Import recipes

Bring in the recipes you already have, from a website, a social post, another recipe app, or your own notes. Savorum always shows you a preview first, so you can check each recipe before it joins your library.

From a website

1. Open Recipes and choose Import → From a website.
2. Paste the recipe’s web address and choose Preview recipe.
3. Check the recipe, then save it.

If Savorum finds only part of a recipe, it opens as a draft for you to finish.

To save from your browser instead:

• On a phone, share the recipe page to Savorum from your browser’s share menu.
• On a computer, drag Save with Savorum from the import page to your bookmarks bar. Click it on a recipe page to send that page to Savorum.
• On a tablet, choose Copy shortcut and save it as a bookmark yourself.

From a social post

Paste the post’s address into From a website. This works for TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Savorum reads the recipe from the post’s caption, or from a recipe page it links to. It doesn’t watch the video, listen to the audio, or read comments.

From your own notes

1. Choose Import → From text.
2. Paste the recipe into Paste or edit recipe text: the title, then the ingredients, then the steps.
3. Choose Preview pasted recipe, check it, and choose Import selected.

From another recipe app

1. Export your recipes from your old app. Keep the export file as it is: don’t unzip it.
2. Choose Import → From a file and select the export.
3. Check the preview, select the recipes you want, and choose Import selected.

Savorum can import from:

• Paprika (.paprikarecipes or .paprikarecipe)
• Mealie (version 3 ZIP export)
• Tandoor Recipes (ZIP export)
• CookbookManager.com (YAML or ZIP export)
• Savorum and other SREF apps (.sref, .srefbundle, or .json)
• saved web pages and text files that contain recipe data

If a recipe is already in your library, the preview asks what to do with it. Keep your original export until you’ve checked everything came across.

From a PDF or photo

Choose Import → From a file and select a PDF, or a photo of a printed recipe (.png or .jpg). Check the preview carefully: text read from a photo can contain mistakes.

Choose Keep the original file to save the PDF or photo with the recipe. It’s included in full library backups, but not when you export a single recipe.

After you import

Open Imports to see your past imports. Each report links to See them in your library and to Recipes that need a look.

For a large file, you can import some recipes now. The rest wait under Review the rest of this file.

To refresh a recipe from its web page, open it and choose Check source for updates. Savorum shows what changed before anything is replaced, and never overwrites your own edits. If a recipe has no web address yet, choose Add a source link.

Good to know

• A web page must open without signing in, and can be up to 8 MB. Photos over 16 MB are left out. Savorum never runs the page’s own scripts.
• The Save with Savorum shortcut only sends the page’s address. It doesn’t read the page or store passwords.
• A social post may not import if the site blocks automated requests, needs you to sign in, has no caption, or keeps the recipe only in the video. Copy the caption and paste it, or import the recipe’s own website.
• If a site won’t import, copy the recipe text and paste it.
• PDF and photo files can be up to 32 MB, and PDFs up to eight pages. Each file gets 20 seconds, and Savorum reads one file at a time. If someone else is importing a file, wait a moment and try again.
• If you run Savorum yourself, PDF and photo import needs pdftotext and pdftoppm (from Poppler) and tesseract; see Set up PDF and photo import. Your files are read on your own server and never sent anywhere else.
• Importing from another Savorum library brings the recipe, not the other person’s tags, books, ratings, or notes. Import the .sref file rather than .json to get the photos.
• Savorum saves the web address without tracking or login details: everything after a ? is removed. If the saved link doesn’t open the recipe, edit the source.
• A waiting review expires after a while. Nothing from it was saved, so just choose the file again.
• If the server stops during a large import, open the import again and resume it. Savorum keeps the recipes it read, not your file, so it may ask for the file or address again.
• If you run Savorum yourself, you can also import from the command line.

Next: Organize your library.