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obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin

(★ 148)

⚡️Fastest Apple Books highlights importer to Obsidian 🗄️ The only one protecting your own reflections across imports 🎨 Fully customizable

File Explorer

Download Latest Version (.zip)

- commit-msg
- pre-commit
- - bug.yml
  - config.yml
  - feature.yml
- - docs.yml
  - release.yml
- CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
- CODEOWNERS
- pull_request_template.md
- release_notes_template.md
- extensions.json
- settings.json
- - config.mts
- - colored-highlights.png
  - example-highlights-order.png
  - plugin-preview.png
  - showcase-dark.png
  - showcase-light.png
- - templates-and-variables.md
- - get-started.md
  - settings.md
- - dark.png
  - light.png
  - logo.svg
- index.md
- - overwriteConsent.ts
  - searchSuggestions.ts
- - annotationsProcessing.ts
  - dataFetching.ts
  - templateProcessing.ts
  - vaultManagement.ts
- - index.ts
- - index.ts
- - backupAndImportFlow.ts
  - databaseQuery.ts
  - manageKeepMeSection.ts
  - notificationCenter.ts
- importHighlights.ts
- - importHighlights.spec.ts
  - main.spec.ts
- - mockedDatabaseSetup.ts
  - obsidian.ts
- - searchSuggestions.spec.ts
- - main.spec.ts
- pluginDocs.spec.ts
- pluginInfo.spec.ts
.gitignore
.npmrc
.oxfmtrc.json
.oxlintrc.json
CONTRIBUTING.md
esbuild.config.mjs
LICENSE
main.ts
manifest.json
package-lock.json
package.json
README.md
styles.css
tsconfig.json
versioning.mjs
versions.json
vitest.config.mjs

# Installation Guide

1. Get the code

git clone https://github.com/bandantonio/obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin

Downloads the entire project code from GitHub to your computer.

cd obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin

Moves into the project folder you just downloaded.

2. Node.js

Easy Recommended

Prerequisites

Git Needed to download the project code from GitHub.
Node.js Node.js must be installed to use npm. The LTS version is recommended.

npm install

Downloads and installs the libraries listed in package.json.

npm start

Starts the development/run server.

✅ After running the command, open the address shown in the terminal (usually something like http://localhost:3000) in your browser.

// repository documentation

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# Apple Books - Import Highlights Obsidian plugin

![Plugin preview](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bandantonio/obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin/master/docs/assets/plugin-preview.png)

![Obsidian Marketplace Downloads - 10166](https://img.shields.io/badge/dynamic/json?url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Fobsidianmd%2Fobsidian-releases%2FHEAD%2Fcommunity-plugin-stats.json&query=%24%5B'apple-books-import-highlights'%5D.downloads&style=for-the-badge&logo=obsidian&label=Downloads&color=%23baa5ff)
![70x faster than alternatives](https://img.shields.io/badge/70x%20faster%20than%20alternatives-baa5ff?style=for-the-badge)
![GitHub last commit - Last Satruday](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/bandantonio/obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin?style=for-the-badge&logo=github&color=baa5ff)

This plugin solves the nightmare of importing Apple Books highlights to Obsidian. It's the only one protecting your own thoughts and reflections across imports with the "Keep Me" section feature that no competitor dares to offer.

- ⚡️ **70x faster than alternatives** - save you up to 30min/month or up to 16hrs/year.
- 🗄️ **Your thoughts and reflections never overwritten during imports**.
- 🦾 **Bulletproof Reliability** - highlights with only metadata you need, clean and secure imports. 100% code coverage.

Feedback from users who cherish plugin's superiority:

- 💬 _I've used three or four other methods of keeping my Apple Books highlights and notes updated in Obsidian over the past few years. I'm moving to your plugin, it seems to be the best (fast, dependable, with a user editable template(!!!), and with selective single book importing/overwriting). Thanks for creating and sharing it!_ - **mbarritt**
- 💬 _Thank you for creating a great, fast plugin! I'm so glad I found it. Thank you for making it so customizable._ - **banj**
- 💬 _Nice work. This is really quick._ - **cmyplay**
- 💬 _Your plugin is super fast and useful!_ - **weslau**
- 💬 _This plugin is very useful and particularly fast to use_ - **isdamir**

🤩 Sounds enticing? Excellent!

