Starting a Meet

The 2Timer home screen: starting a new meet from scratch, or bringing one in from your registration site’s file or link, a Hy-Tek file, or a 2Timer backup, and finding, backing up, or deleting the meets you already have.

What you see on the home screen

The home screen has a Create New Meet panel and, below it, Existing Meets.

Create New Meet has two halves:

Start from scratch has a card for each sport: Running / Road Race, Cross Country, Indoor Track & Field, and Outdoor Track & Field.
Import a meet (From your registration) takes a file or a link: drop the file on it, press Choose file, or press Paste link. You don’t need to know what kind of file it is. 2Timer reads it and opens the right steps, or tells you what the file is and what to do instead. Works with lists what it reads: Hy-Tek meet files, 2Timer backup files, Athletic.net, and + 3 more. Hover over or tap + 3 more to see the rest: MileSplit, RaceTab, and RunSignUp.

On a phone the two halves are buttons. Tap one to see its choices; tapping the other closes it. With no meets yet, Import a meet starts open.

Existing Meets lists your meets with their dates. Use Search meets… and the All Sports filter to find one, and press a meet to open it.

The very first time, before your first meet, the home screen also asks How much should 2Timer decide for you? (see Getting Started).

Create a meet from scratch

Press the card for your sport. The new-meet wizard walks through the meet’s basics (name, genre, dates, venue), its rules on cross country and track and field, divisions or age groups, events, how you’ll time the meet (the Systems step), and a review before anything is created.

Use this when the meet is new, or when you want 2Timer to build the events from its presets. See Getting Started.

Copy last year’s meet to start this year’s

To reuse a meet’s events, divisions, and setup without last year’s athletes and results:

Open last year’s meet and press Back up now at the bottom of its dashboard, or on the home screen choose Export .2T backup from the meet’s ⋮ menu.
On the home screen, under Import a meet, press Choose file and choose that backup.
When last year’s meet is on this device, the first step asks whether to restore into it or make a separate copy, with neither chosen: choose Make a separate copy. Then give the new meet its name.
Under What to bring in, choose Meet setup only (setup, teams, and timing setup, without athletes or results). Meet setup and roster also brings the athletes and their entries, without results.
Review, and press Create meet from backup.
Open the new meet’s Setup and change the dates.

See Importing a 2Timer Backup.

Import a meet from your registration site

Most registration sites can give you the meet as a file to download, a link, or both. Under Import a meet:

A file: drop it on the card or press Choose file. 2Timer decides what the file is from what is inside it, not from its name.
A link: copy it, then press Paste link. 2Timer takes it from your clipboard; if it can’t, a box opens to paste it into, then press Get meet. See Creating a Meet from a Meet Link.

These files start a new meet:

File	Opens
An Open Meet Exchange file	New meet from a link, with the file read (see Creating a Meet from a Meet Link)
A Hy-Tek meet file (semicolon `.txt`, or record `.csv`)	New meet from a Hy-Tek meet file (see Creating a Meet from a Hy-Tek Meet File)
A 2Timer backup (`.2t`)	Import a 2Timer backup (see Importing a 2Timer Backup)
A RaceTab meet (`.rtql`)	New meet from a RaceTab file (below)
An Athletic.net track entry export (`.csv`)	New meet from Athletic.net (below)
A RunSignUp participant export (`.csv`)	New meet from RunSignUp (below)

Whichever it is, the first step shows what 2Timer found in the file, and nothing is created until you confirm on the last step.

New meet from a RaceTab, Athletic.net, or RunSignUp file

These three files open the same steps: File, Meet details, Systems, Review, and Done.

File: what the file holds, for example “RunSignUp participants: 214 runners in 2 races”. If the file belongs to a meet you already have, this step says so (see A file for a meet you already have).
Meet details: the sport, the meet’s name, and its dates. 2Timer fills in what the file says:
- RaceTab: the name, the dates, and the sport.
- Athletic.net: indoor or outdoor track and field, read from the events. A discus, javelin, or hammer means outdoor, and the step says so (“Outdoor: the file has a discus.”). Otherwise events usually held indoors or outdoors, such as a 60 m or a steeplechase, preselect “Probably indoor” or “Probably outdoor”. When the events don’t point one way, choose it yourself. Type the name and date.
- RunSignUp: a road race (Running / Road Race). Type the name and date.
Systems: how you’ll time the meet and its registration, results, and scoreboard, the same step as a meet started from scratch (see Saved Systems and New Meets). From a RunSignUp file, Registration starts on RunSignUp when it is one of your systems, marked “From the RunSignUp file this meet starts from”.
Review: everything the new meet will hold: its races or events, teams, athletes, and entries, then the systems. A RunSignUp file makes one race for each race in its Event column, with the distance filled in when the name reads as one, such as 5K or Half Marathon. Registrations that were cancelled, refunded, or transferred are listed and not entered. Press Create meet.
Done: Open the meet.

