How to keep your recipes and notes when you change apps

The short answer

Before you leave a recipe app, check which exports it offers. If available, keep a readable copy you can open outside that app and a structured recipe file your next app supports. A whole-app backup usually serves a different purpose: restoring the app that made it. Test a few representative recipes and their notes before you delete anything or change your subscription.

Three kinds of export, three different jobs

• A readable copy (PDF or HTML) is easy to open, print and keep for years. Open it and check that your recipes and notes are actually included. Another app usually can't turn it back into a recipe it understands, at least not in bulk.
• A structured recipe file keeps ingredients, steps and notes as separate parts. That's what lets another app import a recipe instead of just displaying it. Many of these files are specific to one app, so a different app can only import them if it supports that format.
• A whole-app backup is meant to restore the same app, settings and all. It's useful if you might go back, but it's rarely something a different app can open.

Saving a readable copy and a structured file covers you either way. Check that the readable copy opens and that the next app supports the structured format.

Keeping recipes and notes together in Orzella

In Orzella, choose the recipes you want to keep and export a Recipe archive. It can contain their sources, private notes, collection memberships, available supported photos and original captures. You can import that archive back into Orzella. For a copy to read or print outside the app, choose Readable text, which does not include photos. Check private notes and captures before sharing an archive.

It isn't a backup of everything in the app, and other recipe apps won't necessarily be able to open it. Think of it as a well-packed box of your recipes, not a moving van for the whole house.

A small test before you switch

1. Choose three recipes: one with a note you'd hate to lose, one with a photo, and one with separate sections such as a crust and a filling.
2. Check the readable and structured exports your current app offers, and keep the supported versions available.
3. Open the readable copy to confirm the notes are actually in it.
4. Import the structured file into the new app.
5. Compare the two side by side and fix anything small.
6. Only then move the rest, and keep your original exports somewhere safe.

If something doesn't import cleanly, the import help guide is a good next stop.

Leave with what matters

Changing apps shouldn't mean starting your cooking life over. In Orzella, every recipe keeps your notes right beside the ingredients and steps, ready for the next time you cook it.