How to Import Your Eagle Library Into refern (2026)

You can import your Eagle library into refern from Settings. The completed assessment found full parity across the supported transfer surface. refern copies the first supported media placement into a new Eagle Library folder, brings over its supported organization and metadata, and represents additional Eagle folder placements as linked database records. The source Eagle library is not modified.

This guide covers exactly what transfers, what does not, and how to run both apps during the transition.

What comes across from Eagle

Before you start, it helps to know what refern's Eagle importer reads from an Eagle .library folder.

Normal refern workspaces index existing folders in place. The explicit Eagle importer is different: it creates an Eagle Library folder inside the destination workspace and copies each Eagle asset into it once. When an item appeared in several Eagle folders, only the first placement owns a physical file. Each additional placement is a linked copy that shares the media and metadata.

Before you start

You need:

• refern installed on Windows, macOS, or Linux. Download a free 30-day trial at refern.app, no account required.
• Your Eagle .library folder accessible on disk. This is the folder Eagle created when you first set up a library. By default it is named something like My Library.library and lives in your Documents folder or wherever you chose during Eagle setup.
• Enough free disk space for the copied Eagle media plus refern's database and generated thumbnails.

You do not need to uninstall Eagle. Both apps can coexist because the importer leaves the source Eagle library unchanged.

Step 1: Open refern and create a workspace

When you launch refern for the first time, it walks you through creating a workspace. A workspace in refern is a normal folder on your disk. Its SQLite database and generated thumbnails live alongside, or in a configured data location associated with, the workspace files.

For an Eagle import, choose the workspace that should receive the new Eagle Library folder.

If you already have a refern workspace open, go to the workspace switcher in the top-left corner and choose New Workspace.

Step 2: Run the Eagle import

1. In refern, open Settings from the gear icon in the bottom-left sidebar.
2. Go to Import, then find Import Eagle Library and choose Browse.
3. A folder picker opens. Navigate to your Eagle .library folder and select it.
4. refern reads the Eagle library metadata: folders, sub-folders, tags, ratings, source URLs, and notes.
5. refern explains that it will create an Eagle Library folder and copy the library into it. Choose whether to include Eagle's trashed items, then confirm.
6. The importer is resumable. Re-running it skips Eagle IDs that were already imported.

refern first copies the supported Eagle media, then runs the same workspace indexing and thumbnail pipeline used for a normal workspace. Duration depends on library size, formats, source and destination drives, thumbnail work, and the current machine. A progress indicator shows the active phase.

Step 3: Watch the pipeline complete

refern uses a streaming pipeline that indexes your library in phases: scan, thumbnail generation, then done. You will see a progress card in the main view showing phase, count, and estimated time remaining.

You can cancel at any time. If you close refern mid-import, it resumes where it left off on next open.

Do not run a reconcile or resync until the pipeline finishes (the progress card disappears). Two pipelines cannot run at the same time.

Step 4: Check your folders and tags

Once the pipeline finishes, your library is live in refern.

• Folders. Eagle's nested folder structure, descriptions, tags, and mapped folder colors appear in refern.
• Tags. Every tag attached to each image in Eagle appears in refern's tag panel for that image.
• Ratings. Star ratings (1 to 5) are imported as refern ratings.
• Source URLs. Eagle's source URL field maps to refern's Source field in the metadata sidebar.
• Annotations and comments. Eagle annotations become refern descriptions. Eagle comment objects are retained in the imported item's custom metadata.

Browse your library, open a few images, and check that metadata looks correct in the right-hand sidebar.

Step 5: Recreate smart folders (Eagle's do not transfer)

Eagle's smart folders are saved filter queries stored inside Eagle. refern has its own smart folders system, but Eagle smart folders are not automatically converted because the filter syntax is different.

To recreate them:

1. In refern, right-click in the sidebar and choose New Smart Folder.
2. Use refern's filter builder to set up the same conditions (tag, rating, file type, date range, and others).
3. Give it the same name.

refern's smart folder system supports all the common conditions Eagle uses, plus additional operators like derived:, linked:, color:, and is:duplicate. See the smart folder guide for the full operator reference.

Step 6: Run both apps side by side during your evaluation

The Eagle importer leaves the source .library unchanged and creates a separate imported copy inside the refern workspace. That lets you keep Eagle available while you verify the refern-side files and metadata.

