Importing cookies the right way: Auto-detect, Dola, Facebook and Google

Signing in account by account works, but with 20 or 50 accounts, importing cookies is far quicker. This article explains the Import Cookies dialog in Account Pool: what to paste, what the app does with it, and the rules that keep your accounts safe.

What cookies are and where to get them

When you sign in to a website, the browser keeps a set of cookies so the site remembers you. Export that set (with a browser extension such as Cookie-Editor or Get cookies.txt LOCALLY) and you can load the sign-in into the account's own browser inside Spider Hub.

The app accepts the common export formats: JSON (Cookie-Editor's array), cookies.txt files, a Cookie header like a=1; b=2, and a few others. Each box takes up to 1 MB.

The four cards in the Import Cookies dialog

The dialog opens on the first card:

• Auto-detect (paste anything) — the default, and recommended. Paste one account's cookies, whether from one site or from Dola, Facebook and Google together. The app sorts them by domain.
• Dola only — dola.com cookies only; the app checks the session.
• Facebook only — facebook.com only; you click "Continue with Facebook" on Dola.
• Google / Gmail only — google.com only; you click "Continue with Google" on Dola.

The last three are for when you want to force one kind. Most of the time, leave it on Auto-detect.

How Auto-detect decides

For every box, the app looks for each site's sign-in session and picks the next step in this order:

1. A Dola session → straight into Dola; the app checks the session for you.
2. No Dola but Facebook → the account becomes "Facebook ready".
3. Neither, but Google → "Google ready".

Under each box the app spells out what it found and what it will do. For example: Dola session found, will go straight to Dola; Facebook found, kept as a fallback; a few cookies from other sites skipped. If there's no session at all, the box turns red and lists what each site is missing (cookie names only, never their values).

Account names

• A box with a Dola session and no name: the app names it for you, acc-1, acc-2… never clashing with existing names. You can change it.
• A box with only Facebook or Google: you must type a name. If that Dola account is already in the app, type its exact name so the session goes to the right account. The app won't invent a name for this box, so it never creates a duplicate of the same person.
• Typing the exact name of an existing account means updating that account.

One session, one account

• Two boxes with the same session (same Dola, same Facebook or same Google sign-in) → the box turns red.
• A session already imported for another account → red as well.
• Two different accounts from the same site in one box → refused, and the app points you to Batch paste.
• A Dola export and a Facebook export of the same account, pasted one after the other in one box → counted as one account.

While any box is red, Add all stays locked until you fix or remove it. Nothing is ever half-imported.

Batch paste for many accounts

Click Batch paste and paste many cookie exports one after another, each starting on a new line (a JSON export may span several lines). The app splits them into boxes named from the base name you choose: acc-1, acc-2… skipping every name already in use, so an existing account is never overwritten. A JSON export that carries an email or name keeps that name.

Up to 200 profiles go in at once; the rest waits on the "Batch paste (n waiting)" button for next time.

Facebook and Google: you do the clicking

For a Facebook or Google session the app only loads the cookies into that account's own browser profile. It opens no page while importing and never clicks "Continue with Facebook" or "Continue with Google", because automated clicks easily trigger a Facebook or Google security check.

When you close the results table, the app opens the sign-in windows of the "ready" accounts one at a time, never two at once. In each window you click the Facebook or Google button on Dola's page. Once Dola's page itself confirms you're signed in, the account turns READY and the next window opens. Stop after this account lets you pause part way.

A few notes:

• The Dola account must have been created with that same Facebook or Google account.
• Export the cookies on the same computer that runs Spider Hub to lower the chance of a verification request.
• Facebook or Google cookies open the whole account, not just Dola. Keep them very private.
• An account already signed in to Dola keeps its Dola session; the Facebook/Google cookies are only stored alongside.

When Dola doesn't accept the cookies

For Dola cookies the app checks the session. If Dola still shows the account as signed out (expired cookies, or Dola didn't confirm), the app keeps the account's previous cookies and state. A bad paste never costs you a session that was working. Sign in to dola.com again in your normal browser, export again and retry.

With Pool Proxy on, checking Dola cookies also goes through a proxy. Importing Facebook or Google cookies needs no proxy key, since the app only writes the cookies and opens no page.

Example

You have three Dola accounts:

• acc-01 signs in with email: export the dola.com cookies.
• acc-02 was created with Facebook: export the facebook.com cookies.
• acc-03 was created with Google: export the google.com cookies.

Open Import Cookies, keep the Auto-detect card, and click Add cookie profile until you have three boxes. Box 1 gets the Dola cookies (auto-named, or type acc-01). Box 2 gets the Facebook cookies with the name acc-02. Box 3 gets the Google cookies with the name acc-03. Click Add all. acc-01 turns READY straight away; close the results and the app opens acc-02's window, then acc-03's, for you to click the continue button on Dola.

Summary

• Leave it on Auto-detect: paste one account's cookies and the app splits Dola, Facebook and Google.
• A Dola session goes straight in; otherwise Facebook ready; otherwise Google ready.
• One session = one account; a red box locks Add all until fixed.
• Many accounts: Batch paste, each export on a new line, and names never overwrite.
• Facebook and Google: the app only loads cookies; you click continue on Dola.
• Cookies are like a password. Don't share them.