How to export Granola notes and move them to Barside

Granola writes meeting notes from your calls, and it can export them all as one CSV file. Barside imports that file and gives each meeting its own note, with the attendees, the summary, your own notes and the full transcript, on your computer. From then on, Barside can transcribe your calls itself, without a bot and without uploading audio. This guide shows how.

Before you start

Barside is a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac. For meetings, it has call transcription that runs on your computer with Whisper, meeting follow-up that turns a transcript into a summary, decisions and tasks with your own AI account, a calendar with a meeting note for each event, and free video meetings for up to 6 people.

What Granola's export covers, from its help center:

• Notes you own, and only notes that have a summary. Deleted notes are left out.
• Your full note history, including notes older than 30 days that the free Basic plan hides in the app.
• The title, note summary, transcript and other basic details of each note.

Step 1: Export from Granola

1. In Granola, open Settings.
2. In the sidebar, under Preferences, click Profile.
3. Click Generate CSV, then choose the workspaces to include.
4. Wait for Granola's email, which arrives "within a few hours".
5. Open the link in a browser signed in to the same Granola account and download the CSV.

The link is valid for 24 hours, and Granola allows one export per 24 hours per account. On the Enterprise plan, export is off by default until an admin turns on Allow exporting data.

Step 2: Import the CSV into Barside

1. Open Settings & backups → Notes from other apps → Import next to Import notes, or type import in the search bar.
2. Find Granola and choose Choose CSV.
3. Pick the file Granola emailed you.
4. Barside shows Ready to import with the number of meeting notes it found.
5. Under Import into, keep A new workspace (From Granola) or choose an existing one, such as your Meetings workspace.
6. Choose Import, then Open workspace.

What comes along

Because the transcripts come along, Barside's Library search can find what was said in past meetings, and Library AI can answer questions from them, citing the meeting notes it used, with the AI you connect.

Transcribing new meetings in Barside

1. Before a call, choose Transcribe a call from the search bar or the recorder.
2. Press Start recording. Barside records your microphone and the sound your computer plays, and writes a timestamped transcript into a note, labeled You and Others.
3. After the call, open Meeting follow-through to draft a summary, quoted decisions, proposed tasks and a recap. You check owners and times before anything is saved, and Barside never sends the recap for you.

Speech runs locally with Whisper after a one-time download of about 150 MB, so no bot joins the call, no AI key is needed for the transcript, and the audio never leaves your computer.

If something looks wrong

• Fewer meetings than in Granola. Granola exports only notes with a summary that you own. Shared notes owned by others stay in Granola.
• The download link does not open. It works for 24 hours, in a browser signed in to the same Granola account. Generate a new CSV the next day.
• One long note per meeting. That is expected with full transcripts. Use the headings to jump, or search inside the note.

After the move

• Keep meetings together in a Meetings workspace, and pin the recurring ones.
• Start new meetings from a template, such as the meeting notes template, or let the calendar make a meeting note for each event.
• Compare tools in the Granola alternative guide and the best AI meeting assistants list.