September 7, 2026
Import your Goodreads library
If you've been on Goodreads for years, your reading history lives there: every book you've finished, your ratings, your reviews, the dates. That history is the single biggest reason people stay with an app they've stopped enjoying. It shouldn't be.
Volumes can now import your entire Goodreads library. Books, ratings, reviews, read dates, even what you're currently reading. Here's the whole process.
How to export your library from Goodreads
Goodreads lets you download everything as a CSV file. One catch: the export only exists on the desktop website, not in the Goodreads mobile app.
- On a computer, sign in at goodreads.com.
- Open My Books, then find Import and Export in the left sidebar under Tools.
- Click Export Library. Goodreads generates the file, which can take a minute for big libraries.
- Download the file. It's called goodreads_library_export.csv.
- Get it onto your iPhone: AirDrop it, save it to iCloud Drive, or email it to yourself and save the attachment to Files.
That file is yours regardless of what you do next. Even if you never leave Goodreads, it's worth having a copy of your own reading history.
Import it into Volumes
In Volumes, open the menu in your Library and choose Import from Goodreads, then pick the file. Volumes reads it, matches each book to get proper covers and details, and shows you everything for review before anything is added. Then one tap imports it all.
What comes along:
- Every book on your read shelf, with your rating and the date you read it
- Your reviews, saved as notes on each entry
- Whatever you're currently reading, pinned to the top of your Library
A couple of honest limitations: books on your to-read shelf are skipped, since Volumes is a journal of what you've read rather than a wishlist. And if you re-import, books already in your library are skipped instead of duplicated, so it's safe to run again.
Big libraries are fine. Hundreds of books take a minute or two to match, with a progress bar while you wait.
Your ratings and reviews stay private
The matching step needs to look up each book to fetch covers and details, so titles are sent to our server. Your ratings, your reviews, and your reading dates are not. They go straight from the file into the app on your device, and from there into your private iCloud like everything else in your journal.
No lock-in, in either direction
We built journal export before we built Goodreads import, and that ordering was on purpose. Your reading history was never meant to be stuck anywhere, including here. It should arrive freely and leave freely, in open formats, whenever you want.
So bring your years of reading with you. It would be a shame to start from zero, and now you don't have to.
Get started
Goodreads import is in the latest version of Volumes on the App Store. Export your library, pick the file, and your reading history is home.
Get the update.
Volumes is free on the App Store.
