Welcome to MSDN Blogs Sign in | Join | Help

Microsoft RSS Blog

All about RSS and feed technology at Microsoft and across the community
Saving and loading feed lists in IE7 using OPML

One question we get asked occasionally is:

How do I back up my feed list?

Well, it turns out that there is a standard way to save a feed list in a single file for backup or other purposes. It's called OPML, and IE7 supports importing and exporting feed lists via OPML.

Here is the step-by-step process for backing up your feed list to an OPML file in IE7:

  1. Click on the Add button (the star and plus button next to the Favorites Center button -- Alt-Z is the keyboard shortcut).
  2. Click on Import and Export in the menu.
  3. In the wizard, select Export Feeds from the list of options and click Next.
  4. Select where you'd like the file to be put (by default, it's called feeds.opml, in your Documents folder)
  5. Finish up the wizard.

The OPML file generated will contain your entire feedlist, including any folders you may have created. Simply repeat the process (selecting Import Feeds) to restore a feed list.

As I noted above, OPML is the standard way to save a feed list, and it's supported by pretty much every aggregator out there. You can use the steps above to save your feed list to use in another aggregator or to import a feed list created by another aggregator.

Since IE7 uses the RSS platform, you can also use this technique to import or export lists of feeds from and to any application that uses the RSS platform.

Oh, and by the way -- IE7 is coming this month.

Sean

Posted: Sunday, October 08, 2006 7:34 PM by rss
Filed under:

Comments

Amyloo said:

Will you be supporting online OPML files for the import in  addition to using a locally saved file?  It helps when the sub list changes, or when it's a reading list designed to change periodically.

# October 8, 2006 3:08 PM

Tamir said:

Just one more thing - while importing OPML into IE7 the feed nodes have to contain type="rss" attribute and be UTF-8 compatible, else while importing, after feed count, nothing happens.

# October 8, 2006 3:22 PM

rss said:

@Amyloo: We don't support online OPML files. It's something we're looking for a future release of IE.

@Tamir: Yes, that's correct. We've tested with a bunch of popular aggregator's OPML output and it works as it should (the developer of the one case we found that didn't work has indicated that they're going to fix their OPML output to include the type="rss" attribute, per the OPML spec).

# October 8, 2006 7:00 PM

Richard Edwards said:

The "standard" link in this post points to the v2 draft spec.  I'm just wondering if that was intentional, or if you are using OPML v1.

# October 8, 2006 9:04 PM

carotids said:

Didn't I recently see this somewhere else?

Oh, yeah...

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1670/ie7_feed_reader_import_opml_file_feeds

# October 9, 2006 9:34 AM

SourabhM said:

Just installed IE7 RC1 (upgraded from IE6) and could not import opml files. I tried exporting the opml file from both live.com and RSSBandit but both could not be imported by IE7.

The live.com exported opml file has the type="rss" attribute but the RssBandit one did not have that attr. Did not seem to make a difference though...

Any other hoops one needs to jump to import opml files in IE?

# October 9, 2006 7:06 PM

rss said:

@Richard: We are using OPML v1 for export. The OPML v2 spec just has a convenient direct link to information on using OPML subscription lists (and it is not different enough from v1 in the subscription list scenario to make a difference).

@SourabhM:

Live.com OPML files work fine in our testing. I just tried another one to make sure. If possible, can you send a copy of the file to us at teamrss@microsoft.com? Thanks!

Current RSS Bandit OPML files won't work because of the missing type attribute. The developer has checked in a fix to the next version of RSS Bandit to add the attribute.

One thing to note is that if a feed already exists anywhere in your feed list, it won't be imported from the OPML file.

# October 10, 2006 1:33 AM

Vijay said:

Importing a opml files results in nothing.. I have a opml exported from onfolio on my xp machine with IE7. Trying to import in Vista. when i choose "import from a file" and choose the OPML file.. no results..any idea why?

# October 31, 2006 3:04 PM

Sean said:

@Vijay: if possible, can you send us your OPML file at teamrss@microsoft.com, so we can take a look?

# November 2, 2006 11:03 AM

Dave said:

Here is a description of how to fix an OPML file from Onfolio(and I assume RSSBandit).

http://designingoutloud.blogspot.com/2007/01/converting-opml-files-with-xslt.html

# January 23, 2007 1:51 PM

paul said:

Hi

Is it possible to add an default OPML as part of the install (corpote SMS install)

# February 2, 2007 6:05 AM

Andreas said:

We found an issue with IE 7 and the news feeds database on roaming profiles.

On roaming profiles the news feeds are stored under directory %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Feeds Cache and this directory is by design not roaming - so every rss feed gets lost if a user log off and log on again.

Is there any possibility to change the feeds db location, to an persisten path?

