# Importing from another app

> Bring your tasks, projects and labels into Done Bear from Todoist, TickTick, Things 3 and a dozen other places.

Done Bear can take your existing backlog from most task managers. On the web it lives under **Settings → Import**. On iPhone it lives under **Settings → Import**: Reminders copies incomplete Apple Reminders, Todoist sends you to a backup on the web, and Things unpacks a Things 3 database.

Two things are true of every import:

- **The importers never change your other app.** Done Bear only reads what you give it. It does not sign in on your behalf, and it does not write, edit or delete anything on the other side.
- **Nothing is written here until you say so.** Every import does a dry run first and shows you exactly what it will create, change and leave alone. You choose whether to go ahead.

The one exception is **Reminders Inbox** on iPhone (Settings → Import → Reminders Inbox). It is not a one-time import but an ongoing bridge: pick a Reminders list and its unfinished to-dos appear at the top of your Inbox, so anything you capture with Siri lands in Done Bear. When you import one of them it becomes a task here and is removed from Reminders, which Done Bear asks you to confirm first. Nothing else in Reminders is touched.

## Where your export comes from

| App             | What to bring                                                                                               |
| --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Todoist         | A project's `.csv` (project menu → Manage data → Export as CSV), one at a time. Backups are a ZIP of these. |
| TickTick        | Settings → Backup, then the `.csv` file.                                                                    |
| Microsoft To Do | Your lists and tasks as JSON, saved from Graph Explorer. The import screen gives the request to run.        |
| Any.do          | Archived tasks as a CSV, then the **CSV** importer. See below.                                              |
| Apple Reminders | On iPhone: Settings → Import → Reminders. On a Mac, File → Export as `.ics`.                                |
| Things 3        | A copy of your Things database from iPhone, iPad, or Mac. `.aar`, `.thingsdatabase`, or `main.sqlite`.      |
| Trello          | Board menu → More → Print and Export → Export as JSON.                                                      |
| Asana           | The project menu → Export/Print → CSV or JSON.                                                              |
| Notion          | The database's ⋯ menu → Export → Markdown & CSV, then the `.csv`.                                           |
| Google Tasks    | Google Takeout, then `Tasks.json`.                                                                          |

The import screen shows the same instructions next to each app, along with the file types and size limit it accepts.

A few apps need more than one line:

- **Microsoft To Do.** Upload the JSON file. Done Bear reads it in your browser. The Graph Explorer request returns no steps, so tasks arrive without them. To keep a copy of your steps, print each list with **Print steps** turned on before you import.
- **Any.do.** Any.do's help doesn't describe a JSON export. The export it does describe is for archived tasks: select the export icon in the archived tasks folder and Any.do emails you a zip with a CSV inside. Unzip it and import the CSV with the **CSV** importer.
- **Google Tasks.** Done Bear doesn't read Google's repeat settings, so a repeating task arrives once.

Things has no export menu. On iPhone or iPad, open Things → Settings → General → Diagnostics → Enter Code → `491348` → Send Things Database. The file is `Things Database.aar`. Tap it to unpack to `Things Database.thingsdatabase`, then import in the **Done Bear iOS app** (Settings → Import → Things) or choose `main.sqlite` (or a zip of that folder) in the web importer. The iOS app unpacks the `.aar` for you; the web app cannot yet. On a Mac you can copy `main.sqlite` from the Things folder instead. The [CLI](/cli/import-things) is still there if you want a terminal dry run.

## If your app is not listed

Almost every task manager can export a spreadsheet or a calendar file, and Done Bear reads all three of the common ones: **CSV**, **JSON** and **iCal / ICS**. Pick one of those instead, and you get an extra step where you say which of your columns holds the task title, which holds the due date, and so on. A CSV can be UTF-8 or UTF-16.

There is also a link on that screen to ask us to build an importer for an app we do not cover yet.

## What comes across

Tasks, projects and lists, areas, labels, subtasks, completed tasks, dates, and repeat rules — as far as the app you are leaving actually exports them. Some apps export less than they show you, and the preview says so before you commit.

A few things change shape on the way in, because Done Bear works differently:

- **Areas become teams.** Whatever your old app used to group projects becomes a team here.
- **Due times become reminders.** Done Bear dates are whole days ([see dates](/help/dates)), so a task due at 9am arrives due that day with a reminder set for 9am.
- **Subtasks become checklist items** on their parent, when that is all they are. A subtask with its own due date, notes or labels comes across as a task in its own right instead, so nothing is lost to make it fit.
- **Attachments are linked, not copied.** The file stays where it is; the link comes across in the task's notes.

## Before you import

The preview counts everything found in your file: tasks, projects, labels, how many are already done and how many repeat. It flags anything it could not read, and lists any fields from your old app that Done Bear has no home for, so you know what stays behind. A repeat rule that cannot be converted is copied into the task description as text.

You then choose:

- **Where it goes.** Recreate your old projects and areas, put everything into one project, or drop it all into your Inbox.
- **The time zone.** Dates that carry no zone of their own are read in the zone you pick. If your export does not say which zone it used, Done Bear tells you and asks — getting this wrong is what moves tasks a day. Changing the zone reads your file again, so the dry run shows dates in the zone you picked.
- **What happens to anything already here.** Skip it, fill in only the blanks, overwrite it from the file, or import everything as new.

## Running it more than once

Re-importing the same file is safe. Done Bear recognises the tasks it already brought across from that export, so the default is to leave them exactly as they are and add only what is new.

## Undoing an import

The completion screen has an **Undo this import** button, and the offer is still there next time you open the import screen — closing the tab does not lose it. It is kept by the browser you imported from, so undo a web import from that same browser rather than from another device. An import you ran in the iOS app is undone with the usual undo gesture for that change, not from the web receipt.

Undo removes what the import created and puts back anything it changed. **Anything you have edited since the import is kept**: if you have renamed, completed or rescheduled an imported task, undo leaves that task alone and tells you how many it kept. It asks you to confirm first, and says exactly how many records it will remove.

If some rows could not be read, the same screen offers a report you can download listing each one and why.

## Related

- [Start dates and deadlines](/help/dates)
- [Views](/help/views)

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