Surfc Help

Appearance

Export & data ownership ​

Your reading index is yours. Surfc can hand you a complete, human-readable copy of it at any time, on every plan including Reader — no lock-in, no "contact us to get your data".

Exporting your data ​

  1. Open your Profile.
  2. Under Your data, tap Export ideas [JSON].
  3. Your browser downloads a file named surfc-<date>.json (for example, surfc-2026-05-17.json).

That file is a single JSON document containing:

  • Sources — every book or document in your library, with title and author
  • Notes — the note text, page, chapter, tags, and which source each belongs to
  • Custom ideas — the ideas you defined yourself, with their descriptions

The note text in the export is in plain, readable form — not the encrypted form Surfc syncs to the cloud. That's deliberate: an export only useful to Surfc wouldn't really be your data. It also means the file is as sensitive as your notes themselves.

Store your export securely

Because the export is unencrypted, anyone who opens the file can read your notes. Keep it somewhere you'd be comfortable keeping the notes themselves, and delete stray copies from Downloads folders and email attachments when you're done.

What's not in the file

The export is text and structure. The original photos you captured aren't packed into the JSON — it's your transcribed and written content, sources, and ideas, in a form you can read, search, or move into another tool.

Importing data back ​

The same screen imports a Surfc export back in — useful for restoring a backup or moving between accounts.

  1. On Profile → Your data, tap Import ideas [JSON].
  2. Choose a file you exported from Surfc. If the file isn't a Surfc export, the import is rejected with "Not a Surfc export file." rather than importing garbage.
  3. Surfc previews what it found — for example, "Ready: 240 notes, 18 sources, 12 ideas."
  4. Choose how to bring it in:
  • Merge — adds anything from the file that isn't already on this device. Entries that already exist are left exactly as they are. Use this to fold a backup into a library you're still using.
  • Replace — clears this device's current library and replaces it with the file's contents. Use this to roll a device back to a known backup. This one is destructive on the local library, so Surfc keeps it a separate, clearly-marked button.

After a merge or replace, your library on this device reloads from the imported data straight away.

Import stays on this device

Importing restores data to the device you're on — it doesn't automatically push that data up to the cloud or out to your other devices. An imported note only syncs once it's changed again on this device. If you're restoring a backup, treat it as a per-device restore: import on each device you want it on, rather than expecting one import to propagate everywhere.

Replace clears the local library first

Replace wipes the sources, notes, and custom ideas on the current device before loading the file. If the file is older than what's on the device, you'll lose the newer material. When in doubt, Merge is the safe choice.

Why this matters ​

A reading index is a long-term asset — it's worth more in five years than it is today. Plain-JSON export means that value is never trapped: you can back it up yourself, audit exactly what Surfc holds, or leave for another tool and take everything with you. Data ownership isn't a Practitioner feature here; it's the baseline.

Next:

Surfc — a personal index of great ideas.

© Surfc