How to export your data from Doodle

How to export your data from Doodle before you leave

Doodle's documented export is an Excel file of participant data for group polls, and it is available only on the Pro, Team and Enterprise plans. If a renewal, a change in seat count or a data residency requirement is pushing you to leave, check your plan before you assume you can take data out. Booking page and sign-up sheet records are not covered by that file, so you will need to archive them by hand. This page covers only the export paths Doodle documents. It cannot confirm what Doodle holds beyond those paths, so confirm the rest in writing with Doodle, and check your current entitlements on Doodle's premium plans page.

Free accounts are a different case. The Free plan includes one booking page, and it does not carry the Excel export, so anyone still on Free should plan around what the account can still view. Confirm which poll screens remain visible to a free account, and whether older polls stay open after a downgrade or cancellation. For each active group poll, save the title, the proposed options, the participant responses and any comments in a dated folder. A view-only screen is not an archive, and screens can change without notice, so do not treat them as your only copy of the record.

Booking pages and sign-up sheets need a manual inventory. For each booking page, record the event settings, availability windows, invitee questions and a list of confirmed bookings with dates and times. For each sign-up sheet, save the slot names, the entries and any reminders. Take screenshots where the interface allows it, and store the files under the retention rules your compliance team requires, because invitee names and contact details are personal data. Ask Doodle, in writing, whether booking data can be downloaded in bulk, in what format, and until what date. Complete the inventory while the account still works.

Which Doodle data you can export, and in what format

This table maps each Doodle data type to the export method, format and limits you can confirm before a move. Only the Excel export of group poll participant data is a documented export, and it applies to Pro, Team and Enterprise plans. Treat every other row as a manual archive or unconfirmed until you check Doodle's current help documentation before you cancel.

Data type	Export method and format	Limits and what to confirm
Group poll participant data	Excel export from the poll on Pro, Team and Enterprise plans	Available only on paid plans. Confirm the export steps and column layout in Doodle's help.
Poll options and responses	Included in the Excel export if the file contains option-level votes; otherwise copy by hand	Confirm whether the export lists each option or only participant rows.
Group polls on free accounts	Viewable in the browser; no documented Excel export for free accounts	Save screenshots or copy results before any plan change. Confirm current free-account options.
Booking pages and event types	Manual archive: record names, durations, availability rules, questions and the public URL	No export confirmed. Screenshots plus a written settings summary are the safe fallback.
Bookings and invitee details	Manual archive or unconfirmed; check whether Doodle lists bookings for download	Invitee personal data should be kept only under your own retention policy.
Sign-up sheets	Manual archive: copy slot titles, entries, dates and comments	Confirm whether any export exists for sign-up sheets before relying on it.
Account, seat and billing records	Manual: download invoices from account settings and note plan and seat count	Confirm invoice availability and history limits in the billing area.
Calendar connections and video integrations	Not exported; list which calendars and video tools were connected	Reconnect each in the new platform and confirm nothing transfers automatically.

What changes in your export by Doodle plan

The Free plan includes one booking page. Excel export of group poll participant data is not part of this plan, so do not assume a spreadsheet will be available once you are on it. Anything you cannot download will need to be captured in another form while you still have access.

One booking page: Any booking page beyond the single free one, along with its availability rules and confirmation messages, should be recorded by hand before you move.
Viewing without export: Confirm which poll results and participant responses you can still open. Where content is visible but not downloadable, save screenshots or copy the text into your own archive.
Group poll history: Do not treat a downgrade to Free as a way to keep poll data. Export participant data while a paid plan still covers the polls.
Booking page settings: Record the booking page address, event types and notification text, since these settings are unlikely to appear in a data export.

Confirm the current Free plan limits and what remains viewable on Doodle's premium page before you rely on the account for your archive.

What Doodle does not export and how to archive it by hand

The documented Excel export covers group poll participant data, and nothing else in this list is guaranteed to come out with it. Before you cancel, confirm with Doodle which of these items it can export, then record anything it cannot in a form you can keep on your own servers.

Booking page configuration

Your booking page holds event types, durations, weekly availability, buffer times and the questions shown to invitees. None of this is part of the poll participant export. Before cancelling, take full-page screenshots of each event type and copy its availability rules, duration and location settings into a document. Note the public URL of each page, because invitees and websites will still point to it until you change those links. Check that you have a written record of every rule, since a rebuilt page in Cal.diy or another tool will need to match it.

