# Importing from other tools

> Obsidian vaults, Notion exports, Todoist, Trello, Google Keep, Markdown, CSV, Excalidraw scenes, a Margin export, and recipes from a link, with the folder tree intact.

Files come in through one place: **Settings → Data**, under Import data. The
**Import** buttons on Notes and on Boards open it, and so do "Import notes"
and "Import a board" in the command palette. Recipes have their own door on
the Recipes page. Everything lands in the workspace you are in when you import.

## What it reads

| Source      | What you drop in                                        | What you get                                                                    |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Obsidian    | The vault, zipped                                       | Notes in the same folder tree, with `[[wikilinks]]`, tags and front matter kept |
| Notion      | An export in **Markdown & CSV** format, zipped          | Pages as notes in folders, databases as boards (or checklists)                  |
| Markdown    | One `.md` file, several, or a zipped folder of them     | Notes, with the folder structure and front matter tags                          |
| CSV         | A spreadsheet saved as CSV                              | A new or existing board, a checklist, or expenses                               |
| Excalidraw  | An `.excalidraw` scene file                             | A whiteboard, editable like one you drew here                                   |
| Margin JSON | A workspace file from **Export JSON**                   | Its boards, notes, checklists, habits and expenses (focus sessions stay behind) |
| Todoist     | The backup `.zip`, one project's CSV, or a JSON export  | Each project as a board, sections as columns, sub-tasks as a checklist          |
| Trello      | A board's JSON export                                   | The board with its lists, cards, labels, checklists and comments                |
| Google Keep | The Google Takeout `.zip`, or single note `.json` files | Notes with their checklists, labels as tags, pins and dates                     |

The importer tells the sources apart by the shape of what you drop, before it
opens anything for real: a vault from a Notion export, a Todoist backup from a
Keep Takeout, a Trello board from a Margin file. You never have to say which is
which. Under the drop zone, **Moving from another app?** has a tile for
Todoist, Trello and Google Keep that says how to get the export out.

![A zipped Obsidian vault, recognized on sight and listed note by note before you import it (15 seconds, silent).](https://themarginapp.com/docs/media/loops/dl174/dl174-poster.webp)

_A zipped Obsidian vault, recognized on sight and listed note by note before you import it (15 seconds, silent)._

**How an import goes**

1. Drop the file in, or pick it.
2. Read the preview: counts per kind, sample rows, and for a CSV, where it
   goes and **Match your columns** so your headers land on the right fields.
3. Leave **Skip duplicates** on unless you want copies. Nothing already
   there is replaced.
4. Import, and read the result: what was created and what was skipped.

A bank statement CSV imported as expenses gets more help: the column layout is
remembered for that bank's next statement, transfers between your own accounts
are kept out of spending, and rows you already imported are skipped. See
[Expenses and money](https://themarginapp.com/docs/expenses-and-money#import-a-bank-statement).

## Obsidian and Notion, in more detail

**Obsidian.** The whole folder tree comes across as real folders. Note
identity is the note's path, so importing the same vault twice merges into what
is already there. That means you can bring a big vault over in stages.

![The vault arrives in its own folders, and its wikilinks work both ways (15 seconds, silent).](https://themarginapp.com/docs/media/loops/dl175/dl175-poster.webp)

_The vault arrives in its own folders, and its wikilinks work both ways (15 seconds, silent)._

**Notion.** Notion stamps a 32-character id onto every page and folder name.
The importer strips them, rebuilds the page hierarchy as folders, and sends each
database through the CSV route as a board by default. Where Notion writes a
database twice, once as the current view and once as all rows, the full one
wins.

> **Known limit:** Images and other files inside a vault or export do not come across yet. A
> Notion import says how many it skipped.

## Todoist, Trello and Google Keep

**Todoist.** In Todoist, open Settings, then Backups, and download the latest
backup. Drop the whole zip here and each project becomes a board; one
project's CSV works too. Sections become columns (a project without sections
gets To Do, In Progress and Done), sub-tasks become a checklist on their card,
comments go into the card's description, and priorities p1 to p3 become
urgent, high and normal. A due date with no time stays on that day wherever
you are. Repeating tasks keep repeating when the schedule is a
common one ("every day", "every 2 weeks", "every monday", "every 15th").
Anything it cannot read keeps its Todoist wording in the description, so you
can set it again.

**Trello.** On the board, open the menu, then Print, export and share, then
Export as JSON, and drop that file here. Lists become columns, and cards keep
their description, due date, labels, checklists and comments. A card here has
one checklist, so several Trello checklists are merged, each item named after
its list. Archived lists and cards stay behind, and the preview counts them.
People on cards and attachments do not come across.

