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Transfering Evernote content anywhere

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 16:16:03 +0000

Evernote and Interoperability

Evernote does not appear to make any effort to allow you to port your data to or from other systems. Its online help articles are unhelpful-to-wrong. This article, for example, explains that you can import from other notes apps exports - but the only format that the app seems to support is the custom ENEX format, or files ending in ".enex".

Similarly, Evernote does not export into a format that is usable by other apps. PCMag investigated this at length and reported on the difficulties of porting to OneNote, Joplin, Zoho, Bear, and Notion. Several of these have features specifically for importing from Evernote.

Evernote to Bear

Moving notes to Bear from Evernote works in HTML format, though poorly - it loses images. Better is to use Bear's feature in the File menu to "Import From" > "Evernote", and import ENEX files, which preserves images in the notes. As the PCMag article accurately reported, Bear loses all the folder structure of Evernote's notes, because Bear does not use folders. A pretty workable approach may be to tag all your notes in Evernote before exporting:

In the Evernote app, select all the notes in an folder
From the right-mouse button menu (Context menu?) choose "Edit tags"
Apply a tag to all of the items
Export them all as one ENEX file
Import into Bear using "Import From" > "Evernote"

As a result, the notes will preserve images and tags.

Exporting Vimeo videos for use elsewhere

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:27:33 +0000

How to export your Vimeo video content for importing somewhere else

Like most video hosting/streaming services, Vimeo does not provide data portability tools or expose an API for other hosting/streaming providers to use to move videos off their service.

Vimeo does allow users to download their own videos, but then uploading them again to a different service requires both bandwidth and storage as well as possibly a lot of time.

This Quora thread offers some ideas.

Microsoft Streams Videos export

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:27:34 +0000

So far we have not found instructions for how to export videos from Microsoft Stream in bulk. This will make it very hard to move video content that you own and want to preserve, in case of wanting to switch video hosting and streaming providers.

This guide at least shows how to download videos from Microsoft teams

Importing your Goodreads book history into Storygraph

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 20:52:51 +0000

Exporting your Goodreads book history and importing into Storygraph

During Account Setup

The most obvious time to do this is during Storygraph account setup. Storygraph's site will walk you through the process of both exporting your Goodreads history, and uploading it into Storygraph.

If you decide not to do this during account creation, it can still be done later. This video has some good instructions on both options.

What this solution can do

This process does a great job of moving you to The Storygraph. It takes your entire library. * If you're comfortable editing CSV files in Excel or a text editor, you may be able to do your own filtering. The CSV format is very straightforward, and a tool like Excel will allow you to sort by "read date", for example, to import only the latest items from Goodreads. * It appears that importing handles re-imported lines well, although I did not do extensive testing.

What this solution does not do

It's a one-time transfer and there is no ability to catch up.
* There's no affordance to filter books out of your Goodreads export. This can matter if your Goodreads history is automatically linked to Kindles and accounts are shared with family, for example.

Google Photos to Apple iCloud photos

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 15:08:07 +0000

Google Photos to Apple iCloud photos

Google offers a way to request a transfer of photos and videos stored in Google Photos to iCloud Photos that happens in the cloud, without requiring you to have enough bandwidth and disk storage to do the transfer via export and then separate upload. Support articles on this process are offered by both Apple and Google.

What this solution can do

Photos and videos are imported along with metadata including file name, description, file type, and location are also transferred.

What this solution does not do

It does not transfer: Live photos, motion photos, memories.
Files not supported in iCloud Photos, such as RAW files, are transferred instead to iCloud Drive.

YouTube Videos from one account to another

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:27:34 +0000

How to export your YouTube Videos to upload somewhere else

Google Takeout offers a way to export Youtube videos in your own account, and they may be portable to another location. In order to make use of this, you're going to need to handle the export on a computer or device that has enough storage to be able to store the ZIP and probably also to unZIP it if you want to do anything with the videos.

If you don't have enough storage or network bandwidth makes this less feasible, you may need to take an intermediary step and first export your YouTube videos to an online document storage service, then upload from there to the ultimate destination. This index has help available on that step.

Many other video platforms can accept video uploads in the format provided by YouTube, but you're going to have to upload the videos manually yourself. In fact, this export approach is even recommended in order to move videos from one YouTube account to another.

This may be the best option for transfering YouTube videos to the following destinations: * Microsoft Streams - here are instructions for uploading videos that you've already downloaded * Another YouTube account

Apple iCloud photos to Google Photos

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:27:33 +0000

Apple iCloud photos to Google Photos

Apple offers a way to request a transfer of photos and videos stored in iCloud Photos to Google Photos that happens in the cloud, without requiring you to have enough bandwidth and disk storage to do the transfer via export and then separate upload. The excellent support article explains how to go to privacy.apple.com to transfer directly to Google Photos.

