How do you export your collection as a CSV?
On the Discogs website, sign in, open the export page from your account menu, choose Collection, and request the export. The file is built in the background, so you come back and download it once the site says it's ready.
The steps, in order:
- Sign in on the website, not the app. The export is a website feature.
- Open the export page. It sits under your account menu, on the same page that handles your other data exports.
- Choose Collection as the export type. The same page can also export a wantlist or a sale inventory, so pick the one you want.
- Request the export. It's queued and prepared rather than generated instantly. Large collections take longer.
- Download the CSV when it's ready. You'll get a notification on the site, and the finished export appears in a list on that same page with a download link.
Site menus move. If the wording here doesn't match what you see, the export page on the Discogs website is the authority on where the button lives and what it's called.
On an iPhone you can do the whole export in Safari and the download lands in Files, which is where Cratemint's file picker looks. If you exported on a desktop instead, put the CSV somewhere your phone can reach it: iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, or an email to yourself. The file picker reads from any of those.
What's in the export?
One row per record in your collection, holding both the catalogue facts and the notes you added yourself.
The catalogue side of each row:
- Artist and Title, as they're written on the release.
- Label and Catalog#, the catalogue number printed on the sleeve and label.
- Format, for example
Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 180g. - Released, the year of that specific pressing.
- release_id, a number identifying the exact pressing rather than the album in general. This is the field that makes a precise match possible, because it distinguishes a 1973 original from a 2015 repress of the same record.
The part that's yours:
- CollectionFolder, whichever folder you filed the record in.
- Date Added, the timestamp of when it entered your collection.
- Collection Media Condition and Collection Sleeve Condition, your grades, in Goldmine shorthand such as
Very Good Plus (VG+). If those terms are new, vinyl record grading explained covers what each one commits to. - Rating and Collection Notes, your star rating and anything you typed.
It's a normal CSV, so it opens in any spreadsheet program if you want to read it before importing. It's also worth keeping. A dated copy of the file is a plain-text backup of your collection that doesn't depend on any app.
How does the import into Cratemint work?
Open Settings, tap Import from Discogs, and follow the two steps on screen. The first step opens the export page for you. The second step is the file picker, where you choose the CSV you downloaded.
From there it runs on its own. The screen shows a live count of rows processed against the total, split into two numbers: how many matched a pressing in the catalogue, and how many are waiting to be matched later.
Three things govern how it behaves:
Every row lands. The number of records on your shelf at the end equals the number of rows in the file. Nothing is skipped for being unusual, obscure, or badly formatted.
Unmatched rows become ghost entries. When a row points at a pressing the catalogue doesn't hold yet, the record still goes onto your shelf as a ghost: it keeps the artist, title, label and catalogue number from your row, and it gets a typeset sleeve so it sits alongside the covers rather than as a broken placeholder. You can match a ghost to a real pressing whenever you like. No record is lost, and no record is shown as an error.
An interrupted import resumes. If the connection drops or you close the app partway through, opening the import again and picking the same file continues from where it stopped. Records that already landed stay where they are and nothing doubles up. The same protection covers running the file twice on purpose: Cratemint recognises a file it has already imported and adds nothing.
How do you check the result?
Compare two numbers and clear the queue.
Check the count. The final screen gives you the total that landed. Open the CSV in a spreadsheet and check the row count (rows minus the header line). Those two numbers should agree. Your collection total on the Discogs website should agree with both, assuming nothing changed between the export and the import.
Look at the split. The same screen shows how many records matched a catalogue pressing and how many are queued to match later. Both are on your shelf either way, so a large ghost count means work waiting, not records missing.
Work through the ghosts when you feel like it. Matching a ghost attaches it to a specific pressing, which brings the cover and the pressing details with it. There's no deadline, and a ghost you never match still counts, still searches, still shows on your shelf.
After that the collection behaves like any other. You can add new records by scanning the barcode, add older pressings by search, log what you spin, and export everything again whenever you want your data in your own hands. If you'd like to sort the shelf while it's fresh in your mind, how to organise your record collection covers the usual approaches.
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Common questions
How do you export your Discogs collection as a CSV?
Sign in on the Discogs website, open the export page from your account menu, choose Collection as the export type, and request the export. The file is prepared in the background, so you download the CSV once the site says it's ready. If the menu has moved since you last looked, the site's own export page is the authority.
What's in a Discogs collection CSV export?
One row per record in your collection, with the artist, title, label, catalogue number, format and release year, plus the release identifier that points at the exact pressing. Your own additions come across too: the folder a record sits in, the date you added it, the media and sleeve grades you recorded, your rating and your notes.
How long does the import take?
It runs at roughly the speed of your connection, and a collection of a few hundred records is usually a couple of minutes. The screen shows a running count of rows processed out of the total, so you can watch it move rather than guess.
What happens to records that can't be matched?
They land as ghost entries. A ghost keeps the artist, title and everything else the row carried, sits on your shelf with a typeset sleeve of its own, and can be matched to a catalogue pressing later. No row is dropped and no record shows as an error.
What happens if the import stops partway through?
Picking the same file again picks up exactly where it stopped. Records that already landed stay put and nothing doubles up, so an interrupted import is safe to restart on a poor connection or after the app is closed.
Can you import the same CSV twice?
Yes, and it won't duplicate your shelf. Cratemint recognises a file it has already brought in and tells you nothing was added rather than running it again.