How do you sync / export highlights and notes from ebooks on iPad?

[astrodad]

I've been trying to make annotation sync work for Personal Documents using the kindle app but they're not working. I think they should, but I've checked every setting and they don't. Even if they did work there's no way that I have found to get them off the iPad/iPhone because they will not sync to kindle.amazon.com.

How are you all reading, marking up, and then exporting your highlights/notes from your ebooks on iOS?

[AnemicOak]

Never done this on iOS before, but as a test I just emailed a book to my phone and then downloaded it from the could to my iPod. The highlight and note I made on the iPhone came through and showed up on the iPod copy just fine.

As for exporting not sure.

[susan_cassidy]

If the book is from Amazon, it should show up in kindle.amazon.com. I don't think highlights from non-Amazon books show up there, though. On a real Kindle, you can use the "My Clippings.txt" file, but the apps don't seem to have an equivalent file, which is a shame.

@astrodad, All I can tell you is that I use Kindle Previewer to compile/build my personal docs, then I use the Send To Kindle app to send them to the Kindle Cloud. I download them from the Kindle Cloud to my iOS/Android devices and they are capable of syncing highlights, notes, and bookmarks.

I am not sure if the format of the personal docs has to be KF8 before they will sync. I've never experimented. I think Kindle Previewer creates a dual KF8/Mobi7 file to be sent to the Cloud, but I could be mistaken.

How are you creating your personal docs?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I am not sure if the format of the personal docs has to be KF8 before they will sync. I've never experimented. I think Kindle Previewer creates a dual KF8/Mobi7 file to be sent to the Cloud, but I could be mistaken.

When I tried it out I emailed a Mobi and a KF8/AZW3 file. The Mobi syncs fine and the AZW3 was rejected as an unsupported format (perhaps it just didn't like the .azw3 extension).

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

When I tried it out I emailed a Mobi and a KF8/AZW3 file. The Mobi syncs fine and the AZW3 was rejected as an unsupported format (perhaps it just didn't like the .azw3 extension).

Yep, I'm thinking the file type might be important as Amazon seems to be picky, and several threads in the past have discussed issues with syncing various file types, I think. Also I wonder if it makes a difference in how the files are compiled, calibre versus Kindle Previewer. Calibre has a lot of settings which can be turned on or off, so perhaps there is something interfering with the file generation.

[susan_cassidy]

Just because the highlights, etc. sync to other devices doesn't mean they are going to show up on kindle.amazon.com, which I believe was the original complaint.

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

Just because the highlights, etc. sync to other devices doesn't mean they are going to show up on kindle.amazon.com, which I believe was the original complaint.

Good point, @astrodad needs to clarify what he wants to do with the synced data. I assumed from the way he worded his post here and in another thread that he could not get book highlighting from one iOS device to sync and display on another iOS device.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

When I tried it out I emailed a Mobi and a KF8/AZW3 file. The Mobi syncs fine and the AZW3 was rejected as an unsupported format (perhaps it just didn't like the .azw3 extension).

You can't send pure KF8 files as personal docs; only Mobi and dual Mobi/KF8.

Annoyingly, the iOS Kindle doesn't let you side-load KF8 files, even though it downloads them from Amazon just fine.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You can't send pure KF8 files as personal docs; only Mobi and dual Mobi/KF8.

Annoyingly, the iOS Kindle doesn't let you side-load KF8 files, even though it downloads them from Amazon just fine.

Are you sure about this? I do not believe iOS Kindle even supports KF8 files in any form. They seem to be building AZK files for use on iOS devices. On a dual encoded file kf8/mobi they only support the mobi half.

Dale

[HarryT]

I may very well be mistaken, yes .

I do know that the Kindle for iOS app still does not support embedded fonts in personal docs. Perhaps this has something to do with the AZK files. I don't know if it supports embedded fonts in Amazon purchased books. We have been complaining about this for a long time, but Amazon does not seem to care. The Kindle for Android app does support embedded fonts in personal docs, so they should allow this in the iOS app too.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I do know that the Kindle for iOS app still does not support embedded fonts in personal docs. Perhaps this has something to do with the AZK files. I don't know if it supports embedded fonts in Amazon purchased books. We have been complaining about this for a long time, but Amazon does not seem to care. The Kindle for Android app does support embedded fonts in personal docs, so they should allow this in the iOS app too.

Android is what Kindle itself uses in its tablets. It is pure KF8. I am not sure what their doing with iOS but it still needs lots of work IMHO.

Dale

[astrodad]

Thanks for the responses.

For Kindle books, I can now get all of my Personal Docs to sync highlights across the devices (not on kindle.amazon.com and not on Kindle Mac). Support did something (didn't say what) and now everything syncs as intended.

This is fine for reading, but not for studying of compiling snippets for research papers or personal notes. If Apple had an eInk reader (which they will never do), I could get everything I want: device syncing with desktop access (for putting into Evernote).

At this point it might be best to just use the clippings.txt from my PW once I am done reading. That's assuming I can get the highlights from this file on my Mac when my PW is plugged in. /runs to try this out.

Originally Posted by astrodad

Thanks for the responses.

For Kindle books, I can now get all of my Personal Docs to sync highlights across the devices (not on kindle.amazon.com and not on Kindle Mac). Support did something (didn't say what) and now everything syncs as intended.

This is fine for reading, but not for studying of compiling snippets for research papers or personal notes. If Apple had an eInk reader (which they will never do), I could get everything I want: device syncing with desktop access (for putting into Evernote).

At this point it might be best to just use the clippings.txt from my PW once I am done reading. That's assuming I can get the highlights from this file on my Mac when my PW is plugged in. /runs to try this out.

I'm glad they got it working. BTW, K4Mac and K4PC have never supported syncing of highlights, notes, and bookmarks for personal docs. They do sync with Amazon books though.