Sign-up sheet entries

Sign-up sheets record which participant chose which slot or role, together with any comments they added. Treat the entries as data you own: export them if Doodle offers it for that sheet type, and if not, copy each sheet's slots, names and notes into a spreadsheet, and save screenshots of the completed state. Include the sheet's creation date and organizer, because those fields are often missing from copied tables and matter when you answer a later question about who signed up for what.

Calendar connections and sync settings

Doodle links to connected calendars so it can check conflicts and write confirmed events. The connection itself is an account setting and is not a file you can export. Record which calendar accounts were connected, which of them were set to block or write, and the time zone used for each. Then remove the connections yourself and confirm in each calendar that Doodle-created events are no longer linked. Keep the list in your records so you can recreate the same conflict checks in the new system.

Video integration settings

If Doodle created video meeting links for confirmed bookings, those links and the provider settings behind them are not part of a poll export. Write down which video provider was connected, which account owned the meeting links, and which meetings were generated in the past year. Keep a copy of the invitation text that carried each link. Confirm with Doodle whether any of this can be exported, and do not assume a link will keep working once the Doodle account is closed.

Admin console and team records

On Team and Enterprise plans, the admin console holds member lists, roles, group assignments and single sign-on settings. These records shape who could see which polls and bookings, so they explain past access. Take screenshots of the member list with roles and the SSO configuration page, and save a dated text file listing each administrator and group. Ask Doodle whether an audit or activity log is available for your account, and if it is, export it before the subscription ends.

Invitee and time records

Invitee names, email addresses and the times they were offered or booked are the records most likely to be needed later, for example when a participant disputes an appointment. Make a written register for each important event with the date, time zone, organizer, participant list and final outcome. Store it alongside your other records under your own retention rules. Doing this by hand is slow for large histories, so prioritize active and recent bookings and any polls that fed a formal decision.

Why an Excel export is a record, not a restorable copy

A Doodle Excel export is a record of what participants answered and when they answered it. It supports audit, settles later questions about who was available for a given date, and gives participants a reference copy. It does not carry the poll link that participants used, the sharing and visibility settings on each poll, or the account and ownership structure that held the polls together. Treat the file as evidence of history rather than as input to a restore. Excel export of group poll participant data is limited to Pro, Team and Enterprise plans, so confirm the export is available on your plan before you downgrade or cancel.

The target platform determines what the archive is for. Rallly and Nextcloud Polls will create new polls with new identifiers, new invitations and new owners, so an old Doodle poll cannot be reopened inside either one. Participants who saved the old link will not find their answers there. Map the spreadsheet to a historical file, not column by column into a new instance. If a recurring series must continue, recreate the poll options by hand from the exported dates and tell participants that the link has changed, so nobody votes in the retired poll by mistake.

Decide before the export what the archive must answer later. Ask your records or compliance owner how long poll records must be kept, and where they may be stored. Keep the files on storage your organization controls, and record for each file the poll title, the owner, the export date, and who can access it. A short index sheet listing these fields makes the archive usable years later, when the original Doodle account no longer exists. Also check which poll history remains visible to a free account, because that view is not a substitute for the export.

How to export data from Doodle in the right order

This sequence confirms what your Doodle account can export, captures every poll, booking page and sign-up sheet, and checks each archive against the live record before you change or cancel the plan. The result is a verified set of files you can keep under your own control.

