Pocket Exporter [⚠️ DEADLINE Oct. 8]

A web-based tool to export your complete Pocket library before it shuts down in October 2025. This tool extracts everything that Pocket's official CSV export leaves out: article text, tags, favorites, images, and all metadata.

Important

No longer supported as of 2025-09-20 but might work until 10-08 if you're lucky: Unfortunately I no longer have a working account I can debug with, open a new issue to ask for a refund if you paid and weren't able to export your data

🚨 Why This Tool Exists

Mozilla shut down Pocket in October 2025 and will delete all user data shortly. Their official export only provides a basic CSV with URLs and titles - no article content, no tags, no highlights, no ⭐️, no images, nothing else. This tool used Pocket's internal APIs to export everything.

✨ Features

Complete Article Export: Full text content, not just URLs
All Metadata: Tags, favorites, authors, excerpts, reading time
Images & Media: Featured images and embedded content
Multiple Formats: JSON for data portability, ZIP for archival
Pocket Premium Content: Exports your "Permanent Library" articles
Privacy First: All data stays on your machine, deletable anytime
Open Source: Fully auditable code

🎯 Quick Start

Using the Hosted Version

Visit https://pocket.archivebox.io (or your self-hosted instance)
Follow the authentication steps to connect your Pocket account
Start exporting (free for up to 100 articles, $8 one-time fee for unlimited, because hosting costs money)

Self-Hosting with Docker

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ArchiveBox/pocket-exporter
cd pocket-exporter

# Copy environment variables
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Stripe keys (optional, for payment processing)

# Run with Docker Compose
docker-compose up -d

Visit http://localhost:3000 to access the exporter.

📊 Export Data Format

Directory Structure

sessions/
└── {session-id}/
    ├── session.json          # Session metadata
    ├── payments.json         # Payment status (if applicable)
    └── articles/
        ├── {article-id}/
        │   ├── index.json    # Article metadata
        │   ├── article.html  # Pocket's archived HTML
        │   ├── original.html # Original source HTML (if available)
        │   ├── top_image.jpg # Featured image
        │   └── image_*.jpg   # Article images
        └── ...

Article JSON Schema

{
  "_createdAt": 1745783047,
  "_updatedAt": 1745783047,
  "title": "Article Title",
  "url": "https://example.com/original/article/url",
  "savedId": "956339233",
  "status": "UNREAD",
  "isFavorite": false,
  "favoritedAt": null,
  "isArchived": false,
  "archivedAt": null,
  "tags": [
    {"id": "ZGF0YWJhc2VzX194cGt0eHRhZ3hfXw==", "name": "databases"},
  ],
  "annotations": {
    "highlights": []
  },
  "item": {
    "isArticle": true,
    "title": "Article Title",
    "shareId": "2e3dtp25T247ec458bAfnIkA3cgdT9f8f71kafc603h224x02ebdfl19a5ekj2d4_1a8c2a615b265f6c7e627dd9ecc14e03",
    "itemId": "956339233",
    "readerSlug": "2e3dtp25T247ec458bAfnIkA3cgdT9f8f71kafc603h224x02ebdfl19a5ekj2d4_1a8c2a615b265f6c7e627dd9ecc14e03",
    "resolvedId": "956339233",
    "resolvedUrl": "https://example.com/original/article/url",
    "domain": null,
    "domainMetadata": {"name": "example.com"},
    "excerpt": "Exceprt of article text...",
    "hasImage": "HAS_IMAGES",   // or NO_IMAGES
    "hasVideo": "HAS_VIDEOS",   // or NO_VIDEOS
    "images": [
        {
        "caption": "Some image caption",
        "credit": "Some image credit...",
        "height": 200,
        "imageId": 1,
        "src": "https://example.com/some/image/url.png",
        "width": 200
      },
    ],
    "videos": [
      {
        "vid": "",
        "videoId": 1,
        "type": "HTML5",
        "src": "https://example.com/some/video.mp4"
      }
    ],
    "topImageUrl": "https://example.com/original/article/url/image.png",
    "timeToRead": 7,
    "givenUrl": "https://example.com/original/article/url",
    "collection": null,
    "authors": [{"id": "23432434", "name": "Article Author Name", "url": "https://example.com/author/url"}],
    "datePublished": "2024-06-14T21:32:00.000Z",
    "syndicatedArticle": null,
    "preview": {
      "previewId": "2e3dtp25T247ec458bAfnIkA3cgdT9f8f71kafc603h224x02ebdfl19a5ekj2d4_1a8c2a615b265f6c7e627dd9ecc14e03",
      "id": "2e3dtp25T247ec458bAfnIkA3cgdT9f8f71kafc603h224x02ebdfl19a5ekj2d4_1a8c2a615b265f6c7e627dd9ecc14e03",
      "image": ... same format as above images ...,
      "excerpt": "Exceprt of article text...",
      "title": "Article Title",
      "authors": null,
      "domain": {
        "name": "example.com"
      },
      "datePublished": "2024-06-14T21:32:00.000Z",
      "url": "https://example.com/original/article/url"
    }
  },
  "archivedotorg_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/https://example.com/original/article/url"
}

