files app, iCloud Drive included.
Then: hand it to Arciva
On the Mac through File → Import from Evernote…, on every device in the Backups window.
Choose export file… creates nothing yet. Arciva first only looks through the file and shows you what is in it: the notebook, the number of notes, the attachments with their size, and the open and completed tasks. Damaged attachments are named and skipped.
Before the start you choose the Status for all new cases. Then the import runs note by note, with progress. Reading in is hard work for the device – with a large notebook Arciva answers more slowly than usual for a while.
You can stop at any time and carry on later. Cancel works in any moment; the note in progress is finished first. Choose the same file again later and Arciva resumes with the next note – after an interruption as well, or if you quit the app in between. So you do not have to do it in one go, and with a large notebook that is the easier way.
What comes out of it
Each note becomes a case. The title and the creation and modification dates stay, the text becomes a note, the attachments become documents.
Two stickers per case. The notebook above, and below it one for this import with date and time, such as Evernote import 15/10/2026, 14:25. You take the lower one off once you have been through a case – whatever still carries it, you have not looked at yet. If you would rather not do it piece by piece, delete the import sticker in one go: every case then counts as dealt with, without going through them one at a time. Tags from Evernote become stickers as well; if one of the same name already exists, Arciva uses it instead of creating a second.
Tasks. Open tasks become tasks in Apple Reminders, with due date and repetition. Reminder times – the alarm before the due date – do not come along; that is noted on the case. Completed tasks appear as text in the note. Reminders on a note – the bell in Evernote – follow the same rule: one that is still open becomes a task in Apple Reminders, with its date and time; a completed one appears as a line in the note.
Whatever cannot be carried over exactly, a piece of formatting for instance, is noted at the end of the note and again in the result after the import.
Encrypted text stays encrypted. With the password from Evernote it can be read through Show encrypted text…. Arciva stores neither the password nor the decrypted text. Older Evernote encryption is something Arciva cannot read, and it tells you so.
Three things beforehand
Import each file on one device only. The other devices receive the cases through iCloud. Hand the same file to a second device and you have every note twice – and there the first device’s import cannot be undone.
Arciva keeps working after the import. Text recognition for the documents runs in the background. With large notebooks it takes a while until everything is searchable and until the attachments have arrived on the other devices. Arciva can feel sluggish during that time – give the app the time it needs.
Large notebooks take time. As a rough guide: around 200 notes with 1.5 GB of attachments in one to two minutes.
Taking it back
Undo import… sits in three places: in the context menu of the import sticker, in the result straight after the import, and when you choose the same file in the import window again. All three move the cases from this import to the trash, including the ones you have already been through, and remove the import sticker. Cases you created yourself are never affected.
Undoing only works on the device that did the import. On the other devices the button is not there, not even in the context menu – one more reason to hand each file over once, and in one place only.
From the trash you can bring single cases back for 30 days. After that you can hand the same file to Arciva again.
In the free version: if the cases and documents do not fit within its limits, Arciva takes nothing over.