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Switching from Readerware to AllMyBooks

Step-by-step for every platform Readerware ran on — Windows, macOS and Linux today, with what Android and iPhone users should do while our apps reach the stores — and a plain account of what carries over.

Facts checked 10 September 2026. Tell us through the Contact page if something here has changed.

Why now

Readerware was a desktop cataloguer sold from 1999 to collectors, home libraries, schools and churches, with a companion phone app that synced a copy of the database. As of 10 September 2026: readerware.com redirects to an unrelated business, so the program cannot be bought, registered, upgraded or supported; its built-in catalogue lookup no longer answers; the iPhone and iPad app has been withdrawn from the App Store; and the Android apps remain listed but their barcode scanning stopped working on Android 13 and later. An installed copy still opens and still exports — which is why the time to move your data is while a computer that runs it is still around.

Nothing on this page needs a Readerware licence key, a working readerware.com, or Readerware Mobile. The export is a plain text file you keep; the backup is a ZIP you keep. Both are worth making even if you are not switching today.

What carries over

  • Titles, subtitles, up to six authors per book, ISBN and LCCN, publisher, year, pages, format, language and edition statement.
  • Series and position; categories and keywords as subjects and tags; your comments as the copy’s notes; the description and list price.
  • Dewey numbers and call numbers, ready to print on spine labels and to sort by.
  • Copies as copies; Location as a shelf; condition, signed, purchase price, date and place, estimated value and its date.
  • Status: Own becomes an owned copy; Want and Ordered become want-list entries; For Sale, Sold, Withdrawn and Missing are kept as tagged copies with the status in the notes.
  • Open loans — borrower, out date and due date — become live loans that turn overdue on time.
  • User1–User10 and User_Number land in custom fields when you define fields with those names first.

Not carried: cover image files (they are paths on your old computer — covers come from the book sources instead), ratings and favourites (My_Rating, Favorite), Loan Client borrower records, and music or video databases. Editors, translators and illustrators, every content language, DVDs in your book database and reading levels do come across. The guide lists every column.

What you get

  • Check whether you already own a book while you are out — the thing Readerware Mobile users praised most. Scan the barcode and your own Library answers first, before any lookup.
  • Nothing to install at home and no sync server to keep running: the phone and the website are the same account, updated the moment you add a book.
  • Scanning that reads ISBN-10 as well as ISBN-13, so older first printings scan too; barcodes you capture keep their place even if the screen turns off.
  • Everyone who keeps the collection in one Library — a household, or a church or school’s volunteers — several people, one catalogue, with roles, plus lending to people and, for a church or classroom shelf, patrons who never need an account.
  • Export CSV or JSON any time. Your catalogue is yours; this page exists because the last one was not.

What we do not do: music and video cataloguing (Readerware had three products; we catalogue books), and reading-tracker fields such as ratings and read counts. Readerware users who catalogued CDs and DVDs as well will need another home for those.

Choose where you ran Readerware

The steps differ a little by platform. Your device is selected first; every platform is one tap away.

The same Export Wizard as on every platform; two notes for Windows installs.

Moving from Readerware on Windows

  • Open Readerware and the book database you want to move (File → Open Database if it is not the one that opens by default). If you kept several databases, you will repeat these steps for each.
  • Make a backup first: File → Backup Database. Readerware writes one ZIP file with your data and your cover images. Keep it somewhere safe — it is the complete record, and it is the only copy of your images once the program stops running.
  • Export the data: File → Export opens the Export Wizard. On the format page choose TAB delimited — or CSV, which works just as well provided "Enclose fields in double quotes" stays on, because an author written "Strindberg, August" contains the separator. On the column page select every column, and keep the header line switched on — the header is how our importer recognises a Readerware file. It does not matter whether Readerware writes the column names in capitals, lower case or with spaces. Save the file where you can find it.
  • Sign in to AllMyBooks on this computer, open the Library the books belong in, and go to My Library → Import (or /import). Upload the exported file; the confirm step reads "Readerware export detected", previews how many rows will become want-list entries, loans, or carry a status other than Own, and shows the first few books exactly as they will be imported. Check those against your shelf — that is where a wrong column or a mangled accented letter shows up. Leave "Skip it" selected for books already in your Library, start the import, and keep the tab open while it runs — three thousand books took well under a minute in testing.
  • Read the report: books imported, extra copies, want-list entries, loans, tags, shelves created, rows per Readerware status, any values that could not be read, and the columns that were not transferred. Covers and catalogue details fill in afterwards from the book sources — over hours for a large library.

