The Library tab is the shelf you build yourself. It starts empty, fills up as you add titles from your installed sources, and remembers exactly where you are in each one. Everything on this page is stored locally on your device, so the library is yours and nobody else's.
Adding titles
You need at least one source installed first. If Browse and Search are empty, start with Adding sources.
- Go to Browse and pick one of your installed sources, or use Search to look for something by name.
- Open a title to reach its detail screen.
- Add it to your library.
The title then appears in Library, and your progress through it is tracked from the first chapter you open.
The title detail screen
A title's detail screen is where you spend most of your non-reading time. It shows the information the source provides about the title, along with its chapter list.
It also carries an in-app browser button for that source. Opening it loads the source site inside the app, which is handy for checking a page directly when something looks wrong. See Troubleshooting if a source keeps failing.
Working through chapters in bulk
Long series are unpleasant to manage one chapter at a time, so the chapter list supports multi-select.
- Tap Select at the top of the chapter list to enter selection mode.
- Use the quick-select chips to build your selection fast:
- All selects every chapter.
- None clears the selection.
- Invert flips what is selected and what is not.
- Unread selects only the chapters you have not read.
- Tap individual chapters to fine-tune the selection.
- Use the bulk action bar at the bottom to apply one of three actions: Download, Read, or Unread.
- Tap Cancel to leave selection mode.
This is the fastest way to catch up a series you have already read elsewhere: chip to All, then Read, then unmark the few you still have left.
Downloads for offline reading
Because Boundless never caches content on a server, downloads are the whole offline story. Download a chapter and it is stored on your device, ready to read with no connection at all.
Downloads are available from the chapter list, individually or through the bulk action bar described above. They are a good idea before a flight, a commute with patchy signal, or anywhere your source site is slow to reach.
Keep in mind that downloaded chapters use device storage, so a fully downloaded long-running series is not free.
History
The History tab lists what you have read recently and gives you a direct route back to where you stopped. It is useful when you have been sampling several titles and do not want to hunt through the library grid to find the one you were actually enjoying.
Where your library data lives
All of it is stored on device:
- which titles are in your library
- which chapters you have read
- your precise position inside a chapter
- your history
- your downloads
Signed out, none of it leaves the device. Two practical results:
- Nothing about your reading is sent to a Boundless server, because there is no Boundless server. The privacy page explains this in full.
- Deleting the app removes the local database along with it, and reinstalling starts you from an empty library.
On iPad and Mac
The library grid is built to use a bigger window properly. As the window widens, the grid adds columns instead of stretching each cover into an oversized cell, and long-form screens stay width-capped and centered so text does not run the full width of a display.
Next: Reading covers the two readers and how to move around inside a chapter.