[![Obsidian Plugins page - link to the plugin](https://img.shields.io/badge/install_plugin_now-blue?style=for-the-badge&color=%237C3AED&logo=obsidian)](https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/apple-books-import-highlights)

## Technical proof of dominance

This section compares performance of this plugin to two other contenders that were supposed to solve the import problem, and tells exactly why both of them failed to do so.

**Startup**

With the largest feature set (see the [table](#features-comparison) below), this plugin has almost immediate and consistent startup times regardless of launch scenario and vault size.

| Scenario                   | This plugin | ibook        | apple-books-highlights |
| -------------------------- | ----------- | ------------ | ---------------------- |
| On opening Obsidian        | 6-8 ms      | 861-2,677 ms | 1-2 ms                 |
| On reloading Obsidian      | 2-8 ms      | 65-131 ms    | 1-2 ms                 |
| Mix of open/reload, test 1 | 2-8 ms      | 76-1,169 ms  | 1-2 ms                 |
| Mix of open/reload, test 2 | 2-7 ms      | 76-1,095 ms  | 1-2 ms                 |
| Mix of open/reload, test 3 | 2-8 ms      | 76-1,057 ms  | 1-2 ms                 |

**Import speed**

Here's what 70x faster means for your workflow.

Test collection: 182 books, 43 books with annotations, 3000+ annotations

> [!note]
> This plugin's performance advantage grows with scale, so the larger the collection, the more significant the difference in import times becomes.

| Criterion | This plugin | ibook | apple-books-highlights | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Import Cycle | `226.089 ms` | `15,873.0 ms` | `333.08 ms` | This plugin is ~`70x` faster and ~`1.47x` faster respectively |
| Data Fetch | `206.432 ms` | `15,696.2 ms` | `227.60 ms` | This plugin is ~`76x` faster and ~`1.10x` faster respectively |
| Aggregation | `9.356 ms` | `6.7 ms` | `0.05 ms` | This plugin is ~`1.4x` slower and ~`187x` slower respectively |
| Save Operations | `44.268 ms` | `20.0 ms` | `95.52 ms` | This plugin is ~`2.2x` slower and ~`2.16x` faster respectively |
| Per-book rendering | `0.241 ms/book` avg | `1.266 ms/book` avg | `2.18 ms/book` avg | This plugin is ~`5.3x` faster and ~`9.1x` faster respectively |

## Features comparison

| Feature | This plugin | ibook | apple-books-highlights |
|---------|-------------|-------|------------------------|
Ribbon action | ✅ | ❌ | ✅
Hotkeys | ✅ | ✅ | ✅
Command palette commands | ✅ | ✅ | ✅
Clean imports (no deleted annotations, no empty books with zero annotations) | ✅ | ❌ | ✅
Single book import | ✅ | ✅ | ❌
Choose Highlights folder | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (existing folder only, see the note below)
Import on startup | ✅ | ❌ | ✅
Backups | ✅ | 🟡 (messy) | ❌
Sorting highlights | ✅ | ❌ | ❌
Custom template | ✅ | ✅ | ❌
Keep Me section | ✅ | ❌ | ❌
Custom template for highlight filenames | ✅ | ❌ | ❌
User-friendly docs | ✅ | ❌ | ❌
Up-to-date | ✅ | ❌ (Last released 3 years ago) | ❌ (Last released 3 years ago, broken)

> [!NOTE]
> The latest released version of apple-books-highlights (1.0.1) is **broken** (error when querying the Apple Books database) and doesn't work with the current Obsidian version.
>
> Also, it imports highlights only (without user notes), has almost zero configuration options, no backups, and explicitly states in the settings tab that all the highlight files are **read-only** and will be **deleted on every sync**. All these issues make it pretty much unusable and, which is even worse, expose users to the risk of data loss.
> The new Obsidian Cummunity Directory Scorecard review confirms this: "Build verification failed: the build script exited with an error."

## Explore the plugin

1. [Get started in 5 minutes or less](https://mister-gold.pro/obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin/guide/get-started.html)
1. [Configure settings to your liking](https://mister-gold.pro/obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin/guide/settings.html)
1. [Explore possible customization options](https://mister-gold.pro/obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin/customization/templates-and-variables.html)
   - [Get inspiration from other fellows](https://github.com/bandantonio/obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin/discussions/32)

## Contributing

- [Contribution Guidelines](https://github.com/bandantonio/obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md)

## Have a question or need help?

- [Check Discussions](https://github.com/bandantonio/obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin/discussions/categories/q-a)
- [Report a bug or submit an idea](https://github.com/bandantonio/obsidian-apple-books-highlights-plugin/issues/new/choose)