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JSON backup: exporting your habits to a file and importing them again

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With the JSON backup, Habit Tracker Grid writes your habits, history included, into a file. Where the file goes is your choice. Later you bring it back in with “Import from JSON”, on a new iPhone for instance.

Export and import are part of the free version, which covers up to 2 habits. If the file holds more than 2 habits, the import without Premium takes the first 2. The file still holds all of them. What Premium costs is on the pricing page.

Exporting a backup

  1. Open the “Settings” tab and tap “Export to JSON” under “Backup & data”.
  2. The iOS share sheet opens. Pick where the file should go there, the Files app for instance.

The file name starts with “habit_tracker_backup_” and ends in “.json”. Apple explains how to find the file again by its name in the Files app.

Importing a backup

  1. Open the “Settings” tab and tap “Import from JSON” under “Backup & data”.
  2. Pick your backup file.
  3. The app asks “Replace all data?”. Tap “Replace”.

The app then tells you how many habits it imported.

The import replaces what is in the app

The question before it says as much: “This replaces your current habits and their history with the contents of the backup. Your existing data cannot be recovered afterwards.” The habits from the file replace the ones in the app, nothing is merged. If you want to keep what is in the app right now, export it as a separate file first.

More than 2 habits without Premium

If the file holds more than 2 habits and you do not have Premium, the app first offers you Premium. If you get it there, the app takes over all of them. Otherwise it takes over the first 2 and tells you so in a note titled “Habit limit reached”: without Premium the first 2 were imported, and the backup file still holds all of them.

The first 2 are the two that sat at the top of your list when you exported.

If you get Premium later, import the same file once more. The app then takes over every habit in the file. This import, too, replaces whatever is in the app at that moment, including days you ticked off since the first import.

Good to know

  • The file only goes where you send it from the share sheet. We never receive it.
  • For a backup that runs on its own, there is the iCloud backup.
  • What changes when your subscription runs out is covered in When Premium ends.