E-reader Highlights

If you read on an e-ink device, your highlights and notes probably stay on that device. Nostos can import them from a Kobo and from any device that runs KOReader. This works in hosted and self-Nostos Cloud.

Kindle is not supported yet.

Where to find it

Open Settings → Library, find E-reader highlights and press Import…. A window opens where you can drop or select files.

The files you need depend on the device.

From a Kobo

1. Connect the Kobo to your computer with a USB cable. It appears as a drive.
2. On that drive, open the hidden folder .kobo.
3. Select the file KoboReader.sqlite.

That one file holds the highlights and notes for every book on the device, so you select it once. Nostos only reads it and never changes it. The file can be up to 256 MB.

If you can’t see the .kobo folder, your computer hides it. On macOS, press Cmd + Shift + . in Finder. On Windows, turn on Hidden items in the View menu of File Explorer.

Nostos ignores dog-ears, stylus drawings and highlights you deleted on the Kobo.

From KOReader

KOReader keeps the notes for each book in its own file. Next to each book is a folder whose name ends in .sdr. Inside it is a file named like metadata.epub.lua or metadata.pdf.lua. That is the file to select.

You can select several of these files at once, one for each book. Each can be up to 2 MB.

If you changed where KOReader stores book metadata, the .sdr folders are in the place you chose, not next to the books.

Check before anything is added

Nostos adds nothing until you confirm. It first shows where each book’s highlights will go, in three groups:

• Ready: the book is in your library and the match is clear.
• Check these: Nostos has a likely match. Confirm it or pick a different book.
• Not in your library: search for the right book yourself, or add it as a new book so the highlights have somewhere to go.

When everything looks right, press import.

Importing again

Importing the same file again does not create duplicates. You can keep reading on the device and import again from time to time to pick up new highlights. Nostos remembers the books you confirmed the first time.

If an import went into the wrong book, the same window lists your recent imports with Undo next to each one. Undo removes the notes from that import. Books it added stay in your library.

What you get

The highlights become notes on the book, like notes you made in Nostos.

For an EPUB, Nostos looks for each highlighted passage in the book’s text. When it finds it, the highlight is shown on the page and you can jump to it from the note. For a PDF, a KOReader highlight opens on the correct page with the passage marked.

If Nostos can’t find a passage in the book’s text, it still imports the note, but without a place in the book to jump to.