How To Import Instapaper Articles into Pocket

Pocket and Instapaper are two excellent read-it-later apps / services for the iPad, iOS and beyond. I’ve used both services for years, but for the last year or so I’ve been using Pocket a lot more than Instapaper.

So a tip on how to import Instapaper articles into Pocket, from Whitson Gordon at Lifehacker, caught my eye this morning. Since Pocket is the app I look at regularly, it seems a fine idea to pull my Instapaper saved articles into it. And it’s super easy to do. Here’s a few things to be aware of before starting:

— Instapaper export note: If you have more than 2,000 articles, only the most recent 2,000 will be included.

— Pocket Import Note: Instapaper’s export does not provide a list of what items you have ‘liked’ or ‘favorited’. As a result, your ‘liked’ items have been imported into your Pocket archive but will not be marked as favorite.

— It’s also worth mentioning that imported Instapaper articles will go right to the top of your Pocket listing of articles. In an ideal world, I would have preferred them to flow into Pocket based on the date of the items, which would’ve placed them much farther down.

Now, here’s how to get your Instapaper articles into Pocket:

— Go to the Instapaper home page, login, and click on the ‘Export CSV’ button on the right sidebar.

— Click the ‘Download HTML File’ button. It may take a few minutes, depending on how many articles you have saved in Instapaper.

— Once the Instapaper HTML file download is complete, go to this Pocket web page: pocket.com/import/instapaper

— In the section labeled 2. Import Your Articles, click ‘Choose File’ and then browse to and select the Instapaper HTML file you downloaded. The click ‘Import’.

My import – of around 275 articles – was complete very quickly, and Pocket offers a success confirmation page.

That’s all there is to it. Happy Pocket importing.