Import from Readwise

Craft makes it easy to bring your reading insights from Readwise directly into your workspace. With just a quick setup, you can keep your highlights from books, articles, and tweets organized and synced automatically.

How to Set Up Readwise Sync

1. Open the Readwise Import Settings page
   If you are not logged in to Craft yet, it will ask you to log in, and then take you back to the settings.
2. Configure the connection to your Craft account
   Grab your Access Token from Readwise as described, and select the space where you'd like your highlights to appear. 

Now, the initial import will run in the background. It might take a few minutes, depending on how many highlights you have in your Readwise library. You can safely close the settings page and come back to it later – syncing will continue in the background.

What Happens After Setup

Craft will create a document called “Readwise Highlights” in the selected space. In there, you'll find the “My Library” collection, where all highlights will be stored.

After the initial import, new highlights will be automatically updated in Craft throughout the day.

Each book, article, or tweet will be stored as a separate page within the collection. These pages will include:

• Title and metadata from Readwise
• All highlights and annotations

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens when I take new highlights?

Any new highlights you import into Readwise will automatically be imported into Craft, without you needing to do anything. If the highlight is from a new document, a new page will be inserted into the collection in Craft. If the highlight is from an existing document, it will be appended to the bottom of the existing page in Craft.

Can I filter what highlights to import?

Yes, you can! When you first configure the integration, or at any time after setting it up, you can use the “Select Items to be Exported” option to filter what books, articles, tweets you want to import. Newly added books will always synchronize, unless you specifically uncheck them in the settings.

Can I change the formatting options for highlights?

If you don't want your highlights to use Craft's default formatting and rather want something plain, check the “Use Simple Formatting” toggle in the settings.

With Default Craft Formatting:

With Simple Formatting:

Can I move the Readwise document to somewhere else in Craft?

Within the space you've set up the integration for, you can move the Readwise document freely into any folder you like. 

Can I modify the Readwise collection in Craft?

Yes you can! Feel free to modify the collection views, or add new ones as you please. You can also add additional fields, or edit the names of the default fields if you like. Your changes will not be overwritten by subsequent syncs.

Can I edit the Readwise collection pages?

For individual books, articles and tweets, you can change the title of the page as you please. It won't be overwritten. Of course, you can also edit the page itself as much as you please. The integration will always append new highlights to the bottom of the page and not overwrite any existing content.

If I edit or format an existing highlight in Readwise, or make a new note or tag to an existing highlight, will that change be updated in Craft?

No. The import from Readwise is append-only. This means anything that's already in your Readwise document in Craft won't be overwritten – so that we don't accidentally erase anything you may have edited or added directly in Craft. 

How do I delete my Readwise document and start over?

1. Delete the Readwise document in Craft.
2. Go to the Readwise Import Settings page and turn off the integration. 
3. Set up the integration again. Make sure to uncheck the "Use existing collection" option.

How do I change the Craft space to import into?

1. Go to the Readwise Import Settings page and turn off the integration. 
2. Set up the integration again. Make sure to uncheck the "Use existing collection" option.
3. Select the other space you want to import into.

Troubleshooting

When you see an error message such as "Last import failed. Please try again" on the Readwise Import Settings page, this can be due to several reasons:

• You've reset your Readwise access token
  • Turn the sync off and set it up again with your new token. Check "Use existing collection" to make sure that your existing Readwise document will continue to be used.
• You've deleted or changed the type of one of the default collection fields
  • Unfortunately, this will cause the sync to break, and cannot be recovered. You will need to set it up again from scratch. Make sure to uncheck "Use existing collection" if the option is available, as your existing collection cannot be used for sync any more.

If it's still not working, and you are sure that neither of the above reasons is the cause, please contact us and let us know what issue you're facing.