How to transfer JW Library notes to a new phone
Step-by-step: move all your JW Library notes, highlights, bookmarks and tags to a new phone with a .jwlibrary backup — and how to merge if you already made notes on the new phone.
Phone-transfer tools move your apps and photos, but they do not reliably move JW Library's personal study data. The dependable way to bring your notes, highlights, bookmarks and tags to a new phone is JW Library's own backup file — it takes a few minutes and works across platforms.
Step by step
Create a backup on the old phone
Open JW Library → Personal Study → three-dot menu → Backup and Restore → Create a backup. This saves a .jwlibrary file containing all your study data.
Move the file to the new phone
Email it to yourself, or use Google Drive, iCloud, AirDrop or a USB cable. The file is small — usually a few megabytes.
Restore on the new phone
Install JW Library, then Personal Study → Backup and Restore → Restore, and choose the .jwlibrary file. All notes, highlights, bookmarks and tags appear.
Already made notes on the new phone? Merge instead of overwriting
Restoring replaces whatever is on the device. If you've been using the new phone for a while and it has its own notes, don't restore over them — back up the new phone too, then merge the old and new backups into one file at jwsync.org (free, in your browser, nothing uploaded) and restore the merged file. You keep both sets of notes.
A common iPhone gotcha
If the backup file arrives on an iPhone renamed to .zip, rename it back to .jwlibrary before restoring — the content is fine; only the extension changed in transit.
Frequently asked questions
- Will this move my downloaded publications too?
- The backup carries your personal study data — notes, highlights, bookmarks, tags and playlists. Publications simply re-download on the new phone.
- Does it matter if the phones run different Android versions?
- No. The .jwlibrary format is the same everywhere, including across Android versions and between Android and iPhone.