The interoperability basis for this transfer is the use of Data Transfer Project servers. The DTP platform is an extensible Open Source platform for server-to-server data transfers specifically for user data as requested by users.

What this solution can do

Not only does this solution transfer your photos, it also preserves them in albums.

What this solution does not do

It does not transfer: - Live photos - Smart albums - Permissions - Videos in albums - "Original" of photos - copy of photo prior to edit - Duplicates

Meta (Facebook, Instagram) Photos transfer via DTP to online storage/backup or alternative photo service

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 20:24:30 +0000

How to transfer your Facebook and Instagram Photos to archive and other photo services using DTP

This solution may be for you if you want an easy to use, reliable transfer tool that does not require you to download the files to your local device, saving you bandwidth and local storage requirements. It is powered by the open-source Data Transfer Project technology maintained by the Data Transfer Initiative.

Meta offers its DTP-powered tool to transfer a copy of your information via the Meta Accounts Center. You can reach it via https://facebook.com/tyi or https://accountscenter.facebook.com/infoandpermissions/tyi/. Follow the prompts to select the relevant account and information you wish to transfer; select the destination, authenticate to the destination, select the scope of what you wish to transfer, and finally click “Start transfer.” You will need to re-enter your password for the source account to finalize the operation.

What this solution can do

It can transfer a copy of all, or a subset of, your data directly from Meta's servers to a third party service provider, which can either be another service for managing photos and videos, or an archive service.

What this solution does not do

Because it is designed to transfer photos and videos, it does not include other content from Facebook or Instagram, such as text posts or notes.

If you wish to transfer Facebook posts and notes to a service designed to receive and handle such content, see https://portmap.dtinit.org/articles/posts1.md/.
If you wish to download an archive file with all of your content together to your local device, Meta offers a download tool here: https://accountscenter.facebook.com/infoandpermissions/dyi/.

Google Photos archive to online storage/backup

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:27:33 +0000

How to archive your Google Photos to Drive, Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive, using Google Takeout

This solution may be for you if you don't have the Internet bandwidth or local storage to download all your photos right now, but you'd like to have a backup copy or archive copy just in case.

Google offers instructions for how to use Google Takeout to request Google to transfer the photos directly to the destination cloud storage service in ZIP files.

What this solution can do

A nice feature of this solution is that Google offers to repeat this backup every three months.

What this solution does not do

Since these destinations are not photo services, they do not host the photos as individual photos nor do they capture photo metadata such as the date taken. Some of this metadata may still be within the photo files but in the archive you won't be able to do things like filter or view by date. Still, it's nice to know you have a backup copy.

Moving Newsletter off Substack

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 19:38:10 +0000

Alternatives

Beehiiv has a support article explaining how to migrate a Substack newsletter to the Beehiiv platform. The article explains multiple steps rather than an all-in-one tool, but that might be a good thing because use cases differ depending on whether a creator wishes to migrate public newsletter articles or private ones, and free subscribers or premium.

Buttondown also supports importing data exported from Substack, and importing the entire ZIP file via upload to Buttondown.

Ghost also builds off exports, and has command-line tools to complete what appears to be complicated but well-supported migration process. This includes comments.

Wordpress supports the same approach via its Tools > Import > Substack menu, importing subscribers as well as content.

Download data

Substack's export/download tools allow newsletter owners to download in a readable format:

subscriber lists
posts
"related statistics"

We assume (but did not verify) that this does include content files such as videos and podcast files.

What this solution can do

Whether downloading for backup, uploading to Beehiiv or uplaoding to Buttondown, this solution involves working from Substack's export formats and download.

This is a complete, although work-intensive and often manual, process for moving a newsletter and subscribers from Substack to Beehiiv. It is even capable of moving paid subscribers -- using Stripe migration tools.

Migrating just free content into Beehiiv is a simpler more automated process so the length and complexity of the support article need not be offputting if the use case is simpler.

What this solution does not do

Because this solution involves downloading Substack's exports, it relies on having storage space and finding and using the downloads.

We might not have complete information in this article about which other platforms import media files, comments and other information besides the base HTML posts themselves. Contributions here are welcome.

The documented Beehiiv solution does not migrate videos, podcast files, paywall placements, photo galleries, comments, and a few more things that can be found in the support article (kudos to Beehiiv for providing excellent detail on this).

Download Google Photos for local backup

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 20:28:29 +0000

Download Google Photos for local backup

Use Google Takeout to download your photos

In Google Takeout, choose deselect all and then find photos in the list and select only that. Also in this screen filter which folders you would like to export. Scroll all the way to the bottom for the "Next Step" button.

In the next step, if you choose "Send download link via email", Google will prepare a number of downloads, organizing your photos and metadata into several large ZIP files if necessary. A small export will be very fast, Google doesn't just sit on these.

When you receive the email you can use the link in email to return to find it listed in "Your Exports".

