Where does the reader store highlights?

simurq · 09-25-2021, 05:04 AM

Hi there,

Calibre Viewer is my primary reading tool on desktop. I've tried to find a definitive answer to this question in this and other fora plus the web, but most of the posts are either too old (before highlighting was available) or not specific about storing (not exporting!) the highlights. So, I wonder where the highlights actually go in my desktop. It'd be nice to discover the Viewer store them inside the e-book - less hassle with exporting and then losing the highlights. Is it anyhow possible?

Btw, I'm using Pop OS (Ubuntu) with Linux.

Thank you!

kovidgoyal · 09-25-2021, 05:23 AM

It stores them in multiple places, including inside the book, if the book is in epub format and you havent turned off storing of annotations inside the book in the viewer preferences under miscellaneous.

simurq · 09-25-2021, 06:34 AM

Thank you, Kovid! It indeed did the trick with an EPUB file, as the Viewer saves a base64-encoded version of my highlights as a text file inside the file. Very good!

But can you please be also more specific about those 'multiple places' and tip me on the capacity of other file types (I mostly read books written in flowing PDF, FB2, and MOBI) to store bookmarks a.k.a highlights without exporting them?

I guess one of such locations is $HOME/.cache/calibre, where I can see calibre-book-annotations.json with highlights of the book I'm currently reading. But judging from the content of the folder, it's EPUB-specific, hence my question about other file types.

Again, thank you!

kovidgoyal · 09-25-2021, 11:31 AM

only epub stores annotations inside. As for the other locations they are the calibre config folder and the library database.

09-25-2021, 05:04 AM	#1
simurq Member Posts: 20 Karma: 1000010 Join Date: Jul 2015 Device: Kindle Paperwhite v1	Where does the reader store highlights? Hi there, Calibre Viewer is my primary reading tool on desktop. I've tried to find a definitive answer to this question in this and other fora plus the web, but most of the posts are either too old (before highlighting was available) or not specific about storing (not exporting!) the highlights. So, I wonder where the highlights actually go in my desktop. It'd be nice to discover the Viewer store them inside the e-book - less hassle with exporting and then losing the highlights. Is it anyhow possible? Btw, I'm using Pop OS (Ubuntu) with Linux. Thank you! Last edited by simurq; 09-25-2021 at 06:22 AM.

09-25-2021, 06:34 AM	#3
simurq Member Posts: 20 Karma: 1000010 Join Date: Jul 2015 Device: Kindle Paperwhite v1	Thank you, Kovid! It indeed did the trick with an EPUB file, as the Viewer saves a base64-encoded version of my highlights as a text file inside the file. Very good! But can you please be also more specific about those 'multiple places' and tip me on the capacity of other file types (I mostly read books written in flowing PDF, FB2, and MOBI) to store bookmarks a.k.a highlights without exporting them? I guess one of such locations is $HOME/.cache/calibre, where I can see calibre-book-annotations.json with highlights of the book I'm currently reading. But judging from the content of the folder, it's EPUB-specific, hence my question about other file types. Again, thank you! Last edited by simurq; 09-25-2021 at 06:53 AM.

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09-25-2021, 05:23 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	It stores them in multiple places, including inside the book, if the book is in epub format and you havent turned off storing of annotations inside the book in the viewer preferences under miscellaneous.

09-25-2021, 11:31 AM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	only epub stores annotations inside. As for the other locations they are the calibre config folder and the library database.

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