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Export/Import — getting your data out, backing it up and correcting it

In short: Forest Assist does not sync your field data: it stays on your iPhone (only your credit balance goes through iCloud). This module is the way out for your data — the only one. It is also where you correct your entries from Excel.

The OPERATIONS section is a table: one row per kind of data — Mapping, Excel, Observations, Data —, and opposite each one an Export button and an Import button. A greyed-out button is not available: today, only the Excel import exists. The table below tells you which row to choose.

Every export ends with the iPhone share sheet: AirDrop, Files, email, messaging… You choose the destination; the app knows of none.

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First: the SELECTION section

At the top of the screen, you define the scope:

• the domain — the one shown in the banner;
• a date range (Start date / End date), both dates included. The All periods button widens it to all your observations on this domain;
• Parcels to tick, with Select all / Deselect all.

The Export buttons of the Mapping and Excel rows stay greyed out as long as no parcel is ticked: that is the sign they work on your selection. Excel › Import, on the other hand, does not depend on the selection: it corrects what the file contains.

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Mapping › Export (KML and GPX)

Produces one KML file per domain, with the selected parcels and paths.

KML opens in Google Earth, QGIS and most mapping software. Your parcels appear as polygons, your paths as lines. The GPS accuracy of each point is preserved.

Typical use: sending your boundaries to a surveyor or an expert, or overlaying them on the land register.

Your grids are exported with it (see Lay out a grid in a parcel):

• in the KML, each parcel with a grid has a Maillage folder (maillage is French for grid) with one placemark per point (M01, M02…);
• a GPX file is added: each grid point becomes a waypoint in it ("Parcel A M01"). This is the format read by field GPS units and hiking apps: you can reach your plots with a device other than the iPhone.

If no parcel in the selection has a grid, only the KML is produced.

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Excel › Export

An .xlsx workbook with twelve sheets, ordered like the menu: mapping first — Parcours (tracks), Points de parcours (track points), Maillage (grid) —, then observations — Observations, Notes, Notes vocales (voice notes), Inventaires (inventories), Surface terrière (basal area), Taillis PCQM (coppice), Bois mort (dead wood), Pédologie (pedology), Relevés (surveys). The sheet names are in French whatever the language of the app.

Relevés gives one row per basal area survey: its position — that of the marker on the route map —, its origin (center: the centre of the plot; exit: the phone's position at the moment of "Exit") and the centre of the plot.

Parcours gives one row per ticked parcel or path: its description, the length of the path or the area of the parcel in hectares, the number of recorded points and of grid points, its dates. Points de parcours gives its recorded points in order (coordinates, altitude, horizontal and vertical accuracy, date). Maillage gives the grid points of the ticked parcels (M01, M02…), their origin — automatic, automatic moved, manual — and the settings of the last automatic grid. These three sheets are for analysis: they cannot be re-imported.

For each species, the workbook gives the international code, the genus, the Latin name and the common name in your language: your pivot tables and filters work straight away.

Typical use: calculating a volume, drawing up a stand table, preparing a management plan.

This output follows the selection: domain, dates and ticked parcels. The button only becomes active with at least one ticked parcel — like Mapping › Export, just above it. A domain that does not have any parcel yet therefore cannot be exported to Excel: first draw or record its parcel (see the Mapping guide).

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Excel › Import — correcting your entries

A data entry error is sometimes better corrected at the office, in a spreadsheet: a wrongly chosen diameter, a mistaken species, a GPS position distorted by the canopy. Excel › Import reads back a workbook you have exported and then corrected, and carries your corrections over to the phone.

1. Excel › Export, then open the workbook in Excel, Numbers or LibreOffice.
2. Correct the faulty cells, without touching the identifier columns (observation_id, tree_id, inventory_id…): they are what designate each item.
3. Save in .xlsx format, put the file back on the iPhone (AirDrop, Files…), then Excel › Import and choose it.
4. The preview counts the rows modified, rejected (with the reason), ignored and unchanged. Nothing is written until you tap Apply.

What can be corrected: basal area trees (species, type, stage, diameter class, health status, distance band), inventories (species and form fields), coppice points, pieces of dead wood, titles, notes, transcriptions and pedology — and the GPS coordinates of each row, which cannot be changed in the app.

What never changes: identifiers, dates, calculated columns (plot centre, counts, derived species names). A species is corrected through its eppo_code column, and must appear in the parcel's list.

After correcting the position of a Timber tree, the centre of the plot is recalculated, and the position of the survey with it. A moved observation changes parcel if its new position falls in another one — unless you had chosen its parcel by hand.

The position of a survey (Relevés sheet) can be corrected when it comes from "Exit" (exit) — this is the case for surveys saved before version 1.6.11: their marker on the map is not at the centre of the plot. A position that is already the centre (center) is calculated: its correction is rejected. And if, in the same workbook, you also move a Timber tree of the survey, the centre is recalculated and the position of the survey follows it. Only workbooks exported since 3 October 2026 (column headings in English) are accepted: export an older workbook again.

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Observations › Export

Designed to hand a complete survey to someone who does not have the app.

Choose an observation from the list. The app produces a ZIP archive containing every item of the survey, numbered and time-stamped in the order you recorded them: photographs, voice notes, inventory sheets, basal area surveys.

The recipient opens the archive and follows your route item by item, with no special tool.

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Full backup — "Data › Export"

This is your safety net: a faithful copy of all your data, with or without your media.

1. Tap Export, on the Data row. The app calculates the sizes.
2. The Backup type window offers three buttons directly, each showing its size:

1. Tap the button of your choice: the archive is produced.

A button that would give exactly the same archive as the next one is not shown: with no photos at all, for example, Full does not appear; with neither photos nor voice notes, only one button remains.

The archive is saved on your iPhone, in Files, then offered for sharing.

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Good to know

• One operation at a time: the buttons are disabled while an archive is being prepared or an import is in progress.
• Archives are not encrypted. They contain the precise locations of your properties, your contacts' details and your photographs: be careful who you send them to and where you store them.
• An export or an import uses no credit, even with a zero balance.
• An export neither changes nor deletes anything: you can run it again as often as needed.

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Our recommendation

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What next

• Set your units before exporting
• Back to the getting started guide

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