Shelfarians discussion

Hello all. I am just moving over here from Shelfari and am so sad and mad. I am in the process of importing via csv thingy. I'm pretty good with a computer but this is making me feel inadequate. When the books come over the dates won't be right and the reviews won't be there???? This is so overwhelming I could cry. I almost want to go to writing them out in a journal so this crap never happens again and just using this site to find new books.

not a bad idea actually. I have printed a lot of my reviews, one book at a time. I was retyping them into GR, when an angel, I don't remember which one told me to cut and paste, which led to a disaster too complicated to explain. then I had duplicate books and it just becomes a vicious cycle of the pink banner of death horrors.

I have decided to not worry about any reviews that don't make it over. Some came over when I first joined here (before I was really active here) when Amazon bought Goodreads. I have a year's worth in a Word file, and I may add any not here a few at a time, but not worry about any of the others.

The csv thing didn't work, and I'm considering doing that other way, where you can go to Shelfari & get a file (TSV?? not sure anymore) because apparently you can save that on your computer as an excel spreadsheet. However, since I've forgotten so many books I read in my youth, my Shelfari list isn't complete, either, so I'm asking myself how much it matters.

Just a note that once leafmarks gets their shelfari import function working again, LM should be able to bring in your reviews.

I got an email this morning from Shelfari stating "Due to high request volume, we are experiencing delays - and processing your request may take 1-2 weeks."
Very poor management on Shelfari/Amazon's part

I am having trouble with the CSV thing, too. Shelfari made the file- it came as an Excel spreadsheet, but every time I try to import it on GR it comes back and says the servers are reacting too slowly (?) I have a large shelf- nearly 1600 books and would hate to think I'll have to key everything in manually again which would take many hours of work. Any suggestions?

Jason wrote: "every time I try to import it on GR it comes back and says the servers are reacting too slowly (?)"

I guess a lot of people are coming over and its putting strain on the server. Does the import start and is taking along time to complete or is it an error message and nothing is being imported at all?

Lauren wrote: "I got an email this morning from Shelfari stating "Due to high request volume, we are experiencing delays - and processing your request may take 1-2 weeks."
Very poor management on Shelfari/Amazon'..."

No kidding there is high request volume! What did they expect? They should have been better prepared (or ready to give us more time without so many glitches coming immediately after they announced the shut-down).

Lauren wrote: "I got an email this morning from Shelfari stating "Due to high request volume, we are experiencing delays - and processing your request may take 1-2 weeks."
Very poor management on Shelfari/Amazon'..."

That is truly ridiculous. They are only giving everyone two months.
Poor planning indeed

LibraryCin wrote: "No kidding there is high request volume! What did they expect? They should have been better prepared (or ready to give us more time without so many glitches coming immediately after they announced the shut-down). "

Absolutely!
Although I just got another email saying that my export is complete *shrugs*

I'm so frustrated. Got an email from Shelfari saying my export is complete. But when I look at my books/shelves on Goodreads, probably half of them don't even have the correct date of when I read them, or reviews, and lots of my books didn't even come over. Ugh. And I like the shelfari format so much better. :(

Jenny wrote: "I'm so frustrated. Got an email from Shelfari saying my export is complete. But when I look at my books/shelves on Goodreads, probably half of them don't even have the correct date of when I read t..."

I feel the same way. I have had my computer on for over 24 hrs and it's still not complete. I'm considering just stopping it and starting fresh, so to speak. Here on goodreads I will track what I'm reading from now on and what I want to read. I'm looking into purchasing a nice notebook to hand write my Read list (555 books) to keep a hard copy. Once that list is complete I may add what I'm reading from now on, in case any of these sites become obsolete in the future. I can't take the frustration/stress/disorganization again.

Dawn wrote: "Jenny wrote: "I'm so frustrated. Got an email from Shelfari saying my export is complete. But when I look at my books/shelves on Goodreads, probably half of them don't even have the correct date of..."

No kidding. I know you can still export a spreadsheet type of document of your books from Shelfari. Maybe that could be used to create a printed document to start with or something to save on writing and hand cramps.

I am going to copy and paste all my reviews to a word doc and save it to the cloud so I don't loose them.

With the issues with exporting to Goodreads I took my 1900+ shelf to LibraryThing. I had to manually indicate which books were TBR since the default is that the books are 'read' with the import, but doing so was a relatively painless process and took me less than an hour. The important thing is that all my tags, ratings and reviews transferred. My last experience with trying to import here was not a good one so even though I'm still going to attempt to do so once the file is finally available, I'm not hopeful that it will work very well.

