JWJW Sync

Adding notes someone shared with you into your own JW Library

You were sent a shared-notes file or a block of shared text. Here's how to preview it and add it to your own JW Library backup without losing a single note of your own.

Shared JW Library notes arrive as a small file (ending in .jwshare.json) or as a block of text pasted into a message. JW Library itself can't open either one — but you don't need it to. The receiving side of JW Sync reads the shared notes, shows you what's in them, and writes them into a backup of yours.

The whole exchange happens on your device. There's no account, nothing is uploaded, and your own notes are added to, never replaced.

Step by step

  1. Make a backup of your own library first

    In JW Library: Personal Study → Backup and Restore → Create a backup. This is the file the shared notes will be added to, so it should be current.

  2. Open the Share page and choose Receive

    Go to jwsync.org/share.html and pick Receive notes.

  3. Load what you were sent

    Choose the .jwshare.json file, or paste the shared text straight into the box if it came through as a message. Either way you get a read-only preview of every note before anything is written.

  4. Add them to your backup

    Load your own backup, choose the tag the imported notes should carry, and add them. JW Sync builds an updated backup file for you to download.

  5. Restore the updated backup in JW Library

    Personal Study → Backup and Restore → Restore, choose the updated file. The shared notes are now in your library, sitting on the right paragraphs and verses.

Do it now — free, in your browserJW Sync merges, edits and analyses .jwlibrary backups entirely on your device. No account, no uploads, nothing installed.Open JW Sync →

Nothing of yours is replaced

Shared notes are added as new notes. Even where a shared note lands on a paragraph you have already written on, both survive — yours untouched, theirs alongside it. The one thing to keep in mind is the ordinary rule of restoring: restore the updated backup, not an older one.

Changed your mind later?

Every imported note carries the tag you chose when you added it. Open your backup in Study Explorer, filter by that tag, and you can review or delete the whole batch in one pass.

Frequently asked questions

The file arrived renamed to .txt or opened as text — is it broken?
No. Messaging apps often do that. Copy the text and paste it into the Receive box; it works exactly the same.
Do I need the sender's whole backup?
No. The share file contains only the notes they chose to send — nothing else from their library.
Is anything uploaded when I preview the notes?
No. Reading the shared file, previewing it and writing the updated backup all happen in your browser on your device.

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