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Exporting highlights from Books app no longer works on iOS 16 [bug report]

Up until iOS 16, users were able to select all of their highlights from any book in the books app, and email the highlights to export them.


Here's a GIF showing how it worked before: https://d33v4339jhl8k0.cloudfront.net/docs/assets/5eb8cc86042863474d1a75fd/images/5edec6ef2c7d3a10cba8978d/file-bvR8UDOFTe.gif


This seems to be no longer possible in Books in iOS 16, and it means there is absolutely no way to export your highlights anymore.


This makes the Books app dramatically less useful, and alternatives like Kindle (that do allow highlight export) a lot more appealing.


I know hundreds of people (at least) use this functionality and it's very important.

iPhone XR, iOS 15

Posted on Sep 17, 2022 12:08 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 16, 2023 6:48 AM

Workaround – use desktop application. Your books and highlights are synced via iCloud, so you can have them on your mac.


There you open Books app, open your book and tap on "Show highlights and notes" (left top corner).


Then you select all of them:

  1. hold Shift and click on the first
  2. scroll down and hold Shift again and click on the last


They are highlighted with grey now. Now you can to drag them and drop to you favorite text editor.


I hope this helps.

72 replies

Exporting highlights from Books app no longer works on iOS 16 [bug report]

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