Nothing is created until you press Create meet. Cancel at any step goes back to the home screen and leaves no meet behind.

A file for a meet you already have

You can bring any file to Import a meet, even one for a meet already on this device. The first step checks your meets and says when the file belongs to one, with its date:

RunSignUp file: “This file is for Turkey Trot … on this device”, with how many of its runners are already in it.
Hy-Tek meet file or RaceTab file: “Probably for Harvest Invitational … on this device: same name and date.”
2Timer backup: “This is a backup of Harvest Invitational … on this device.”
Open Meet Exchange file or link: the meet on this device that came from the same meet.

Going to that meet is preselected:

Add to Turkey Trot (with the meet’s name) opens that meet’s own import with the file already read, at its review. Nothing is added until you confirm there.
For a backup, Restore into Harvest Invitational opens that meet’s restore with the file read, where you choose what to replace. If the meet on this device has changes made after the backup, the step says so and nothing is preselected, since restoring would undo them.
For an Open Meet Exchange meet, Open Harvest Invitational opens the meet you already have.

The other answer is still there: Start a new meet (for a backup, Make a separate copy; for Open Meet Exchange, Start another meet). When the file could belong to more than one meet, each is listed with its date and nothing is preselected.

When nothing in the file names a meet, as with an Athletic.net export, press Add to a meet I already have and pick the meet from the list.

Files that can’t start a meet

When a file can’t start a meet, 2Timer says what it is and what to do instead, and offers Choose another file. It never guesses.

What you chose	What to do
A PDF, a Word document, or a picture	It’s a printout of the meet. Ask the registration site for the entries file (Hy-Tek, OMX, or a spreadsheet), or start from scratch.
A Hy-Tek backup (Meet Manager or Team Manager)	In Meet Manager, export the meet (File → Export) and choose that file.
A zipped folder	Unzip it, then choose the file inside.
A spreadsheet (`.csv` or Excel `.xlsx`)	Start the meet from scratch, then use the meet’s Import page (see Importing Data).
An older Excel file (`.xls`)	Save it as `.xlsx` or CSV first, then bring it in from the meet’s Import page.
A FinishLynx file (`.lif`, `.lff`, `.evt`, …)	Lynx files go into a meet that already exists: start the meet, then use the meet’s Import page.
An empty file	2Timer says the file is empty. Choose the right file.
A file over 25 MB	It’s too large to be a meet file. A 2Timer backup of any size is still read.
A folder	Open it and choose the file inside.
Anything else	2Timer says it can’t tell what the file is.

Drop several files at once

Drop more than one file on Import a meet, and 2Timer lists each one with what it is, but doesn’t open any yet. A meet starts from one file: choose it and press Continue. When only one of them can start a meet, it is already chosen. Bring in the others from the meet’s Import page once the meet is made.

Import a meet from a 2Timer backup

Choose a .2t backup from 2Timer under Import a meet to:

move a meet to another computer or device;
recover a meet after a browser reset;
start a new meet from an earlier one.

It opens Import a 2Timer backup, which creates a new meet. If the meet the backup came from is already on this device, the first step offers Restore into that meet instead (see A file for a meet you already have). A copy made next to the meet it came from is a separate meet of its own. See Importing a 2Timer Backup.

Which way should I start?

Your registration site has the meet: Import a meet, with its link or its download.
MileSplit, RunSignUp, or Athletic.net lists the meet: Paste link with the meet’s page to fill in its details.
You ran this meet in 2Timer before: Import a meet with last year’s backup, choosing Meet setup only.
Neither: Start from scratch, and the card for your sport.

Back up or delete a meet from the home screen

Each meet in Existing Meets has a ⋮ menu:

Export .2T backup downloads a backup of the meet.
Delete removes the meet and everything in it: events, athletes, teams, results, reads, connections, and settings. To confirm, type the phrase shown, which is the meet’s name (with its date added when another meet has the same name), and press Delete meet permanently. A deleted meet can’t be recovered, so export a backup first if you might need it.

Metadata

Last Updated: 2026-10-24
Document Version: 0.5
Status: Active