This is a small guide to help moving files from Ulysses native file format (.ulysses files) to plain Markdown. Having your writing in plain Markdown is necessary when you want to move to a different writing app or just for backup purposes1.

This guide works for files without images and Ulysses specific bells and whistles

  1. Create a temporary folder on your Mac for the exported Markdown files e.g. “Ulysses export”;
  2. Open Ulysses on your Mac and add the “Ulysses export” folder to the library (bottom of the left sidebar) → Add External Folder;
  3. Select the files you would like to export from Ulysses to standard Markdown;
  4. Move the files, within Ulysses, to the “Ulysses export” folder;
  5. Open the “Ulysses export” folder in the Finder and move/import to where ever you would like.

  1. Just trying to backup the .ulysses files isn’t very useful as the .ulysses files have a hash for a name and contain two files (Content.xml and Text.txt). To get your writing out of the files you have to open all of them manually. If you use an iCloud-stored library the files are hardly reachable at all. ↩︎