What you get when you download the files is both photo data and, in JSON files, limited photo metadata. For example, the photo metadata file for each photo contains that photo's creation time and upload time, and how many times it has been viewed.

What this solution can do

This solution does provide you with a local copy of all your photos and JSON files of photo metadata.

What this solution does not do

Because the metadata is not part of the photo files, it could be challenging to reunite the photos and the metadata on another service.

Use Soundiiz service to synchronize playlists between music services

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 19:09:32 +0000

Use Soundiiz online service to synchronize playlists between music services

Soundiiz

The Soundiiz service offers a number of features for moving playlists between different music streaming services. One of the challenges in this domain is matching song titles, artists and track information so that the song you listen to on one platform is actually the same song linked when the playlist is created on another platform. There's no common identifier for music tracks or albums (like ISBN for books) so the problem of matching is why it's hard for you to simply export your playlists on one service and load them into a different service - not only the playlist export format but also the track identifiers are likely to be non-interoperable.

What this solution can do

Playlists can be copied one-time to another service, and Soundiiz also supports synchronizing. There are other features around sharing that might be useful too.

What this solution does not do

Some ways this might not work for you: * It does require integrating a 3rd service * Some features (such as automating the transfer of multiple playlists rather than selecting and transfering them one by one) require a small monthly subscription fee

iCloud Contacts to Export and Reimport

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:44:08 +0000

How to copy your Contacts from iCloud to other places using .VCF files and the VCARD standard

First get an export

If you have contacts in iCloud (which you probably do if you've been using iOS devices or a Mac computer), you can export any number of selected contacts. The instructions for how to select all and export them can be found in this Apple support article. After the export, you should have a file ending in ".vcf" that is a text format containing VCard items for each contact you selected.

If your contacts are on a Mac computer but not synchronized to iCloud, you can still get to the point of having a VCF file containing interoperable VCard data. From the Contact app on your Mac, multiselect individual contacts or create a list and sort into it the contacts you'd like to port. Then when you have the individual items selected, right-click them and choose "Export vCard". This process will also create a .VCF file containing vCard items.

Note that if you follow the instructions to create a "Contacts Archive" from your Contacts app, you will have a format that is less portable (an .abbu file). This may be useful as a backup or for copying from one Apple machine to another, but less useful for porting to another destination.

Import somewhere else

A ".vcf" file (generated with either approach above that results in that file format and file extension) can now be imported to a number of other systems.

To import to Google Contacts, first open Google Contacts in your Web Browser, choose Import on the left side menu, and use the "Select File" button to import each contact to Google.

What this solution can do

This solution is good for migrating one-time to another platform, or bring your data with you one-time (e.g. when you need all your old iOS contacts available to your work email and your work uses Google or Microsoft mail.

What this solution does not do

This solution is not good for re-importing. If you try to re-import, it will simply create duplicates, and that may create confusion about which contact is the more recent.

Exporting notes from Werdsmith

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:19:13 +0000

Export notes from Werdsmith

Werdsmith is a service focused on writing scripts, books, sketches, etc. It allows the user to focus all their attention solely on writing and structuring their projects. Although it is a widely used service with a large base of active users, the data export options are practically non-existent since it only allows the user to paste and copy absolutely all the projects manually.

This limits and almost forces the user to stay in the service and being able to migrate to other similar services with the notes and projects found in Werdsmith is a monumental task that takes a lot of time and difficulty.

Download data

In order to export the data you must go to the Werdsmith Support site.
In the Export your data section, you click in the here button.

This generates a page within Werdsmith that displays all of the user's projects, notes, sections, and more in a non-intuitive table.

The drawback with this is that it simply allows the user to copy and paste their information to other services in the event of a possible migration to another service.

To download the pertinent data, right-click anywhere on the page that shows the information to be exported, then click Save As and select a place on our computer to save it. This will generate an html file that can help us have a little more flexibility when migrating to another service.

What this solution can do

This solution allows the user to find the only way available to export their information from Werdsmith.

What this solution does not do

This solution does not allow the user to export their data in formats that are very helpful to carry out an efficient and automatic import to other services similar to Werdsmith and this is due exclusively to the little flexibility and little interest that Werdsmith offers to the user when wanting to do this export process.

Google Contacts export and import

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 23:29:51 +0000

Google Contacts - VCard (VCF) for import to Apple/iCloud Contacts

How to Export and edit

The documented way to export contacts from Google Contacts for importing to iOS is well-described in this simple Google article. It will walk you through selecting contacts on a Web page to choosing an appropriate export format. The one to pick if you're moving contacts to an iOS device is the VCF file format which contains VCard data.

Importing to MacOS and iCloud

Once your VCF file is ready, there are a number of options to transfer them somewhere else. * To add them to your MacOS Contacts app, you can just open the file, it should default to opening in Contacts.app and prompt you to add them. You'll be prompted to review duplicates and the app will update duplicate Contacts rather than actually create duplicates.

