Crouton can bring in recipes several ways: from a website link, a photo or scan, a PDF, pasted text, or a file from another recipe app. When an import fails or comes in looking wrong, the fix usually depends on which method you used. This guide walks through the most common import problems and what to try for each.

🛎️ Before you start: three quick checks

1. Update Crouton to the latest version. Several import fixes ship in app updates, so an older version may be the whole problem.
2. Note which import method you used (website link, photo or scan, PDF, pasted text, or a file). The steps below are grouped by method because the causes are different.
3. Know which import features your plan includes. Smart Import, the AI feature that turns a whole photo, PDF, or pasted recipe into a finished recipe at once, is part of the Discover subscription, so tapping it on Free or a one-time Plus purchase shows an upgrade prompt. A separate, free scanning option is also built into manual recipe entry, so not all scanning needs Discover. See “Free scanning vs Discover Smart Import” near the end.

Ingredients are duplicated or doubled

Some websites and PDFs list their ingredients in a way that causes each line to be read twice, so the imported recipe shows everything doubled.

What to try:

• Update the app first. Recent updates resolved several duplication cases.
• If it still happens, open the recipe in the editor and delete the repeated lines.
• If one specific recipe or website duplicates every time, that source is worth reporting so the team can look at it. See “When to contact Crouton support” below.

Ingredients land inside the steps, or notes turn into steps

This happens when the original page mixes ingredients, instructions, and notes together in a layout the parser cannot cleanly separate.

What to try:

• Open the recipe in the editor. Each line has a type you can set (Ingredient, Step, or Section), so you can move a mislabeled line to the right place. Either drag and drop between steps and ingredients, or long-press on the row and choose the swap option from the presented menu.
• Importing from the original website link often separates ingredients and steps better than a photo or a PDF of the same recipe. If a photo import came in scrambled, try the link instead.

A website link will not import (spins forever, imports the wrong page, or fails)

This is most common with social posts and with pages that sit behind a login, a paywall, or heavy JavaScript: Instagram and Facebook links, TikTok, Substack, Apple News, and similar sites.

What to try:

• Social posts (Instagram, TikTok): the recipe text is usually in the caption or a linked blog. Copy that text and use paste import (Discover), or take a screenshot and use photo import.
• JavaScript-heavy pages: open the page, copy the recipe text, and paste it in, or use the photo or scan method instead.
• Check the link itself. Make sure you are sharing the direct recipe URL, not a feed, a share-sheet wrapper, or an app link that points back to a home page.

A photo, scan, or Smart Import fails (“not found”) or freezes

Smart Import reads a recipe from an image, PDF, or pasted text. It can struggle with low-quality photos, handwriting, multi-column layouts, or a source it cannot interpret, and in some cases the app hangs.

What to try:

• Confirm you have Discover, since Smart Import is a Discover feature.
• Retake the photo straight-on, with the page lying flat and clearly visible. Include only one recipe per image, use good lighting, and avoid glare or cutting off any text.
• If a particular photo or PDF reliably freezes the app, force-quit Crouton, reopen it, and try the website link for that recipe instead.
• If the same source keeps failing, report it (see the final section) so it can be investigated.

Bulk import from another app stalls or only adds a few recipes

• Paprika import freezes partway (for example, it stops at 196 of 224). This is often caused by a recipe that has a web address saved as an ingredient line, which the importer catches on. Workaround: in Paprika, remove any URL that is stored as an ingredient, re-export, and import again.
• A zip of .crumb files only adds a few even though the counter recognizes them all. This is a known limitation on batch adds. Importing in smaller groups is the current workaround.
• MacGourmet, AnyList, and similar apps do not have a direct file-import path today. For any recipe that has a web link, re-import it from the original website. For recipes with no link, paste the text in (Discover) or add them manually.

Imported text has wrong or missing characters (umlauts, accents, non-Latin letters)

Scanned and social imports sometimes drop or garble special characters (for example, German umlauts or Turkish letters), even though typing those characters by hand works fine.

What to try:

• Paste the recipe text in rather than scanning it, which tends to preserve characters better.
• After importing, open the editor and correct the affected lines.

Measurements convert to odd amounts (cups turning into strange metric values)

Converting volume (cups, tablespoons) to weight (grams) cannot be done accurately for dry ingredients, so an imported recipe may show conversions that look wrong.

What to try:

• In Settings, turn on the option to keep original units and disable automatic metric conversion, then re-import the recipe or edit the affected lines. Leaving the recipe in its original units avoids the bad conversion.

The camera or Smart Import button asks me to upgrade, or “my AI import is gone”

Smart Import, the AI feature that reads a whole photo, PDF, or pasted recipe at once, is included with Discover. On the Free tier or a one-time Plus purchase, it is locked and will prompt you to upgrade. That is expected. If you only want to pull text off a physical recipe, you can do that for free from the manual recipe flow (see “Free scanning vs Discover Smart Import” below).

If you do have Discover and the feature disappeared:

• Open Settings and choose Restore Purchases.
• If it still does not come back after restoring, see the final section below.

Free scanning vs Discover Smart Import

Crouton has two different ways to get text off a page, and only one of them needs Discover:

• Free: scan text while adding a recipe by hand. When you create a recipe manually, the ingredient section and the step section each have their own scan button. You can use these to scan text from a physical recipe straight into those fields. You scan the ingredients and the steps separately. This works on every plan, including Free.
• Discover: Smart Import. This uses AI to read a whole recipe at once, from a photo, PDF, website, or pasted text, and build the finished recipe for you. This is the part that requires Discover.

A common mix-up: some people assume that paying for AI Smart Import replaced the free scanning buttons. It did not. The manual scan option is still there in the ingredient and step sections whether or not you have Discover.

Which imports need Discover

A few habits that prevent import problems

• When a recipe exists on a website, the website link usually gives the cleanest result. Use a photo or scan as the fallback.
• Review every imported recipe before you cook from it, especially quantities and steps.
• Keep the app updated, since import parsing improves with most releases.

When to contact Crouton support

If a specific recipe or source reliably imports wrong, fails, or crashes the app after you have tried the steps above, reach out and we will take a look. To help us investigate quickly, please include:

• The recipe link, or the photo or file you were importing
• The import method you used (link, photo, scan, PDF, paste, or file)
• Your Crouton version and your iOS or macOS version
• Your device model

You can find your version and device details on the support screen inside the app, which fills most of this in automatically when emailing via the feedback/support links in the app.

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