This means you can:

• Use refern for new captures and canvas work while keeping Eagle as your fallback.
• Check that everything you need is working in refern before you stop using Eagle.
• Compare representative nested folders, metadata-rich items, videos, and multi-folder placements before retiring the Eagle library.

There is no rush to decide. refern's 30-day free trial starts when you install it, not when you import. Take the time to evaluate properly.

What refern does differently from Eagle

Once you are inside refern, a few things work differently from Eagle. These are worth knowing before you commit.

Normal workspaces can use existing files in place. Eagle's standard import copies existing files into its managed .library. A normal refern workspace can read and index files from their current folders, while storing its database and generated thumbnails in the associated data location. Explicit imports, including Eagle migration, are separate and can create copies.

Canvas is built in. Eagle has no infinite canvas. If you used Eagle alongside PureRef for moodboards, refern combines both workflows in one app. You can drag from your library directly onto a canvas, add text, shapes, freehand drawings, and set windows to stay on top with transparency, the same way PureRef works as an overlay.

Relationship graph. refern shows a navigable graph of how your images, folders, canvases, and groups connect to each other. Eagle has no equivalent. It works like an Obsidian graph view for your visual references.

On-device auto-tagging. Eagle's AI Action plugin can auto-name, auto-tag, and auto-sort files on import. refern's opt-in Auto Tagger runs inference locally after the user downloads its model files. After importing your Eagle library, you can run it across imported folders or selected images to fill gaps.

Linux support. Eagle has no Linux client (confirmed by Eagle's own support documentation). refern runs natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

3 devices per license. Eagle's base license covered 2 devices at $34.95 one-time, with additional devices at $17.47 each, as of August 31, 2026. refern's base license covers 3 devices at $35 one-time.

What Eagle still does better

Be honest with yourself before switching. Eagle is a mature product with real strengths.

Format preview breadth. Eagle previews 99 formats on Windows and 108 on macOS, including fonts, audio files, and 3D models (GLB, STL). refern renders images and video natively. A refern workspace can opt into indexing PDFs, fonts, audio, 3D files, and design source files like PSD, AI, and Sketch. PDFs receive a first-page grid preview and open in a native viewer with continuous scrolling, embedded-text search, selection and copy, print, page controls, view-only rotation, and zoom. Scanned PDFs are not OCRed. Fonts, audio, 3D files, and design source files remain icon-only generic files. Eagle still has the advantage if you browse those source formats visually.

Font management. Eagle lets you preview and categorize font files without installing them. refern does not have this.

Plugin ecosystem. Eagle has hundreds of community plugins for format conversion, tools, downloaders, and more. refern has no plugin system today; plugins are planned without a published date.

Larger community. Eagle has been around longer, with more YouTube tutorials, forum posts, and third-party write-ups. If you get stuck, Eagle has more self-service resources available.

If font management or the plugin ecosystem are critical to your workflow, Eagle is the right tool for you right now.

Common problems and fixes

The pipeline is stuck or very slow. Large libraries take time. If the progress card stops moving, copy the import report, check available disk space and source-drive access, then cancel and rerun. The importer uses Eagle provenance to skip items already imported successfully.

Some images are missing after import. A workspace shows images, video, and canvas files by default. PDFs, fonts, audio, 3D models, and design source files like PSD only appear if you switch those types on under Edit workspace, "File types shown." Enabled PDFs receive a first-page grid preview and open in the native PDF viewer. The other extra formats remain icon-only generic files. AVIF has no image decoder, so AVIF files stay missing either way.

Tags look different or are missing. If an image in Eagle had tags applied via folder inheritance (Eagle automatically tags items with their parent folder's tag), those inherited tags may not carry over the same way. Check the original Eagle library and re-apply tags manually in refern if needed.

Smart folders are empty. Eagle smart folders do not transfer. Recreate them in refern as described in step 5.

The import completed but ratings are wrong. Double-check in Eagle that the ratings are set at the item level, not just shown as a filter. Item-level ratings transfer; display-only filter states in Eagle do not carry meaning outside Eagle.

Next steps

Once your Eagle library is imported and you have validated the metadata:

• Browse the refern vs Eagle comparison if you want a full feature breakdown before deciding to switch permanently.
• Read the full Eagle migration guide for the narrative side of the switch: why people move, what to expect, and how to handle your existing workflow.
• Set up smart folders to replace any Eagle saved filters you relied on.
• Try the infinite canvas by dragging a few images from your newly imported library onto a new canvas file.