How to export Any.do tasks

Any.do does not have one export button that saves every task in your account. It has four narrower routes, and each covers a different part of your data: open personal lists, archived tasks, boards, and a data request to Any.do itself. Pick the route by which tasks you need to keep.

Pick the right export

Any.do’s export help page says there is no export for the calendar view, and that there is “no need to routinely export your data” because it syncs to Any.do’s servers. That holds for daily use. Leaving Any.do, or clearing out old archived tasks, is when a file on your own computer matters.

For a backup, use the archive export plus a PDF of each open list. For a move, check first whether the new app reads Any.do directly.

Email yourself the archived tasks

The archived-tasks export is the only route that gives personal tasks as a spreadsheet. It works in the Any.do web and desktop apps, not on mobile.

1. In Any.do on the web or desktop, select your profile icon at the top left.
2. Choose Archived Tasks.
3. Select the export button. One Any.do article calls it Send.
4. Open the email Any.do sends to your account address and download the ZIP.
5. Extract the ZIP and open the CSV file.

A completed task reaches the archive only when you archive it. To include completed tasks still sitting in a list, open the list and choose Clear Completed, which archives all of them. You can restore an archived task later from the same view.

Open tasks are not in this file, so pair it with a list route below.

Save open personal lists

Open personal lists have no spreadsheet export. Any.do offers a PDF on the web and desktop apps, and a share sheet on iPhone and Android.

On the web or desktop app, open a list, select the three dots next to its name, choose Print, change the destination to Save as PDF, and save. The PDF records what was still open in that list. To move those tasks to another app, use the mobile route.

On mobile, open a list, tap the three dots at the top right, then tap the export icon and pick where to send it. Any.do says the file types depend on the app you share to, and copying to the clipboard gives plain text. The All Tasks and 7 Days views share the same way and gather every personal list.

To make clipboard text importable, paste it into a spreadsheet with one task per row, add a first row with the word Title, and save the sheet as CSV.

Export a board as CSV or Excel

Boards are part of Any.do’s Family and Workspace plans, and they have the fullest export. On the web or desktop app:

1. Open the board.
2. Select the three dots and choose Print and Export.
3. Turn off Use current view if you want more than what is on screen.
4. Choose All tasks or Only active tasks.
5. Pick CSV, Excel, or PDF and download it.

Choose All tasks when you are leaving, so finished work comes too, and export each board separately. The file does not record who a board was shared with, so write down the members of any shared board you plan to rebuild.

Ask Any.do for a copy of all your data

Any.do’s privacy policy lists a right to data portability: receiving your personal data “in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format”. You exercise it by emailing [email protected], and some rights apply only in certain jurisdictions.

Send the request from the email address on your Any.do account and ask for your tasks, lists, notes, and subtasks in a machine-readable file. The policy names no file format and no response time, so keep using the routes above in the meantime.

Check the export before you delete anything

Any.do’s help pages do not list the columns in the archive CSV, and a request for exports with notes, subtasks, attachments and reminders has been open on Any.do’s feedback forum since July 2016. Before you trust the file, find a task you archived with a note and one with a subtask, and see whether both came through. Copy anything missing by hand while it is still in Any.do.

The order matters because of the archive. Any.do says deleting from it “is permanent and cannot be undone”, and it recommends deleting archived tasks once you have hundreds saved. That is when an unchecked export costs the most history, so delete only after the check.

Import the files into Done Bear

Start free and open the importer to preview an Any.do CSV before anything is added to your list.

Done Bear is a task manager that reads your export once. It is not a sync bridge to Any.do, and it never signs in to your Any.do account. Open Settings → Import and choose CSV for the archive CSV, a board CSV, or a clipboard list you saved as CSV. Done Bear asks which column holds each field and shows a preview before writing anything.

• Lists: Match the column holding the list name to Project / list. A column named Category is matched to Area by default, which becomes a team, so change it if it holds list names.
• Finished tasks: A status column that says the task is done imports it as completed, with its completion date when the file has one.
• Priority: Not imported, because Done Bear tasks have no priority.
• Due times: Done Bear dates are whole days, so a task due at 9am arrives due that day with a 9am reminder.
• Undo: Every import can be undone from the completion screen, and tasks you edit afterwards are kept.

Any.do documents no JSON export, so the CSV routes above are the way in. The import guide covers the preview, repeat imports, and undo.

When you might not need this: if you share boards with family or a team who are staying on Any.do, stay with them, because shared-list members do not come across in any import. For a direct move with no file, TickTick’s Android app imports Any.do from its settings. The comparison hub sets Done Bear against the other main task managers. Wherever you go, keep Any.do’s archive until the new list is right, because once you delete it there, it is gone.