Well the shelfari thing wasn't working so I went to Leafmarks where I had imported everything from Shelfari back in June of 2015 (when shelfari was having major issues). I was able to easily export those books to goodreads. I didn't bring over the dates read or reviews, although on leafmarks I thought it said it would do this. Oh well. I am less anxious having my books all in one place. The only other thing I can see is that it mixed my to read in with my already read. I will have to go through and move those but it was only a couple hundred I think.

Dawn wrote: "Well the shelfari thing wasn't working so I went to Leafmarks where I had imported everything from Shelfari back in June of 2015 (when shelfari was having major issues). I was able to easily export..."

My tbr books got marked as read during the import too. It was really easy to fix though and only took about 5 minutes.

Dawn wrote: "I feel the same way. I have had my computer on for over 24 hrs and it's still not complete. .."

I found I had to just sit, wait and watch. After about 10 minutes, the file downloaded. I saved it immediately. However, I watched the downloaded file (not the one I saved) be removed by Shelfari after a few minutes. So, you have to be there and save the file.

Nospin wrote: "Lauren wrote: "I got an email this morning from Shelfari stating "Due to high request volume, we are experiencing delays - and processing your request may take 1-2 weeks."
Very poor management on S..."

At least they gave us that much notice. I think we all knew this was coming. At least we didnt wake up one day to find it gone with no notice.

I am so depressed to be losing my beloved Shelfari and all the things I have spent the last 8 years saving. I will miss my group the most. We are not able to transfer our groups. I feel like something that belongs to me is being stolen.

Koren wrote: "I am so depressed to be losing my beloved Shelfari and all the things I have spent the last 8 years saving. I will miss my group the most. We are not able to transfer our groups. I feel like someth..."

Amember who received their info today got four ciles from Shelfari one of which was copies of posts.
Maybe it won't be as bad as you fear

Here's hoping

Koren wrote: "I am so depressed to be losing my beloved Shelfari and all the things I have spent the last 8 years saving. I will miss my group the most. We are not able to transfer our groups. I feel like someth..."

While we can't migrate all the past discussions in our Shelfari groups, we CAN (and many have) create parallel groups here or on Leafmarks or Library Thing.

Some groups jumped right in and did this within 24 hours of the announcement.

Others are taking more time to explore the various sites to choose the best format for the group they are moderating.

I've created a parallel group for Paging All Bookworms and am exploring options for two other groups I am admin of on Shelfari.

There is already an active Southern Lit Lovers group here on Goodreads, so I've invited the Shelfari Southern Literature members to join here.

It will not be the same as Shelfari, but together we'll get through it.

I'm not very happy either. I had Shelfari do all the work for me but when I get here on Goodreads, there is no distinction between my former To Read and My Wishlist. There are several books missing and there is also not one single review transferred :-(.

I have also been struggling to move my shelf from Shelfari. Once you import the books, there is a delay before they actually show up on Goodreads. However, all of my books were listed as read. I had to manually edit each book to identify which ones I had not read. The date read were all the current date. Also, no reviews made it.

How are all of you going to connect with your friends from Shelfari? What do you think is the best method to do this?

I posted a link to my profile in my Shelfari groups.

Ingstje wrote: "I'm not very happy either. I had Shelfari do all the work for me but when I get here on Goodreads, there is no distinction between my former To Read and My Wishlist. There are several books missing..."

Yes, there is some sort of warning at Goodreads. Apparently it's transferring my data now; I tried last week, and it wouldn't work.

Paige wrote: "I have also been struggling to move my shelf from Shelfari. Once you import the books, there is a delay before they actually show up on Goodreads. However, all of my books were listed as read. I ha..."

Yes I just finished marking books to read instead of read. I had a tab open on my shelfari to read shelf and just typed them in on gr and changed them. Ugh but it's done now. Numbers are still a little off but I'm just going to go with it

Jenny wrote: "Dawn wrote: "Jenny wrote: "I'm so frustrated. Got an email from Shelfari saying my export is complete. But when I look at my books/shelves on Goodreads, probably half of them don't even have the co..."

I looked at GR and not all my books crossed over either. I then checked my email and they told me 64 books haven't made it across.... it didn't say why. Its very frustrating!

Hi everyone! I'm a bit crazed about trying to get all the books moved over... I have over 4000 books on my shelf and i just got an email from Shelfari saying "Your Shelfari books have been migrated to Goodreads.

We have successfully exported 895 books from your shelves.

Happy reading!"
I'm missing a few thousand books... What should i do? Delete them from good reads and try again? I'm so confused.

Also, none of the dates read or ratings transferred over.

Marjorie wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm a bit crazed about trying to get all the books moved over... I have over 4000 books on my shelf and i just got an email from Shelfari saying "Your Shelfari books have been migrated..."

Someone posted in a group on Shelfari that they contacted Goodreads Support and someone is helping them. Highly recommend you do the same.

