Get notes created using "Notes" default app and export them to PC

Question

I'm searching a way for get all my notes¹ created in my Samsung Galaxy Ace II² and export them to PC "in separately or unified text file (.txt)".

After hours of searching, I found this question; however, I can't follow the provided steps and the final target is quite different from the linked question.

As an alternative, I found a software called Remo Recover for Android but this app looks like it cannot access the saved notes.

In another search, this answer suggests:

• Select memo/note.
• Select "Share" or "Send" selected note.

The problem with this solution is that I have more than 100 notes and some of them has 1500 characters, and making this manually takes much time.

I'm looking for a solution⁴ that download/export the saved notes from my smartphone and save them in my PC; those notes should² be stored as .txt files (separately, or in a unified .txt file).

---

¹ The app used for taking notes/memos is the default one integrated in the smartphone.

Here's a image sample; I didn't find the name or another useful information about the default note/memo app.

² My smartphone has not been rooted or modified; no additional notes app is in the smartphone.

³ Other acceptable file extensions could be XSL or DOCX.

⁴ I'm not sure if this question should be created on Software Recommendations too, because the possible solution could be a free or commercial app / software.

---

Edit: Package name of Notes app: com.sec.android.app.memo. Source

Screenshot:

_{Click image to enlarge}

Answer 1

Firstly, this is difficult, if not impossible, without ADB or root. However, I will try to make the adb part simple for you, so you can follow the rest of the answer.

1. Get this package: Minimal ADB and fastboot, and install it on your computer.

2. On your phone, go to Settings → Developer Options (On Android 4.2 and above, this option is normally hidden. Go to Settings → About Device, and tap on the build number entry 7 times. This will enable the Developer Settings option).

3. Under Developer options, select "Allow USB Debugging".

4. Connect your phone to the computer where you had installed ADB. If Windows starts installing drivers, let it finish.

5. Go to the ADB install folder, and Do a Shift+Right Click on the adb installation folder, select "Open command window here", and type adb devices in the command prompt that opens.

6. Your phone might pop up a request for authorization with an RSA Key, accept it.

7. If the prompt shows something like:

   Connected devices:

   123456789ABCDEF device

or variants thereof, you are good to follow the steps mentioned below:

_{The steps are taken from @Firelord 's answer here, almost verbatim. All credits to @Firelord}

1. Take backup of your "Notes" app by issuing the following ADB command:

   adb backup <PACKAGE>
   

   where <PACKAGE> is the package name of the app whose backup you want to take. The file will be saved as backup.ab in the directory from where ADB is executed.

   In your case, you should end up with the backup file backup.ab (~1.7KiB) in your Home directory of GNU/Linux using the command:

   adb backup com.sec.android.app.memo
   

   _{This step is needed because I'm unaware (as a non-root user) of any other way to get your hands on an app's internal files residing in /data.}

2. The .ab file may not be able to be opened on your PC so use Android Backup Extractor (see usage in its README.txt) to convert into .tar archive which then can be opened by any archive viewer (like Ark, WinRAR, and so on).

   _{Some other methods to unpack the .ab file are mentioned here.}

3. Open the converted file (.tar in case you used Android Backup Extractor) and locate .db file under apps→<PACKAGE>→db→<.db>.

4. Open that .db in an SQL viewer like DB Browser for SQLite. You can then export the file into .csv using File → Export → Table(s) as CSV file.

5. The resulting .csv can be viewed formatted in any spreadsheet software like MS Excel or even Google Sheets.

Answer 2

Thank you for this useful post.

to get adb on my linux : urpmi android-tools

On a Huawei Y330, Android 4.2.2, Package name of Notes app is: com.example.android.notepad found it in app list from command line: (here)

adb shell pm list packages | awk -F ":" '{print $2}'

Then extracted backup with: (here)

java -jar abe.jar unpack <backup.ab> <backup.tar> <password>