Confirm the account owner and plan
The account owner logs in and checks the plan in account settings against Doodle's premium plans page. Excel exports of group poll participant data are available only on Pro, Team and Enterprise, so this check decides which polls you can export directly. Record the owner's name, the plan name and the date you checked. If the account is on a free plan, keep the export work in the paid window and ask Doodle to confirm in writing what your plan includes before you start. Done means the plan is written down and a second person has seen it.
Inventory every poll, booking page and sign-up sheet
List every group poll, booking page, 1:1 booking type and sign-up sheet in the account, including closed, expired and archived items. For each one, note the title, owner, creation date, status and number of responses or bookings as shown in the dashboard. Include items owned by other team members if your plan lets you see them. The output is one inventory sheet with a row per item. Check it by comparing the total against the dashboard counts for each section, then reviewing any item you cannot find in the list.
Export eligible group polls to Excel
While the plan is still active, run the Excel export for each group poll that the export feature covers. Save each file with the poll title, a date and the poll's ID from the inventory, so the file can be matched back to its row. Keep the original files unchanged and do not edit them in place. Check each download by opening it, confirming it contains participant names and response columns, and matching the file name to the inventory row. Any poll that will not export gets flagged for the manual step that follows.
Record free-view and unexported polls by hand
For each poll that did not export, open it and capture what you can see: the title, the proposed dates and times, the participant names, the vote or response for each option, and any comments. Use screenshots, a PDF print of the page or a CSV you type from the screen, and label each file with the inventory ID. This covers polls that you can still view on a free account. The output is one archive entry per flagged poll. Check each entry against the inventory row and note any field that is missing.
Archive booking page and sign-up sheet records
Booking pages and sign-up sheets have records that the Excel export described in this sequence does not cover in the same way, so archive them by hand. For each booking page, save its name, booking URL, availability rules, event types and a list of bookings with dates, times, invitee names and any answers to booking questions. For each sign-up sheet, save the slots, the names entered and the timestamps. Store these as CSV or PDF with the inventory ID in the file name. Check each file by counting its bookings or sign-ups against the dashboard figure from the inventory.
Check row counts, dates and names against live records
Before you rely on any archive, compare it with the live item. For each Excel file, confirm the row count matches the response count on the poll, check that proposed dates and times match the poll options, and spot-check at least several participant names against the live view. For manual archives, compare the same fields with the screen. Write any mismatch in a reconciliation sheet with the cause and the fix. The output is a signed-off reconciliation sheet. Check that every inventory row has a status of verified or an explained exception before moving on.
Store the archive and confirm access before cancelling
Place the verified files in a location you control, such as an internal file share or object storage with access limited to named staff, and record who owns the archive and how long your organization must keep it under its own policy. Confirm with the account owner which data you need to retain for records or audit purposes, and ask Doodle to confirm in writing how it handles account data after cancellation. Only after this is done should the plan change or cancellation proceed. Check that a second staff member can open every file and that the inventory points to each one.

What to plan before the Doodle renewal date

Each card is a decision to settle before the renewal or termination notice goes out. Together they decide what you export, while paid features still work, who owns the archive, and who can open it afterward. Settle them in this order so the export is complete before anyone cancels.

Confirm the export window

Check which plan the account is on and whether Excel exports of group poll participant data are still available before the subscription ends. Excel export is limited to Pro, Team and Enterprise, so a downgrade to Free can remove the option. Ask Doodle in writing what remains viewable after cancellation and how long the data stays accessible.

Inventory seats and owner accounts

List every paid seat and the account that owns each group poll, booking page and sign-up sheet. Polls created by someone who has left the organization can be missed if the owner is not identified. Record who has admin rights, because only an owner can usually run the export for their own polls.

Map invitations still pointing to Doodle

Search email templates, calendar invites, intranet pages and booking links for Doodle URLs that people still use. Each live link is a participant who will land on a dead page after cancellation. Note which links belong to recurring meetings, since those need a replacement address before the old one goes dark.

Agree the archive scope and sign-off

Decide which records count as the archive: poll titles, option dates, votes, comments, final choices, booking page settings and sign-up sheet entries. Get a named business owner to approve the list before the export starts. Booking page and sign-up sheet records generally need manual copying, so add them to the checklist as separate items.

Assign who keeps the exported files

Name the team that stores the Excel files and any manual copies, and set who can open them. Participant names, email addresses and comments are personal data, so access should follow your existing data protection rules. Store the archive on systems the organization controls, and record the retention period the business requires.

Verify the archive before cancelling

Open a sample of each exported file and compare it with the live poll to confirm the vote counts and dates match. Keep a dated copy of the export and a note of who checked it. Do this before the final billing date so a missing export can still be fixed on the paid plan.

Where to keep the archive once Doodle is gone

Decide where the exported files live before you cancel anything, because an Excel export of poll participant data is personal data and it needs the same custody as the records you already hold. A self-hosted file store such as Nextcloud keeps those files on infrastructure you control. Nextcloud Server is licensed under AGPL-3.0, so you can run the community edition without a per-user subscription, and Nextcloud Enterprise is a separate paid offering you would only need if you want vendor support. Map each export to an owner, a folder structure and the same group permissions your existing records use, and confirm that the sharing links you create for the archive expire or are restricted to named staff.

Retention is a decision for your organization, not a setting the migration makes for you. Decide how long poll exports, booking page records and sign-up sheet entries should be kept, when they should be deleted, and who approves deletion. Record that decision in your retention schedule and configure the Nextcloud folders to match, for example by documenting the archive location and review date in a single register entry. Note that Nextcloud Server's own release and maintenance cadence applies to the archive host too, so schedule upgrades and backups for it as you would any other system holding records.

