How to export Google Tasks

Google Tasks has no export button. The full export runs through Google Takeout, Google’s download tool for account data, and it gives you JSON rather than a spreadsheet.

Choose the right way to export

Takeout is the route for a backup or a move. Print list is for reading one list on paper or in a PDF.

A work or school account may not offer Takeout at all. A Google Workspace administrator can switch it off, and Google’s admin help says the service then disappears from your Takeout page. Ask your administrator before you plan a move around it.

Export every list with Google Takeout

Use a computer if you can. Google’s Takeout help recommends downloading and opening archives on a desktop rather than a phone.

1. Sign in to the Google account that holds your tasks and open takeout.google.com.
2. Takeout selects every Google product you use. Uncheck all of them except Tasks.
3. Select Next step.
4. Under Delivery method, choose Send download link via email. Leave the export as a one-time archive and the file type as .zip.
5. Select Create export.
6. When the email arrives, select Download archive. Google may ask for your password again.

Google says most people get the link the same day. Download the archive promptly: Google says it expires in about seven days, and each archive can be downloaded five times. After that, create a new export.

Taking the export changes nothing in Google Tasks. Your lists stay where they are, and Google keeps its copy.

Find your tasks in the archive

Extract the zip and open the Tasks folder. Find Tasks.json. The archive also contains archive_browser.html, which Google adds to explain the files.

Google’s help pages do not describe the folder layout, and other guides disagree about it. You may find one Tasks.json that holds every list, with each list’s tasks nested inside it, or a separate JSON file for each list.

Open the JSON file in a text editor to check it. Search for a list name you know, then a task title. Each task sits inside its list, and fields such as "title", "notes", "due" and "status" appear beside it. A "status" of "needsAction" means the task is open, and "completed" means it is done.

Subtasks are separate entries with a "parent" field that names the task they belong to. A converter or importer that ignores "parent" turns every subtask into an ordinary task.

Know what the export keeps

Google’s export help lists what a Google Tasks download includes. List titles, task titles and descriptions come through in full. So do completion and the time each task was completed, the parent IDs that keep each subtask attached to its task, links such as the email a task was made from, and starring. Tasks assigned from Docs or Chat keep the assignee and assigner emails. Google also lists the repeat schedule, though an importer may not read it. Deleted tasks are not exported.

Google’s Tasks API reference says the due field keeps only the date and discards the time. A task you set for 9 am arrives as that day with no time.

Google also describes that field as the day the task should be done, which is closer to a scheduled day than a deadline. Destination apps disagree about which one it becomes, so check a dated task after any import.

Turn the export into a CSV

You may not need a CSV. Check whether your next app reads the Takeout JSON first, because an importer that understands the file keeps the list and subtask structure that a spreadsheet flattens.

If you need a spreadsheet for a report or an app that only reads CSV, convert the JSON with a script or a converter you trust. Keep these columns so the structure survives:

1. The list name, so tasks do not all land in one pile.
2. The task title and notes.
3. The due date, as a plain date.
4. The status, so completed tasks stay completed.
5. The parent ID, so subtasks can be matched to their tasks.

Read the converted file before relying on it. Notes often contain commas and line breaks, and a converter that does not quote them splits one task across several rows.

Print a list for a readable copy

Google Tasks can print one list at a time. Open Tasks in the side panel of Gmail, Calendar or Drive, choose the list, then select List options → Print list. Choose Save as PDF in the print dialog if you want a file.

To include finished work, open Completed at the bottom of the list first. Print list has no option to print every list at once, so a backup of several lists needs Takeout.

Stay on Google Tasks if you live in Gmail

If you work inside Gmail and Calendar all day, Google Tasks may still suit you better. Tasks sits in the side panel of the apps you already have open, and a separate task manager adds another window. Take a Takeout export as a backup and keep going.

Import Google Tasks into Done Bear

Done Bear reads the Takeout file directly, so you do not need a CSV. Open Settings → Import, choose Google Tasks, and upload Tasks.json. If Takeout gave you a file for each list, upload each file in its own import and check the project name after each one. Done Bear shows a preview before it writes anything, and the import never changes Google Tasks. You can start free and open the Google Tasks importer.

Each list becomes a project with the same name, including an empty list, and completed tasks stay completed. Due dates arrive on the same day they had in Google Tasks. A plain subtask becomes a checklist item on its parent task, and a subtask with its own date or notes becomes a task. Done Bear doesn’t read Google’s repeat settings, so a repeating task arrives once.

The preview lists the fields Done Bear skips. Task order is not kept, so check a long list, and each task’s created date becomes the import date.

Choose where the tasks go: your Google lists as projects, one project, or the Inbox. The Done Bear import guide explains the preview, repeat imports and undo. If you use Google Tasks on an Android phone, Done Bear has no Android app yet. The Android waitlist is open. Compare other task managers on the comparison page before you pick one.

Keep the archive until you have checked the move

A Takeout link expires about seven days after Google creates the archive, and each archive downloads five times. Save the zip somewhere other than your Downloads folder on the day the email arrives. Once the link lapses, the only way to get the file again is a new export, and that export holds your tasks as they are then, not as they were.

Before you delete anything in Google Tasks, open each list next to its new home. Check a dated task and a task with subtasks, because those are the parts of a Google Tasks list that change shape in a move.