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How To Switch From Goodreads
Without Losing Your Data

Leaving Goodreads? Here’s how to export your library and bring your shelves, books, and reading dates into Kiveo in a few minutes.

David

Questions about anything below? Write to [email protected] — we’ll answer in the same plain English.

Here’s how to switch from Goodreads and bring your shelves, books, and reading dates, and bring them all over to Kiveo in a few minutes.
All your books, as well as their statuses will carry over seamlessly so you can continue your reading journey with us.

Shelves in Kiveo work differently: they are a way for you to organize books independently of their status.
Statuses (Want To Read, Currently Reading, Complete, Paused, and DNF) are tracked separately and across all your shelves.

In the final step of the import flow you will have the chance to add books to your shelves. You can also do this later from the Book screen.

Export Your Goodreads Data

Important: This step requires using a desktop browser; it’s not possible via mobile, not even through their app.

Watch this short clip for a quick walkthrough, or follow the steps below it.

We’ll save you a few clicks: you can access the Import and export screen in Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/import.

Click on the link above, or:

  • Log in to your Goodreads account, click on My Books in he top nav.
  • Scroll a little bit, then click on Import and export at the end of the options to the left.

Then:

  • Click Export Library, and wait a few seconds.
  • After a moment you will see a link appear below the button that says "Your export from ..." with the current date and time.
    Click on it and the download will start.

You will now have a downloaded file with the name goodreads_library_export.csv, or something similar.

Transfer The File To Your Phone

Now that you have your library file, you will need to transfer it to your phone (or iPad) so you can open it in Kiveo.

Using AirDrop is usually the easiest way of doing it.
Simply find your file in your Downloads folder, right-click on it, and click Share…. Select AirDrop. If you don’t see your phone listed there, make sure it’s nearby and unlocked.

Alternatively, you can simply email the export file to yourself, or upload it to Dropbox/Google Drive/ etc, and then download it in your phone.

Just make sure you note in what folder the file lands on your phone so you can find it easily in the next step.

Import Into Kiveo & Review

Now that you have your Goodreads library file in your phone, it’s time to import it in Kiveo.

Watch this short clip for a quick walkthrough, or follow the steps below.

  1. Open Kiveo, and tap on the user/options button in the Home Screen (top right).
  2. In the menu, scroll down to the Import & Export section. Tap on Import from Goodreads (the first option).
  3. The next screen says Import Your Library, tap on the button that says Select CSV File.
  4. The default iOS file picker will slide up, here you have to find and pick the file you downloaded before.
  5. Once you select the file, the import process starts. It takes a moment to process the file.
  6. The final step is Reviewing The Import. Here you will have an overview of the books you are importing from Goodreads.
    For each book you have the option to set a different status, or add it to a shelf in your library. You can always do this later.
  7. Tap on the Import books at the bottom of the screen, and you will see a confirmation screen. Tap Done and you are all set!

Your Books May Look Different (And Even Prettier)

You may notice that some books may look different here than they did on Goodreads.
This is because we have different data sources, and things like the cover image you saw before may change during the import process.

We find your books by ISBN. What this means is, we find the most accurate pieces of data we can for the exact book you are importing. In some cases, the specific edition you are importing from Goodreads may not be the one in your hands.
You can always find other editions of a book and swap them from Book Screen in Kiveo.

‘Not Found’ Books?

During the process you could see that some books show up as “not found”. What this means is that we were not able to find that specific book by its ISBN. You can still import it, and it will be added to your Library as a custom book with all the data available from Goodreads.

When that book lands later in our system, it will automatically be updated in the app (as long as it has an ISBN)

What Next?

That is 100% up to you 🙂

Kiveo is here to accompany you on your reading journey, not to guide it.

With that said, there are a few options for “next steps” now that you are reading with us:

  • You can start a Reading Session. Settle in, pick a book, and start a session.
  • Save Quotes (and/or reflections). You may some quotes from your favorite books already stored somewhere. Maybe in your notes app, or a piece of paper. Maybe you took photos of book pages. You can start logging them now in Kiveo, where you will always find them with your books.
  • Search more books. Use our search feature to add more books to your library. Use the barcode scanner to add books faster.

If you want to learn more about Kiveo, you can check our Why Kiveo page.
See also how Kiveo makes your reading life yours again.

Once again, next steps are entirely up to you. Kiveo won’t ever pressure you; your reading journey is yours alone.

We are happy to have you here.
Happy reading 🌱.

— A Note on our data

We are constantly working on improving our library. Hundreds (or even thousands) of new books are added every day, and we are implementing new curation processes to deliver high quality data to you.

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David
Building Kiveo.
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David

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