Student Trove
Import a timetable from a photo
Photograph a printed timetable, screenshot your student portal, or drop in a PDF — and skip typing twenty classes in by hand.
The short answer
Study Planner's Smart Import reads a timetable from an image, a PDF or pasted text and turns it into classes with days, times, venues and subject names. You review the result and fix anything it got wrong before it is saved.
The realistic benefit is not perfection, it is arithmetic. Entering a twenty-class timetable manually takes most people fifteen to twenty minutes of tedious form-filling, which is the main reason half-configured planner apps get abandoned in the first week. An import that lands eighty per cent correct turns that into a two-minute review.
How it works
Pick your source
A photo of a printed timetable, a screenshot from a student portal, a PDF from a faculty handbook, or text pasted from an email. All four go through the same import.
Text recognition
The image is converted to text, preserving the layout well enough that rows and columns of a timetable grid stay distinguishable from one another.
Structuring
A language model turns that text into actual class records — matching times to days, associating venues with sessions, and reconciling subject names against subjects you already have.
Review before saving
You see everything it found and can edit, remove or add classes before anything is written to your timetable. Nothing is saved without your confirmation.
Step four is not a formality. Treat the import as a first draft produced quickly rather than a finished timetable, and check it against the original once.
What happens to your image
Being precise about this matters more than marketing it. Smart Import is not an on-device feature. The file you choose is sent over an encrypted connection to Student Trove's import service, which uses a text-recognition provider and Google's Gemini model to produce the structured result, and then returns it to the app.
- An internet connection is required for import — and only for import.
- The image is not retained after the response is returned, and is not used by Student Trove to train anything.
- Processing involves third-party providers, so do not import documents containing information you would not want handled off your device.
- Everything else in Study Planner works offline. Once your classes are in, your timetable, tasks, grades and attendance are stored locally on the device and need no connection.
If you would rather nothing left your device at all, skip Smart Import and add classes manually — every feature that depends on your timetable works identically either way.
Getting a good scan
Import quality is dominated by the source, and a screenshot beats a photograph almost every time. If you can get to the timetable on a screen, screenshot it rather than photographing it.
- Shoot square on. A steep angle distorts the grid, and a distorted grid is what turns a Tuesday class into a Wednesday one.
- Get the whole table in frame, including day headers and the time column. Those headers are what the structuring step uses to place everything else.
- Avoid glare and shadow. A printed timetable under a window is a common and avoidable failure.
- One week per image. If your timetable spans two pages, import them separately.
- Prefer the original PDF where you have it — text in a PDF is read directly rather than recognised from pixels.
The fields most often misread are room codes and abbreviated module codes. Short alphanumeric strings have little surrounding context to disambiguate them, so NM104 and NM1O4 look equally plausible. Times, days and subject names are considerably more reliable.
Alternating timetables
If your institution runs a Week A / Week B schedule, expect to do some work after importing. The scan can read both weeks when both are visible, but alternating layouts vary enormously between institutions, and which half of a split cell belongs to which week is often signalled by shading or a footnote that does not survive text extraction.
Import first, then set the week pattern on the classes that alternate — how Week A / Week B timetables work covers the anchor date and the one-week-inverted problem worth checking for.
Frequently asked questions
Can I import my timetable from a photo?
Yes. Student Trove Study Planner has a Smart Import feature that reads a photograph, screenshot or PDF of a timetable and extracts the classes, times and days into your schedule. You review what it found and correct anything wrong before it is saved, so a partially successful scan is still faster than entering a full timetable by hand.
What kinds of timetable can it read?
It handles the formats students actually have: a photo of a printed timetable, a screenshot from a student portal, a PDF from a faculty handbook, or plain text pasted from an email. Clean grid layouts with clear headings work best. Handwritten timetables, heavily stylised designs and photographs taken at a steep angle are the least reliable.
Does the timetable import work offline?
No. Smart Import needs an internet connection because the text recognition and structuring run on Student Trove's import service rather than on your device. Everything else in Study Planner works offline — your timetable, tasks, grades and attendance are stored locally and do not need a connection once your classes are in. If you have no connection, you can add classes manually and import later.
What happens to the photo I upload?
It is sent over an encrypted connection to Student Trove's import service, which uses a text-recognition provider and Google's Gemini model to turn the image into structured classes, then returns the result. The image is not stored after the response is returned and is not used to train anything by Student Trove. Because processing involves those third-party providers, do not import documents containing information you would not want handled off-device.
How accurate is timetable scanning?
Accurate enough to save most of the typing, not accurate enough to trust unread. A clear screenshot of a standard grid timetable usually comes back nearly correct. Room codes and abbreviated module codes are the most frequently misread, since they are short strings without surrounding context to disambiguate them. Always check the imported classes against the original before relying on the schedule.
Can it import an alternating Week A / Week B timetable?
It can read both weeks if both are visible in the image, but the week pattern is the part most worth checking after an import. Alternating timetables are laid out very differently between institutions, and which side of a split cell belongs to which week is often conveyed by formatting the scan cannot see. Expect to set the Week A and Week B assignments yourself after importing.