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Magic Import

Updated 21 July 2026

Magic Import reads the school flyer, the practice schedule PDF, or the event page link — and adds the dates for you. It's part of Plannie Premium.

Import from a photo or PDF

Open Magic Import (from Settings or the sparkle menu), then take a photo or pick one from your library — up to four attachments at once. Plannie reads them and adds the events straight away; every added item shows a checkmark with an Undo button, so nothing sticks that you didn't want. The first time you tap Take photo, Plannie asks for camera access; if you've declined it before, the button explains that camera access is needed and offers an Open Settings shortcut to turn it back on.

Photograph a recipe instead and Plannie saves it to your recipe collection, using your photo as the dish photo.

On iOS and Android, sharing a photo or PDF directly to Plannie from another app (Photos, Files) opens Magic Import with the files already attached — review, add instructions if you like, and tap Import.

Import from a link

Paste a link to an event page or a recipe. Link imports always show a preview first — check the parsed event (or recipe) and tap Confirm & add. Nothing is created until you confirm. A recipe preview shows the dish photo Plannie found on the page, with the instructions laid out as numbered steps. Sharing a link to Plannie from Safari (or any other app) lands here too.

Category / assign to

Both modes have a Category / assign to row above the instructions field:

  • Tap one or more family members to say who the import belongs to — everything Plannie adds gets assigned to them.
  • Tap a category — calendar event, meal/recipe, or task/list item — to tell Plannie what kind of thing it's looking at, so it doesn't have to guess. You can pick more than one.
  • The ? chip means Plannie decides on its own (the default). If you only pick people, Plannie still works out what the content is — your picks just set who it's for.

Link imports only ever produce events or recipes, so the task chip isn't shown there.

Good to know

  • Both photo and link imports have an optional instructions field — tell Plannie things like “assign these to Vera” or “save the recipe in Swedish” and it takes that into account.
  • A to-do with a deadline in the source (“RSVP by 15 Aug”) arrives with a real due date on the list item and is assigned to whoever imported it — unless you picked family members in Category / assign to, or your instructions name someone else.
  • The photo or PDF you imported is attached to the events it created — open the event and tap the thumbnail to view it full-size.
  • Everything Magic Import adds is labeled in your Activity log, so you can always see where an event came from.
  • Re-importing the same flyer won't create duplicates.
  • Very heavy use may show a note about nearing the month's AI budget — see the fair-use note in Meet Plannie Assistant.