If you want to instead add these to an iCloud account and you don't have MacOS (for example, you wish to make these contacts available on an iPhone without connecting your iPhone to the Google account that had those contacts), you can also upload the VCF file to iCloud. From your iCloud Contacts page, while logged into the iCloud account, use the "+" button and choose to "Import Contact". You can then upload the VCF file that google created. This import approach will create duplicate contacts in your contacts account, so if you think you may have duplicates and you do have the MacOS Contacts.app, that approach is preferable.

What this solution can do

Any time you find that you've got addresses available on Google Mail but they're not available in your MacOS Contacts, the Google export --> open with Contacts.app process is quick and won't flood your contacts db with duplicates.

The VCF file with VCARD entries is a widely-accepted Internet Standard, so it may also be appropriate for importing into other destinations.

Transfering and exporting Todoist tasks

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:19:17 +0000

Todoist and Interoperability

Todoist is lacking in the options available for exporting user data. The service does not allow exports in formats usable for other services and officially simply gives the only option of exporting data to Google Sheets.

There are some third-party open source solutions that allow user information to be exported in JSON and CVS formats, but eventually, the information in these formats does not allow import compatibility in other similar services.

Todoist to Things

Some services, such as Things, allow the user to migrate their information from Todoist using the Todoist public API, but it can result in a complicated and tedious process for the user because queries must be performed to obtain the information requested.

Download data for myself

This third-party open source tool allows the user to backup Todoist data as CSV or JSON. Both formats are available but it is recommended to download the information in CSV (Comma Separated Values) due to its ease of reading both for the user downloading and for carrying out the import process in other services.

In order to export your data you need to sign in to your Todoist account via the service itself.

Once you select the format in which you want your data to be exported, you need to authorize and sign in with your Todoist account in order for the tool to begin the backup process.

Having your data in these formats might be useful when trying to import to other tasks services.

Todoist to Google Sheet

This official extension allow the user to export the data they want but also collaborate and document work in progress. We'll be able to export and share active and completed tasks and its information (date, description, priority).

To activate it, first we need to log in in our Todoist account using the desktop version of it.
In settings, we click the Integrations menu and we'll see the Integrations settings and select Export to Google Sheets.
If this is the first time running this extension, you'll be asked to sign in to your Google account.

What this solution can do

These solutions allow the user to find the appropriate ways to export their data given the complexity that Todoist provides in this section.

What this solution does not do

These solutions do not describe ways to migrate to other task services with equal or greater popularity (TickTick, for example) due to the obstacles placed by Todoist when exporting the information. This process must be done manually.

Meta (Facebook) Posts and Notes transfer via DTP

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 20:24:32 +0000

How to transfer your Facebook Posts to other services using DTP

What this solution can do

It can transfer a copy of all, or a subset of, your Facebook posts and notes directly from Meta's servers to a third party service provider. Of the options currently presented, Daybook can only receive posts; Google Docs, WordPress.com/Jetpack, and Blogger can receive posts and notes.

What this solution does not do

Because it is designed to transfer posts and notes, it does not include other content from Facebook, notably photos and videos. If you wish to transfer Facebook photos and videos to a service designed to receive and handle such content, see this article. If you wish to download an archive file with all of your content together to your local device, Meta offers a download tool here: https://accountscenter.facebook.com/infoandpermissions/dyi/.

Exporting photos from Flickr

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 19:23:22 +0000

Export photos from Flickr

"Request My Flickr Data" download

The official supported way to get your photos from Flickr is using their "Request My Flickr Data" button on your flickr account page. This button will not get you your data immediately, but will eventually guide you to download a file containing all of your photos and much other Flickr account data too: * Comments on your photos * Your full descriptions * Number of 'faves' and 'views' for each photo * License * Tags * Date originally imported to Flickr

The download also includes "Flickrmail" sent and received, testimonials, and comments on sets among other data. All the data other than the photo files is in JSON files (at least one JSON file per photo plus the others miscellaneous files.

At this point you technically have all your data but it is hard to do anything with. At least you have a local backup.

Moving photos elsewhere

There's an article by TechAdvisor that's still pretty accurate about the pros and cons of some other services, and it does describe how to get your photos elsewhere but it involves the download-to-local process described above.

What this solution can do

This solution gets all your photos, photo metadata and account metadata into your own hands on your own device. The metadata is in a Flickr-specific format in JSON files.

What this solution does not do

This solution is a complete backup but not a great move solution. * It does not move your photos directly to another photo hostings service * It does not allow you to easily move any photo metadata. Descriptions, tags, sets and dates will all be lost.

Exporting TickTick backup to Things

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:19:17 +0000

Export data from Ticktick to import into Things

The process to migrate from TickTick to Things is quite complex and this is due to the great obstacles and little flexibility that TickTick gives to the user when wanting to migrate from one service to another.

