Tag Archives: Google Reader

Feeddler Pro Users: If You Subscribed to The Old Reader, It’s Time to Move to BazQux

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Yes, it’s sad but true: The search for an alternative to Google Reader continues.

Feeddler Pro logoOn July 1, 2013, Google Reader closed shop, forcing RSS enthusiasts to find a new home.  For those like Yours Truly, who enjoyed reading their RSS feeds in the mobile app Feeddler Pro, the search for an alternative was complicated by the fact that the Google Reader alternative needed to integrate with Feeddler Pro.

Initially The Old Reader offered a neat solution. But the onslaught of former Googlers rendered it unstable. Now the exhausted developers have announced that The Old Reader, too, is closing its doors – see for yourselves in this article on The Verge.

If you are a Feeddler Pro user, don’t despair, because there’s yet another good reader. It’s got a strange name:  BazQux.

Speaking from four-week experience, I can say that it is more stable than The Old Reader. No crashes, no freezes. You’ll get the first month for free, then you’ll have to pay. The default yearly subscription rate is $19.00, I believe. But they also offer a less costly rate of $9.00 for those who have to pinch their dimes.

Logging in:

To access your BazQux account, log in via Facebook, Google, Twitter, or OpenID.

 Adding subscriptions one by one:

Once you are logged in, you have the ability to add RSS subscriptions one by one, using the “Add a subscription” feature on the top left of the page.

Importing all your subscriptions at once:

If you still have a copy of the subscriptions.xml file from Google Reader (see my last post on the Google Reader saga) or if you have generated one from The Old Reader, you can quickly import all your subscriptions by going to “Add a subscription,” hitting the link “Upload OPML or Takeout.zip,” and then browsing for subscriptions.xml on your computer.

Creating a mobile login:

Before you can access your BazQux account from Feeddler, you will need to create a mobile login inside BazQux.

  1. In BazQux, top right, click on settings (it’s a tiny wheel icon).
  2. From the drop-down menu select “mobile login.”
  3. Set up your mobile login information.
  4. In Feeddler Pro, when prompted for a BazQux user name and password, enter the mobile login information.

That’s it. I hope BazQux works for you!

Feeddler Pro Users: Migrate your RSS subscriptions from Google Reader to The Old Reader

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Hello Feeddler Pro Users,

Feeddler Pro logoGoogle Reader expires tomorrow, which means that if you don’t transfer your subscriptions to another RSS aggregator pronto, you will lose them, and Feeddler Pro will become useless. If you have the latest version of Feeddler Pro installed (if not, update!), you can migrate your subscriptions to The Old Reader, a free alternative to Google Reader.

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Here’s how:

Set up The Old Reader:

  1. Register a new account at http://theoldreader.com.

Fetch your subscriptions from Google Reader:

  1. In Google Reader go to Settings, then find Import/Export tab.
  2. Click on link “Download your data through Takeout.”
  3. In the Takeout window, once your data has fully loaded and the Reader pane indicates “100%”, click button “Create Archive”.
  4. A zip folder will be downloaded to your computer.
  5. Find the zip folder on your computer. Open it, open the “Reader” folder inside the zip folder, and find submissions.xml. That file contains the RSS subscriptions.

Import fetched subscriptions into The Old Reader:

  1. Log into The Old Reader.
  2. Find the “Import” link (should be on the top towards the right).
  3. Click the “Import” link.
  4. Click “Choose File” button, then browse for submissions.xml on your computer and select it.
  5. Click “Import.”

Set up Feeddler Pro (must be latest version!) to work with The Old Reader:

  1. In Feeddler Pro (IPad version – I assume IPhone works the same way), tap the “Account” button (it’s a button containing the outline of a person at the top left of the screen).
  2. Click “The Old Reader.”
  3. Enter your The Old Reader username and password.
  4. Click “Login” button.
  5. Go back to  basic account overview, and make sure that under “saved accounts” your “The Old Reader” account is checked.

Done!