Thanks in advance,

Andreas

# March 21, 2007 12:31 PM

Vista said:

@Richard: We are using OPML v1 for export. The OPML v2 spec just has a convenient direct link to information on using OPML subscription lists (and it is not different enough from v1 in the subscription list scenario to make a difference).

@SourabhM:

Live.com OPML files work fine in our testing. I just tried another one to make sure. If possible, can you send a copy of the file to us at teamrss@microsoft.com? Thanks!

Current RSS Bandit OPML files won't work because of the missing type attribute. The developer has checked in a fix to the next version of RSS Bandit to add the attribute.

One thing to note is that if a feed already exists anywhere in your feed list, it won't be imported from the OPML file.

# January 19, 2008 7:16 AM

Webdesign said:

Importing a opml files results in nothing.. I have a opml exported from onfolio on my xp machine with IE7. Trying to import in Vista. when i choose "import from a file" and choose the OPML file.. no results..any idea why?

# January 19, 2008 7:16 AM

Webhosting said:

Just installed IE7 RC1 (upgraded from IE6) and could not import opml files. I tried exporting the opml file from both live.com and RSSBandit but both could not be imported by IE7.

The live.com exported opml file has the type="rss" attribute but the RssBandit one did not have that attr. Did not seem to make a difference though...

Any other hoops one needs to jump to import opml files in IE?

# January 19, 2008 7:17 AM

LFERC said:

Just one more thing - while importing OPML into IE7 the feed nodes have to contain type="rss" attribute and be UTF-8 compatible, else while importing, after feed count, nothing happens.

# January 19, 2008 7:17 AM

Dandu said:

@Janis: Thanks for your comment at my blog. The problem is solved allready.

I just realised today that for ompl import/export i can use the same for IE and Firefox. I always saved for both browsers seperately.

# January 24, 2008 8:41 AM

adwiki encyklopedia said:

Everything runs great! Peachy piece of soft.        

# March 20, 2008 3:15 PM

Kosmetyki profesjonalne said:

Hi,

Very interesting and useful article, I thank

# April 16, 2008 5:49 AM

Ogłoszenia Tarnów said:

Thanks for this article. It helped me.

# April 17, 2008 12:05 PM

Wybielanie zębów said:

Very good article, normal language, thank you. It helped me.

# May 2, 2008 1:54 PM

zakłady bukmacherskie said:

I hate vista. XP is better... for me ofcourse?!?!?

# May 7, 2008 8:09 AM

Darmowe Ogłoszenia said:

Thanks for very interesting article. I really enjoyed reading all of your articles. Keep up the good work. See You

# May 31, 2008 7:07 PM

felgi said:

Hi, Article written respectable. It has helped me a lot. Thank

# June 1, 2008 5:09 AM

Boszkowo said:

Thanks for very interesting article.

# June 14, 2008 2:38 PM

Boszkowo said:

Thanks for very interesting article.

# June 14, 2008 2:42 PM

omaha rules said:

The live.com exported opml file has the type="rss" attribute but the RssBandit one did not have that attr. Did not seem to make a difference though...

# June 26, 2008 4:12 AM

ogłoszenia motoryzacyjne samochody sprzedam samochód said:

Great article. It`s realy worth reading. I wish you further successes

# July 1, 2008 7:55 PM

Calivita Sklep said:

Art very interesting. It helped me a really solve my problem. Thank you

# July 5, 2008 3:52 PM

Noclegi Ustka said:

Very interesting article - thanks. I really enjoyed reading all of your articles. Keep up the good work. See You - Noclegi Ustka

# August 16, 2008 3:53 PM

Noclegi Ustka said:

Yes you are right Noclegi Ustka. It is realy interesting article

# August 21, 2008 4:57 PM

Pod Sosnami said:

Great job, interesting interview.

# August 28, 2008 4:33 PM

Library of Plants said:

I tried exporting the opml file from both live.com and RSSBandit but both could not be imported by IE7.

The live.com exported opml file has the type="rss" attribute but the RssBandit one did not have that attr. Did not seem to make a difference though...

# September 14, 2008 1:29 AM

parkiety said:

I thank information they were useful !

# October 23, 2008 11:57 AM

przedszkole warszawa said:

I managed to create a copy of an article by thanks ;-)

# November 23, 2008 9:40 AM

biometric01 said:

About Identity Theft and stolen passwords, recently I came across a site that uses Biometrics of finger, face and voice verification so the user just scans to log on. You can read more at  http://www.mybiodentity.com

# April 3, 2009 7:02 AM

Photo gallery said:

Thanks for very interesting article.

# August 17, 2009 6:15 AM
Leave a Comment

(required) 

(required) 

(optional)

(required) 

  
Enter Code Here: Required

Comment Notification

If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here

Subscribe to this post's comments using RSS

Page view tracker