reMarkableSync

A comprehensive Python toolkit for backing up reMarkable tablet notebooks, converting them to PDF, and transcribing handwriting to Markdown with AI — over USB or Wi-Fi.

Important

Known device support:

• reMarkable 2 — confirmed working and the primary device tested
• reMarkable Paper Pro — expected to work, but SSH must be enabled through developer mode, which currently requires a factory reset
• reMarkable 1 — not currently verified; compatibility is not guaranteed

AI handwriting-to-text features work with GitHub Copilot, Claude (Anthropic), or Google Gemini (free tier available).

Device Compatibility

Device	Status	Caveats
reMarkable 2	Known to work	This is the primary device used for testing.
reMarkable Paper Pro	Known to work with setup caveat	SSH access must be enabled through developer mode, and enabling developer mode currently requires a factory reset.
reMarkable 1	Not currently verified	Compatibility is not guaranteed until it has been tested directly.

Features

• USB & Wi-Fi sync — connect via cable or wirelessly over your local network
• Incremental backup — only downloads files that have changed (tracked by size, mtime, and MD5)
• PDF conversion — v5 and v6 .rm formats with template backgrounds, folder hierarchy preserved
• AI handwriting recognition — send page images to GitHub Models (GPT-4o), Claude, or Google Gemini
• Markdown export — each notebook becomes a .md file with YAML frontmatter and embedded page images
• Watch mode — automatic periodic sync with system-tray status icon and run-at-startup option
• Secure credential storage — SSH password and AI tokens stored in your system keyring

Supported AI Providers

Provider	Description	API Key
GitHub Copilot	Uses GPT-4o via GitHub Models. Free for Copilot subscribers.	Automatic via GitHub login
Google Gemini	Gemini 2.5 Flash/Pro models. Free tier available.	Get API key
Claude	Anthropic's Claude models. Requires paid API access.	Get API key

Quick Start

1. Install

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew tap jeffsteinbok/remarkablesync && brew install remarkablesync

# All platforms (pip)
pip install remarkablesync

# Or download a pre-built executable from the Releases page

2. Run the configuration wizard

reMarkableSync config

The wizard walks you through:

Setting	Default
Connection mode	USB or Wi-Fi (wizard can enable Wi-Fi SSH for you)
SSH password	Saved to system keyring
Backup directory	<AppData>/remarkablesync/backup (internal sync data)
PDF output	~/Documents/reMarkableSync/PDF
Markdown output	~/Documents/reMarkableSync/Markdown
AI provider	GitHub Models (free with Copilot), Claude, or Google Gemini (free tier available)
AI token	Stored securely in system keyring
Folders	Choose which tablet folders to sync (or all)

Tip

Multi-device setup: Use the folder filter to sync different tablet folders to different computers — e.g., sync your "Work" folder to your work PC and "Home" to your personal machine. Each machine gets its own config.

3. Run it

reMarkableSync watch

This will use your configured defaults and launch a sync cycle (backup → PDF → Markdown), then keep running and re-sync every 30 minutes. Check your output directories to verify everything looks right.

4. Set it to run at startup

Once you're happy with the output, enable run-at-startup from the system tray icon menu (or via the watch command). reMarkableSync will sync your tablet automatically in the background whenever your computer is on.

Tip

Obsidian users: Point the Markdown output directory at a folder inside your Obsidian vault. Your handwritten notes appear as searchable Markdown with embedded page images. Pair with Obsidian OneDrive Sync to sync your vault across devices.

AI Provider Setup

The AI handwriting-to-text features require either a GitHub Copilot account (for GitHub Models) or a Claude (Anthropic) API key. Support for additional providers can be added as needed.

Both AI provider SDKs are installed with pip install -r requirements.txt. The config wizard handles authentication interactively.

GitHub Models

The wizard runs a GitHub device-code flow to authenticate. No manual token setup needed.

Alternatively, set a GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable with a PAT that has models:read scope.

Claude (Anthropic)

1. Go to https://console.anthropic.com/settings/keys
2. Click Create Key and copy it (starts with sk-ant-api03-...)
3. Paste it into the config wizard — it's saved in your system keyring

Default model: claude-sonnet-4-6.

