# Importing Historical Data Into Ignition History Tables **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Created:** [February 5, 2020, 1:57pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/importing-historical-data-into-ignition-history-tables/31947 "2020-02-05T13:57:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alainia.spencer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@alainia.spencer](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/alainia.spencer)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 1:57pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/importing-historical-data-into-ignition-history-tables/31947/1 "2020-02-05T13:57:15Z")
I have a situation where I need to import 5 years of data into the Ignition historian tables (.csv file format/SQL Server). What is the easiest way to accomplish this? Is the only viable option the system.tag.storeTagHistory method? ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/importing-historical-data-into-ignition-history-tables/31947/2 "2020-02-05T16:14:01Z")
`system.tag.storeTagHistory` is the recommended way, yes. Batch your inserts, and check periodically that things are working as intended. Snapshot your historical DB before starting, if you’ve got existing data. While it’s theoretically possible to ingest the table yourself, it’s a non-trivial task to get it all into the correct tables with the correct references. ---
**Author:** ![alainia.spencer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@alainia.spencer](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/alainia.spencer)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/importing-historical-data-into-ignition-history-tables/31947/3 "2020-02-05T17:35:19Z")
Okay great, thanks for the recommendations!