There is not a wide variety of options available within the service, the only one being the possibility of making a data backup, which is downloaded in a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file.

These difficulties may be a strategy by TickTick so that the user is tied to using the service in such a way that, despite the user's desire to try new services or due to the user's dissatisfaction, they cannot abandon it because the file containing the backup is also not very helpful when imported by other similar services and the larger the backup (folders, tasks, tags, notes) the greater the difficulty for the new service to understand the pertinent information.

Create data backup from TickTick

As mentioned above, TickTick only offers the option to export data by backing it up to a CSV file. This article from the official site describes the steps to follow.

It is necessary to mention that to perform the backup it must be done from the web version. With the login already done, we click on Settings, then on Account, and finally on "Generate Backup". This will generate a CSV file that will be downloaded to your computer.

Import backup from TickTick into Things

This process is very complex but in this article we can see that Things provides various options for the user to import their information, however, the CSV format in which our backup is found is not among them and that results in carrying out various actions by the user.

Our first option is to copy from the backup file and paste into Things manually and this can take a long time, depending on the size of our file, but it is understandable that these types of actions cannot be automated.

The other option available is to change the file extension from CSV to plain text or mark down and thus copy and paste in the same way as in the previous option but this time as a bulk and by creating a new list in Things and this, at least, makes the process a little easier and faster.

What this solution can do

This solution allows you to back up your data as a user who wants to export their TickTick data and then, in a very complex and long-lasting process, import that data into Things.

What this solution does not do

This solution does not provide useful options for the user who wants to export their data from TickTick, nor does it provide a way to automate the import of that backup into Things.

Sharing your Goodreads book reading activity with Shelf

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 19:26:11 +0000

Synching your book reading activity from Goodreads to Shelf

About the Shelf app

The Shelf app is part of a mission to help users access and share their own activity data. After installing, you're prompted to connect to services like Netflix (for watching activity), Goodreads (for reading activity), Steam (for game play activity), Apple Music and Spotify (for listening activity).

Note about 'datatype' - yes Shelf handles several data types but at present the Portability map does not, so we filed this article under our one matching datatype, "Book History", for now.

Shelf currently makes this personal media consumption activity available for you to share (importantly, users have control over what gets shared and especially what gets highlighted).

What this solution can do

This can help you as a Goodreads user (or Apple Music, or Spotify) share your activity with friends who do not necessarily use the same services.

What this solution does not do

At present, Shelf does not allow re-export of your data. It aggregates data from other primary sources, so ideally those primary sources themselves would give you access to your data.

Moving a blog from WordPress to SquareSpace

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 03:59:01 +0000

Approach

Squarespace offers an article explaining how to move a WordPress site to SquareSpace.

What this approach can do

This can move content and domain. Content includes attachments, blog pages, authors, categories, comments, and MOST images.

What this approach can't do

The instructions from SquareSpace explain that a site's layout, design and fonts cannot move. It may be easier to start from a new template and focus on moving content into it.

Also be sure to read the instructions on what kinds of images don't get imported.

SquareSpace has a different ecosystem of plugins from WordPress, so any plugins that the WordPress site relied upon will need to be considered separately.

Moving a blog from WordPress to Ghost

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 03:59:00 +0000

Using Ghost's WordPress plugin

Ghost has an advanced approach to migrating to Ghost from WordPress, and have written a plugin to make this happen smoothly. It still requires exporting data to a computer and re-uploading it, but Ghost's plugin helps access and format the data for a better transfer.

What this solution does not do

According to Ghost's guide, "Keep in mind that a migration from WordPress will not include custom fields, metadata, shortcodes, custom post types & taxonomies, or binary files. Just posts, pages, text, and images."

Also note that the user must fix URLs manually.

Moving a blog to WordPress

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 03:59:01 +0000

Alternatives

There are many guides to migrating sites or blogs to WordPress.

Blogger - WordPress Guide
Ghost - WPBeginner Guide
GoDaddy Website Builder - WPBeginner Guide
Gumroad - WPBeginner Guide
Joomla - WPBeginner Guide
Medium - see both WPBeginner and WordPress guide
Shopify - WPBeginner Guide
Squarespace - WordPress guide
Tumblr - WPBeginner Guide
Weebly - WPBeginner Guide
Wix - WordPress guide
Webflow - WPBeginner Guide
Facebook - WordPress guide

Some of these are more turnkey than others. WPBeginner offers free migration services under some conditions, others have instructions on how to export data from the source system and reimport to a WordPress site.

What these solutions will do

Many of the transfer options involve exporting content from one platform, and importing it to WordPress, including the Blogger, Medium and Squarespace steps. The user will need a computer on which to download the content from one site and upload to another.

