Free Pocket Export Converter: Turn Your Pocket Export Into Bookmarks

How to Convert Your Pocket Export

1. Find the file Pocket sent you

   Look in your downloads or email for the export. Since 2025 it arrives as a .zip file holding part_000000.csv and, for big libraries, more part files. Older exports are a single file called ril_export.html.

2. Drop it into the box

   Drop the .zip as it is, or unzip it and drop every CSV part at once. You can also drop ril_export.html. The files are read on your computer and never uploaded.

3. Check what was found

   The tool counts your items, unread and archived saves, and tags, and merges any link that appears twice. Filter by status or tag, or search, to look through the list.

4. Choose how to organise it

   Pick folders per tag, folders per status (Unread and Archive), or one flat folder. Everything goes inside a top folder called Pocket.

5. Download the format you need

   Download a bookmarks.html file for your browser, a cleaned CSV, a Raindrop.io CSV, Markdown, or a plain list of links. Downloads include only the items your filters show.

6. Import it where you want it

   Import the bookmarks file from your browser’s bookmarks menu (the table below has the exact menu for each browser), or open unread items here in small batches.

What Happened to Pocket?

Pocket shut down in 2025. Mozilla announced on May 22, 2025 that it would close the read-later service, saying it wanted to put its resources into Firefox and other projects that fit how people browse today. The apps and the website stopped working on July 8, 2025.

After that date Pocket ran in export-only mode. You could still sign in and export Pocket saves until October 8, 2025. On that day Mozilla permanently deleted user data and closed the Pocket API, so apps that synced with Pocket stopped working too. Premium subscriptions were cancelled automatically, and annual subscribers were refunded from July 8.

If you are reading this now, the export window has closed. There is no way to request a new export, and Mozilla has said the data was deleted. What you can still work with is any export you downloaded before October 8, 2025. That file is what this tool reads.

Didn’t export in time? Check your email for a message from Pocket with a download link, and search your computer for part_000000.csv or ril_export.html. If you once imported Pocket into another app, that app may still hold a copy of the list.

What’s in a Pocket Export File?

A Pocket export is a list of links, not a copy of the articles. Each saved item has its web address, its title, the moment you saved it, your tags and whether it was unread or archived. The article text, images and the reading view are not included, which is why dead links matter (more on that below).

Pocket has used two formats. Exports made in the last year or so of the service arrive as a .zip file. Inside are CSV files named part_000000.csv, part_000001.csv and so on, each holding up to 10,000 saves under a header row. If you used the highlighter, the zip also contains an annotations folder with a JSON file of your highlights. Older exports are a single web page called ril_export.html (RIL stands for Read It Later), with an Unread list and a Read Archive list.

The CSV columns are title, url, time_added, tags and status. Some exports also carry a cursor column, which is an internal Pocket value you can ignore. This tool finds the columns by their header names, so both versions work.

How It Works and What Happens to Your Data

Everything happens inside this page. When you drop a file, your browser reads it from your disk and the converter runs in JavaScript on your computer. The page makes no network request with your data, has no analytics on what you drop, and stores nothing once you close the tab.

A zip file is opened with JSZip, a small library that loads only when you drop a zip. Each CSV is read with a parser that follows the CSV rules in RFC 4180: a field in double quotes can hold commas, line breaks and doubled quote marks. That matters for Pocket, because article titles often contain commas and quotes, and a naive split on commas breaks those rows.

The tool then cleans the data. Times in Unix seconds become dates. Tags are split on the vertical bar. Items with no valid web address are counted and skipped. If the same link appears more than once, for example because you dropped the same part file twice or saved an article twice, the copies are merged: the earliest save date is kept and all their tags are combined.

Exports are built from what your filters show. Filter to one tag and download, and you get only that tag. Clear the filters to export everything.

How to Import Pocket Bookmarks Into Your Browser

The bookmarks.html file this tool makes uses the Netscape bookmark format, which every major desktop browser can import. Your saves arrive in a folder called Pocket, with a sub-folder for each tag or for Unread and Archive, and each bookmark keeps the date you saved it in Pocket.

A library of 10,000 saves makes a very large folder. Browsers import it, but menus and sync can slow down. Consider importing only unread items, or one tag at a time, and keeping the full CSV as your archive.

How Do I Keep My Pocket Tags?

Browsers have no tags for bookmarks in the way Pocket did, so tags have to become something else. This tool gives you three ways to keep them.

Folders per tag puts each item in a folder named after its tag. An item with three tags appears in all three folders, so nothing is lost, but you get copies. Items without tags go into a folder called Untagged. This works best if you used a handful of tags; if you have two hundred, choose folders per status instead.

