How can I import tasks in Microsoft To Do ? (urgent)

Copper Contributor

I have to import a large number of tasks from TodoIst (or CSV)

15 Replies
You can do this with Flow, but only for yourself, there is no bulk import tool that can do this. But there is a Create to-do flow action that you can loop through from a CSV file that you feed to the flow via OneDrive.

@Chris Webb I haven't used flow before, can you point to a tutorial or howto that is similar to get me started?

@Johan_de_Rooij 

Import your Wunderlist account to Microsoft To Do
  1. Head to Settings and select Import.
  2. Sign in to your Wunderlist account.
  3. Once you've signed in, we'll show you the number of lists and tasks that will be imported from your Wunderlist account to Microsoft To Do. ...
  4. Select Import begin moving your lists and tasks over from Wunderlist to Microsoft To Do.

Todoist, not wunderlist. 

@Lewis-H 

@Chris Webb 
Would that be possible with my private To-Do account ? I can only see "Microsoft To-Do (business)" connector available.

@Lewis-H Please forgive my ignorance to your previous responses. Can you tell me how to import my Omnifocus tasks into Microsoft To-Do?

@Johan_de_Rooij 

I’ve solved it!

I’ve long had a frustration with the fact that MS To-do does not have the ability to import mass tasks from excel like Wunderlist did, and every attempt to search up a solution just led me to posts with the same complaint, and no solution. However, there is a way to do it – through Outlook instead.

To do this, you must be signed in to Outlook on a desktop – as far as I know this will not work on the web version. On the bottom left there is a tab to navigate to the “Tasks” page – click on this. If you are signed in to the correct MS account, your To-do list should be synced to this page. Find the list you want to upload to, and make sure there is at least one filler task in their for the time being so that you have a template to work from. Then, go to file > Open and export > Import/Export > Export to a file > Comma Separated Values > select your desired folder/list > save the file. Then you can go in and open that file, and add your tasks according to the template that was downloaded. Remember to save this as a CSV!

After you have edited and saved your CSV, go to file > Open and export > Import/Export > Import from another program or file > Comma Separated Values > Select your file > select your desired folder/list > **Check that the box is clicked** > import your tasks!

**if the box is not clicked, click it, and it will (Likely) bring you to a page to “map custom fields”. Don’t just skip past this, if it is showing up it probably means that something about your template got a little messed up and its not quite sure what to import, and to where. Verify that every category on the right-hand “to” column has the correct column header connected to it, and if not, fix it by dragging and dropping from the left hand column.

 

NOTE: I am not a MS expert! I just found a solution that works, and this is the sequence of events that got me there. Hopefully it works for you!

@Sofia_Melchert 

 

You suggested that in order to import tasks to Microsoft To-Do, I could import as CSV but that does not appear to be an option here.  Further assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

tedpenner_0-1617906579619.png

 

I have long feared making the jump to a new task app. Thank you @Sofia_Melchert for this genius tutorial. It worked flawlessly to take my world of tasks in the declining Toodledo and bring them into Microsoft. Thank you!  

Thank you for sharing this.
Fun fact: To Do data is synced with Outlook Tasks (web app and desktop app).
To Do is synced with Outlook Project Moca (renamed to

MS Sticky Notes is linked to One Note.
MS Sticky Notes is linked to Outlook (only confirmed with web app outlook)

I don't use Outlook with My MS Account, so my Tasks List only showed items from my Gmail, not To Do. Before I solved that, I went to the Outlook Web app.

When I went to the "To Do" part of the Outlook web app, I was able to paste a list of items separated by new lines, and the web app version of To Do just accepted the pasted list.
I just flipped on the "coming soon" features of the MS Outlook desktop app and restarted. This is Summer of 2021, it might require enrolling in insider for office for those interested.

It looks like To Do is now much more integrated into Outlook. A simple copy-paste and my data is in. I would expect import options to be smoother as well.
As someone completing a Gmail (personal accounts) to office 365 migration this works brilliantly. As a note to others you can export google tasks using google takeout, this exports as a JSON which you can then use a convertor tool (JSON to CSV) to convert the file and import as mentioned above.


If you're on Windows, and you can get your tasks into Excel, and if you just care about the task names and not attachments, you can just copy a column full of tasks in Excel, and paste them into the To Do desktop app and it will create all your tasks at once (as separate items as expected).
Hi Sofia. Is there any way you can add pictures to this description. Having trouble following along with this one. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.