What these solutions will not do

Transfering additional information to WordPress beyond content pages may involve much more work or not be possible

Moving from an e-commerce service like Shopify or Gumroad can move content and listings, but because a WordPress user must figure out their own e-commerce plugin for sales, moving customer data and past sales data will be much harder.
Content may be copied from Tumblr, but the social graph would not be.

Transfer music playlists between Apple Music and YouTube Music

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 19:51:13 +0000

Transfer playlists between YouTube Music playlists and Apple Music.

Youtube Music to Apple Music

The process for transfering from YouTube Music is described in both Google Takeout documentation, where the transfer begins, and an Apple Support article. If your playlists are already in YouTube Music, Google is the exporter. It sends the playlists to an account you choose and authorize on Apple.

When the transfer is done, you will receive an email with your Apple ID associated email.

Apple Music to YouTube Music

Plalists already on Apple Music can be copied to YouTube Music using some of the same underlying technology and with some of the same caveats. Starting from Apple Music playlists, as described in the Apple Support Article, Apple's Data and Privacy page offers data transfer functionality. You'll need to already have a YouTube Music account.

What this solution can do

The playlist transfer technology does song metadata matching to attempt to accurately identify a song on one system with the best match on another service. Since most commercial songs are already available on both services, it's not actually transfering the audio files. Audio files are not transferred, therefore any imported or uploaded audio files (including podcasts, audio books or your own audio uploads) are not transferred.

What this solution does not do

This approach does not copy podcasts or audio books.
Uploaded audio files are not copied.
Playlists from other users, saved to your library, are not transferred.

Tiktok Video Browsing History

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 21:18:13 +0000

Tiktok Video Browsing History

Tiktok offers access to your account data on the Tiktok website. Via the Profile icon on the top right, choose Settings, then Download your data.

To download and be able to find browsing history, choose all data
Choose TXT or JSON depending on your use case

Once the download is complete it is available on the same page, but on a different tab. The download is a ZIP file that contains one document with internal structure. The “All data” download includes a “Video Browsing History” section, whereas when we chose custom data rather than all data and chose “Activity”, the video browsing history was not included.

For each video in the Video Browsing History, the JSON data just includes the link to the video and a date. The date appears to be the date you viewed the video, not the date it was posted.

What it does not do

The data export does not show how long you watched a video for, or whether it was found on your "FYP" or some other way.

Netflix Viewing History

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 17:06:46 +0000

Netflix Viewing History

Netflix offers an interface to download your personal data via their website. Within the Account Settings Overview page, the Edit Settings option provides first a "Viewing Activity" subpage with a list of episodes viewed, without further information. Separately, under Security within Account Settings, the "Personal Info Access" option provides an interface to request a download of viewing data. No further customizations or options are provided. The user is informed that this process may take up to 30 days; however it can also happen in a matter of hours.

Successful execution of an information access request results in an email with a link to re-authenticate (through password entry) followed by a downloadable ZIP archive, which includes a cover sheet and CSV files including viewing history, interaction history, profile information, and a broad range of additional data. A PDF "Cover Page" describes the files and data included in the request.

For users who are not owners of an account but whose email address is associated with a profile in the account, Netflix's reference page suggests the user can email privacy at netflix dot com to request a copy of their personal activity data.

Use Songshift iOS app to synchronize playlists between services

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 23:29:52 +0000

Use SongShift iOS app to synchronize playlists between music services

SongShift

The Songshift app for iOS is used by lots of folks to synchronize playlists between multiple music streaming platforms. The app supports quite a few streaming services so check out their site.

What this solution can do

As far as I can tell, this can be used to migrate playlists while changing services, but it can also be used to maintain playlists across multiple services longterm -- and share those playlists with friends on the services they use.

What this solution does not do

Some ways this might not work for you:

if you don't have an iOS device
if you are unwilling to share your music account information with SongShift

Transferring your Instagram post/video viewing history elsewhere

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 21:18:13 +0000

Instagram "Download your information" for posts/videos you've viewed

Instagram offers reasonably fast access to your data via your Profile page. It’s a substantial package of information, available for download or transfer either in HTML or JSON format.

Follow these links:

A “More” link on the bottom left of the Instagram Web interface
leads to a “Settings” link
Settings includes a link to “Accounts Center”.
Accounts Center page has a link to “Your information and permissions”
This page has a link to “Download your information”
The popup has a button for “Download or transfer information”
Select your account
Select "All available information"
Select "Download to device" or "Transfer to destination"

Downloading your own data

The option to "download to device" is followed by options for date range, data format and media quality. The HTML data format option provides static pages that are easier for most people to navigate - just open the file in a Web browser after it's downloaded.

After finalizing the data request, the process to bundle up your data happens asynchronously. Instagram sends an email with a link back to “Download your information” and the Download link. The Download link provides a ZIP file that your operating system is likely to be able to easily open, showing quite a few directories of files.

