Niovela Open the app
Guide · Leaving Goodreads

How to import your Goodreads library

Goodreads lets you export everything as a CSV, and Niovela reads it directly. Your shelves, ratings, dates and page counts come across in about five minutes — free, and without creating an account first.

Free · No account needed · Your library stays on your device

What comes across, and what does not

Stated plainly, because most importers are vague about this.

📚

Your shelves

Read, Currently reading and Want to read map to Finished, Reading and To read. Every custom shelf with at least two books becomes a private list, so your curation survives the move.

⭐

Ratings, dates and pages

Your star rating comes across as-is. For finished books, the date read becomes the finish date and the page count is marked complete.

🚫

No invented entries

A book enters under a real identity: its ISBN when the export has one, or its title and author when it does not. Cover, pages and edition come from the catalogue, so what lands in your library is a book, never a placeholder that looks right and is not.

✍️

Reviews come along, in private

Your written reviews are imported as private reviews — only you see them until you publish the ones you want, one by one from each book or all at once from Settings. Publishing needs an account, because a public review has an author.

Import your Goodreads library in 5 steps

Nothing to install. The whole thing takes about five minutes, most of it waiting for Goodreads.

1

Export from Goodreads

On the Goodreads website (not the app), go to My Books → Import and Export → Export Library. Goodreads takes a minute or two to build the file, then shows a download link at the top of the same page. Save the goodreads_library_export.csv.

2

Open Niovela and go to Settings

Open Niovela in your browser — no sign-up, no download. Tap your profile, then Settings → Import.

3

Drop in the CSV

Choose the file you just downloaded. Niovela reads it in the browser and shows you how many books it found and how many it can import before anything happens.

4

Start the import

Books with an ISBN are looked up in batches so each one lands as a real edition with its cover and page count. Books with no ISBN in the export are keyed by title and author and enriched from the catalogue when you open them. A few hundred books take a couple of minutes.

5

Check what came across

At the end you get the counts: imported, already there and skipped — and the skipped ones say why: no title in the row, shelved as won't read, or repeated in the file. Nothing is left out for lacking an ISBN.

📄 The export is only available on the Goodreads website. The mobile app has no export option, so do this step on a computer or in a desktop browser.

What you get once it is in

The reason to move, not just the mechanics of moving.

🆓

Free, with no ads

No paywall, no Amazon ads next to your shelf, no sponsored recommendations. Just your books.

📊

Stats that are actually yours

Pages, genres, top authors, rating distribution, an activity heatmap and a yearly goal — from your own data.

🔒

Private by default

Your library lives on your device. Nobody sees your shelf unless you decide they should, and reviews, quotes and follows have their own switches.

📤

Export whenever you want

Settings → Export gives you your whole library as JSON or CSV, any time. Leaving should be as easy as arriving — that is the point of this page.

Frequently asked questions

How do I export my library from Goodreads?

On the Goodreads website, go to My Books, then Import and Export in the left sidebar, then press Export Library. After a minute a download link appears at the top of the page. The option does not exist in the mobile app.

Is importing free?

Yes. The import is free, Niovela is free, and you do not need to create an account to do it — your library is saved on your device. An account is only needed if you want to sync between devices.

Will my ratings and dates come across?

Yes. Star ratings transfer as they are, and for finished books the date read becomes your finish date and the page count is marked as complete.

Why were some books skipped?

Three reasons, and the result screen tells you which: the row had no title, the book was on the won't read shelf, or it appeared twice in the file. A book without an ISBN is not skipped: it enters by title and author and gets its cover and pages when you open it.

Are my reviews imported?

Yes, as private reviews: only you see them until you publish the ones you want, one by one from each book or all at once from Settings. Publishing needs an account, because a public review has an author.

How long does it take?

The export takes a minute or two on the Goodreads side. The import itself runs at a few books per second, so a library of several hundred books is done in a couple of minutes.

Can I get my data back out of Niovela?

Yes, at any time: Settings → Export gives you the whole library as JSON or CSV. No lock-in.

More from Niovela

Your life in books.

Bring your shelves across and pick up where you left off — free, no account needed.

Import my library