# Importing from Fathom

A site’s history comes over from Fathom, read once with an API token.

Open Import in the site’s settings, choose **Import from Fathom**, and fill in:

- an API token from Settings, then API, that can read the site
- the site’s ID, as its tracking code names it

Press **Import**. It can take up to 10 minutes, so reload Import to see how it went. fivebar holds the token in memory while it reads, and never stores or logs it. A token that can only read is enough, and you can delete it once the import is done.

## What’s read

fivebar reads the site’s days from the day it was added to Fathom, then its pageviews by page, source and the rest, the newest days first. Fathom reports in the site’s time zone in Fathom, which the import says where it differs. Where Fathom’s limit on API calls or fivebar’s 10 minutes run out first, or Fathom stops answering part way, the newest days read are imported and the import says the earliest were left out: import again an hour later to add them.

## Visitors

Fathom’s visitors are also its visits, as it doesn’t count visits apart. See [Visitors on imported days](https://fiveb.ar/docs/import.md#visitors-on-imported-days).

## When an import fails

An import fails where Fathom refuses the token or the site, where it can’t be reached or answers otherwise than it should, where its limit or fivebar’s 10 minutes run out before anything is read, where it has no days fivebar hasn’t already got, or where fivebar restarts part way. The import says which.

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