Export IndexedDB from a web app using devtools

No browser’s devtools allow you to export or import an IndexedDB database (as of 2020–12–17), but you can invoke dexie and dexie-export-import on any page and make it do the export for you.

NOTE: This is a hack to export it from devtools on a client without controlling the web page that host the app. If you are interested in how to export your IndexedDB database from your own application, read more in the docs!

I will present how I did this for an old application of mine without having to push a new version of it. Any web application that use IndexedDB can be exported.

The steps I will go through:

1. Find out the database name of the IndexedDB databases.
2. Include dexie-export-import into the page.
3. Export the database to a blob.
4. Generate a “download link” to click on.

1. Find out Database Name

I personally use chrome devtools but most of these instructions would work in Firefox, opera, edge and possible Safari as well. To open devtools on mac, click CMD+ALT+I. On Windows, press F12.

In devtools, click Application tab and then unfold IndexedDB to see a list of database names.

2. Include dexie-export-import into the page.

In devtools, click Console tab. Write the following line in console ONE line at a time:

script1 = document.createElement(‘script’);
script1.src = ‘https://unpkg.com/dexie’;
document.body.appendChild(script1);
script2 = document.createElement(‘script’);
script2.src = ‘https://unpkg.com/dexie-export-import’;
document.body.appendChild(script2);

3. Export database to a blob

theDBName = ‘theDatabaseName you found in step 1’;

And then paste the following to console ONE line at a time:

theDB = new Dexie(theDBName);
let {verno, tables} = await theDB.open();
theDB.close();
theDB = new Dexie(theDBName);
theDB.version(verno).stores(tables.reduce((p,c) => {p[c.name] = c.schema.primKey.keyPath || “”; return p;}, {}));
theBlob = await theDB.export();

You will see something like:

> Blob {size: 4977759, type: “text/json”}

4. Generate a “download link” to click on.

document.body.innerHTML = ` <a href=’${URL.createObjectURL(theBlob)}’>Right-click to download database export</a>`

Now, right-click that link and save it to your file system:

How to use the exported file

The exported file will be a JSON file that you can inspect or parse or re-import using dexie-export-import package on your own application. See how that package works in the docs at dexie.org.