3 April 2026 · Book Assembly Team · 2 min read
Importing your library just got a lot less painful.
This is the big one. Your import now runs in the background. Once you've selected your books and hit import, you can close the page, browse your library, go make a cup of tea, whatever you like. You'll get an email when it's finished with a summary of what was imported.
Previously, imports ran in your browser. You had to keep the tab open the whole time, and for large libraries that could mean sitting there for 30+ minutes watching a progress bar. That's done.
The import wizard has been streamlined. The flow is now: upload your file, choose your books, map your shelves or tags, check author names, and hit import. Cover fetching used to be a separate step in the wizard that you had to sit through. That now happens automatically in the background after your books are imported.
By default, we'll search online for cover images after your books are imported. But if you'd rather skip this and add covers yourself later (or you just want a faster import), there's a toggle to turn it off before you start.
The preview step now catches duplicate books within your export file, not just books already in your library. If the same title appears twice in your CSV (different editions, accidental duplicates, whatever the reason), you'll see it flagged before you import. No surprises.
When cover fetching is enabled, we now check ISBNdb first for better quality images, with Open Library as a fallback. The difference is noticeable, especially for newer releases where ISBNdb tends to have sharper, higher resolution images.
All of these improvements apply to both import sources. Same wizard, same background processing, same cover quality.
