RemarkableDownload

My tool to easily download files from the Remarkable tablet over USB. First I made a bash-script, which worked, but then I wanted to do recursive downloading. That's not something I wanted to do in bash anymore, so I started on a C++ project.

If you want a simple bash-script that downloads all the files under a single folder, by typing its name, use the bash-script. If you want recursive behaviour, then you'll need to use the C++ program.

Collections of other Remarkable projects: https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
Comparable project in Python: https://github.com/cherti/remarkable-cli-tooling

How to use bash script
How to use C++ binary
How to install bash script
How to install C++ binary
How it works

How to use (bash-script)

Connect your tablet via USB to your computer, and make sure to have installed ssh-keys: https://remarkable.guide/guide/access/ssh.html On your Remarkable, go to settings > storage and enable the USB web interface.

Now you can use the command on your pc as follows

rmDown [-h] [-v] <folder>

where you substitute <folder> by the actual name you want to download. This will create a new folder called <folder>_rm/, and it will put all documents that are in the <folder> on your Remarkable, inside that new folder, all converted to pdf's.

If the <folder>_rm/ directory already exists in your current working directory, then the script will ask for confirmation, as it is possible that the script would overwrite already existing files.

The -h flag prints a help-message and exits without actually downloading.
The -v flag turns on verbose mode, which prints each file's UUID alongside its name.

How to use (C++ binary)

For ease of use I renamed the binary to rmDown in my shell (see #how-to-install).

Now you can follow the bash-instructions, as they are the same. The C++ binary does have an extra -r flag, which downloads all the subfolders recursively as well. This recursive mode will create a traditional file-structure on your pc, where each sub-folder will also have the '_rm' postfix.

There is also an extra '-f' flag, which will download single files instead of entire folders.

How to install (bash-script)

There are 2 options for now, either you clone this repo on your system, and make a sym-link for rmDown.sh to somewhere in your path (like ~/.local/bin), or you only download the rmDown.sh script, and put it somewhere in your path.

How to install (C++ binary)

Clone this repository and cd into it:

git clone git@github.com:BWindey/RemarkableDownload.git
cd RemarkableDownload

Now make a directory called build and cd into it, here the build-files will be placed:

mkdir build
cd build

Now use cmake to generate the build-files:

cmake ..

It is possible that you still have to download cmake, then please do that first.
It is also possible that you get an error about your cmake-version being too low. If that is the case, open ../CMakeLists.txt and edit the cmake_minimum_required to your version. I tested v3.22, which worked for me, probably even older versions will work too.

When cmake is done, you then run make to create the RemarkableDownload binary:

make

You can execute it with ./RemarkableDownload, and of course you can rename and move the binary as you wish.

How it works

Apparently you can just make an HTTP request to your remarkable: http://<ip>/download/<file-UUID>/placeholder, and it will send a pdf. For some more smartiness, this script also ssh's in your remarkable to know which UUIDs it should download, using grep.