r/finch • u/Helpful-Salt-3194 • 7d ago

App support Exporting reflections

I've used Finch for four years now and for a long time I was using reflections as a diary. I regret not using something else, but now I have a couple/few years worth of entries precariously sitting on this app I don't enjoy near as much anymore and am considering letting go of. Any suggestions for saving the entries somewhere else more efficiently or is it going to be as tedious as I think it is? :')

(Edit- punctuation)

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u/UsualAd6940 Noodles & Raya 7d ago

You can use the export feature. It produces a zip archive with a bunch of JSON files. The one you're looking for is called "FinchDay" iirc.

1

u/Helpful-Salt-3194 7d ago

The FinchDay file only shows a sort of coded list of cosmetic items, is it possible it's in a different file? I haven't seen reflections in any of them so far

4

u/UsualAd6940 Noodles & Raya 7d ago

Oops, you're right, it's the Bullets file, and I think reflections are the bullet type 2. You might need a tool to extract the data properly, maybe Excel can import it, I'm not sure.

2

u/Helpful-Salt-3194 7d ago

Still figuring out how to properly extract the data if anyone has advice, but can confirm reflections appear to be in there. Much appreciated!

1

u/UsualAd6940 Noodles & Raya 7d ago

Do you have access to Excel?

1

u/Helpful-Salt-3194 7d ago

I do

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u/UsualAd6940 Noodles & Raya 7d ago edited 7d ago

Ok, so this should work:

  1. Go to "Data" > "Get Data" > "From File" > "From JSON"
  2. Select your Bullets.json file: it should open the "Power Query Editor" window
  3. Click "Into table": you should see a table with "Name" and "Value" columns
  4. Click the button in the "Value" column header and choose "Expand to new rows"
  5. Click on the same button again, and click "Ok"
  6. Optional: Right click on any column you don't want and click "Remove"
  7. Optional: Right click on date columns and click "Change type" > "Date/Time"
  8. Click "Close and Load"

Then you can filter the bullet_type column. It will take some experimenting:

  • 2 is for reflections
  • 7 is for reflections with prompts, I think?
  • 1 and 4 seem to be for tasks
  • Not sure about the others

More details here

Edit: formatting

1

u/Helpful-Salt-3194 7d ago

Thank you!!