Did you know that you can now sync between Goodreads and LibraryThing? You don’t have to choose. Use both sites!
Getting started
To sync, go to Import books from Goodreads.
If you’re signed into Goodreads an export file should download for you automatically; if it doesn’t, there are some fallback instructions on that page. Select the downloaded file using the “Choose File” button and click “Upload” to import it into LibraryThing.
Import options
Once you’ve uploaded your file, you’ll see a breakdown of the books in the file, displaying the total number of books, books already in your library, books without ISBNs, and the number of valid ISBNs.
- Choose sources: Source your data from Amazon or top libraries around the world.
- Collections: Drop books into a specific LibraryThing collection.
- Mass tagging: Add tags to everything.
- Handle books without ISBNs: Choose whether to import non-ISBN books.
Sync options
Under “Handle duplicates,” you’ll see options to import duplicates again (i.e., create a whole bunch of duplicates), omit duplicates, or sync duplicates.
If you sync, you’ll see options depending on the differences between your Goodreads books and your LibraryThing catalog.
- Replace “date read” with imported info: “Date read” goes into LibraryThing’s “date finished.”
- Add shelves to existing tags: This adds your Goodreads “shelves” to LibraryThing as tags.
- For reviews, you can replace existing reviews or add new reviews if you haven’t yet posted a review on LibraryThing for those books.
- Replace ratings.
- Replace pages with imported data: This changes the “number of pages” in LibraryThing.
After this, click “Import books.” Old books sync immediately. New books are added to the import queue.
Labels: import
Yeah, but I want to do it the other way round!!! LibraryThing is my main archive, and GoodReads my backup.
I really like the idea of syncing GoodReads and LibraryThing. What it did, alas, was create a bunch of unnecessary duplicate records in LT. Lots of them were because I had one edition in GoodReads and a different one in LT. The syncing algorithm should be at the work-level.
Work-level syncing wouldn’t work if you have specific editions, though (and would cause all *sorts* of other problems, unfortunately).
Just tried this and got a 500 error from LT. š Guess I’ll try again later.
Hmm, yes, do try again (but check first, sometimes the import happens even if that error appears). If you still have trouble, email info@librarything.com with your username and we can help out!
Cool. But like another user, I do librarything first. Can we go from librarything to goodreads?
I love the idea of having my Goodreads site linked to LT, but, like other users, LT is my main catalog and Goodreads is where I post for social networking (my Facebook friends use Goodreads). I would love it if the ratings and reviews I give on GR would transfer to my LT catalog, and if my collection on LT could easily be added to Goodreads. Librarything has been my cataloging site since Dec. 2005, but I am so pleased to see it becoming a bit more social as well!
For those asking about importing to Goodreads – I *think* you can. I believe I did that some time ago. I started with LT many years ago. Then added Goodreads a few years ago. I don’t remember having to manually add my books then. But I could be wrong. You’ll probably have to check out GR’s site to find out.
Like Melora, I’d love it if my ratings and reviews from GR would transfer to LT. Or vice versa. That might work too.
I have been a member of LibraryThing for a few years now but have never used it as extensively as I do Goodreads but I decided to import my books from Goodreads as I really like the user recommendations in LibraryThing. The import was successful from what I can see but it didn’t import all my shelves from Goodreads. I understood that shelves should be recreated as tags but I only have 19 tags which is much less than expected and also those tags that transferred successfully have either no books associated or only a handful. Can anyone shed some light on this problem? Thanks.
Sorry to hear you’re having trouble with your import, Patrick. Shoot us an email over at info@librarything.com with some more details about the situation, and we’ll take a look.
I am getting a “Page Not Found The page you requested doesn’t exist. Please check the url again, or visit the home page.” message from Goodreads when I press “Click here to download.” I am logged into Goodreads when I click the link.
I am so glad I found this post. I was ready to give up the tedious task of recreating my library one book at a time on LT especially since all my books are already on GR. After what took quite some time to find a book – I thought about giving up that is until now. Thank you to original poster.
Thanks for the facility. I only found 5 ( out of 300 + ) unique from Goodreads.
If you want social, and the distractions that go with it, use Goodreads, If you like reading in the library, use LibraryThing.
Hello
I’m trying to convert from GR, so I made an export file and I imported to LT. I have a library of about 1500 books, most of them in Greek.
Here are my 2 biggest problems:
1. It seems that LT mess up the authors when in the export csv file from GR, the Additional Authors column is filled. In my case this is true for the majority of my books, since I put over there the translator (plus the editor etc) of the book. So I ended up having as primary authors the translators. Eg. more of my le Carre books are attributed to their translator.
2. Most of the covers are missing
It is too much work to fix them, for more than 1000 books!
Anyone any suggestion/idea?
Thanks!
I think you’ll see some helpful suggestions on the Talk post you made about this issue! If you need any further help, please email us at info@librarything.com, and I’ll be happy to help you from there.
I have newly joined librarything. Been on Goodreads for quite a while. I was just wishing for a su=ynch option and I found it.
This makes things so much easier. Tried it out now. Hope it works. Thanks for the post
Hi Deepa:
Welcome to LibraryThing! I’m glad you found this post useful. Please don’t hesitate to contact us, if you have any other questions, going forward. You can reach out to us at: info@librarything.com.