Your data, your rules. Export everything you've ever added to ambientChat — inventory, documents, conversations, preferences, the lot — as a portable archive you can keep, inspect, or bring to another platform. It's your digital life in a ZIP file.

#What It Does

Data Export creates a downloadable archive of your entire ambientChat account. Everything goes in: inventory items, documents (receipts, manuals, warranties), conversation history, folder structures, preferences, and settings — plus the beacons, Zones and places you own. You get it all in one tidy package, because your data belongs to you and you should be able to walk away with it at any time.

Two formats are available:

  • JSON — A machine-readable archive that can be imported back into ambientChat. This is the format you want for backups and portability. It preserves every field, every relationship, every document ID.
  • CSV — A spreadsheet-friendly export for humans who want to browse their data in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers. Great for reviewing what you've got, but it's read-only — you can't import CSV back into the app.

Data Import does the reverse: take a previously exported archive and merge it into your account. Each record in the archive replaces the matching record in your account, and everything else stays as it is. Handy for restoring from a backup, moving to another account, or recovering from that time you accidentally deleted everything. (Not that you would. But just in case.)

Beyond the whole-account archive, you can print or export one thing at a time — an inventory item or a document — straight from its detail view. Perfect for printing an item's "passport" for insurance, sharing a manual, or saving a single receipt.

  • Print produces an attractive, branded page (AirPrint on iOS, your browser's print dialog on the web). AI-estimated values are flagged in red, just like in the app, so you always know what's a guess.
  • Export saves a file in the format you choose:
    • Items — PDF (a nicely laid-out sheet) or JSON (the raw data).
    • Documents — PDF, the original Markdown (for text notes), the original file (for scans and receipts), or JSON. A saved web page has no original file to offer — open it with Open page instead.
    • A PDF you uploaded exports and prints as itself — exactly the file you put in, design and all, saved under the document's name. It is never rebuilt from its text.

#How to use it

  • iOS — Open any item or document and tap Print or Export in the action bar. Export shows a quick format picker; Print opens the system print dialog.
  • Web — Open an item or document and click Print or Export. Print opens the rendered page in a new tab (use your browser's print button); Export opens the file to save.
  • Voice or chat — Just say "print my coffee maker" or "print the Sony manual" and the print dialog opens by itself with the rendered page — on iOS that's AirPrint (if you've printed before, it remembers your printer), on the web it's your browser's print flow. No taps, no hunting for buttons — designed so it works eyes-free with VoiceOver. Asking to "export …" instead hands you a download link. (In external AI apps connected to ambientChat — Claude, ChatGPT — printing can't be triggered remotely, so you get the PDF link to open and print yourself.)
  • Shared with you — Items and documents others have shared with you can be printed and exported too (read-only) — handy for printing a manual a friend shared.

Select multiple items or documents (tap Select, then pick the ones you want), and the Print and Export actions appear right alongside Delete and Move:

  • Print lays the whole selection into one tidy report — perfect for a printed inventory list (great for insurance) or a stack of documents.
  • Export saves the selection as a PDF report, a CSV spreadsheet, or JSON. CSV is ideal for opening your selection in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.

On iOS the Print/Export buttons sit in the selection toolbar; on the web they're in the selection bar at the top of the list. You can also just ask in chat: "export my expiring items as a CSV."

Don't want to hand-pick? There's an Export (download) button in the list header too — it exports everything currently shown, so open a folder (or apply a filter) and export the whole thing in one tap. In chat you can name a folder directly: "export my Kitchen folder as a PDF."

#Save, Print or Export an AI Answer

Your conversations are context too. Every AI answer — in a live chat and in your saved Q&A — carries its own little toolbar so you can keep the good ones:

  • Copy the answer to the clipboard.
  • Save it as a document in your context (it lands in Documents as Markdown), so a useful answer becomes a permanent, searchable part of your AI's knowledge.
  • Share it by email.
  • Print a clean, branded page of the question and answer (AirPrint on iOS, your browser's print dialog on the web).
  • Export it as PDF, Markdown, or JSON.

On iOS the icons sit under each answer bubble (and under each saved Q&A); on the web they appear when you hover the answer. Print and Export of a live answer become available the moment it's saved to your Q&A history (a second or two after it finishes). You can also just ask: "save that answer to my documents" or "export that as a PDF."

#How to Use It

#iOS App

#Exporting Your Data

  1. Go to Settings → Your Data Export
  2. Tap Export my data (or Replace with a new export if you already have one). The archive holds JSON you can re-import, CSV spreadsheets you can browse, and all your images
  3. The export starts as a background job — you'll see a progress indicator
  4. When it finishes you get a notification ("Export complete"). Tap it and you land back here with the archive waiting
  5. Tap Download & save. A progress bar shows how much of the archive has reached your phone ("412 MB of 1.6 GB"), then the share sheet opens so you can choose where to keep the .zip

You have one backup. The screen shows it as a single card, Your latest export, with when it was made, how many files it holds and how big it is. It stays there until you replace it, so it doesn't expire, and it's still there after you save it or dismiss the share sheet. Replace with a new export makes a fresh one. Your current backup stays on the card until the new one finishes, and is then deleted, so old copies never pile up in your account. If you cancel the new export, or it fails, your backup is untouched.

