Save, Import/Export Annotations, Highlights

[conan50]

I've been googling and can't find a satisfactory answer. I use both Moon+ Reader and Fbreader on tablets for my ebooks and I'm wondering if there is a simple way to save, and import/export notes, annotations, highlights. For instance, can I back up annotations of a book so that if my tablet dies, gets reset, etc., I can import those annotations and have them available on a clean install of Moon+ or Fbreader with the same ebook?
Thanks.

[webroot]

I am not sure if I have the exact answer, but all top reading apps claim to have option for cloud syncing (It works through Google drive or Dropbox API) also user data/files can sync across multiple devices. You may try to cloud sync your generated user data (reading progress, highlights, notes etc) and when you are done with factory reset you can sync again to.get back those

[conan50]

Originally Posted by webroot

I am not sure if I have the exact answer, but all top reading apps claim to have option for cloud syncing (It works through Google drive or Dropbox API) also user data/files can sync across multiple devices. You may try to cloud sync your generated user data (reading progress, highlights, notes etc) and when you are done with factory reset you can sync again to.get back those

Thanks for the suggestion.
Would be awesome if there was a local Plex-like solution to do all that locally on my own server.
Seems there should be some way to simply back up book marks, notes, etc., with these apps.
Thanks again.

[HarryT]

Unfortunately there's no common standard for this; each app has to reinvent the wheel.

[conan50]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Unfortunately there's no common standard for this; each app has to reinvent the wheel.

Yes, a standard way of doing it across these apps would be great.

[webroot]

one thing that puzles me, most of these apps import ebook by creating a new ebook copy in their own folder, i suppose this is done to make changes in ebook file, similar to calibre, so like in calibre all highlights are stored in ebook file (for atleast epub) and backing up ebook file means backing up user data as well, shoulnt the mobile app also work that way, just asking if you have tried that.

[conan50]

Originally Posted by webroot

one thing that puzles me, most of these apps import ebook by creating a new ebook copy in their own folder, i suppose this is done to make changes in ebook file, similar to calibre, so like in calibre all highlights are stored in ebook file (for atleast epub) and backing up ebook file means backing up user data as well, shoulnt the mobile app also work that way, just asking if you have tried that.

That's the way I thought it would work, but have found no evidence that it does work. Ideally there should be a file that I could save and if my tablet for instance dies, I could reload my backed up ebooks without losing bookmarks, annotations, etc. That is what I would like.

[tomsem]

Google has recently deployed a nice implementation for this in Play Books: as part of sync, it (optionally) saves a copy of the book's highlights and notes to Google Drive as an editable, exportable document. It works the same for epub files which you have uploaded to your Books library.

[conan50]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Google has recently deployed a nice implementation for this in Play Books: as part of sync, it (optionally) saves a copy of the book's highlights and notes to Google Drive as an editable, exportable document. It works the same for epub files which you have uploaded to your Books library.

I had high hopes for using Google for all my ebook needs. Their allowing one to upload ebooks was a good gesture. But two things are a Massive Fail with Google: the inability to search for uploaded ebooks, and no favorites or collections to sort ebooks into.
It is mind boggling that the search giant won't let you search uploaded books, also pretty much every Android ebook app has a favorites category for your ebooks, and yet Google can't manage that. Once you get several hundred ebooks uploaded to Google the whole thing becomes a useless mess. It is too much to go manually searching for an uploaded ebook every time you open the app
Edit/Update: Taking another look at Google Books I see that you can search for uploaded ebooks on Android. And one possibility of getting it to show only a certain selection of ebooks would be to go to settings and have it show only downloaded ebooks and then just download select ebooks. That looks about as close as I can get to a "favorites" in the Google Books Android app. And as you mentioned, you can go under settings and have Google save your notes, etc.