Import & export
Your records are yours. Openbeehive lets you take all of your data with you — as a backup, to move to another instance, to crunch in a spreadsheet, or to share with other tools. Everything runs locally from Settings → Data & backup; no data leaves your device unless you choose to share the file.
Exporting
Open Settings, find Data & backup, and pick a format:
| Format | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Full backup (JSON) | Every record — apiaries, hives, queens, inspections, harvests, tasks, placements and events — in one file | Safekeeping, and moving to another instance (round-trippable) |
| Spreadsheet (XLSX) | One workbook, one sheet per entity | Analysis in Excel / LibreOffice / Google Sheets |
| CSV (ZIP) | One .csv per entity, bundled in a .zip | Universal interchange, scripts, other apps |
| BeeXML | A structured XML file (apiary → hive → queen / inspection) | Sharing with tools that speak the BeeXML interchange style |
| Report (PDF) | A printable apiary report — hives, current queens and latest readings | Printing, sharing, audit / record-keeping |
The Report (PDF) opens a clean, branded summary in a new tab and triggers your browser's print dialog — choose "Save as PDF" to keep a copy.
The export reflects what's on your device right now. Photos are not included in the CSV/XLSX/BeeXML exports (they're stored as blobs) — the full picture lives in your synced account and its blob storage; see Self-hosting → Backups for server-side backups.
Importing & restoring
In the same Data & backup panel, choose a format and pick a file:
- Openbeehive backup (JSON) — restores a previous export. Records keep their ids, so re-importing the same backup is safe (it won't create duplicates).
- BeeXML — imports apiaries, hives, queens and inspections from a BeeXML-style file.
- CSV from another app — migrate from another beekeeping app or a spreadsheet (see below).
- Auto-detect — picks the right reader from the file.
Imported records become part of your account and sync like anything you enter by hand.
Migrating from another app
Most beekeeping apps can export their records as CSV (for example Apiary Book, HiveBook, BeeKeeperPal, or your own spreadsheet). Openbeehive reads those files by matching column names, so you usually don't have to reformat anything.
Recognised columns (case, spaces and punctuation don't matter; several languages are understood):
| Openbeehive field | Recognised column names |
|---|---|
| Apiary | apiary, yard, location, standort, rucher, colmenar, apiario |
| Hive | hive, colony, beute, volk, ruche, colmena, arnia |
| Date | date, inspection date, visit date, datum, fecha, data |
| Weather | weather, wetter, meteo, tiempo |
| Varroa | varroa, mites, mite count |
| Hive temperature | hive temp, brood temp |
| Outside temperature | temperature, temp, outside temp, ambient temp |
| Hive humidity | hive humidity |
| Outside humidity | humidity, outside humidity |
| Hive weight | weight, hive weight, gewicht |
| Honey | honey, harvest, yield, honig, ernte |
| Notes | note, notes, comment, remarks, notiz |
Each CSV row becomes an inspection on the matching hive, creating apiaries and hives as needed (rows with no apiary land in an "Imported" apiary). Columns that aren't recognised are skipped — nothing breaks, you just keep the rest.
:::tip Round-trip first If you're moving between Openbeehive instances, prefer the JSON backup — it's complete and lossless. Use CSV for coming from other apps. :::
Why this matters
Openbeehive is built so your data can't be held hostage. There's a long history of beekeeping records getting locked into one vendor's cloud. Open efforts like BeeXML (an Apimondia interchange standard) and the BEEP project aim to fix that; Openbeehive leans the same way — open formats, a documented API, and a one-click full backup. Take your bees and go whenever you like.
For programmatic access and automated feeds, see Using the API.