DIY Kobo annotation backup

# DIY Kobo annotation backup Source: [https://kghose.github.io/2026/06/06/kobo-annotations.html](https://kghose.github.io/2026/06/06/kobo-annotations.html) 06 Jun 2026 **Problem**: Kobo has an “Export Annotations” function for owned \(DRM or non\-DRM\) ebooks but not for borrowed ebooks\. I make annotations on all my books and I like to refer to them afterwards\. **Solution**: It is possible to use the data on your Kobo to create a pdf document containing all the annotations you have made in a library book using the following script \(Needs sqlite and ImageMagic installed\): ``` #!/bin/sh set -x if [[ $# -lt 2 ]]; then echo "Usage: $0 <book name> <outfile>" exit 1 fi BOOKNAME=$1 OUTFILE=$2 KOBODIR="${HOME}/Documents/Kobo-backup/.kobo" # Create a temporary directory and store its name in a variable. TEMPD=$(mktemp -d) # Exit if the temp directory wasn't created successfully. if [ ! -e "$TEMPD" ]; then >&2 echo "Failed to create temp directory" exit 1 fi # Make sure the temp directory gets removed on script exit. trap "exit 1" HUP INT PIPE QUIT TERM trap 'rm -rf "$TEMPD"' EXIT echo "Created temp dir." PARAM=".param set :bookname %${BOOKNAME}%" QUERY="SELECT \ Bookmark.BookmarkID \ FROM Bookmark,content \ WHERE \ content.ContentID = Bookmark.ContentID \ AND content.BookTitle LIKE :bookname \ ORDER BY Bookmark.ChapterProgress" BOOKMARK_IDS=$(sqlite3 --readonly -batch -noheader "${KOBODIR}/KoboReader.sqlite" "${PARAM}" "${QUERY};") count=0 for id in ${BOOKMARK_IDS} do idx=$(printf "%04d" $count) echo "Processing page ${idx} of annotations." magick composite -compose multiply "${KOBODIR}/markups/${id}.svg" "${KOBODIR}/markups/${id}.jpg" $TEMPD/annotation-${idx}.jpg count=$((count+1)) done magick "$TEMPD/annotation*.jpg" ${OUTFILE} ``` There is a quoting issue in the script if`BOOKNAME`contains a`'`that I haven’t bothered to solve\. ## Details ### Raw files The`/\.kobo/markups`directory contains pairs of files that look like ``` <string of hex>.jpg <same string of hex>.svg ``` These are pairs of page screenshots and your annotations in \.svg format\. They can be combined using ImageMagick ``` magick composite -compose multiply "${KOBODIR}/markups/${id}.svg" "${KOBODIR}/markups/${id}.jpg" annotation-${idx}.jpg ``` where idx is a counter we set up to get sequential images which we can then stitch together as ``` magick annotation*.jpg notes.pdf ``` How do we get the proper ids? ### Database Your reader has an \[sqlite\] database`/\.kobo/Koboreader\.sqlite`with two pertinent tables:`content`and`Bookmark` Pertinent columns in the`content`table are Pertinent columns in the`Bookmark`table are ``` ContentID -- Lets us join on the content table BookmarkID -- This is the hash/id the file names use ChapterProgress -- Fraction from 0 to 1 that allows us to order the notes ``` The following query will get us all the bookmark IDs for annotations for a given book ``` SELECT Bookmark.BookmarkID FROM Bookmark,content WHERE content.ContentID = Bookmark.ContentID AND content.BookTitle LIKE '%<my book>%' ORDER BY Bookmark.ChapterProgress ``` ## Notes on exploring sqlite databases You can explore your database with`sqlite3 \-\-readonly Koboreader\.sqlite`\. For such wide tables \(lots of columns\) I like to use`\.mode line`to see each column and its value on a separate line\. ## A note on Kobo The whole database is fun to explore\. In general I’m a very big fan of Kobo because it is possible to poke around inside and even hack it\. Kobo publishes a lot of[open source stuff](https://github.com/kobolabs)and people have developed layers on top of the OS \(e\.g\.[NickelMenu](https://pgaskin.net/NickelMenu/)\) including a custom reader app \([koreader](https://koreader.rocks/)\)