This is a very good point. I adore RTM's look and feel, but having a full copy of my data always lets me sleep more soundly.

A total export is already available -- the iCalendar service provides a way to export of all your tasks and notes in a standard calendar format that's readable by a number of applications. You can find the link for the export for all your tasks and notes under Settings/Info.

The way to save a copy of the iCalendar export file varies depending on which software you're using. Under iCal, select the calendar, then go to 'File' then 'Export'. You can also save a copy of the export file directly from your browser -- you may need to change the link from webcal:// to https:// to get your browser to prompt you to save it as a file rather than try to open it in a calendar program.

I'll be adding something to the FAQ very soon about 'how to backup your data' -- sorry if this wasn't clear already. Hope this information is useful!

Emily - my incomplete understanding of the iCal solution was that it was only incomplete tasks that came across; do they all come over this way? Do the tags and time estimates come, too?

Sorry to be so dense.

Ran, it's a good question :)

All tasks (both completed and incomplete) are included.

Tags are included in the task description. Time estimates are not currently included, but we'll add those to the description too (unfortunately the iCalendar format doesn't support having these in their own fields).

Wow, that's great news. Thanks so much for the clarification - I am off to fire up iCal and re-examine the calendar.

Anyone got this to work in MS Office 2003? I loaded the plugin, then tried to import the ics file that I downloaded from RTM.

Nothing happens; although, I am not sure what to look for.

Any help here?

I have tried other utilities that are able to import .ics files. All of them are unable to read the .ics file exported from RTM.

Still looking for ideas on how to get this to work.

Daniele who develops Remote Calendars is sometimes on this forum, but it's probably best to try asking on their support forum if you're having trouble with that plug-in.

i'm looking at the format right now, and i see tasks, but i DON'T see which list they're for. is that somehow encoded in the entry?

Hi, a happy, new RTM user here...

3 years after "Time estimates are not currently included, but we'll add those to the description too" they don't seem to be in the description yet... Are you still working on that ?

Eagerly awaiting iCal durations (in description or DTEND),

Tom.

The iCal is not really a total export. It's missing some information (like which list the task is in) and time estimate, tags and location are just text inside the event description (followed by double-newline-triple-hyphen-delimited comments?).

The 1st thing to do with any new software/gadget is to investigate backup/recovery options. RTM looks poor. Please dont tell me about lossy iCal exports. It is a shame.

Please add XML/CSV/BIN/whatever export and import. So i would able to backup data, wipe my data and restore it back with all details in in 3 mouse clicks.

Please add XML or CSV or BIN or whatever export and import. So i would able to backup my data, wipe my data and restore it back completely and without using 3rd party tools.

Where can I vote for plain text or CSV backup options? I would love to also have a backup emailed to me regularly.

I love and pay for your service, but I too would like my own redundancy in backup. Please implement a non-lossy export like XML.

I am VERY happy with the iCal .ics backup format. I like that i can open it in my text editor (emacs or Notepad++) and see everything.

I even accidentally deleted a task, but didnt know which it was, and was able to compare a previous and current backup to find it. So, yea!

BUT
Backing up lists is important for me.
In my case i just use all smartlists. So it's the search queries and names of the lists i'm missing.
Most queries straightforward, but some required quite a bit of tweaking to get just right.
Would kill me to lose those.
Also, i have DOZENS of lists. Re-creating that would be a pain.

Partial, clunky workaround: in FireFox (i'm using RTM beta tho), go to the Smart Lists drop-down, right click, select Inspect Element, and find the that contains the entire list of smart lists, then right click in the Inspector window "copy inner html" then past that into a new file. That, at least, contains the list of all the names of all the smartlists i've made. It is still missing the search queries for them. Not easy to extract the names from the html, but possible.

+export options please
at least add in current .ics export the info about lists

ok ,
im really concerned only about task name, due date and notes

how to export ical file in any software?

which software can be used to read ical file?

kindly guide