Help & Documentation

Offline-first guidance for safe gear lists.

Import & Export

Bring data in, take data out

Import & Export covers the I/O surfaces in the app: CSV import for equipment lists, the project Export dialog (one 'Export' button in the project header, with a tab per document type — gear list, project briefing, crew list, preproduction, budget report, camera log, carnet), and full backups (downloaded as a .zip that bundles images, or a plain .json fallback). CSV and the Export dialog live inside individual projects; the account-wide backup lives in Settings → Backup & Data (deeper coverage in the dedicated Backup & Restore topic).

CSV import (equipment into a project)

Import equipment from a spreadsheet directly into a project's gear list.

  1. Open the project, navigate to its gear list.
  2. Click 'Import' → 'CSV File'.
  3. Paste CSV data, or choose a .csv file from disk.
  4. No column mapping — columns are auto-detected from the header row. Accepted columns: Name, Menge (Quantity), Details, Status, and Category (optional).
  5. Review the import preview, then click 'Import N items' to confirm.
  6. Items are added to the gear list. In Multi-category mode, missing categories are created automatically.
Tips
  • With AI set up (Settings → Account → AI Integration, switch 'Gear-list import conversion' on), you can paste any list — a rental quote, an email, text from a PDF — and press 'Convert with …' in the AI assist panel. It is rewritten as import CSV in the same box and the preview updates; nothing is imported until you press 'Import N items'. With the on-device model in the Mac or iOS app the list never leaves your device.
  • Without AI, 'Copy prompt' / 'Open ChatGPT' / 'Open Gemini' in the AI assist panel give you a prompt that turns any list into this CSV format.
  • Clean the CSV before importing — remove empty rows and stray headers.
  • UTF-8 is the safe encoding for German umlauts and accented characters.
  • The import dialog clears any previously pasted or loaded text each time you open it. There's no column mapping to remember — columns come straight from the CSV header.
  • Preview catches formatting errors early. Always look before confirming.
  • Imports ADD to existing data, they don't replace. Re-importing the same file creates duplicates.
Common Pitfalls
  • Semicolons instead of commas as delimiter (regional CSV format). Convert to comma-separated before importing.
  • Merged cells in the source spreadsheet. Flatten them before exporting to CSV.
  • Encoding issues. Save as UTF-8 from Excel / Sheets before importing.
  • Missing header row — without a recognised header, columns fall back to the default order (Name, Menge, Details, Status, Category) and may misalign.

The project Export dialog (project → documents)

One 'Export' button in the project header opens a tabbed dialog. Each tab is a document type; the tab set mirrors the project's own workspace tabs, so a tab switched off in the workspace is absent here too.

  • Tabs: Gear List, Project Briefing, Crew List, Preproduction (sub-tabs for Documents / Locations / Moodboard), Budget Report, Camera Log, Carnet, Project Backup.
  • Gear List PDF contains: item names, categories, quantities, provider info, and the project's metadata header (client, dates, resolution, codec).
  • Crew List exports a PDF, a .vcf contacts file, or both. Contacts are named “Name — Function (Project)” so importing them never merges into the person's existing card.
  • Project Backup is the complete, re-importable copy of the project — it used to be a separate 'Export' button in the header. The same copy comes from 'Export project' in a project card's ⋯ menu on All Projects, and 'Import project' on that page brings it back.
  • Custom branding (logo + accent colour) from Settings → Account → Signature & Branding applies automatically.
  • Issued documents (sub-rental quote, invoice, delivery/return note) carry your IBAN + Tax/VAT ID from Settings → Account → Billing & Issuer Details too.
  • PDFs are generated entirely in the browser. Nothing is uploaded.
  • The embedded Ubuntu font renders international characters cleanly.
  • You can also ask the assistant — “how do I export a PDF?” — and it will offer a button that opens this dialog for you, without losing the tab you were on.
Tips
  • Set logo + accent colour once in Settings. From then on every project PDF is branded automatically.
  • Large gear lists (50+ items) take a few seconds to generate. Don't refresh the page during the spinner.
  • The PDF reflects project data at the moment of export. Edit later → re-export to update.
  • An export tab you expected is missing? Re-enable its workspace tab under the project's Configure Tabs menu.
  • For the broader gear-list options (provider filters, department filters, Gear Status column), see the Projects topic → 'Exporting a project'.
  • Pressing Cancel in the Save dialog (or closing the share sheet on a phone) writes nothing, and the app says so: "Download cancelled. Nothing was saved." instead of a success message. This covers backups, project exports, PDFs, calendar (.ics) files, frame lines, diagrams and preference exports. When the export has its own dialog — Budget Report, Camera Log, Crew List, Moodboard or the Monthly timesheet PDF — that dialog also stays open with your settings, and a Crew List set to Both does not go on to the contacts file.

Full backup & restore

Complete app-data backup. Downloaded as a .zip that bundles the JSON payload plus your OPFS images — or a plain .json if ZIP export isn't available — covering every project, gear item, contact, template, and setting.

  1. Settings → Backup & Data.
  2. Click 'Download full backup'. A .zip (with images) is generated and downloaded; if ZIP export fails it falls back to a plain .json.
  3. To restore: 'Import full backup' → select the file.
  4. Imports MERGE into existing data. They do NOT overwrite — for a wipe-and-replace, run Factory Reset FIRST, then import.
Example: migrating to a new laptop

Moving your data from one machine to another.

  1. Old laptop: Settings → Backup & Data → 'Download full backup'.
  2. Save the .zip to a cloud drive.
  3. New laptop: open the app in the browser.
  4. Settings → Backup & Data → 'Import full backup' → pick the .zip (or .json).
  5. Confirm. Projects, contacts, templates, and settings merge in.

→ Complete data migration in under a minute.

Tips
  • Make a backup before any major operation (mass delete, large import, factory reset).
  • Store backups in a cloud drive (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox) for off-device safekeeping.
  • The backup is a standard .zip — open it with any archive tool to see the JSON payload and bundled images. A .json fallback opens directly in any text editor.
  • Cloud Sync users have a server-side copy of their data, but local backups are still recommended — they're decoupled from the account.
Common Pitfalls
  • Expecting import to replace. It doesn't — it merges.
  • Importing into a workspace that already has data — duplicate IDs can pile up.
  • Importing a very old backup with missing schema fields — they import fine, missing fields are silently dropped.
  • Not backing up before a device reset. Local data is lost without either a backup or Cloud Sync.

For deeper backup workflows (cloud safety backups, device auto-backups, retention, factory reset), see the Backup & Restore topic. For sharing projects with collaborators (vs. moving them between devices), see Cloud Sync and Collaboration.

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