Where are google tasks backed up?

[Lisa Harrison]

I was working on a CRITICAL task  on my S9 and all of the sudden it disappeared. Vanished.  It is not in deleted tasks or any other deleted files (calendar, gmail trash etc).  It has also been deleted on my PC (to which my gmail is synced).

Does Google have a backup somewhere that I can retrieve the last backed up version, which wont be complete but it will help.  I use tasks for project management notes and thisone had a LOT of info in it that I cannot replicate !

[Google Tasks Backup Moderator]

Hello Lisa,

When tasks are deleted, they are initially marked as "deleted", and then deleted some time later [1].

I strongly recommend exporting as soon as possible, to hopefully retrieve any tasks marked as "deleted" before the Google Tasks server permanently deletes the tasks.

When the [Clear completed] button is pressed, any completed tasks are marked as "hidden" and moved to the [Completed tasks] view [2].

GTB allows all tasks from the Google Tasks server to be retrieved and exported, including tasks that are marked as "deleted" or "hidden".

1. Go to https://tasks-backup.appspot.com
• If prompted, click [Authorise] and follow the prompts to allow GTB to retrieve your tasks.
2. Ensure that all 3 "Advanced settings" checkboxes  are enabled.
• Include completed tasks
• Include deleted tasks
• Include hidden tasks
3. Click [Retrieve tasks]
• GTB will retrieve tasks from the Google Tasks server. This may take several minutes if you have many tasks.
• GTB will indicate how many tasks were retrieved from the Google Tasks server
4. Choose the desired export format and click on [Export tasks data]
• If you wish to re-import the tasks into another, you will need to export using the "Import/Export CSV" format [3]
• I recommend exporting in several different formats to give you the best possible chance of capturing potentially deleted tasks
5. You can also display all the retrieved tasks in a format suitable for printing;
• Ensure that "All tasks" and "Display parentless, invalid and corrupted tasks" are enabled, and all the "Display options" are enabled.
• Click [Display tasks page] to display all tasks
• The top of the page will display the number of completed, incomplete and deleted tasks.
• Any deleted tasks will be displayed as grey text, with  - Deleted -  displayed below the deleted task.

[1] Google has recently changed the behaviour of the Google tasks server, so I do not know how long a task is marked as "deleted" before being deleted.

[2] I am not sure if Google still used the "hidden" flag. Completed tasks have a value in the "completed" field.

[3] Though I generally recommend using the "Import/Export GTBak" format, if the tasks are marked as "deleted", you will need to edit the data to clear the "deleted" and/or "completed" and/or "hidden" fields before re-importing.

Please contact me again if you manage to retrieve tasks and need help re-importing.

I hope this helps,

Julie

GTB Developer

On Tue, 26 Feb 2019 at 09:19, Lisa Harrison <lisahar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I was working on a CRITICAL task  on my S9 and all of the sudden it disappeared. Vanished.  It is not in deleted tasks or any other deleted files (calendar, gmail trash etc).  It has also been deleted on my PC (to which my gmail is synced).

Does Google have a backup somewhere that I can retrieve the last backed up version, which wont be complete but it will help.  I use tasks for project management notes and thisone had a LOT of info in it that I cannot replicate !

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[Lisa Harrison]

OUTSTANDING!  Thank you so much for this (It was not working on my phone which is why I couldnt see authorise.. but worked on PC.

You are fantastic! Is there anywhere that I can leave some positive feedback on your services?  Thanks so much!

Is there a way to backup my tasks regularly to ensure this doesnt happen again?

Lisa Harrison

www.linkedin/in/lisabharrison

703.283.6572

lisahar...@gmail.com

[Google Tasks Backup Moderator]

Hi Lisa,

I'm really glad that worked.

Unfortunately, Google does not provide any way to automatically backup tasks, which is why I developed GTB, to allow people to create regular backups.

I export my tasks using GTB every 4 weeks, and I know others back up even more frequently.

GTB automatically includes the date as part of the filename, so it is easy to keep each dated backup file separate.

For regular backups, I would recommend the "Import/Export GTBak" format if you intend to re-import tasks back into a Gmail account using GTI, as that format is the best for dealing with non-ASCII characters, such as Unicode or accented characters.

When using GTB, please ensure that you go to the main page at https://tasks-backup.appspot.com each time, so that GTB creates a new snapshot to export from.

Kind regards,

Julie

GTB Developer

[dave...@gmail.com]

this does not work i just want to export my tasks from google tasks to outlook

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[Julie Smith]

Hello daveinsca,

Could you please be more specific. When you say "this does not work", what is not working? What have you tried? Are you seeing an error message?

To export your Google Tasks to Outlook using GTB;

1. Go to https://tasks-backup.appspot.com
2. If prompted, click [Authorise] and follow the prompts to allow GTB to retrieve your tasks

1. In the "Advanced settings" panel at the next screen, enable "Include completed tasks" if you wish to include completed tasks.
• For exporting to Outlook, I do not recommend selecting "hidden" or "deleted", as Outlook does not support hidden or deleted tasks

1. Click [Retrieve tasks]
• GTB will retrieve tasks from the Google Tasks server. This may take several minutes if you have many tasks.

1. On the next screen, GTB will indicate how many tasks were retrieved from the Google Tasks server
2. In the "Export all tasks" panel, choose "Outlook CSV" and click on [Export tasks data]

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Julie Smith

GTB/GTI developer