Confirm your record-keeping obligations with your compliance lead before you delete anything from Doodle. Ask which regulations, contracts or internal policies require you to retain scheduling data, meeting records or participant details, and whether any of those records must be kept in a particular region or on systems you control. Ask the compliance lead to confirm the access controls, audit logging and deletion procedure the archive must meet, and keep a written record of who approved the transfer. DeployOpen can prepare the storage configuration and evidence for your assessment, but the compliance obligations and the retention period remain yours to set.

What teams ask before exporting data from Doodle

Can a free Doodle account export poll data to Excel?

No, not for Excel exports of group poll participant data. Doodle limits that export to its Pro, Team and Enterprise plans, so a free account cannot download the file. Free accounts can still view poll results and participant responses on screen, which lets you check what you hold but does not give you a copy outside Doodle. The free plan also includes only one booking page. If you need files on your own servers, plan the export while a paid seat is active, because the export option depends on the plan you hold on the day you run it. Confirm the current options in your account settings, since Doodle's premium plans can change.

How much effort does exporting Doodle data take, and what drives it up?

Effort grows with the number of records you keep, because every group poll in the archive adds a separate step, and booking pages and sign-up sheets must be archived by hand, one record at a time. The main cost driver is plan timing. Pro is listed at USD 11 and Team at USD 16 per seat per month billed annually, so keeping an export-capable seat active costs money for as long as you need it. Other drivers include how many participants' details need review, how many people hold owner access, and whether the archive must be searchable or versioned. Ask any provider for a written scope that lists record counts, fields and the storage format before agreeing a figure, because no reliable duration exists without those numbers.

What does an export need from our team before work starts?

Four things should be in place before anyone downloads a file.

Account owner access: a person who can sign in as the owner or admin of the Doodle account, with the required plan active on the day of export.
A record list: every group poll, booking page and sign-up sheet to keep, with its title, creation date and status.
A storage location: a folder or system inside your own infrastructure, with access limited to named people and backups in place.
A data decision: who approves the export, which participant names, emails and comments you may keep, and how long you retain them.

Without the record list, nobody can tell when the archive is complete.

Can our own team export Doodle data without outside help?

Yes, if the volume is small and one administrator can follow a checklist. Excel exports from a paid plan need no special tooling, and booking page and sign-up sheet records are archived by hand, so the work is manual rather than technical. The main risks are gaps in coverage, inconsistent file names that make later checks hard, and personal data kept without a retention rule. Build a simple index sheet that lists each poll, its export date, the person who ran it and where the file is stored. Check a sample of files against Doodle before you cancel the subscription, and keep the checklist with the archive. Confirm what each export file contains before you rely on it.

Which Doodle records have to be archived by hand?

Booking pages and sign-up sheets are the records most likely to need manual work under the export options as they currently stand. For each booking page, record its name, public link, the time options it offers and its availability rules. For sign-up sheets, keep the title, the slots, and the names and comments participants entered. For bookings, keep the date, time, invitee details and status wherever Doodle displays them. Use dated screenshots or a structured sheet, and store them with the group poll exports. Booking links stop working once the account closes, so tell anyone who uses them. Confirm the exact fields visible in your account before you start.

When does outside help make sense for a Doodle data export?

Outside help makes sense when the archive must be complete, checkable and stored under controls that your auditors or data protection team will accept. Typical triggers include a large record count, personal data that needs a documented retention basis, a plan to load the history into a self-hosted tool, or a deadline that cannot slip. DeployOpen plans, implements, backs up, documents and supports self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own infrastructure, and it can prepare the storage, the index and the evidence trail for the export. Engagements are fixed-scope, with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts, and a quote follows from that scope. DeployOpen does not issue audit reports or attestations.

How DeployOpen scopes an export and exit from Doodle

DeployOpen approaches an export from Doodle as a written, fixed-scope piece of work. We first confirm what your plan lets you take out, then agree which poll, booking page and sign-up sheet records need to be archived by hand before the move to self-hosted tools.

How we scope

Confirm your Doodle plan and whether Excel exports of group poll participant data are available to your account
List the group polls, booking pages and sign-up sheets that hold records you need to keep
Agree in writing which records are exported, which are archived manually and who signs off

How we build

Set up the export and archive steps so each record type has a named source and destination
Check exported files for completeness against the poll and booking lists agreed in scope
Keep archived copies on your own servers, with access limited to the people named in scope

How we hand over

Deliver a runbook that records each export step, its owner and the location of every archive
Document which participants and links change after cancellation so the team can notify them
Walk your administrators through the archive so they can answer later questions from records

How we support

Engagements are fixed-scope, with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts
Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as a retainer after handover
Ask for a written quote based on the agreed scope, since DeployOpen publishes no price list

How to export your data from Doodle