Moving your dive history: paper, dive computer and UDDF

Most divers' history is scattered. There's a paper logbook from training, a dive computer that has been through two apps, a spreadsheet from a season of guiding, and maybe a commercial logbook with supervisors' signatures. Bringing it all into one place is worth doing once and doing properly.

This guide covers each source in turn:

• What UDDF is
• How to export from the software you use now
• How to transfer a paper logbook without losing what makes it valuable
• How to check the result
• Why you keep the originals

Step 1: List what you have

Before exporting anything, make a short inventory:

• Paper logbooks: how many, which years, and which pages carry signatures or stamps
• Dive computers: each model, and which program or app you downloaded them to
• Logbook software and apps: desktop programs, phone apps and cloud accounts
• Spreadsheets or any other home-made records

Don't assume an old dive computer still holds your old dives. Often the only full copy is in the software you downloaded it to years ago. Find that copy first.

Step 2: Understand UDDF

UDDF (Universal Dive Data Format) is an open, XML-based file format for dive data. Its specification describes it as designed to manage all dive data, including:

• Planning, logging and analysis
• Rebreathers and all breathing gases
• Logbooks and archiving

It works regardless of the manufacturer or operating system, and it is freely distributed.

Two details from the specification are useful when you move data:

• Units are SI. Depth is in metres, time in seconds, pressure in pascals and temperature in kelvin. A program that reads UDDF converts these back into the units you see. If an imported temperature or pressure looks absurd, a unit conversion has probably gone wrong somewhere.
• The format is broad, but files are not always complete. UDDF has sections for divers and their equipment, dive sites, gas definitions and profile data. Apart from a short header naming the program that wrote the file, every section is optional, so that program decides which ones to fill in. One export might carry full depth profiles, cylinders and gas switches. Another might carry only the date, maximum depth and duration.

UDDF is the best choice when your software offers it. If it doesn't, CSV (a plain spreadsheet export) is the usual fallback. CSV carries summary fields well but usually has no full depth profile.

Step 3: Export from your current software

The exact menu differs from program to program, so check your software's own help pages. In general:

1. Open your logbook software and sync it fully first, so the export includes your latest dives.
2. Look for Export (sometimes under File or Settings). Choose all dives, not just the selected ones.
3. Choose UDDF if it's offered. Otherwise choose CSV.
4. Also make the program's own full backup in its native format, and keep it. A native backup usually keeps more detail than any exchange format.

Two examples from official documentation:

• Subsurface. The user manual describes an export dialog that saves either all dives or only the selected ones. The formats include Subsurface's native XML, UDDF and several CSV options.
• Shearwater Cloud. Shearwater's support page says dives can be exported as XML or UDDF files. It also mentions saving the whole database through File → Export Whole Database.

For any other program, search its official help for "export" and check which formats it offers before you start.

Spreadsheets: save as CSV with one header row naming the columns (date, time, depth, duration, gas and so on) and one dive per line. Write down whether the depths are in metres or feet. A mixed column causes trouble later.

Step 4: Transfer a paper logbook

Paper logs have to be typed in. A few habits make the result trustworthy:

• Work in date order, one book at a time, and keep the original dive numbers. Your new log then still matches the paper.
• Copy what is on the page, and nothing more. If the page has no water temperature, leave the field empty. A blank is honest; a guess becomes a "fact" after a few years.
• Note where each entry came from, for example "Transcribed from logbook 2, page 14".
• Photograph every page for your own archive, including the signature and stamp pages.
• Remember what a transcription is. It is a copy of your history, not a signed record. Supervisor or instructor signatures stay on the paper.

Commercial divers should take extra care here. The Australian Diver Accreditation Scheme (ADAS) states that maintaining your diver logbook is a legal requirement in Australia and the UK, among other places. IMCA's Professional Diver's Logbook covers medical certificates, qualifications, training, competence, dives and cumulative diving experience. A digital copy is useful, but it doesn't replace the logbook your registration body requires. See How to keep a commercial diving logbook.

Step 5: Check before you finalise

Imports are where small errors get in. Before you accept anything as final:

• Count the dives and compare the total with your old software or your last paper dive number.
• Spot-check a few dives from each year against the original: date, time, maximum depth and duration.
• Check the units: feet against metres, and bar against psi.
• Check the times: dives logged abroad can shift if the time zone is handled differently.
• Check the gases: nitrox and trimix dives should show the right mixes, and multi-gas dives should show their switches.
• Look for duplicates, especially if your dives passed through two programs.

Decide on one numbering. If your history spans paper and several programs, the dive numbers will clash or leave gaps. Choose one rule before you import and write it down. You can continue the paper numbering, or renumber everything in date order and record the old number in the notes. Either works, as long as you apply it the same way to every source.

Do it in batches. Import one source at a time, oldest first, and check each batch before starting the next. When something looks wrong, you'll know which file it came from.

Fix problems at this stage, in your old software or the export file, before you import. Once a dive is finalised in a tamper-evident logbook, it is locked on purpose.

Step 6: Keep the originals

Moving your history should never mean deleting it. Keep:

• The original export files (UDDF, CSV) and each program's native backup
• The paper logbooks and your page photos
• Copies in more than one place, such as an external drive and a cloud folder

Then make a fresh export from your new logbook from time to time, so your history never depends on a single app or company.

How this works in DIVEOPS PRO

• Import. The import screen accepts UDDF, Subsurface XML (.ssrf or .xml) and CSV files. Imported dives arrive as drafts for you to check:

  • Dives already in your logbook are listed and skipped, never merged.
  • Missing values, such as cylinder volume or dive site, are noted on each draft.
  • Direct Bluetooth or USB download from dive computers is not supported yet.
  • Drafts can't be edited or deleted in the app yet, so correct errors in the source file before you import it. You decide when to finalise each draft. Finalised entries are locked; if one needs correcting, contact support.

  File import is part of DiveLog Plus and above, and it's included in the 30-day free trial new accounts start with.

• Manual entry. Typing in dives from paper, including your original dive numbers, is free and unlimited on the Free Diver plan. It works offline.

• Export. On every plan, the web app exports the whole logbook as UDDF or as a full JSON backup and saves any dive as a PDF report. Your history stays portable.

If you also log trimix or rebreather dives, read what a technical dive log should record. Plan details are on the pricing page.

Bring your history across

Create a free account on the registration page, log one dive by hand, then import your first file and check the drafts.