Windows notes

  • Readerware 3 and Readerware 4 use different database file types. If your database was made in Readerware 3 and does not appear in Readerware 4’s Open Database dialog, change the file-type drop-down at the bottom of that dialog to Readerware 3 databases; Readerware 4 converts it on open (your Readerware 3 file is left untouched).
  • Client/Server edition: run the export from any client computer with the database open — the wizard is the same. Borrower records from the Loan Client are not part of the book export; the loans themselves are, through the Loan_To columns.
  • Windows date format: Readerware writes dates the way Windows displays them. Month-first (03/15/2019) and ISO dates are read; if your Windows uses day-first dates, check a few purchase dates in the report.

Same wizard; the one Mac-specific concern is whether Readerware still starts.

Moving from Readerware on macOS

  • Open Readerware and the book database you want to move (File → Open Database if it is not the one that opens by default). If you kept several databases, you will repeat these steps for each.
  • Make a backup first: File → Backup Database. Readerware writes one ZIP file with your data and your cover images. Keep it somewhere safe — it is the complete record, and it is the only copy of your images once the program stops running.
  • Export the data: File → Export opens the Export Wizard. On the format page choose TAB delimited — or CSV, which works just as well provided "Enclose fields in double quotes" stays on, because an author written "Strindberg, August" contains the separator. On the column page select every column, and keep the header line switched on — the header is how our importer recognises a Readerware file. It does not matter whether Readerware writes the column names in capitals, lower case or with spaces. Save the file where you can find it.
  • Sign in to AllMyBooks on this computer, open the Library the books belong in, and go to My Library → Import (or /import). Upload the exported file; the confirm step reads "Readerware export detected", previews how many rows will become want-list entries, loans, or carry a status other than Own, and shows the first few books exactly as they will be imported. Check those against your shelf — that is where a wrong column or a mangled accented letter shows up. Leave "Skip it" selected for books already in your Library, start the import, and keep the tab open while it runs — three thousand books took well under a minute in testing.
  • Read the report: books imported, extra copies, want-list entries, loans, tags, shelves created, rows per Readerware status, any values that could not be read, and the columns that were not transferred. Covers and catalogue details fill in afterwards from the book sources — over hours for a large library.

macOS notes

  • Readerware 4 for Mac shipped with its own Java runtime, so it kept working after Apple stopped bundling Java. If it no longer opens on a current macOS, run the export on any computer that still starts it, or copy your backup ZIP to one and use File → Restore Database there first.
  • On a Mac the Open Database dialog has no file-type drop-down: Readerware 4 opens both Readerware 3 and 4 databases directly.
  • The exported TAB file is plain text — AirDrop, iCloud Drive or a USB stick all carry it to the computer you will import from, or import from the Mac itself.

Same wizard, started from the launcher script the installer created.

Moving from Readerware on Linux

  • Open Readerware and the book database you want to move (File → Open Database if it is not the one that opens by default). If you kept several databases, you will repeat these steps for each.
  • Make a backup first: File → Backup Database. Readerware writes one ZIP file with your data and your cover images. Keep it somewhere safe — it is the complete record, and it is the only copy of your images once the program stops running.
  • Export the data: File → Export opens the Export Wizard. On the format page choose TAB delimited — or CSV, which works just as well provided "Enclose fields in double quotes" stays on, because an author written "Strindberg, August" contains the separator. On the column page select every column, and keep the header line switched on — the header is how our importer recognises a Readerware file. It does not matter whether Readerware writes the column names in capitals, lower case or with spaces. Save the file where you can find it.
  • Sign in to AllMyBooks on this computer, open the Library the books belong in, and go to My Library → Import (or /import). Upload the exported file; the confirm step reads "Readerware export detected", previews how many rows will become want-list entries, loans, or carry a status other than Own, and shows the first few books exactly as they will be imported. Check those against your shelf — that is where a wrong column or a mangled accented letter shows up. Leave "Skip it" selected for books already in your Library, start the import, and keep the tab open while it runs — three thousand books took well under a minute in testing.
  • Read the report: books imported, extra copies, want-list entries, loans, tags, shelves created, rows per Readerware status, any values that could not be read, and the columns that were not transferred. Covers and catalogue details fill in afterwards from the book sources — over hours for a large library.

