Ask / Submit

Sharing from Notes as .vnt doesn't work [fixed, kind of]; please add plain text support! [released]

asked 2014-01-28 09:02:51 +0300

ssahla gravatar image

updated 2016-04-04 15:58:06 +0300

Rolfa gravatar image

Edit, Sep 25 '15: To vote for sharing towards Jolla or between Jollas vote here.

Edit, Sep 9 '15: It's always nice to get to close a feature request as "released in a software update". This works now Thanks, sailors!

Edit, May 10 '15: In 1.1.4, the attachment filename bug is fixed, and the vnt is plain-text encoded. Still, the vnt file isn't widely recognized or readable, so there is need for a plain text or rtf option.

I shared a note to myself from the Notes app by email. A [filename].vnt file was attached, where [filename] is the beginning of the note text.

However, when I received the mail on my mac, the attachment was a share_J11475.vcf. By default, OS X opens it in the Contacts app, but it says that no importable contacts where found. When looking at the contents of the file, it starts with BEGIN:VNOTE, so I guess it is a vnt file. The body part begins


The note text is not there in plain text so I could copy it.

Firstly, I wonder why the attachment is in a different format? (I received the email to my Jolla too, and also there the attachment is a vcf and opens in the People app.)

Secondly, I wouldn't know what to do with a vnt file on my computer, so I think there should be an option to share the note as plain text or rtf. You should be able to share a note in the most common format, so you can share to anyone and be sure that he/she will be able to open it. (If you share a note as vnt to another Jolla, even that Jolla doesn't show the contents of the file!)

edit retag flag offensive reopen delete

close date 2015-09-09 21:16:09.684831


According to this link it should be possible to view .vnt files in any text editor. I don't know why it gets changed from vnt to vcf when you email it though. Maybe a stupid question but have you tried changing the file extension from .vcf to .vnt?

nthn ( 2014-01-28 22:23:57 +0300 )edit

@nthn, I don't think that's a stupid question :) I did change the extension. It seems that .vnt isn't (by default) associated to any application in OS X, so it sees the file as a generic document and doesn't know what to do with it.

Of course I can manually open the file in a text editor, and so I did – that's how I got to see what the file contains. But as I said, the note text isn't there in a readable form. (The page you linked also says that the text may be encoded and thus not readable without a decoder.)

ssahla ( 2014-01-28 22:39:20 +0300 )edit

This is also a problem with Windows 7, Windows Mail Client and Jolla-Notes - when received by my mail client the attachment is recognised but as a .vcf file, Windows offers to open it and then says it is 'not a valid .vcf' (lol, we know that!, it's a .vnt!) So I wouldn't say the problem is specific to Windows or OS X. I'm also not able to bluetooth notes from Jolla-notes. voted up {smh}

Edz ( 2014-02-13 17:17:12 +0300 )edit

I wonder, is there any device / software that can open a note shared from Jolla Notes? :)

ssahla ( 2014-02-13 17:21:14 +0300 )edit

I agree, the idea is exactly the same as the function was in Symbian :) should be a PLAINTEXT

Rusnak-COBRA ( 2014-03-21 17:32:55 +0300 )edit

3 Answers

Sort by » oldest newest most voted

answered 2014-02-13 15:59:42 +0300

Blizzz gravatar image

The Python script did not work for me either, BUT:

This is how to convert a .vnt (VNOTE) file to text on Linux (and probably MacOS, I assume it should work there as well).

  1. Open the .vnt file in a text editor
  2. Copy the stuff between "BODY;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=BASE64:" and END:VNOTE (The selection should end with ==)
  3. Open a Terminal and execute "base64 -d" (without quotation marks)
  4. Paste (usually Ctrl+Shif+V) and press Enter
  5. Quit by pressing Ctrl+D

The output will be the decoded plain text.

Alternatively, you can have it output into a file using the command ""base64 -d > myfile.txt"

However, I agree that a more convenient format would be used, though this is quite robust and avoid transmitting stuff in plain text (though it's not an obstacle).

edit flag offensive delete publish link more


Oh, this is a great method! I just tried it on my Linux system converting into a TXT-file and it works as described. Thanks a lot, now the native Jolla Notes app will be in better use!

Deonith ( 2014-02-13 17:28:12 +0300 )edit

thats a pretty nice method and im glad that there is a simple solution to this. nevertheless ther should be a simple plain text export option in the notes app. shouldn't be too hard to implement, i'd guess...

laubblaeser ( 2014-10-24 16:26:45 +0300 )edit

answered 2014-02-06 21:14:01 +0300

Deonith gravatar image

updated 2014-02-13 17:14:43 +0300

There are ways to convert vnt-files to txt-files.

I am using Linux so I hoped this script will bring the solution: This is how it's used: It seems to work fine until the actual conversion, where it fails to produce a txt-file for me. Maybe it works for others, worth trying.

For Windows users this should be easier. There is this program to download: and also the script above seems to work well these users report:

I am not sure about Mac though.

Lastly there is this online solution: I wanted to avoid any online scenarios so this is not really an option for me. On top of that, with the Jolla vnt-files it didn't even work. Maybe others are more lucky.

edit flag offensive delete publish link more



Thanks for this answer! Still, I think the Notes app shouldn't be sending .vnt files in the first place if opening them is this difficult – at least not by default...

ssahla ( 2014-02-06 21:17:29 +0300 )edit

Couldn't agree more, so far I haven't even managed to convert it with Linux! Therefore also posted this ( for developers to see hopefully :)

Deonith ( 2014-02-06 21:20:44 +0300 )edit

I don't believe it, why are we struggling with obscure file formats when everything i wanted to do was to share a simple text file with my wife. Freaking unbelievable.

Larswad ( 2014-11-10 10:35:23 +0300 )edit

answered 2015-05-10 00:41:28 +0300

JoHe gravatar image

Released in a software update 1.1.4.

edit flag offensive delete publish link more


You're right, the shared file is now .vnt like it should. Still no plain text support though... I'll update the question.

ssahla ( 2015-05-10 10:25:29 +0300 )edit

What version of jolla-notes do you have? devel-su -p pkcon get-details jolla-notes should tell you. Plain-text encoding is supported in version 0.8.41 and higher. If the note you're sharing has only Latin1 characters, no encoding will be specified for it, and it will be 7-bit ascii; otherwise, it will be UTF8 encoded.

chris.adams ( 2015-05-11 11:04:24 +0300 )edit

Yes @chris.adams, as I said 34 hours ago, in SailFish OS 1.1.4 plain text has been introduced (earlier it was base64 encoded).

Edit: jolla-notes version can be checked by opening Jolla Store > Jolla > Notes > look at the end of the description text (push the text / ellipsis), 0.8.46.

JoHe ( 2015-05-11 11:30:24 +0300 )edit

I interpret that the original question has now been answered in update 1.1.4.

But if you reformat this question to concern Jolla–Jolla sharing, it is duplicate.

JoHe ( 2015-05-11 11:50:04 +0300 )edit

I have Notes version 0.8.46.

The encoding is now plain-text, but there is no option to share as txt or rtf. Even though the vnt is plain-text encoded, a Jolla receiving it doesn't know how to open it (it opens it in Documents, but doesn't show the contents); neither does my mac or my pc. This question is about being able to share in a common format that is understood everywhere, so in my opinion neither solved nor duplicate.

ssahla ( 2015-05-11 12:30:18 +0300 )edit

Question tools



Asked: 2014-01-28 09:02:51 +0300

Seen: 2,687 times

Last updated: Apr 04 '16