You do not have to watch it. The export runs on the server, so you can lock the phone, take a call, or use another app. Come back to this screen, however long afterwards and even if the app was closed or restarted in between, and your backup is waiting on the card.

Big archives take a while to download. A full account with photos can be well over a gigabyte, which is several minutes on a home connection. If you switch apps while it downloads, the share sheet opens when you come back. If you tap Download & save again later, an archive already on your phone goes straight to the share sheet, with no second download.

If an export is still running when you come back, the screen picks it up where it was rather than starting a second one.

#Importing Your Data

  1. Go to Settings → Your Data Export, and find Import
  2. Tap Import backup and confirm. An import merges the archive into your data: each record in the archive replaces the matching record in your account, and beacons, Zones and places aren't restored
  3. Choose a previously exported .zip
  4. A progress bar shows the upload ("412 MB of 1.6 GB"), then the import running on the server, and finally what was restored ("Import complete! Restored: 935 items, 296 documents, 12 folders.")

You don't have to stay on this screen once the upload finishes. The import keeps running on the server, and when you come back to Your Data Export — later, after the app was closed, or after starting it on the web — a running import shows its progress again, and a finished one shows as "Last import: Today, 10:24 — Restored: 935 items, 296 documents, 12 folders." (or why it failed).

#Web

From the web interface at app.ambientchat.ai:

  1. Open Settings
  2. Find the Your Data section
  3. Click Export my data (images are always included). A progress bar tracks the job, and when it finishes the section shows Your latest export: when it was made, how many files it holds and how big it is, with a Download button

You have one backup, the same one the app shows. Replace with a new export makes a fresh one, and the old one is deleted once the new one finishes.

You can close the tab. The export runs on the server, so reloading the page or coming back later is safe: if it's still going you'll see it pick up where it was, and if it finished your backup is waiting in the section.

#Importing on the web

  1. In Settings → Your Data, find Import and click Import backup
  2. Choose a previously exported .zip
  3. Confirm. As in the app, an import merges the archive into your data: each record in the archive replaces the matching record in your account, and beacons, Zones and places aren't restored
  4. A progress bar shows the upload ("412 MB of 1.6 GB"), then the import running on the server, and finally what was restored ("Import complete! Restored: 935 items, 296 documents, 12 folders.")

Keep the tab open until the upload finishes — the browser is doing the uploading. After that you can close it: the import keeps running on the server, and when you come back to Your Data it shows the import's progress again, or its result as "Last import: …". An import started in the app shows up here too.

#Via Claude Desktop (MCP)

If you've connected ambientChat to Claude Desktop, you can export and import using MCP tools:

Exporting:

  1. Use the export_user_data tool, optionally specifying format: "json" or format: "csv"
  2. This starts an async export job and returns a job ID
  3. Use get_export_status with the job ID to check progress
  4. When the status shows "completed," you'll get a download URL in the response

A JSON export with images is your backup: when it finishes it replaces the one you had, exactly as exporting from the app does. A CSV export is a one-off spreadsheet download and replaces nothing. Ask "where's my backup?" and the assistant uses list_export_jobs, which returns your current backup with a fresh download link and its size.

Importing:

  1. Use get_import_upload_url to get a secure upload URL
  2. Upload your ZIP archive to that URL via PUT request
  3. Use import_user_data with the returned storagePath to start the import
  4. Ask "did my restore work?" and the assistant uses list_import_jobs, which lists your recent imports — whether one is still running, what the last one restored, or why it failed
  5. Optionally set mergeStrategy: "skip_existing" to protect existing data, or remapIds: true for cross-account imports

For the full tool reference, see MCP Tools — Complete Reference.

Example Claude Desktop prompts:

  • "Export all my ambientChat data as JSON."
  • "Check the status of my export job."
  • "Import my backup archive into ambientChat."

#Tips & Tricks

  • Export regularly as a backup. Set a mental reminder (or ask your AI to remind you) to export every month or so. If anything ever goes wrong, you'll have a recent snapshot to restore from. Think of it as flossing for your data hygiene.
  • JSON format preserves everything for re-import. If you might ever want to restore your data, always export as JSON. CSV is lovely for browsing but it's a one-way trip — you can look but you can't go back.
  • CSV exports open beautifully in spreadsheet apps. Want to see how much you've spent at Costco this year? Export as CSV, open in Sheets, and sort to your heart's content. Pivot tables optional but encouraged.