Usage

After running config, most users only need watch. For one-off or scripted use:

# Default: backup + PDF conversion (uses saved config)
reMarkableSync

# Full pipeline: backup + PDF + AI OCR + Markdown
reMarkableSync md --with-backup --with-pdf

# Individual steps
reMarkableSync backup          # backup only
reMarkableSync convert         # PDF conversion only (from existing backup)
reMarkableSync md              # Markdown export only (from existing PDFs)

# Watch mode (periodic sync)
reMarkableSync watch           # uses saved config for interval, dirs, AI

# Check for updates
reMarkableSync check-update

Command Line Options

All commands read defaults from the saved config. CLI flags override config values.

Common:

• -d, --backup-dir PATH — backup directory
• -v, --verbose — debug logging
• --version — version info

Connection:

• --host HOST — tablet IP (default: 10.11.99.1)
• --wifi — connect over Wi-Fi
• --wifi-host HOST — tablet Wi-Fi IP (auto-discovered if omitted)

Backup:

• -p, --password — SSH password (prompted if not saved)
• --skip-templates — don't backup templates
• --force-backup — re-download everything

Convert:

• -o, --output-dir PATH — PDF output directory
• --force-all — reconvert all notebooks
• --sample N — convert first N notebooks only
• --notebook NAME — convert a single notebook

Markdown (md):

• -V, --vault-dir PATH — Markdown output directory
• --ai-provider — github or claude
• --ai-model — override default model
• --ai-api-key — API key (prefer keyring or env vars)
• --tags — comma-separated frontmatter tags (default: remarkable)
• --no-images — skip embedding page images
• --with-backup / --with-pdf — include earlier pipeline stages
• --force-export — re-export all notes

Watch:

• -i, --interval N — minutes between syncs (default: 30)
• --systray / --no-systray — system tray icon (default: enabled)

Updates:

• reMarkableSync check-update — check for newer versions
• Update notifications appear automatically (checked once per day)

Wi-Fi Connection

The config wizard can enable Wi-Fi SSH on your tablet automatically via USB. If you prefer to do it manually:

1. Connect tablet via USB and SSH into 10.11.99.1
2. Run rm-ssh-over-wlan on
3. Find the IP: ip addr show wlan0
4. Use that IP in the config wizard or --wifi-host

Tip

Assign a static DHCP lease to your tablet in your router so the IP doesn't change.

Generated Markdown Format

Each notebook becomes a folder with one Markdown file per page:

---
title: "My Meeting Notes"
source: reMarkable
remarkable_id: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
notebook: Work
folder: Work/Meetings
page: 1
created: 2025-01-15
ai_provider: GitHubModelsProvider
ai_model: gpt-4o-mini
tags:
  - remarkable
---

## Action Items

- **Follow up** with Alice on the Q1 plan
- Schedule review for next Friday

![page 1](_images/page_001.png)

Page images are stored in a _images/ subfolder next to the Markdown files.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
Can't connect via USB	Verify cable, ping 10.11.99.1, check SSH password
Can't connect via Wi-Fi	Same network? Try ping remarkable.local or use --wifi-host <ip>
AI OCR returns errors	Check API key/token, verify package installed (anthropic or openai), check rate limits
Empty Markdown files	AI provider may have failed — check log file for details
v6 notebooks not converting	Ensure rmc is installed (pip install rmc) — required for v6 .rm format
Watch lock error	Delete <backup-dir>/.remarkable_watch.lock
Permission errors	Ensure output directories are writable; run as admin on Windows if needed

For any issue, re-run your command with --log-level DBG to get detailed output. See How to get DEBUG logs for details.

Acknowledgements

reMarkableSync is built on top of these excellent open-source projects:

Library	Role
rmc	Converts reMarkable v6 .rm files to SVG
svglib	Converts SVG to ReportLab drawings
ReportLab	Renders drawings and templates to PDF
PyPDF2	Merges and overlays PDF pages
PyMuPDF	Rasterises PDF pages to images for AI OCR
Pillow	Image processing and manipulation

Security

• SSH password and AI tokens are stored in your system keyring (never in plain-text config files)
• All communication is over your local network (USB or LAN) — nothing goes to the internet except AI API calls
• Config file at <AppData>/remarkablesync/config.json contains only non-secret settings