A few notes on what is and isn’t available:

Includes a list of links for Web sites you’ve visited from within an Instagram app.
Includes recent searches, contacts, followers, following,
Includes a list of ads you’ve seen but only author and date (no link to ad information)
Includes lists of posts viewed, and videos viewed (but no links to posts/videos). Note that this is filed under the folders adsinformation/adsand_topics.

The files for posts viewed and videos watched provide only author and timestamp. As far as we can tell, the timestamp associated a post or video you’ve viewed is the time of viewing. This, combined with the author of the post or video, does not provide a way to reconstruct WHICH of tht author's posts or videos you watched.

Note that the he file containing of liked posts DOES include links to those posts - filed in the folder “yourinstagramactivity”.

The availability of the download is pretty quick, depending on how much data is on your account and how much you request. In our tests we received emails in a couple minutes.

The JSON downloads appear to have all the same data (which means this also doesn’t have links to Instagram posts or videos you’ve viewed, only the author and timestamp) but it does have the data in a machine readable format which may be useful for some projects.

Transferring - cloud backup

In addition to providing a way to download this information, Instagram also offers a way to transfer the same information (in ZIP file format) to Google Drive or Dropbox. These sites may be useful locations to get at part of this information without downloading it all to your own device, or providing a backup of certain important account information.

The information transferred to a cloud location will not be publically available at that location, unless you’ve configured that drive or cloud storage to be publicly visible.

What it does not do?

Instagram “Download your information” does not provide access to URLs of posts or videos you have viewed.

The transfer options are effective for copying your account information to a static location in the cloud that acts like a backup or a simple file storage. That is to say, the transfer options provided by Instagram do not allow you to move your Instagram posts, followers or other material contents of your account to another social media service where those posts will be served.

Youtube video watching history

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 21:18:13 +0000

Youtube video watching history

In order to access and download your data from YouTube you will need to use Google Takeout which is a Google project that allows users of Google products, such as YouTube and Gmail, to export their data to a downloadable file.

Google Takeout has a very simple and intuitive UI that will simplify the process. To start you can go to the Google Takeout URL: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout Once there, you have the option to select all the Google products you can export your data from. Since this document is dedicated to YouTube, we will click in Deselect all selections and then, only choose YouTube.

As soon as you selecting YouTub and before going on, two options will be available to you.

formats
scope

The first one is called Various formats. By clicking in here, you will be prompted by how your data will be downloaded and its formats (e.g, video metadata will be in CVS files as well as video interactions, playlist, channels, subscriptions, etc). It’s worth mentioning that the record information (Youtube search and watch history) is the only one that allows you to select in which format you want that specific data to be downloaded. You can choose between HTML and JSON.

The second option is called All YouTube data included (as default but it will change depending on how many data types you choose to download). Here, you will be able to choose specific YouTube data for export. You can choose among several options including channels, songs-library-music, comments, video history, kids, playlists, etc.

Once you’ve chosen your formats and data types, click on Next step. In the next page you will be able to select the destinations in which your data will transfer to. Among the available options are: Send download link by email (could be the most useful), Add to Drive, Add to OneDrive, etc. Then, you need to select the frequency in which your data will be downloaded. You can agree to do a complete export or do 6 exports during the course of a year (exports will happen every 2 months).

Finally:

Select the file type (.zip, .tgz) and the file size.
Click on Create export.

Downloading yourself

Now you just need to wait for your data to be ready to be downloaded. You will receive an email that will allow you to download it according to the destination you choose. Google does this process very quickly so you won’t have to wait more than a couple of minutes. Lastly, once Google has finished the process and the data was able to be downloaded, you can see the folders and its formations according to your previous selections (mostly CSV files).

Sending to Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Box

Although your Youtube data can be transfered to these online storage options, consider this an online backup or extension of your local storage: once at the destination, your data will be static, and not part of any service. It may be useful to you as an archive or as a way to get the small segment of data you want without downloading it all immediately to a device.

What it does not do

The data export does not show how long you watched a video for. As far as we could tell, watching for only a few seconds still counts as a view.

Exporting and browsing your X's interaction activity

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 19:13:31 +0000

X’s “Download an archive of your data” for posts you’ve interacted with

X offers a very well documented and reasonably fast process to export your data from the service.

It is necessary to highlight that the export of data for users is intended so that they can verify and analyze all the information corresponding to them. Due to logical circumstances, it is not possible to export X's information to another service that belongs to the social network category directly (as happens with other applications with a different purpose of use such as taking notes apps).

This official X article provides information on how to carry out the process on the various platforms and the type of information relevant to the user that will be downloaded. Among the most notable information we can observe the following:

Username, email address, phone numbers, numbers associated with your account, etc.
Account history such as your logging history, as well as the places you’ve been while using X.
Apps connected to your X account and browsers and mobile devices associated to it as well.
Account activity (such as your posts, repost, likes), and your interests and Ads data.

