Recipe Box

Importing Recipes from Files

Properties1
aliasesbulk import, Mealie import

3 min read

Moving from another recipe app? Recipe Box can import a whole collection at once from exported files, turning each recipe into a note in your vault. For a single recipe from a web page or pasted text, see Importing Recipes from the Web.

Supported Formats

  • Mealie - recipe exports in .zip form (recipes and their images) or as single recipe .json files.
  • schema.org Recipe JSON - any app that exports recipes as schema.org JSON-LD. A file can hold one recipe, a list of recipes, or a @graph of several.

Exporting from Mealie

  1. In Mealie, export the recipes you want to move. Pick the recipe export, not a full backup.
  2. Save the resulting .zip file.

Mealie’s full backup (the zip that contains database.json) can’t be imported. It is an internal database dump tied to a specific Mealie version. Recipe Box tells you so if you pick one.

Importing

  1. Run Import recipes from file from the Command Palette.
  2. Choose one or more .json or .zip files.
  3. Check the pre-flight message, for example “142 recipes found, 3 not recognized”. Nothing is written yet.
  4. Pick a destination folder.
  5. Choose what happens if a note already exists:
    • Skip it (default) leaves the existing note alone.
    • Keep both saves the new recipe with a number added, such as Chili (2).
  6. Click Import. Progress is shown as it runs, and Stop ends the import after the current recipe. Notes already created are kept.

When it finishes, a summary lists how many recipes were imported, skipped, or failed, with the file name and reason for anything that wasn’t a clean success.

Existing notes are never overwritten, and two recipes with the same name in one import are handled by the same Skip / Keep both choice.

What Gets Imported

  • Title, description, servings, prep, cook, and total time
  • Ingredients and instructions, including section headings
  • Notes and nutrition (calories, protein, fat, carbs)
  • The source URL, when the export includes one
  • Images bundled in a Mealie zip. These are always saved to your vault, whatever your Download images on import setting says. That setting only controls images that have to be downloaded from a web address.

If an image can’t be saved, the recipe still imports without it, and the summary notes it.

What Doesn’t Get Imported

  • Tags and categories
  • Ratings and cook history
  • Meal plans and shopping lists
  • Mealie full backups
  • Other proprietary formats

Troubleshooting

  • “Not a recognized recipe format” - the file isn’t Mealie or schema.org Recipe JSON.
  • Very large zips - Recipe Box reads the whole zip into memory. Above roughly 100 MB you get a warning, and mobile devices may be slow. Splitting the export into smaller zips helps.

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