Offline Copies, Snapshots, and Storage

Bindle keeps what you save on your own devices, so you can read it with no network. This chapter covers the two kinds of saved page, how much each device keeps, where copies come from, and when the heavy work runs.

Offline Copies

An offline copy is the readable version of a page: the article's text and images, without the site's menus, ads, and scripts. It is what the reader shows, what Listen reads aloud, and what search and Ask look through.

Each device keeps its own offline copies. They do not sync, but a device that lacks a copy can get it from one of your other devices (see Copies from Your Other Devices).

How a Link Gets a Copy

• Automatically. With "Save unread links for offline reading" on, Bindle saves a copy of each unread link in the background. A link you just saved on this device is saved at once.
• Save Offline. Choose Save Offline from a link's menu or details to save it now, on any network. A copy saved this way is kept until you remove it, even past the space limit.
• On import. "Save all for offline reading" in the import sheet saves every link in the file (see Moving Your Library In and Out).

To remove one copy, choose Remove Offline Copy from the link's menu.

Sites You Subscribe To

Bindle fetches pages with no cookies, so a site with a paywall may give only part of an article. To get the whole thing, sign in: choose Sign In to This Site from the reader's More menu, or go to Settings > Saving & Storage > Site Logins. Sign-ins stay on this device.

How Much This Device Keeps

Your devices do not all need to keep everything. A Mac with a large disk can keep it all, while an iPhone keeps less and asks the Mac for the rest.

Go to Settings > Saving & Storage > Storage and choose from "This device keeps":

A choice is a preset: it sets "Save unread links for offline reading", "Space for offline copies", "Save snapshots of unread links", and "Space for snapshots". You can still change those yourself afterward, and the picker then shows Custom.

Mac: A Mac still on Reader shows a card once: "Make this Mac a full archive?" Choose Make Full Archive to switch, or Not Now to keep Reader.

Copies from Your Other Devices

When you open a link that has no offline copy on this device, Bindle first asks your devices on the same network, starting with any full archive and any device that is plugged in. While it asks, the reader says "Getting the copy from" and the device's name.

Only if none of them has it does Bindle download the page from the site. If the site has nothing either, the reader says "Couldn't download the article" and offers Open Website.

This also works for page snapshots, and for a snapshot's PDF and screenshot: a device asks your other devices for them before making its own. It is private: the site is not contacted at all when one of your devices has the page. Only devices in your circle are asked, and only over your local network, never over Bluetooth.

What arrives is kept on this device like anything saved here.

Offline Reading Settings

Settings > Saving & Storage > Offline reading:

Things to know:

• Copies stay on this device.
• Copies of read links are removed after 30 days, unless you saved them with Save Offline.
• When the space fills, the oldest copies make room, and unread links past the limit wait.
• Low Data Mode pauses automatic saves.

The Downloads Screen

Downloads shows what this device is saving now, what is waiting, what failed, and what was skipped. Open it from Settings > Saving & Storage > Offline reading, or tap the saving capsule that appears over the list while pages download.

• Status says what is happening, such as "Paused" or how many are left.
• Download Now appears when downloads are waiting for power. It lets them run now, on battery.
• "Pause automatic saving" stops downloads on this device. Pages already downloaded are still made ready, and Save Offline still works.
• Now lists pages being saved, each with its stage, a progress bar, and how long it has taken.
• Up next lists pages waiting their turn. Skip one with a swipe or its menu, or use Skip All.
• Failed lists pages that did not save, with the reason and when Bindle will try again. Use Retry on one, or Retry All. Pages that kept failing are folded into a row ("not retried"); Clear removes them from the list, and Clear All removes them all. To try one again, choose Save Offline in the link's details.
• Skipped lists pages you skipped, or that had no room under the space limit. Save brings one back, and Save All brings them all back.

By default, automatic offline copies wait until the device is plugged in (see Battery). A link you just saved here, Save Offline, and Download Now do not wait.

Page Snapshots

A snapshot keeps the whole page as the site showed it, layout and all, next to the reader copy. It is useful for pages that do not read well as an article, or when you want a record of how a page looked.