To start the process we go to our profile (by tapping on our profile icon) if we are on a mobile device. When we are on the website, we tap or click on the More section in the main navigation menu located at the bottom left of the timeline.

Once the previous step is completed, the remaining steps of the process are similar regardless of the device and operating system in use. The next thing is to enter the Settings and privacy section. Later we go to Your Account and here we will have an option called Download an archive of your data, which we will click or tap.

Subsequently, it is necessary to wait for X to finish exporting the information of the user who requested the download. According to my own experience, this process ends in a couple of days, which is fast taking into account my own experiences with other social media services.

Download formats in .zip file

Once the process of downloading the information by X is completed, in the same section Download an archive of your data, we will be shown the option to download a .zip file. It is worth mentioning that it is the only format in which X allows downloading.

Files inside .zip file

When unzipping the .zip file we will find two folders (assets and data) and a Your archive.html file.

The html file allows us to see a general breakdown of our activity such as the number of posts, likes, blocked accounts and muted accounts, among others. Likewise, we can enter each of these sections and we can verify our information with a graphical interface quite similar to the one that appears in the X timeline and that allows the user some comfort.

If we want to know our information in more detail, we can enter the data folder that was created after decompressing the .zip file or in the Open this folder option in the previously mentioned Your archive.html file.

In this folder we have a very wide and diverse amount of information. Most of these files are in a JavaScript format, therefore they have the .js extension.

Each of these files is named based on its content. In the tweets.js file all our posts are found in an array of objects. This format is found in each of the existing .js files.

In the data folder, we can also see that there are folders that include _media in the name. These show us the multimedia files that accompany our posts and also our profile and cover photo, among others.

What this solution can do

This solution allows the user to directly download from X a history of the user's own information and corresponding activity.

What this solution does not do

This solution does not allow the user to migrate the corresponding information to another social network service due to the various ways in which they operate. It also does not allow you to select the format in which the backup will be downloaded or export it to a cloud storage service. It will be stored directly to the device on which the .zip file is downloaded.

Instagram Photos - how to save or access your own copy on a device

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:19:15 +0000

Are my Instagram photos copied anywhere else?

Instagram allows you to take photos and videos from your device photos, but it also allows you to take photos and videos for "Stories" from right within the app. Depending on how you've used Instagram, you might have copies of that content in your device already, as well as in cloud storage. For example, an Instagram user who uses their iPhone camera app to take photos (and their iPhone is configured to save photos to iCloud), then selects from those photos to create Instagram posts, is already going to have copies of those photos. However, users who take photos/videos directly within Instagram might not have any external copies.

If you need copies of your content posted on Instagram, there are several approaches with different tradeoffs.

One by One

Ok, this is not a very satisifying solution, but it gets worse - there's not just one way to get content from Instagram item by item, but several ways depending on whether you're trying to get a copy of a post or a reel, if it's public or private, and if you're looking on a browser or in the app. I'm not even sure it's possible with private reels, without going into Web page source code and scouring for content links. More information would be appreciated if folks know!

Save a copy of my Instagram photos going forward

The "tom's guide" site wrote a good article on how to save these photos from Instagram.
One good option to save photos going forward is to set up Instagram settings as explained in that article, so that new photos are always saved to your device's camera roll. Unfortunately, if there are already many photos that need to be downloaded, downloading them one-by-one is not reliable or efficient.

Tools that might work for bulk download

Some other sites advocate using browser extensions or 3rd-party tools.

Explains a Chrome extension
Suggests ByClick Downloader for Windows as well as several other bulk download apps
Suggests 4K Stogram as well as other apps

Transfering to another online site

Ultimately it might be easier to take a roundabout approach. Meta supports sending your Facebook and Instagram content to other online services via data portability tools (using the Data Transfer Project, supported by the Data Transfer Initiative). After getting Meta to transfer your photos to a cloud photo or backup service, that service may have better functionality for getting your own copies of bulk content - or it might solve your use case sufficiently to have that content securely backed up in another cloud location.

Amazon Photos

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 15:43:59 +0000

Amazon Photos

Amazon's photo storage service boasts unlimited photo storage for Prime members. Over time this can of course result in more photos in the cloud than a user can easily transfer to another service.

The only option today for moving photos from Amazon to a different service is to begin by downloading, and hope that uploading to another service goes well. Some users may have challenges with storage or bandwidth. Photos can easily be 2MB each, requiring a GB of storage for each 500 photos. It's worth using specific bulk export tools rather than using the regular Web page interface for photos, because bulk export tools have been desgined to require less back-and-forth and complete more reliably.

Amazon support recommends using Amazon Drive as the interface through which to download photos. A 3rd party article suggests using the Photos interface directly. In either case, it does not seem possible to do a single bulk download/export of photos, and instead the user must select multiple files and photos and hope to select and download them all eventually using some methodical process.

Further information

This article would be improved with some more information about what the export looks like and whether metadata is completely lost. Contributions welcome!