How to export Readwise Reader and your highlights to Barside

Readwise Reader keeps your saved articles, and Readwise keeps your highlights from books and the web. Both export to CSV, and Barside imports the two together: articles land in Barside's Reading inbox, and each highlight attaches to its article. This guide covers the exports, the import, and what changes.

Before you start

Barside is a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac, and you can get it on the download page. Its Reading inbox saves articles with readable copies on your computer, highlights, newsletters by email, Reader Mode and read aloud. Notes, tasks and recordings live in the same app.

Reader runs on phones, tablets and the web and follows RSS feeds. Barside is a desktop app without a phone app or RSS following, so the move suits people who read mostly at their computer.

Step 1: Export from Readwise Reader and Readwise

Your Reader library (CSV), from Reader's docs, either way:

• Open the Command Palette and choose Generate CSV export, or
• Open your account profile page, go to the Export account data section, and choose Export Library as CSV.

Your highlights (CSV), from Readwise's docs: go to the Export page and select the format at the bottom. "The CSV option will immediately generate a download containing all of your highlights."

Your feeds (optional, OPML): choose Generate OPML export, or Export Feeds as OPML.

Step 2: Import into Barside

1. Open Settings & backups → Notes from other apps → Import next to Import notes, or type import in the search bar.
2. Find Readwise and choose Choose CSV.
3. Select both CSV files, the library and the highlights, in one go.
4. Barside shows Ready to import with the number of reading items and highlights.
5. Choose Import. Articles go to Reading.

For feeds, import the OPML file with OPML outlines: it becomes a note listing your feeds as links.

Articles you already saved in Barside are skipped, so a second import does not double them.

What comes along

Readwise's highlights CSV names each article by title. When the library is in the same import, Barside finds the article with the same title and adds the highlights to it. Highlights from books, or articles not in your Reader library, become items of their own with their title.

If something looks wrong

• Highlights are separate from their articles. Import the two CSV files together, in one import. If you already imported them apart, the highlights are still kept as their own items.
• Two articles share a title. Barside cannot tell them apart by title alone, so it leaves those highlights as their own item instead of guessing.
• An article will not download. The website may be gone or block downloads; your highlights still keep the passages you marked.

A calm order for the move

1. Export the Reader library and the highlights on the same day.
2. Import both files together into Barside.
3. Open a few articles, choose Get article text, and check their highlights.
4. Keep your Readwise account for a month while you read in Barside.
5. Export once more before you cancel, and import only the new items; Barside skips what it already has.

Make the most of your highlights

• One list in Reading shows every highlight across articles.
• Distill: the progressive summarization method shows how to return to highlights and keep the best.
• Ask your reading questions with Library AI, which cites the articles it used, with the AI account you connect.
• Listen: read aloud reads any saved article to you.

Compare the two apps in the Readwise Reader alternative guide, and see other options in the best read-it-later apps. Moving from Matter too? See the Matter guide.