I've seen several book recommendations I have been interested in since I moved most of my books over from Shelfari. I liked that there were handy links below the books to purchase them from Amazon, and other stores. But, so far, none of the Amazon links have actually worked. They all get me the dreaded 404 broken link error. Kind of ironic after being forced to move to this website, that the links to purchase from the owner of the website don't work. Sigh.

Jenny wrote: "But, so far, none of the Amazon links have actually worked. They all get me the dreaded 404 broken link error"

You can report this in the Goodreads Feedback group as a bug and they will look into it.

Jenny wrote: "I've seen several book recommendations I have been interested in since I moved most of my books over from Shelfari. I liked that there were handy links below the books to purchase them from Amazon,..."

Actually, the links are edition specific. If you're looking at the ebook edition, you'll frequently get the dreaded 404 message. If you're linked to the kindle, hardcover, audio or paperback editions, the store links should work most of the time.

Jenny wrote: "I'm so frustrated. Got an email from Shelfari saying my export is complete. But when I look at my books/shelves on Goodreads, probably half of them don't even have the correct date of when I read t..."

I feel your pain! I was just looking at mine too and I was horrified that all of my books are in the "Reading" group and not the Read group. None of them have the correct dates and I have hundreds of books! how am I supposed to go back and edit each and every one?!

Ashley Michele wrote: "Jenny wrote: "I'm so frustrated. Got an email from Shelfari saying my export is complete. But when I look at my books/shelves on Goodreads, probably half of them don't even have the correct date of..."

The bulk edit tool makes this type of thing less painful, (if not completely pain free).

HTH...

Sara wrote: "I am going to copy and paste all my reviews to a word doc and save it to the cloud so I don't loose them."

If you are at all familiar with Google Drive it's much easier you can just drop the documents into a file.
Nicole R helped me do set it up and I saved tons of PBT stuff and lots of things I wanted, some in PDF form. others just word documents. I have always written y reviews in Word or Pages first and the copied them to Shelfari and here, I never really used the site as anything but a place for reviews. I'm now glad I did, and will be archiving my work in Google Drive going forward. Lesson learned

Moving over from Shelfari. Hard move to make. I was Jerry-Book over there and still carry this name. Trying to locate old groups and friends. It looks like some have gone here and some to Leafmarks and other places.

ScoLgo wrote: "Ashley Michele wrote: "Jenny wrote: "I'm so frustrated. Got an email from Shelfari saying my export is complete. But when I look at my books/shelves on Goodreads, probably half of them don't even h..."

I tried the bulk edit and it didn't work.

6100 out of 6800 books transferred. Redoing it all will take weeks

Linda wrote: "Sara wrote: "I am going to copy and paste all my reviews to a word doc and save it to the cloud so I don't loose them."

If you are at all familiar with Google Drive it's much easier you can just d..."

Thanks! I do have google drive, so I will do that.

Has anyone tried this software program?

www.collectorz.com

Nospin wrote: "Has anyone tried this software program?

www.collectorz.com"

Never heard of Colletorz. I use Calibre and find it to be rather awesome.

Nospin wrote: "I tried the bulk edit and it didn't work. 6100 out of 6800 books transferred. Redoing it all will take weeks ..."

Sorry to hear that. I wish I was more familiar with GR but I'm fairly new here too so can't give you better targeted advice. You might try contacting the support team. They really helped me out with my import issues recently.

Click the 'Contact' link on the Help Page or maybe try the Goodreads Feedback Group to see if anyone there might have ideas for dealing with the mess...?

For those of you who have Goodreads import/export problems, contact them with all details at support (at) goodreads (dot) com. If you have your csv file, attach that with your email.

This will yield best results.

Jonetta wrote: "For those of you who have Goodreads import/export problems, contact them with all details at support (at) goodreads (dot) com. If you have your csv file, attach that with your email.

This will yi..."

Thanks Jonetta

Well I got my transfer. 89 out of 740 books transferred with out most of my reviews. What does one do next?

Contact Goodreads support at support@goodreads.com. They don't work the weekends so you probably won't hear from them until Monday. If you have the file downloaded from Shelfari, attach it.

Thanks for the advice. 89 out of 740 doesn't seem good. The email said the "transfer" was complete!!!

Jerry-Book wrote: "Thanks for the advice. 89 out of 740 doesn't seem good. The email said the "transfer" was complete!!!"

Many others have had a similar experience but are getting help. Good luck!

Jerry-Book wrote: "Thanks for the advice. 89 out of 740 doesn't seem good. The email said the "transfer" was complete!!!"

Similar thing happened to me, Jerry. Jonetta is right that e-mailing support with your 'library.csv' file is the way to go. They will import for you and more of your books should show up. My initial transfer was 155 out of 1,010. Support managed to get all but 58 of my books to show up. Still not perfect - but better than the auto-migration tool managed to do.