Apple Books Highlights Export: How to Save and Review Your Notes

Quick Answer: Apple Books has no native batch export. The fastest paths in 2026: (1) the Mac Highlights app reads the underlying AEAnnotation SQLite database and exports to Markdown or CSV; (2) Readwise's Mac companion app syncs incrementally; (3) the manual share method (one highlight at a time via the share sheet) for small collections. Power users can query the AEAnnotation directory at ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents/AEAnnotation/ directly on macOS. Once exported, route highlights through a spaced repetition tool — the export is step one, not the goal.

If you read on an iPhone or iPad, Apple Books is the default reading app, and its highlighting and note-taking features are genuinely good. The frustration comes when you want to actually do something with those highlights. Apple Books highlights export is one of the most requested features that Apple has never properly addressed.

Unlike Kindle, which stores highlights on Amazon's servers and makes them accessible through read.amazon.com, Apple Books keeps your annotations locked in the app ecosystem. But there are ways to get them out. This guide covers every method available in 2026.

Why Export Your Highlights?

Before diving into how, let's talk about why. Most people highlight passages while reading and then never see those highlights again. Research on how to remember what you read consistently shows that highlighting alone does not improve retention. The value of highlighting comes from what you do with those highlights afterward.

Exporting your highlights lets you:

• Review them systematically using spaced repetition
• Organize them by theme across multiple books
• Use them as the basis for writing or discussion
• Import them into learning tools like Chapterly for AI-powered review
• Create a searchable personal knowledge base

Method 1: Manual Copy and Share

The simplest method requires no additional tools but is tedious for large collections.

Steps:

1. Open Apple Books on your iPhone or iPad
2. Navigate to the book containing your highlights
3. Tap the menu icon (three dots or lines) at the top
4. Select "Bookmarks & Highlights" or scroll through the book to find highlighted passages
5. Tap on a specific highlight
6. Tap "Share" from the options
7. Choose where to send it (Notes, Email, Messages, etc.)

Limitations:

• You can only share one highlight at a time
• No batch export option
• Time-consuming for books with many highlights
• Formatting may not preserve well across apps

This method works if you have a handful of highlights to move, but it becomes impractical for avid readers.

Method 2: Using the Notes App as a Collection Point

A slightly more organized version of the manual method uses Apple Notes as a centralized collection.

Steps:

1. Create a new note in Apple Notes named after the book
2. Open each highlight in Apple Books
3. Share each highlight to the Notes app, selecting the book's note
4. Once all highlights are collected, you can share or export the entire note

Benefits:

• All highlights from one book end up in a single document
• Apple Notes syncs across devices
• You can add your own annotations alongside highlights
• Notes can be exported as PDF or text

Limitations:

• Still requires one-by-one sharing
• Manual organization overhead
• Does not scale well for heavy readers

Method 3: Using Third-Party Apps

Several third-party apps can access Apple Books annotations through the iOS database. Here are the most reliable options as of 2026:

Highlights App (macOS)

If you read on a Mac or sync your Apple Books library to a Mac, the Highlights app can access your annotation database directly.

1. Download and install Highlights from the Mac App Store
2. The app reads your Apple Books annotation database
3. Export highlights as Markdown, CSV, or plain text
4. Organize by book, date, or custom tags

This is currently the most seamless option for Mac users.

Readwise

Readwise has an Apple Books integration that works through a companion app or manual import process. It can capture your highlights and feed them into Readwise's review system or export them to note-taking apps. If Readwise's subscription is more than you want for this one task, compare the best Readwise alternatives for 2026, several of which import Apple Books highlights too.

Chapterly

After exporting your highlights through any of these methods, you can import them into Chapterly for AI-powered review. Chapterly takes your static highlights and turns them into active learning material through discussion and spaced repetition.

Method 4: Accessing the Annotation Database (Advanced)

For technical users, Apple Books stores annotations in a SQLite database on your Mac. This method requires some comfort with the command line.

Steps:

1. On your Mac, ensure Apple Books is synced with your iOS devices
2. Navigate to the annotation database location: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents/AEAnnotation/
3. Find the .sqlite database file
4. Use a SQLite browser (like DB Browser for SQLite) to open it
5. Query the ZAEANNOTATION table for your highlights
6. Export as CSV or process with a script

Key database fields:

• ZANNOTATIONSELECTEDTEXT: The highlighted text
• ZANNOTATIONNOTE: Your added notes
• ZANNOTATIONASSETID: Which book the highlight belongs to
• ZANNOTATIONCREATIONDATE: When you made the highlight

Important Notes:

• The database location may change with macOS updates
• Dates are stored in Apple's epoch format (seconds since January 1, 2001)
• Book titles are stored in a separate database and must be cross-referenced
• Back up the database before making any changes

Method 5: Email Yourself Highlights

Apple Books allows you to email notes and highlights from a book, though the process varies by device version.

Steps:

1. Open the book in Apple Books
2. Access the table of contents or notes view
3. Look for a share or export option for all notes
4. Select Email as the destination
5. Send to yourself

This method sometimes allows batch export of all highlights from a single book, making it faster than the one-by-one sharing method.

Tips for Better Apple Books Highlighting

Regardless of which export method you use, these practices will make your highlights more useful:

Add Notes to Highlights

When you highlight a passage, take ten seconds to add a note explaining why it stood out. This context is invaluable when reviewing later and makes your highlights far more useful for active reading.

Use Different Colors

Apple Books supports multiple highlight colors. Develop a color coding system:

• Yellow: Key ideas or arguments
• Green: Actionable advice or techniques
• Blue: Quotes you want to remember
• Pink: Things you disagree with or want to research further

Highlight Less, Not More

It is tempting to highlight everything that seems interesting, but over-highlighting defeats the purpose. Aim for no more than 3-5 highlights per chapter. Being selective forces you to identify what actually matters.

The Bigger Picture: Highlights Are Just the Beginning

Getting your highlights out of Apple Books is step one. The real question is what you do with them afterward. Simply having a text file of highlights is marginally better than leaving them trapped in the app.

Tools like Chapterly are designed to take that next step. By importing your highlights and engaging with them through AI-powered discussion and spaced repetition, you transform passive highlights into active learning. If you have been building a reading habit and want to start retaining more, combining good highlighting practices with a review system is the most impactful change you can make.

Have a collection of Apple Books highlights gathering dust? Import them into Chapterly and turn those static passages into lasting knowledge through AI-powered review.

Also read library books? The same export-then-review workflow now applies there too — Libby added a genuine highlights and notes export in 2026 (step-by-step guide), so your borrowed-book annotations no longer vanish when the loan ends.

What Changed for Apple Books Export in 2026

Three platform shifts are worth flagging for anyone working through this guide today.

iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia tightened the AEAnnotation database lookup. The SQLite database method (Method 4) still works, but the path now requires App Sandbox-era permissions on Sequoia, and on iOS the database is no longer accessible to file-management apps without explicit Files-app integration. If you have a script that broke after upgrading, this is almost certainly why. The Highlights app for Mac was updated in late 2025 to handle the new permissions cleanly and remains the most reliable Mac-side option.

Apple's AI integration changed how new highlights are stored. Apple Books on iOS 18 added an "AI Recap" feature for some Apple-published titles that stores AI-summarized notes alongside user highlights. These are tagged differently in the underlying database and most third-party export tools either skip them or mix them up with manual highlights. If you see notes you don't remember writing in your export, this is the source. The fix is filtering on the ZHIGHLIGHTSTYLE column to keep only manual annotations.

Readwise's Apple Books integration has stabilized. What used to be a flaky shortcut-driven workflow is now a Mac companion app that watches the database and syncs incrementally. For users whose primary device is an iPhone but who own a Mac, this is now the easiest path to a continuous export — closer to the Kindle experience than it has ever been.

The general direction continues: Apple still does not want you exporting highlights at scale, third-party tools adapt, and the SQLite database remains the most complete underlying source for Mac users willing to do five minutes of setup. Once your highlights are exported, the retention layer is what makes them worth the work — the export is step one, not step done.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I export Apple Books highlights to a CSV?

Yes, but not natively. The cleanest CSV export comes from the Highlights app for Mac, which reads Apple Books' AEAnnotation SQLite database and lets you export per-book or across your library. Power users can query the database directly with the DB Browser for SQLite and export raw rows.

Where does Apple Books store highlights?

On macOS, the annotation database lives in a SQLite file under ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents/AEAnnotation/. On iOS, highlights live in an app-sandboxed database that is not accessible to file-management apps without explicit Files-app integration since iOS 18.

Why doesn't Apple Books have a built-in export button?

Apple has never prioritized highlight portability — the design treats annotations as inside the reading experience rather than as data you should move elsewhere. Every export method is a workaround on top of the SQLite database or the share sheet.

What's the easiest way to export from iPhone or iPad?

The share sheet (one highlight at a time) for small collections. For anything larger, sync your library to a Mac and use the Highlights app or Readwise Mac companion — there is no good iOS-only batch export in 2026.

Can I import Apple Books highlights into Chapterly?

Yes. After exporting through any of the methods above (Highlights app, Readwise, or manual share), paste or upload the text into Chapterly. The app then handles spaced repetition and AI-driven discussion on your highlights.

Does iOS 18's AI Recap feature affect highlight export?

Yes. AI-generated notes are stored in the same database as your manual annotations and most export tools either skip them or mix them up. If you see notes you don't remember writing in your export, filter on the ZHIGHLIGHTSTYLE column to keep only manual highlights.

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Exporting is the easy half. Chapterly takes those Apple Books highlights and turns them into AI chapter discussions and spaced-repetition review, instead of a text file you never reopen. Try it free.