Linux notes

  • Readerware on Linux is the same Java application; start it from the script or desktop entry the installer created and the menus match the Windows and Mac help exactly.
  • Readerware writes the export in whatever text encoding the wizard’s file page is set to. The importer works out which one it was — it names anything other than UTF-8 on the confirm step and shows the first books so you can check an accented title before importing. If those letters still look wrong, re-export with UTF-8 selected.
  • A headless machine (for example a Client/Server database on a home server) needs a client with a display to run the wizard — any Readerware client on the network will do.

Interim guidance, updated 5 October 2026. App-to-app steps for Android arrive when the AllMyBooks app is available in this store.

Readerware Mobile never held the original — your books live in the desktop database it synced from.

Readerware Mobile on Android

Readerware Mobile was a copy of your desktop database, chosen field by field in Readerware’s Preferences → Mobile and sent to the phone over your home Wi-Fi (or by copying an export file). The phone app cannot export what it holds, and its copy may be missing fields you left out. The record to move is the desktop one.

  • Find the computer that ran Readerware — yours, or the family member’s who kept the database — and follow the desktop steps above (Windows, macOS or Linux) once. Everything on the phone came from there.
  • If that computer is gone but a backup ZIP survives, restore it into Readerware on any computer that still runs the program, then export from there.
  • Until our app is in your store, allmybooks.com works in your phone’s browser — including scanning barcodes with the camera and checking whether you already own a book while you are out.

The AllMyBooks Android app is not yet publicly available on Google Play — it is in invite-only testing. This section is rewritten with app-to-app steps when anyone can install it; until then the website works in your phone’s browser.

Interim guidance, updated 5 October 2026. App-to-app steps for iPhone & iPad arrive when the AllMyBooks app is available in this store.

Readerware Mobile never held the original — your books live in the desktop database it synced from.

Readerware Mobile on iPhone & iPad

Readerware Mobile was a copy of your desktop database, chosen field by field in Readerware’s Preferences → Mobile and sent to the phone over your home Wi-Fi (or by copying an export file). The phone app cannot export what it holds, and its copy may be missing fields you left out. The record to move is the desktop one.

  • Find the computer that ran Readerware — yours, or the family member’s who kept the database — and follow the desktop steps above (Windows, macOS or Linux) once. Everything on the phone came from there.
  • If that computer is gone but a backup ZIP survives, restore it into Readerware on any computer that still runs the program, then export from there.
  • Until our app is in the App Store, allmybooks.com works in Safari on your iPhone or iPad — including scanning barcodes with the camera and checking whether you already own a book while you are out.

Readerware’s own iPhone and iPad app had been withdrawn from the App Store as of 10 September 2026. The AllMyBooks iPhone app is not yet in the App Store; this section is rewritten when it is, and until then the website works in Safari on your phone.