• A snapshot opens in its own viewer, with a banner saying when it was taken. The viewer loads nothing from the network, so the page cannot change or track you.
• Snapshots stay on this device. They do not sync, but your devices can ask each other for them, as with offline copies.
• Choose Save Snapshot from a link's menu, details, or the reader's More menu to take one now, on any network. Choose View Snapshot to open it, or Remove Snapshot to delete it.
• When a Save Snapshot ends, a capsule says "Snapshot saved" (tap it to view) or "Couldn't save snapshot" with the reason.

PDF and Screenshot

A snapshot can also keep a PDF of the page and a full-page screenshot. Unlike the snapshot itself, these open anywhere: in Preview, in Files, on another computer, or printed.

• For a collection: turn on Save PDF and Screenshot of These Pages when you make or edit the collection. Every device then keeps them for the collection's links, read or not, within its own snapshot space, even with automatic snapshots off. See Make a Collection.
• For one link: choose Save PDF and Screenshot from its menu, details, or the reader's More menu, once it has a snapshot.
• To see them: View Snapshot, then choose Page, PDF, or Screenshot at the top. Pinch to look closer at the screenshot.
• To share them: Share PDF and Share Screenshot in the link's menus send a copy named for the link.

When a link already has a snapshot, its PDF and screenshot are made from it on this device, without loading the page again. The PDF uses Letter paper in the US and Canada and A4 elsewhere. A very long page's screenshot stops partway, and says so at its end. The PDF and screenshot count toward the snapshot space, and go when the snapshot goes.

Snapshot Settings

Settings > Saving & Storage > Page snapshots:

Things to know:

• Automatic snapshots are taken while Bindle is open, on Wi-Fi unless "Also download on cellular" is on.
• When the space fills, the oldest go first, read links before unread ones. Links saved with Save Offline keep theirs.
• Your devices ask each other first, and one on battery leaves new snapshots to a plugged-in device.

Snapshots Are Never Lost

A snapshot keeps a page as it was on the day it was taken, so the site cannot give it back once it changes. When one of your devices is a full archive, Bindle makes sure the archive has a copy before any other device lets a snapshot go:

• The full archive collects. Whenever it sees your other devices on the same network, it asks which snapshots they have, and copies the ones it lacks, or a newer one of a page it already has.
• Your other devices make room only with snapshots the archive has. When the space fills, they let go of those first, oldest first as usual.
• A snapshot the archive does not have yet stays, even past the space you chose, by up to a quarter more. Past that, the oldest go as before. Page snapshots then says how many are waiting: "3 snapshots wait for Mac to keep them." The number falls once your devices are on the same network again.

Without a full archive among your devices, or when none has been on your network for 30 days, the space works as it always has. This happens only between your own devices, over your local network.

Battery

Some work takes real power: reading text in images, building the search index, writing summaries, and downloading pages. Settings > Device & Circle > Battery lets you choose, for each kind, when it may run on this device:

• Any time
• Only while charging

Only the kinds this device can do are listed. For example, the summary and answering rows appear only where Apple Intelligence can run.

Things to know:

• Work kept to charging waits until this device is plugged in. A plugged-in device of yours nearby may do it instead and hand it over.
• A link you just saved on this device, and Save Offline, are saved for offline reading at once.
• Whatever you choose, this work pauses while the device is hot or in Low Power Mode, and slows down while it is warm.
• iPhone and iPad: On iPhone and iPad, it runs in the background only when the system gives Bindle time.

These settings are kept on this device.

Link Checks

Now and then, Bindle checks whether your saved pages still exist, so it can list the ones that are gone in Dead Links (see Organizing). Your devices share the checking between them, and a plugged-in device does more of it. Checks follow the same network rules as offline copies, and the Battery setting above says when they may run.

Site Icons and Titles

Settings > Privacy & Debug > Site info:

• "Fetch site icons and titles" (on by default): Bindle asks each saved site for its icon, title, and preview image. Nothing goes to any other service, and the results stay on this device.
• Clear Site Icon Cache deletes the icons and previews this device has kept, so they are fetched again.

The same section has "Show Debug screen", described in Privacy and Troubleshooting.