# \*\*Feature request: “Select all / Deselect all” buttons in the flow import dialog\*\*

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/feature-request-select-all-deselect-all-buttons-in-the-flow-import-dialog/101929>\
**Category:** Feature Requests\
**Created:** [17 October 2026 11:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/feature-request-select-all-deselect-all-buttons-in-the-flow-import-dialog/101929 "2026-10-17T11:11:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gnome2012](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gnome2012](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/gnome2012)\
**Post date:** [17 October 2026 11:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/feature-request-select-all-deselect-all-buttons-in-the-flow-import-dialog/101929/1 "2026-10-17T11:11:13Z")

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Hi everyone,

I would like to bring up a small usability improvement that I [originally suggested in November 2023](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/select-deselect-importing-flows-nodes-all-at-once/82949).

Creating regular backups of our flows is good practice. However, those backups are useful for more than recovering from a complete system failure. Sometimes you get stuck while modifying something, take the wrong approach, and simply want to restore one particular flow tab from an earlier backup.

My backups contain all my flow tabs. When importing a backup to recover just one tab, all the tabs are initially selected, so I have to manually deselect every tab I do not want to import. With dozens of tabs, this becomes tedious.

The small checkboxes also require quite precise clicking. If you miss one, the tab expands instead, making the list even longer and the selection process more awkward.

Two buttons would make this much easier:

- **Deselect all flow tabs**

- **Select all flow tabs**

Restoring a single tab would then mean clicking “Deselect all”, selecting the desired tab, and importing it.

With help from ChatGPT, I have now created a browser bookmarklet that adds these buttons to the existing import dialog. It works well for me and makes this task much more convenient.

This seems like a relatively small UI enhancement, and the workaround demonstrates how useful it would be. Would it be possible to include this functionality directly in Node-RED in an upcoming update, so everyone can benefit without needing a separate browser script?

Thanks for considering it!

Gnome