Questions Readerware users ask

Do I need a Readerware licence key or an internet connection on Readerware’s side?
No. Export and Backup are local functions of the installed program. Readerware’s registration servers and website are gone, but an installed copy still opens and exports without them.
Will my cover images come across?
Not from the export. Readerware’s manual lists IMAGE1_FILE and similar columns, but the real exports we have seen carry none of them — and they would only hold file paths on your old computer anyway. Covers fill in from the book sources after import, over hours for a large library. Keep the backup ZIP, which contains your images, in case we add a way to read it later.
What happens to books I have lent out?
Rows with Loan_To, Loan_Out and Loan_Due become live loans on the first copy, with the due date, so they appear in Loans and turn overdue on time. Borrower records from the Loan Client are not in the book export.
Do Dewey numbers and call numbers survive?
Yes. Dewey becomes the book’s Dewey number and Call_Number the copy’s call number; both print on spine labels and can be sorted by. A Dewey cell with a Cutter or a shelf prefix — "221.93 ADA", "REF 220.3 ALE" — keeps its class number for the book, and when the row has no Call_Number the whole cell becomes the copy’s call number, since that is the spine label.
I opened my export in Excel before importing. Is that a problem?
It can be. Saving the file from a spreadsheet rewrites long numbers, so an ISBN becomes 9.78E+12 and loses its digits, and a leading zero disappears. Those books still import, without an ISBN, and the import tells you how many rows were affected. Where the row has an Amazon ASIN or an ISBN barcode, that is tried instead and used when a catalogue lookup finds a book with the same title, or when the Library of Congress record for the row’s LCCN names that same ISBN. For the rest, export again from Readerware and import the new file without opening it — or add the ISBN on the book page later, which also brings the cover.
Do I need to tidy the column names, or cut the export down first?
No — upload it exactly as Readerware wrote it. A full book export is 98 columns wide, and every column is either mapped to a field, read for copy details, or named in the report as not transferred. Capitals, lower case, underscores or spaces in the column names make no difference, and you never need to reorder or delete a column. Exporting fewer columns is allowed but only loses information: a column you left out cannot be recovered later.
The import page will not let me start, or it says my lines do not line up. What is wrong?
Almost always the quotes. A CSV export with "Enclose fields in double quotes" switched off breaks every row that has a comma inside a cell — an author written "Strindberg, August" pushes the ISBN into the call-number column — so the page counts those lines and blocks the import rather than filing your books under the wrong fields. Export again with quotes on, or choose TAB delimited, and upload the new file. If the page stops for any other reason, it says which one next to the import button.
My titles have accented or Swedish letters. Will they survive?
Yes. The importer works out which text encoding Readerware wrote — UTF-8, Windows-1252 or Mac Roman — and names it on the confirm step when it is not UTF-8. The first few books are shown there exactly as they will be stored, so an ö that came through as something else is visible before a single book is created.
Readerware let me pick which libraries it searched — the Library of Congress, the British Library, Kungliga biblioteket. Do you do that?
We consult national libraries, but we choose the right one for each book rather than asking you to configure a search order. A Swedish ISBN — the ones starting 91 or 978-91 — goes to Libris, the National Library of Sweden, before anything else, because Libris is the authority for the books it issued. Everything else is looked up in other catalogues, the Library of Congress and Open Library among them. The reason it is not a per-person setting is that a book record here is shared by everyone who owns that book and a lookup is saved once for all of them, so "which sources did you enable" would make the same ISBN resolve differently depending on who scanned it first.
What about my pre-ISBN books — the antiquarian ones with no barcode?
There is one setting for those, under Library Setup: "Also search the National Library of Sweden". With it on, a book with no ISBN is searched in Libris by title and author, and the record is used only when exactly one edition matches the title, the author and — if you recorded one — the year. When several printings match, nothing is filled in. That is deliberate and it does mean some of your older books come back untouched: many printings of the same title exist a century apart, and the wrong one attached quietly is worse than none. For an American pre-ISBN book, the Library of Congress Control Number on the copyright page ("72-91684") can be entered like an ISBN and looks the book up directly.
Does the British Library work?
Not today. Its open data service has been down since the 2023 cyber-attack on the Library and shows no sign of returning. Its main catalogue is answering machine requests again, so the door is not closed — but until we have actually built and tested that, we would rather tell you it is not a source than promise you one.
I catalogued music and videos in Readerware too. Can I bring those?
No. AllMyBooks catalogues books only. Export those databases as well while you can — a TAB file opens in any spreadsheet — and give them another home.
Readerware will not start on my computer any more. What can I do?
Find any computer that still runs it, restore your backup ZIP there (File → Restore Database) and export from it. We cannot read Readerware’s backup or database files directly yet; the TAB export is the format we import.
I only ever used the phone app. Where is my data?
On the computer it synced from. Readerware Mobile held a copy of the desktop database and cannot export it. Follow the desktop steps once on that computer, or restore its backup on another.
We are a church library with volunteers. Who pays?
The supporter plan is per user account. Tiny-library mode, the public catalogue and patron checkout are Library settings an Admin turns on, so a church, classroom or community shelf pays for one Admin account — volunteers, other members and patrons cost nothing. Accounts created during the free launch phase keep everything free anyway; the pricing page has the full policy.