Your favorite app is shutting down: get your data out before it's gone
An app you rely on just announced it is closing. Here is the general playbook to get your data out in time, pick a format that keeps your structure, verify it, and rehome it somewhere that won't also disappear.
To get your data out before an app shuts down, open its settings, find the export or download option, choose the richest format offered (JSON or CSV over PDF), download everything before the deadline, confirm the file opens, then move it into a destination you control. Do this the day you hear the news, not the week before the cutoff.
Shutdowns are not rare events anymore. In 2025 Mozilla closed Pocket, the read-later app millions used; the service stopped on July 8, 2025, and users could export until October 8, after which saved data was deleted. Omnivore, an open-source read-later app, shut down in late 2024 after its team was acquired, and saved articles were lost for anyone who had not exported in time. The pattern repeats across categories: survey tools, inventory add-ons, even AI products have published firm dates after which the data is gone.
Why "I'll export it later" loses your data
The danger is not the shutdown announcement. It is the gap between hearing it and acting on it. Apps usually give you a window: a few weeks, sometimes a few months. It feels like plenty, so the export slides down the to-do list until the window closes.
Two things make the gap fatal. First, deadlines move. Omnivore's data came down faster than many users expected. Second, the export itself can fail quietly: a half-finished download, a truncated file, a format that drops your highlights or tags. If you discover that after the app is dark, there is no second attempt. The fix is to treat the export as urgent the day you hear, while the service is still live and you can re-download.
Find the export before you need the export
Most apps bury the export, but it is almost always there. Check Settings, then look for anything labeled Export, Download your data, Backup, or Data and privacy. On the web, that is often under account settings; on mobile, it may only exist in the desktop or web version.
If there is no obvious button, search the app's help center for "export" and check whether the company has posted a shutdown notice with instructions. During the Pocket wind-down, Mozilla published an export path and even kept a limited portal open for former users into early 2026. Reputable shutdowns usually document the route. If yours does not, contact support immediately and, in parallel, start saving the most important items by hand.
Choose the format that keeps the most
Not all exports are equal. Take the most structured format the app offers, in this rough order of usefulness:
JSON keeps the full structure: your items, tags, highlights, notes, and dates, in a form other tools can read back in. CSV is a close second and opens in any spreadsheet. HTML exports (Pocket offered these) are readable and keep your links. OPML is common for feeds and reading lists. A PDF or plain print is the last resort: it freezes the words but loses the links, tags, and metadata that made the archive searchable. If the app offers several, take more than one. A JSON plus an HTML copy costs nothing and protects you against a format you cannot open later.
After you download, open the file. Actually open it. A zero-byte archive or a CSV that stops at row 200 is something you want to catch while the app still works, not the morning after it goes dark.
Rehome it somewhere that won't also close
This is the step most guides skip, and it is the one that matters most. Exporting your data from a dying app into another single-purpose app that might also shut down just resets the clock. Pocket users who fled to Omnivore in 2024 had to migrate again within a year. The point of an export is to land somewhere durable.
What "durable" means: a destination you control, that does not depend on one company's product roadmap, and that you can search later without remembering exactly where you filed each item. That is the gap dEssence is built for. You can pull your saved links, files, and notes into a personal memory, then ask in your own words later, "the articles I saved about onboarding," instead of digging through an export folder. There are no folders, no tags, no organizing. You save it, forget it, ask for it later.
The broader habit is what protects you next time. If your saves live in a memory you don't have to maintain, the next shutdown announcement is an inconvenience, not an emergency, because the things you cared about are already somewhere that does not depend on that app staying alive.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to export data before an app shuts down?
It varies, from a few days to a few months. Pocket gave roughly three months between stopping the service and deleting data. Others give far less. Assume the shortest realistic window and export the day you hear, because deadlines sometimes move earlier and a failed download leaves no second chance.
What file format should I export my data in?
Take the most structured format offered. JSON and CSV keep your tags, highlights, and metadata; HTML keeps readable links; OPML suits reading lists and feeds. Avoid relying on PDF alone, since it loses the structure that makes an archive searchable. If you can grab two formats, do it.
What if the app has no export option?
Search its help center for "export" and check for an official shutdown notice with instructions, since reputable closures usually document the path. If there is genuinely nothing, contact support right away and, in parallel, manually save your most important items, links, screenshots, and notes, before the service goes offline.
Where should I move my data so I don't have to do this again?
Into a destination you control that is not another single-purpose app likely to close. A personal memory like dEssence lets you bring in links, files, and notes and ask for them later in plain language, so a future shutdown does not put your archive at risk again.
Honest about dEssence
A fair set of caveats, since this is about not getting burned again: dEssence is in beta, the paid tier is not finalized yet, and there is no native iOS or Android app, so you bring data in through the web app, the Chrome extension, or the Telegram bot. Bulk import of a giant export file is not a one-click feature yet, so for very large archives you may add the items that matter most rather than everything at once. As a beta product, it carries the same general risk any young app does, which is the honest reason to also keep your raw export file as a cold backup.
With that said, the playbook stands on its own: export early, take the richest format, verify the file, and rehome it somewhere you control. Doing that, with a memory you can ask in plain language, free during beta and no card required, is how you stop a shutdown day from deleting years of saves.