Every bookmark also carries its tags in a TAGS attribute inside the file. Browsers that ignore the attribute simply skip it, and bookmark apps that read it can bring your tags across.

The Markdown export writes tags as hashtags after each link (spaces become hyphens), which note apps such as Obsidian turn into searchable tags. The cleaned CSV and the Raindrop.io CSV keep tags in their own column, which is the most faithful copy.

• Few tags, want them in the browser: folders per tag.
• Many tags, or you mostly care about what you haven’t read: folders per status.
• Moving to a bookmark manager: the Raindrop.io CSV or the bookmarks.html file.
• Moving to a notes app: Markdown.
• Just keeping a safe archive: the cleaned CSV.

Where Can I Take My Pocket Saves Now?

There is no single Pocket alternative that fits everyone. It depends on what you used Pocket for. Our blog has a longer look at read-later apps after Pocket shut down; here is the short version, by type.

Read-later apps keep the reading view and send articles to your phone. Many of them import a Pocket CSV or an HTML bookmarks file directly, so check the app’s import page first. If it asks for HTML, use the bookmarks.html download here.

Bookmark managers keep links with tags and folders and are good at large collections. Raindrop.io, for example, imports CSV files with the columns url, folder, title, note, tags and created, which is exactly what the Raindrop.io CSV download here produces.

Your browser’s own bookmarks or reading list are free and already there. They lose tags (unless you use folders per tag) but need no new account.

Notes apps and plain files are the most durable choice. A Markdown file or a CSV will open in fifty years; a service may not. Pocket is the second read-later service in a year to close, after Omnivore shut down in November 2024, so keeping your own copy is sensible whatever you choose.

Some read-later apps also shut down or change their import rules. Whatever you pick, keep the cleaned CSV from this tool somewhere safe as a backup.

Examples

A large library in several parts. You had 23,000 saves, so the zip holds part_000000.csv, part_000001.csv and part_000002.csv. Drop the zip and all three are read and joined into one list of 23,000 items, newest first.

Only what you haven’t read. Set the status filter to Unread, choose folders per tag, and download bookmarks.html. You import just the 800 things you meant to read, sorted by topic, and leave eight years of archive in a CSV.

A reading list for notes. Filter to the tag “research”, download Markdown, and paste it into your notes app. Each line reads like this: a linked title, the date saved, and any other tags as hashtags.

An old ril_export.html from 2019. Drop it as it is. The Unread and Read Archive headings become the unread and archive statuses, and the tags attribute on each link becomes tags.

Clearing the backlog. Filter to Unread, set a batch size of 10, and press Open. Ten articles open in new tabs; read or close them, then press again for the next ten.

Ways to Convert a Pocket Export Compared

What About Dead Links?

Expect some of your older saves to be broken. Pocket stored links, not pages, and the web changes: sites close, articles move, and paywalls appear. The older a save, the more likely its link has gone.

Short links are a particular risk. Links saved through services like bit.ly or t.co only work while that service keeps redirecting. Run them through our URL expander to see where they end up and save the real address.

For links that no longer load, try the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, which may have a copy of the page. Paste the address into its search box at web.archive.org.

To check a batch by hand, filter to a tag or a year, copy the links, and use the Bulk URL Opener to open them 10 at a time. Keep the ones that load and delete the rest from your new bookmarks.

Limits and Troubleshooting

The tool reads Pocket exports only: the zip, its CSV parts and ril_export.html. It does not read exports from other read-later apps, although a CSV with url and title columns will usually work.

Highlights are not converted. If your zip has an annotations folder, the tool tells you and leaves it alone. Keep that JSON file for an app that imports Pocket highlights.

The table shows the first 300 items that match your filters so the page stays quick; downloads always include every matching item. Libraries of 50,000 saves load in a second or two on a typical laptop.

• “No Pocket items found”: the file isn’t a Pocket export, or it’s empty. Check that you dropped part_000000.csv or ril_export.html, not a different file from the zip.
• “This zip couldn’t be opened”: the download may be incomplete. Unzip it with your computer’s own tool and drop the CSV files instead.
• Some rows skipped: those rows had no valid web address (for example, a blank url field). The count tells you how many.
• Fewer items than expected: duplicates are merged. The stats line shows how many.
• Only one tab opened: your browser blocked the rest as pop-ups. Allow pop-ups for belaytab.com and press Open again.
• Strange characters in titles: the file wasn’t saved as UTF-8. Re-save it as UTF-8 in a text editor and drop it again.