[GUI Plugin] Kindle Annotations Import

[brpeterman]

Hey folks! I wanted to sync my Kindle annotations back to Calibre, but the state of the art seemed pretty limited. So I wrote my own!

Kindle Annotation Import

This plugin reads your Kindle annotation files (My Clippings txt, notebook html, or notebook PDF) and saves them to Calibre as native annotations. They'll show up in Calibre's annotations browser and in the ebook viewer.

This is a very early release, so it's a bit rough around the edges. I'd greatly appreciate bug reports, suggestions, and even pull requests.

Known Limitations

• EPUBs only: The plugin can only manage mapping annotations to EPUBs in your library.
• Manual process: There's a lot of button-clicking. A future release may help you automate the process a bit more.
• Limited locale support: I've only really tested in US English, so there are likely problems with other locales. Please report any issues and provide sample data if you can.

Download and source

Latest release (0.1.0-rc1)

Source

FAQ

What about other e-readers?

I only have a Kindle, so I've only focused on one kind of data.

What about other book formats?

I'll be taking a look at supporting other formats in the future. I'll need to dig into Calibre's support for annotations for formats other than EPUB.

This code looks like AI slop.

That's not a question, but yes, this was largely an excuse to get to know the current capabilities of AI coding agents.

[brpeterman]

I seem to have lost the ability to edit my post, so user instructions are going here.

Installation

1. Download Kindle_Annotation_Import.zip.
2. In Calibre, open Preferences → Plugins.
3. Click Load plugin from file and select the zip file.
4. Restart Calibre.
5. Add the plugin to a menu:
   • Go to Preferences → Interface → Toolbars & menus.
   • Select a menu to add the button to (for example, the main toolbar).
   • Find the Import Kindle Annotations menu item on the left and add it to the menu on the right.

Getting Your Annotations Off the Kindle

Three export formats are supported:

My Clippings.txt

This is the best option. The clippings file contains the cleanest, most complete data about your annotations.

The clippings file is found on the Kindle device itself. Connect your Kindle via USB and copy the file from:

Kindle/documents/My Clippings.txt

This file contains all your highlights, notes, and bookmarks across your most recent books, with timestamps. It has a limited capacity, so your older highlights may not be present.

Notebook HTML export

Available through the Kindle app or the Share feature on newer Kindle devices. This produces a file named <Book Title>-Notebook.html. It contains only highlights and notes for a single book, without timestamps.

Notebook PDF export

While reading a Kindle book on your Kindle, open the notebook view and click the export button. This will email a PDF to the email address associated with your Amazon account.

Important note: This feature is only available for Kindle books. Sideloaded content will not have this option.

Importing Annotations

1. Click Import Kindle Annotations in the Calibre toolbar.
2. Click Select Annotations File and choose your .txt, .html, or .pdf export file. The annotations table will populate with all highlights and notes found in the file.
3. Select the annotation row you want to import.
4. In the book list at the bottom, find and select the matching book in your Calibre library. Use the search box to filter by title or author.
5. Click Find annotation to locate the highlight text in the book's EPUB. A summary appears showing the matched chapter and a snippet of the surrounding text.
6. Choose a highlight style from the colour picker.
7. Click Save to Calibre to write the annotation.

Repeat steps 3–7 for each annotation you want to import.