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Import Readwise highlights and notes

Connect your Readwise account with an access token, choose what to import, and match highlights to books in your library.

6 min read · Updated September 2026

What this connection does

MyBibliotheca imports highlights and notes already stored in your Readwise account. It connects only to Readwise; it does not connect directly to Kindle, Kobo, KOReader, Apple Books, or your other reading devices.

The connection is one-way: Readwise is the source and MyBibliotheca never writes highlights, notes, tags, or changes back to Readwise. Keep Readwise as the place where you manage your original highlight collection.

Before you connect

You need an active Readwise account and its personal access token. The token is not your Readwise password, but it grants access to your Readwise export, so treat it with the same care as a password.

Your imported highlights stay private in your MyBibliotheca account. Each account has 100 MB for imported Readwise highlight and note content. The limit applies to the stored text, notes, tags, and related annotation details—not to the number of books in your MyBibliotheca library.

Connect Readwise

Get your Readwise access token →

  1. While signed in to Readwise, open readwise.io/access_token and copy the access token shown there.
  2. In MyBibliotheca, open Settings and find the Readwise section.
  3. Paste the token into Readwise access token, then choose Connect Readwise. MyBibliotheca encrypts it before storing it.
  4. Choose Sync now to import your saved Readwise books, highlights, and notes.

Keep in mind: Treat the access token like a password. Do not send it to anyone or paste it into a message. MyBibliotheca encrypts it before storing it and never displays it again.

Choose what to import

  1. In Settings → Readwise, choose whether future synced highlights include highlighted passages, notes, or both.
  2. Choose Save preferences before your next sync.
  3. Turning off notes prevents notes on newly received or updated highlights from being stored. Turning off highlights prevents new or updated highlight passages from being imported.
  4. Changing a preference does not erase content already imported. Disconnect Readwise stops future imports but also keeps existing imported content.

Keep in mind: Use the settings choices before syncing. They do not change your original highlights or notes in Readwise.

How book matching works

MyBibliotheca does not create library books from Readwise. It imports a separate Readwise book record and tries to link it to a book already in your own library.

An automatic match requires exactly one existing library book with the same title and author after ignoring capitalization and extra spaces. If Readwise does not provide an author, there must be exactly one title match. MyBibliotheca does not use ISBN, ASIN, cover images, fuzzy matching, or a close-title guess.

  1. If there is one safe match, MyBibliotheca links it automatically.
  2. If there are multiple editions, duplicate titles, different author spellings, or no exact match, find the title under Books waiting to be matched in Settings.
  3. Choose the correct book from your own library and select Confirm link. A match never gives access to another person’s library.
  4. Choose Keep it unmatched for now if you do not want to decide yet. The Readwise record stays private and can be matched later.

Good to know: Use the title and author—not the cover alone—when confirming a match. Once linked, the match is kept until you explicitly unlink it.

Syncing and deletions

Choose Sync now whenever you want to pull changes from Readwise. You can also turn on Automatically sync every day in Settings; it imports changes daily without changing your MyBibliotheca book details, shelves, or reading history. The Settings card shows the last successful sync point and current imported totals.

Each successful sync pulls changed Readwise records since the previous successful sync. If a highlight has been deleted in Readwise, the next sync removes its stored MyBibliotheca annotation too. A temporary provider error, rate limit, malformed response, or storage-limit error leaves the previous successful sync point unchanged, so retrying is safe.

Where imported data appears

Settings → Readwise shows imported totals and any books waiting to be matched. Once a Readwise book is linked, its imported highlights and notes appear privately on that MyBibliotheca book’s detail page under Highlights and notes.

MyBibliotheca shows the newest highlights first and paginates long lists. Readwise remains the source of truth: use Readwise to manage the original collection and MyBibliotheca to view the imported copy alongside the book in your library.

Keep in mind: A linked Readwise book is a connection to an existing MyBibliotheca library book; it does not add reading progress, change a shelf, create a reading session, or change book metadata.

Disconnect or replace a token

Disconnecting stops future imports and removes the saved token. Existing imported Readwise books and annotations stay in your MyBibliotheca account.

If you revoke the token in Readwise, generate a replacement at readwise.io/access_token and use Connect Readwise again in MyBibliotheca. Reconnecting replaces the saved token; it does not duplicate previously imported highlights.

To remove the imported copy from MyBibliotheca, open Settings → Readwise → Remove imported Readwise data and type REMOVE. This also clears any Readwise-to-library matches. It never deletes the originals in Readwise; if you remain connected, a later sync imports a fresh copy.

Troubleshoot: token or connection

  1. If MyBibliotheca cannot verify the token, return to readwise.io/access_token while signed in to the intended Readwise account, copy the whole current token, and try again. Do not use your Readwise password.
  2. If a previously working connection says Readwise rejected the saved token, the token may have been revoked or replaced in Readwise. Generate a new one and reconnect.
  3. If Readwise cannot be reached or returns an unexpected response, wait a few minutes and choose Sync now again. Your previous imported data remains unchanged until a sync succeeds.
  4. If Readwise is rate-limiting the connection, wait a few minutes before retrying. Repeated retries do not lose already imported content.

Troubleshoot: missing highlights, notes, or a book

  1. First confirm the highlight or note is present in the same Readwise account whose token you connected. Then choose Sync now in MyBibliotheca.
  2. For a missing passage, make sure Sync highlights is enabled and save the preference before syncing. For a missing note, enable Sync notes, save, then sync after the highlight or note has changed in Readwise.
  3. If the counts did not change after a sync, there may have been no Readwise changes since the prior successful sync. Make a small change in Readwise, then sync again if you need to confirm the connection.
  4. If a book was imported but is not linked, check Books waiting to be matched. Similar titles, separate editions, subtitles, and different author spellings require a manual match.
  5. If you chose Keep it unmatched for now, switch the preference back to Ask me to match it to show the waiting-book list again.

Troubleshoot: storage limit

  1. A sync stops before saving anything from that sync when imported annotation content would exceed the 100 MB account limit.
  2. Turning off Sync notes can reduce the size of future updated imports, but it does not remove notes already stored. Disconnecting also does not remove imported content.
  3. To start over with a smaller import, use Remove imported Readwise data in Settings, turn off Sync notes if appropriate, then sync again. If highlights alone exceed the limit, reduce the source collection in Readwise before reconnecting or contact MyBibliotheca support.