How to export your Goodreads data (and import it anywhere)
To export your Goodreads data, open Goodreads on a desktop browser, go to My Books, click Import and Export, then click Export Library. Goodreads emails you, or links you, a CSV file with your shelves, ratings, reviews, and dates. That file is the key to moving anywhere.
Here is the full process, plus the one thing the export quietly leaves out.
Step by step
- Use a computer. The export link lives on the desktop site, not the app.
- Go to My Books from the top menu.
- In the left sidebar under Tools, click Import and Export.
- Click Export Library. Goodreads generates a CSV. This can take a minute for large libraries.
- When the link appears, download the CSV to your device.
What the file includes
Your Goodreads CSV contains a row per book with the title, author, ISBN, your rating, the average rating, page count, your shelves, your review, the date you added the book, and the date you finished it.
What it leaves out
The export does not include your start dates. Goodreads tracks when you finished a book but not when you began, so a decade of reading durations cannot be recovered from the file. This is a well-known gap and a common reason readers feel locked in. It is worth knowing before you switch, so you are not surprised later.
A good importer handles this honestly: it keeps every date the file does contain and tells you plainly that start dates were never in the export.
Import into Endleaf
Once you have the CSV:
- Open Endleaf on your iPhone.
- Go to Settings, then Import from Goodreads or StoryGraph.
- Pick your CSV. Endleaf reads it, maps your shelves to statuses, brings across your ratings and reviews, and keeps every date in the file.
- Review the summary. It tells you how many books came in and notes that Goodreads exports omit start dates.
From there your library is private and on your phone, and you can export it again as JSON or CSV any time. Your reading history stays yours.
Try the free Goodreads export helper or learn more about Endleaf.