🔐 Authentication Process

The tool requires your Pocket session cookies to access your data:

Log into getpocket.com using Chrome (Firefox not supported yet)
Open Developer Tools (F12)
Go to Network tab
Find any graphql request to getpocket.com
Right-click → Copy → Copy as fetch (Node.js)
Paste into the exporter

Your credentials are only used to fetch your data and can be deleted anytime.

After you fetch the first 100 articles succesfully, the payment form will pop up and ask for payment to continue with the full export.

🛠️ Development Setup

Prerequisites

Node.js 20+
npm or yarn
(Optional) Stripe account for payment processing

Local Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Set up environment variables
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env:
# - Add Stripe keys (optional)
# - Set NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL (optional)

# Run development server
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build
npm start

Environment Variables

# Stripe (optional, for payments)
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_...
NEXT_PUBLIC_STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_test_...
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_...

# Base URL (optional)
NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000

⚠️ Caveats & Limitations

Rate Limiting: Pocket's API has rate limits. The tool automatically handles these with retries. (~9.5k req per day, 300 per hour)
Large Libraries: Most exports complete in <15min, some accounts with >20k articles can hit hourly ratelimits (adds +1 hour of time)
Authentication: Pocket cookies expire after ~2 weeks of inactivity / upon logout
📸 Original HTML & Images: Pocket's archived copy of the article text is always fetched, but the original source HTML and featured images can also be exported on a per-article basis by clicking (📸). This is is best-effort (as original sites may be offline), and is limited to 50mb max per article.

🔧 Technical Details

Stack

Frontend: Next.js 15, React 19, Tailwind CSS
Backend: Next.js API routes
Storage: Local filesystem
Payments: Stripe Checkout (optional)

Key Features

Server-side pagination for large libraries
Concurrent article fetching with rate limit handling
Resumable exports (session-based)
Real-time progress updates via polling

📝 Data Privacy

No tracking: No analytics or user tracking
Local storage: All data stored in sessions/ directory
Deletable: One-click delete removes all your data
Payment info: Only payment status stored, no credit card data

✨ Pocket Alternatives

Here are some alternative apps that can replace Pocket.

Other export tools:

📄 License

MIT License

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with frustration after discovering Pocket's official export is essentially useless for archival purposes. Special thanks to everyone who helped test this.

🔗 Related Links

ArchiveBox - Self-hosted internet archiving
Pocket Shutdown Annoucement Post - Their official announcement of shutdown in Oct 2025
Pocket API Documentation - Official (extremely limited) API
Pocket CSV Export - Official (extremely limited) CSV export
r/DataHoarder Discussion Thread - Discussion about this projeect

Remember: Export your data before October 2025! Once Pocket shuts down, your articles will be gone forever.

GeezerVison

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