#Options

Setting What It Does Default
Export Format JSON (importable) or CSV (spreadsheet) JSON
Merge Strategy (Import, MCP only) Merge archived records into existing ones, or skip records that already exist Merge
Remap IDs (Import) Generate new IDs instead of preserving originals (for cross-account imports) Off

#Your Beacons, Zones and Places

Your archive includes the beacons you own, the Zones you've defined — a Zone is a place of significance, a room, a loading dock, the TV corner of an open-plan house — and the places (venues) you've created, including the beacon-to-Zone assignments that let ambientChat answer "where did I leave my keys?".

These work a little differently from the rest of your data, for a reason worth knowing:

  • A beacon is a physical object, and there's one record for it shared across everyone who encounters it — a museum's beacon isn't copied into every visitor's account. The record says who owns it, and your archive carries the ones that are yours. Beacons you've merely walked past, or linked one of your items to without owning, aren't yours to take and don't travel.
  • They come out, but they don't go back in. Importing an archive restores your items, documents and folders — it does not re-create beacons, Zones or places. Restoring a beacon record isn't a data restore, it's a claim on a piece of hardware, and an archive is a file you can edit, so we don't let one hand over ownership. If you're moving between accounts and want your beacons to come with you, that's a transfer we have to do deliberately rather than as a side effect of an import.

So the archive is complete for taking your data with you — everything is in there, readable, yours. It is not a one-click way to clone your beacon setup into a second account.

#Known Limitations

  • Large accounts take a few minutes to export. If you've cataloged thousands of items and uploaded hundreds of documents, the export job needs time to gather and package everything — a 2–3 GB archive is a few minutes. The progress line counts the photos and files as they go in. Your archive can be any size: the server packages one file at a time, so a big collection is slower, never too big.
  • If an export stops, it says so. Should the job die mid-way (a server restart, say), you'll see "The export stopped before it finished. Please try again." within a couple of minutes rather than a progress bar that never moves. Tap Export again — nothing from the failed run is kept.
  • Restoring is the same story. An import reads the archive piece by piece, so a backup of any size restores — including the multi-gigabyte one you just made. If an import stops mid-way you'll see "The import stopped before it finished. Please try again — anything already restored is kept, not duplicated." within a couple of minutes, and a retry picks up where the last one left off.
  • The copy you upload doesn't pile up. The archive you upload to restore from is deleted once the restore finishes. If a restore fails, the upload is kept for a day (an assistant restoring over MCP can retry from it), then it's deleted too. The backup you exported is never touched.
  • A photo that is its own thumbnail travels once. Where an item's thumbnail is the same file as its photo, the archive carries it once as {id}_full; the {id}_thumb entry appears only when the thumbnail is a genuinely different file.
  • CSV is read-only. You cannot import a CSV file back into ambientChat. It's an export-only format designed for human consumption. For round-trip portability, use JSON.
  • An import doesn't compare dates. Each record in the archive replaces the matching record in your account, whichever is newer. So restoring an older backup rolls back later changes to the records it contains. Records the archive doesn't contain are left alone.
  • Cross-account imports require ID remapping. If you're importing data from one account into a different account, use the remapIds option. Otherwise, document ID collisions may cause unexpected behavior.
  • Beacons, Zones and places restore is manual. They're in the archive, but import won't re-create them (see above). Setting them up in a new account is a manual step today.
  • One backup at a time. Each new full export replaces the last one. If you want to keep an older archive, download it and save it somewhere before you export again.

#Version History

Version Date What Changed
18 2026-10-05 A PDF you uploaded exports and prints as the original file, saved under the document's name — no more rebuilt "ambientchat-export.pdf"
17 2026-09-27 The archive you upload to restore from is deleted after the restore instead of staying in storage for good (AMB-1364)
16 2026-09-27 Leave an import after the upload: coming back shows its progress, or "Last import" with what it restored — in the app and on the web, whichever started it (AMB-1366)
15 2026-09-22 Import a backup from the web interface too, the same way as in the app (AMB-1359)
14 2026-09-22 One backup, one card: "Your latest export" shows when, how many files and how big, with no expiry; it stays while a new export runs and survives a cancelled or failed one; downloads show progress and the share sheet waits if you switch apps; a CSV export from chat doesn't replace your backup (AMB-1311)
13 2026-09-22 Exporting again replaces your previous archive instead of stacking up copies (AMB-1311)
12 2026-09-22 The web interface recovers an export too — resume a running one, collect a finished one after closing the tab (AMB-1318)
11 2026-09-22 A finished export waits for you — a notification when it is ready, and recent archives listed so one is never lost if you look away (AMB-1318)
10 2026-09-22 A backup of any size restores; a stopped import says so instead of spinning forever (AMB-1312)
9 2026-09-21 Any size of archive exports; a stopped export says so instead of spinning forever; a photo that is its own thumbnail travels once (AMB-1299)
8 2026-09-11 Beacons, Zones and places you own are now in the archive — and why they don't import back (AMB-858)
6 2026-06-24 Save / Print / Export AI answers from chat & the Q&A tab (AMB-343)
2 2026-06-07 Added Web section — exporting your data from the web interface (Settings)
1 2026-03-01 Initial guide