Goodreads export library: download your books to Excel

The Goodreads export library tool gives you every book on your shelves as a CSV file: one row per book, ready for a spreadsheet, a backup or another reading app. This guide covers where the export is, what to check in the file, how to open it in Excel without breaking the ISBNs and dates, and what to do when the export doesn't appear.

Goodreads' help marks the library export as desktop only, so use a browser on a computer:

1. Sign in at goodreads.com and go to My Books.
2. On the left, under Tools, click Import and export.
3. Under Export, click Export Library. For a large library, the file can take a few minutes to generate.
4. When it's ready, a link appears on the same page, reading "Your export from" with the date and time. Click it to download the .csv file.

Goodreads' help doesn't list the columns, so open the file and read the first row: that's where the column names are. Find the ones you need, such as the title, the author, your rating, your shelves and the dates, and note their letters before you start. The file is plain text, so it opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers or a text editor.

Double-clicking the file works, but Excel guesses at each column on the way in, and identifiers are where it guesses wrong. Two things to check once it opens:

• ISBNs. If an ISBN shows up wrapped like ="0312424094", or as a long number that has lost its first zero, Excel read it as something it isn't. To keep it as written, import the file instead (Data › From Text/CSV) and set the ISBN columns to text before you load it. To clean the wrapped form in place, put this in a new column and fill it down, with the ISBN in column F:

=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(F2, "=", ""), """", "")

• Dates. If a date column sorts alphabetically, Excel took it as text: use Data › Text to Columns, choose Date with the order your file uses on the last step, and format the column as a date. If a date is blank, check that book on Goodreads before you fill one in.
• Shelves in one cell. If a book is on several shelves and they share one cell, separated by commas, use Data › Text to Columns with a comma to spread them out, or filter on the cell containing the shelf name you want.

Then save the sheet as an Excel workbook (.xlsx), so the fixes are kept. The CSV or XLSX? section of our guide to exporting a list from any site explains when to keep which.

Goodreads' help doesn't say which columns the library export holds, so look for a review column in the first row. If it's there, your reviews are in the file, one per book. A long review with line breaks can make a row look split when the file opens; if rows look broken, import the file through Data › From Text/CSV rather than double-clicking it, which reads a quoted review as one cell.

If you need everything you've written on Goodreads, not only your books, Goodreads has a second route: a request for a copy of all your Goodreads data (below).

• Give it a few minutes. For a large library, Goodreads says the file can take a few minutes, and the link appears on the Import and export page when it's ready. Reload the page to see it.
• Use a computer. The library export is desktop only, so it isn't in the app. On a phone, request all your data instead (below).
• Check the date on the link. The link names the date and time of the export, so make sure you download the new one, not one from an earlier export.

Goodreads can also send you a copy of all your Goodreads data. It's all or nothing: you can't request a single part of it. On the web, select your profile photo, then Account settings, then Account & notifications, and at the bottom choose Download my Goodreads data and Submit request. In the app, it's under More › Settings › Account Settings › Privacy.

Goodreads then emails you a link to confirm the request, valid for five days. When the data is ready, a second email has the download link, valid for 90 days. The download is a .zip of JSON files, which a browser can open for reading. For a spreadsheet, the library export above is the easier file.

The library CSV is the file most reading apps ask for when you move. Before you upload it, keep a copy of the original: an app reads the file as Goodreads wrote it, so fix ISBNs and dates in a copy for your own spreadsheet, not in the file you import. If you also keep Kindle highlights, our guide to exporting Kindle highlights covers the other half of a reading record.

Tabless is a browser extension that builds what you ask for from the sites you allow; nothing is typed or submitted without your OK. It isn't open yet. An export like this one is the kind of job we're building it for: asking in plain words for "the books I read this year, with my rating and the date I finished each", and getting it as a CSV or XLSX file with just those columns.

It's designed to read through the session your browser already has, so there are no API keys or passwords to hand over, and to ask before it reads each site. It's for lists you're entitled to see, for your own work, and the site's own rules still apply. You sign in to Tabless with a Wix account.

Not the library CSV: Goodreads marks that export as desktop only. From the app you can request a copy of all your Goodreads data, under More › Settings › Account Settings › Privacy, which arrives as a .zip of JSON files.

Goodreads says the link to confirm your request is valid for five days, and the download link for 90 days. If either expires, submit a new request.

Not yet. Tabless isn't open, and exports like this one are among the jobs we're building it for. Join the waitlist, and we'll let you know when you can try Tabless.