**Google Keep.** In Google Takeout, select only Keep and download the archive.
Drop the whole zip here. Notes keep their text, checklists, labels (as tags),
pins and the dates they were made and last edited. Archived notes go into a
folder called Archived, and notes in Keep's trash are left out. Pictures and
recordings stay in your Takeout folder; the preview counts them.

**Exporting again later.** You can drop a newer export of the same thing
whenever you like. A Todoist project or a Trello board that is already here
(same name) is skipped whole, and a Keep note is matched by its title and the
moment it was made, so only notes you wrote since the last export come in. Two
Keep notes with the same title, made on the same day, are still two notes. The
preview's button counts only what is new, and the same file dropped into a
different workspace imports in full there.

## Plan limits and big imports

> **Careful: Check the counts against your plan first** Every import is fitted to your plan before anything is written. On Free a
> workspace holds 100 notes, 5 boards and 200 cards a board; the preview names
> what will not fit, and the result says how many were left out, so nothing
> shows for a moment and then disappears. Bring a large vault in on a paid plan
> or during a trial, or in stages. The numbers for every plan are in
> [Plans and limits](https://themarginapp.com/docs/plans-and-limits).

Recipes work the same way: that import saves what fits and tells you how many
did not.

## Recipes, from a link, a file or a paste

On **Recipes**, the menu beside the search box has **\[Import from a link or
file]**, with three tabs: Find online, From a link, and Paste or upload.

- **From a link**: the page is read on the server. A site that publishes proper
  structured recipe data is parsed exactly; a page that does not is read by
  the assistant and marked for you to check.
- **Paste or upload**: Markdown, plain text, or a Margin recipe file.
- **Fill-in templates**: the same menu has **Template (JSON)** and
  **Template (markdown)**, if you would rather type a batch.

Every route shows a review screen before anything is saved. If the batch is
bigger than your plan holds (25 recipes on Free), it saves what fits and tells
you how many did not. See [Recipes and the meal plan](https://themarginapp.com/docs/recipes-and-meals).

> **On the phone:** On the phone, **Settings → Data** has the same import with
> the same preview, duplicate check and plan limits. On Android, pick the file
> from a folder, zips included. On an iPhone, paste a Trello or Todoist JSON
> file, a CSV or a note from Files or Mail; a zip (a Todoist backup or a Keep
> Takeout) cannot be pasted, so bring that one in on the web. Recipes come in
> from a link or the online catalog on both.

## After an import

Imported content is picked up by the Mind like anything you write, in the
background. The result screen offers **Organize into my Mind** to run a weave
pass over it straight away, which spends weave credits. A big import is the
one time the review queue in [Organize](https://themarginapp.com/docs/curating-the-mind) fills up
fast: collapse every group and use **Accept all** where a group is plainly
right.

![Import, then the result: what was created, and Organize into my Mind if you want it woven in now (15 seconds, silent).](https://themarginapp.com/docs/media/loops/dl178/dl178-poster.webp)

_Import, then the result: what was created, and Organize into my Mind if you want it woven in now (15 seconds, silent)._

## Your memory, from another Margin or another assistant

What the Mind knows comes in through its own door, not through Import data.

- **A Margin brain file** (the JSON from **Settings → Your
  Brain**, yours or a memory pack someone shared with you): upload it
  with **Choose a .json brain** on the same page, read the
  counts of facts, patterns and routines, then press
  **Import this brain**. Near-matches update what is already
  there, so importing the same file twice adds nothing.
- **What another assistant remembers about you**: **Mind → Bring
  your memory** gives you a prompt to paste into that assistant, and
  you review its answer fact by fact before anything is kept.

Both are covered in [The Mind](https://themarginapp.com/docs/the-mind#bringing-your-memory-from-another-assistant).

A board can also stay connected to a Google Sheet in two-way sync, which is
different from importing it once. See [Integrations](https://themarginapp.com/docs/integrations).

Getting it all back out again (Markdown for notes, JSON for the workspace and
your recipes) is covered in [Your data](https://themarginapp.com/docs/your-data).

**Where to next**

- [Your data](https://themarginapp.com/docs/your-data): every way back out
- [Curating the Mind](https://themarginapp.com/docs/curating-the-mind): working through what an import suggests
- [Plans and limits](https://themarginapp.com/docs/plans-and-limits): how much each plan holds


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Section: Control and connections. Checked against the running product on October 7, 2026.
Web page: https://themarginapp.com/docs/importing-your-life. Every docs page: https://themarginapp.com/docs/llms.txt