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Migrating from OnSong

Your whole OnSong library moves over in one go. Songs are converted to ChordPro during import. The Add song button in SONGUIDE has a Coming from OnSong entry that walks you through the same steps and takes the files at the end.

One honest note before you start: whether export is available depends on your OnSong version. OnSong 2020, the classic one-time purchase, exports with that purchase and needs no subscription. The newer subscription versions (OnSong 2022 and later) only export on a paid plan. On their free tier the export stays locked, and OnSong offers no other way to get songs out in bulk.

Export from OnSong

The exported files import identically whether they come from OnSong 2020 or the latest release. In OnSong 2026 the steps are:

  1. In OnSong, open your library and select all songs.
  2. Tap Share and choose where to save the export, for example Files, Dropbox or Google Drive.
  3. Choose ChordPro as the format. If ChordPro is not offered, choose OnSong text (.onsong), which imports just as well.
  4. Set the export to individual files rather than one combined file. Every song needs to stay its own file, otherwise the whole library arrives as a single long song.
  5. Leave the key on original. Exporting with the capo applied bakes the capo chords into your songs as the new written key, and the original key is lost.
  6. Turn on the ZIP option to get everything as a single archive. If your OnSong version has no ZIP option, save the files into a folder and zip that folder, or import the loose files directly.

Older versions word the menus slightly differently, but the path is the same: select the songs, share or export them, pick the format and destination.

One export lands in one SONGUIDE folder, named after the archive. OnSong's export does not include your books, so there is no folder structure to carry over. To keep books as folders, filter your OnSong library by book, export each book as its own ZIP, and import them one at a time. The archive name becomes the folder name, so renaming a ZIP before importing names the folder. If a folder of that name already exists, the new one gets Import added to its name.

Import into SONGUIDE

Choose Add song, then Coming from OnSong. Pick ZIP archive takes the exported archive, Pick song files takes loose exported files. On iPhone and Android you can also share .onsong files from another app straight to SONGUIDE, or open them with SONGUIDE from the Files app.

What comes across

Every song arrives as a normal SONGUIDE song in ChordPro. Header lines like Key: G become song details, section labels like Verse 1: become headings, and chords written above the lyrics move into the words exactly where they sit in OnSong. Inline chords in brackets stay as they are. Title, artist, copyright, CCLI number, key, tempo, and time signature all carry over.

If an exported file carries a capo tag (a Capo: line in OnSong text or a {capo} directive in ChordPro), it becomes your personal capo setting on the song. SONGUIDE stores capo per person rather than in the song itself, so the written key stays clean for everyone you share with.

What stays behind

  • Capo settings are usually not part of OnSong's export, so expect to set your capo again in SONGUIDE after the move.
  • OnSong extras such as the song flow, book assignments, highlights, and linked media are not imported.
  • OnSong books and sets are not part of the export. Books can come over as folders with the per-book export above, and setlists are quick to rebuild once the songs are in.
  • The OnSong Archive format (.onsongarchive) and .backup files are OnSong's own transfer formats and cannot be imported. Export as ChordPro or OnSong text instead.
  • Files that are not songs are skipped and counted in the import summary.

An archive can be up to 50 MB and each song file up to 1 MB. That comfortably fits libraries of well over a thousand songs.

Next steps