Mealime shuts down October 21, 2026: how to keep your recipes, whichever app you choose next

Last updated: Oct 9, 2026 Mealime's own notice: mealime.com/closing

The short version: Mealime's own closing page says the app “will be discontinued as of October 21, 2026,” and that “all personal data will be deleted when the Mealime application is shut down.” Mealime doesn't describe any export or account transfer. Mealime's own recipes move to Meals Hub in Albertsons Companies grocery apps, but your favorites, notes, plans, and lists don't. If you want them, save them yourself before the 21st. (Sources at the bottom.)

What's changing, according to Mealime

• The date: Mealime is discontinued as of October 21, 2026.
• Mealime's recipes: “All Mealime recipes will continue to be available on Meals Hub,” the free recipe and meal-planning feature inside Albertsons Companies store apps and websites (Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, Jewel-Osco, and others). Mealime says it works even if there's no Albertsons store near you, but you need to sign in to one of their store apps.
• Your account: Mealime says “certain preferences and settings will need to be established directly within Meals Hub.” Nothing transfers automatically.
• Your data: all personal data is deleted at shutdown.
• Pro: Pro features are free for everyone until the end, and Pro subscribers won't be charged again.

So the recipe catalog survives, and your layer on top of it (what you saved, what you changed, what you planned) is what disappears.

Save your recipes before October 21: step by step

Do this this week, not on the 20th. Mealime hasn't said whether anything stops working early, and it says personal data is deleted at shutdown, so links and favorites may stop working after that. Use whichever of the methods below suit you; for the recipes you care about most, use more than one.

1. List the meals you actually cook. Open your saved recipes and write down the 10–30 you make on repeat. A plain note is fine. That list is the minimum worth keeping, and even if everything else fails, you can find those dishes again in Meals Hub or elsewhere.
2. Keep each recipe's link. In the Mealime app, open a recipe, tap Share, and copy the link (it looks like mealime.com/recipes/...). You can also sign in to Mealime's web app at my.mealime.com and copy recipes from there. Paste the links into one note. Many recipe apps can import a recipe from a link, so this is often the quickest way to move a recipe, as long as you do it before the shutdown.
3. Or export your favorites in bulk. Some people have built free tools that copy your Mealime favorites out in one go, for example Halite, scullery.online's Mealime export, and the Mealime Favorites Exporter Chrome extension. These are third-party tools: they aren't made by Mealime or by us, and we haven't tested them. Check what each one does and what it asks for before you use it, and be cautious with anything that wants your Mealime password.
4. Save a PDF of the ones you love. On the recipe screen, tap Share, then Print, then use the Share button in the print preview → Save to Files. A PDF opens anywhere and doesn't depend on any app or website.
5. Screenshot them as a backup that always works. Links can break and tools can fail, but screenshots work with any app. For each recipe, take screenshots of the whole thing: the title and servings, all the ingredients, and every step. Scroll and keep shooting until you reach the end, so a long recipe may take three or four screenshots. Then:
   • Make one photo album, for example “Mealime recipes”, and move the screenshots into it so they don't get buried in your camera roll.
   • Keep each recipe's screenshots together and in order.
   • Zoom in on one or two to check the text is sharp and nothing is cut off at the edges.

   You can read screenshots on any phone, many recipe apps can turn a recipe photo into editable text, and if you'd rather type recipes in by hand, they're your reference.

6. Save your own changes first. If you changed a recipe, added notes, or swapped ingredients, that's the only copy anywhere. Meals Hub will have Mealime's version, not yours. Check that your export or link includes them; if not, screenshot your notes, or write the changes next to the recipe.
7. Capture this week's plan and grocery list. Screenshot them, and type out the staples you always buy.
8. Write down your settings. Note your plan type, servings, allergies, and dislikes, so you can set them up again in whatever comes next.
9. Keep two copies. Put your links, exports, PDFs, screenshots, and notes in a folder in iCloud Drive, Google Drive, or similar, and keep a second copy on your computer or email them to yourself.
10. Then decide where to go. Once your recipes are saved, there's no rush to pick the perfect app.

What to look for in a new home for your recipes

• A real export. Can you get all your recipes out in a file another app can read, without paying? Mealime's shutdown is exactly what happens without one.
• Where your data lives. On the company's servers, or in storage you control? Either can work, but know which you're getting.
• Meal planning or recipe keeping? If what you loved was “plan my week and build my grocery list,” you want a meal planner. If it was “the dishes I cook and how I make them,” a recipe keeper may fit better.
• Import that matches your backup. If you kept links, look for an app that imports from a recipe link. If you exported a file, check which file formats the app accepts. For screenshots, look for an app that can turn a recipe photo or screenshot into editable text; many can. Otherwise you'll be retyping.
• Devices and price model. Phone only, or tablet and computer too? One-time purchase, subscription, or free with ads or store tie-ins?

A quick, fair look at the options

Check each app's current listing before deciding. Prices and features change.

Disclosure: how Chef Notebook handles this

We make Chef Notebook, so weigh this section accordingly. Everything above works no matter which app you pick.

Chef Notebook is a recipe notebook for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It doesn't plan meals or build grocery lists, so if that's what you used Mealime for, one of the planners above will suit you better.

If what you're saving is your recipes, here's what's relevant:

• Your recipes stay yours, for good. Your recipes live in your own private iCloud, under your Apple ID, not on our servers. We don't run a recipe database, so there's nothing for us to switch off. As long as you have the app and your iCloud account, your recipes are there.
• Even if you stop paying, they stay viewable. Cancel your subscription and every recipe you saved is still there to browse. Nothing gets locked away or deleted.
• And they can always leave. You can export every recipe for free, with or without a subscription, as JSON-LD, a standard structured recipe format other apps can read. After a shutdown like Mealime's, we think that matters more than any feature.
• Bringing your Mealime recipes in: Mealime's own Share links don't import into Chef Notebook, so use your screenshots. If a recipe originally came from a recipe website, a link to that web page also works. Chef Notebook imports from screenshots, like a number of recipe apps: pick a recipe's screenshots from your photo library (several images of one long recipe can be imported together as a single recipe), and it reads the title, ingredients, and steps into an editable recipe for you to check before saving. Import is part of Chef Notebook Pro, so you'll need a subscription or the 7-day free trial on the yearly plan. If you're still deciding, save your recipes first anyway. Steps 2–5 don't depend on any app.
• Your changes stay: every edit is kept as a version, so the tweaks you saved in step 6 have somewhere to live.
• Price: $4.99/month or $49.99/year, with a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan.

Stuck on a recipe that won't import? Email casey@chefnotebook.com. I'm the developer, and I read every message.

Sources

• Mealime closing page and FAQ, read Oct 9, 2026: https://www.mealime.com/closing
• Mealime App Store release notes, v4.21.35 (Sep 2, 2026): “Mealime is shutting down on October 21st, 2026… Pro is now free for everyone.” (confirmed on the US App Store listing, Oct 9, 2026)
• Recipe share links, the my.mealime.com web app, and the third-party export tools in step 3: reported by Mealime users on Reddit (r/mealime, Sep–Oct 2026) and in other apps' guides. The tools are not affiliated with Mealime or Chef Notebook.
• Paprika subscription change: paprikaapp.com/news (Paprika 4 open beta, Sep 28, 2026)