Importing Data

Importing data into pwSafe is very easy, and might not even be necessary.

Opening existing Password Safe safes

pwSafe is directly compatible with Password Safe version 3 files. Safes produced by older versions of Password Safe or compatible apps are not supported and should be upgraded before usage.

When trying to open an existing safe, if no data is shown or if pwSafe rejects the file, please use the latest version of Password Safe to open and upgrade the file on a PC. After opening the file with the up-to-date app, when saving it back, Password Safe will prompt if you wish to convert the safe to the newer format. Just answer yes.

Once you have a compatible Password Safe file, just take it to your Mac and open it with pwSafe. The file must have a .psafe3 file extension.

Using data from other systems

pwSafe can import data from other apps, provided the data conforms to either the comma-separated-values (CSV) or tab-separated-values (TXT) formats.

To import your data, follow these steps:

1. Export your data to CSV format.
2. Conform your data to the expected format (see below). You can use a spreadsheet editor like Excel or Numbers for that.
3. On pwSafe, import your data using the "File", "Import..." menu functions or ⌘ + I keyboard shortcut.
4. Securely delete the CSV or TXT file, because these are not encrypted.

The CSV or TXT formats must adhere to this rules:

• A title row as the first line in the text file.
• A delimiter to reinstate the 'newline' character in a multi-line Notes field and the period ('.'), if present, in the Title field. The delimiter is '»'.
• The title row may contain the following fields:
  • Group/Title (eg. "group.subgroup.title")
  • Username
  • Password
  • URL
  • Created Time
  • Password Modified Time
  • Record Modified Time
  • e-mail
  • Protected Status
  • Symbol list for password generation
  • Notes
• Subsequent rows must contain an entry each, with the data fields ordered according to their appearance on the title row.