Notes on Plain Text Export & Import


Warning: The Export of sensitive information from a Password Safe database to a text file has serious security consequences.  This operation will create an unprotected copy of all of the passwords in the database.  Deleting this copy after use is not sufficient and other actions should be taken to properly erase the data (e.g. third party “shredding” utilities).  The export of sensitive data effectively bypasses the security of the Password Safe program.


Note: The Export and Import to/from text files feature has been changed in V3.06. This page describes the current format.

Exported text will:

Imported text is assumed to  have:

The Title Row for full data export currently contains the following fields by default, separated by a tab.

When exporting data, you may use the “Advanced” feature to exclude any number of these fields from the Title Row and records.

During Import, the supplied Title Row must include “column headings” that match exactly one of the above.  If any “column heading” is repeated, only the data in the last one will be added to the entries during import.  If a “column heading” does not match one of the above, the data in that column will be ignored during import. The fields must be separated with the field separator specified for the data in the Import Text dialog box.


Notes:

Data Formats

Column Heading/Field

Comments

Group/Title

If present, groups are separated by periods (‘.’).  The Title field cannot be blank, empty or contain the delimiter character.

Username

 

Password

Cannot be blank or empty.

URL

 

AutoType

 

Created Time

See note 1 below

Password Modified Time

See note 1 below

Last Access Time

See note 1 below

Password Expiry Date

See note 1 below

Record Modified Time

See note 1 below

History

See note 2 below

Notes

  • The Notes field should be enclosed by double quotes ("like this").
  • The Notes field should not contain the delimiter character since on import it will be translated to a newline.

 
Notes:

1

Time fields can be one of the following 3 formats:

  1. yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss                           e.g., 2007/01/26 19:31:25
  2. ddd MMM dd hh:mm:ss yyyy                  e.g., Fri Jan 26 19:31:25 2007
  3. yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss                           e.g., 2007-01-26T19:31:25
  4. 0                                                            Leave the field unset
  5. now                                                        Use the time of the import operation

where:

 

Note: Format ‘2’ is the output from the ANSI C function asctime and format ‘3’ conforms to the ISO 8601 standard.

2

Password history is represented in the exported entry record as a text field comprising a header followed by the required number of entries of old passwords:

Password History Header:

Each Password History Entry: