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Clippings Import

by Younes Z.
files productivity
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Description

Import the My Clippings.txt file of a Kindle e-reader: one note per book, with highlights, notes, locations and dates. Reads the local file only, no account, no network.

Additional Information

Links:
Maintainers: rezarys
Version:1.0.0
Minimum app version:2.13
Downloads: This version:3
Last updated:2026-10-25T10:58:46Z

Clippings Import for Joplin

Install: in Joplin desktop, open Tools > Options > Plugins (macOS: Joplin > Settings > Plugins), search for Clippings Import, click Install, restart.

Imports the My Clippings.txt file of a Kindle e-reader into Joplin: one note per book, with your highlights as quotes, your notes under the passage they belong to, and the location, page and date of each one.

Use

  1. Plug the e-reader in by USB and find documents/My Clippings.txt on it (or copy the file anywhere).
  2. In Joplin: File > Import > Clippings file (My Clippings.txt), pick the file.
  3. The notes appear in a notebook named Clippings, one per book, titled with the book title.

Import the same file again after more reading: new highlights and standalone notes are added at the end of each book note, and text you wrote in a note is kept. A note or an extended highlight for a passage already imported is not picked up again; delete the book note and import again to get it.

A note looks like this:

Author: Thoreau, Henry David

> I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.

*Location 1234-40 | Added Monday, April 10, 2023 7:02:40 AM*

What it does with the file

  • Bookmarks (no text) are skipped.
  • The device writes a highlight again when you extend it: within one import the longer one is kept.
  • A note is placed under the highlight that ends where the note sits; a note on its own stays as its own item.
  • Exact duplicates are dropped.
  • English and French device lines are covered by tests on sample entries; the type and location words of German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch devices are recognised but not tested.

Privacy

The plugin reads the one file you pick, on your disk. No account, no network request, no telemetry.

Limits

  • Desktop only (the plugin reads a local file).
  • Notes are matched by title inside the target notebook: rename a book note and the next import creates a new one.
  • Re-importing detects what is new by comparing passage text: it does not update a passage already in a note.
  • Tested with automated tests against a simulated Joplin data API only. It has not been run by hand in the Joplin app yet. If something is off with your file, open an issue with a few lines of it (remove anything private).

Manual install

Download publish/io.github.rezarys.joplinclips.jpl from this repository, then in Tools > Options > Plugins, use the gear icon, Install from file.

Build and test

node --test tests/
node --test scripts/

The second command rebuilds publish/ (the .jpl archive and its info file), without any dependency.

Background

Kindle highlights in Joplin used to need an outside script: https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/python-script-for-importing-kindle-highlights-into-joplin/13315

Kindle is a trademark of Amazon. This plugin is not affiliated with Amazon; it only reads the text file the device writes.

Built with AI assistance, tested with automated tests, not reviewed line by line.

MIT License, Younes Z.