Your Devices

Bindle has no account and no server. Your devices keep your library themselves and pass changes to each other directly. This chapter covers how that works, how to add and remove a device, and how to move from one device to another while you read.

All of it is in Settings, under This device, Personal circle, History cleanup, and Add device.

The Personal Circle

Your devices together form your personal circle. Every device in the circle holds the whole library: links, notes, highlights, tags, collections, reminders, reading places, and Ask conversations.

Pair once. To add a device, pair it with any one device already in the circle. It joins the whole circle, not just that device.
Sync when they meet. Any two members sync whenever they can reach each other: on the same local network (Wi-Fi or Ethernet), or over Bluetooth when they are close and share no network. They do not need to be in the same place at the same time as the others. A change made on your iPhone reaches your iPad through your Mac if that is the way it travels.
Changes merge. Edits made on two devices apart are merged the same way on both, so every device ends up with the same library.
Delay is normal. A device that has been away catches up the next time it meets another member.
Devices help each other. Some work is done once and handed over on the local network instead of synced: page snapshots, offline copies, search indexes, book files, and book audio. A device on battery leaves it to a plugged-in one, such as your Mac. See Automatic Book Audio.

Private by Design

Everything your devices send each other is encrypted, so nobody else on the network can read it.
Each device proves who it is before syncing, and only members of your circle are let in. A device that is not in your circle gets nothing.
Every change is signed by the device that made it.
Nothing goes through a server or iCloud, and there is no account to sign in to.

Some things stay on each device and do not sync: offline copies, page snapshots, the search index, and most settings. See Offline Copies, Snapshots, and Storage.

This Device

The This device section at the top of Settings shows:

Name: what your other devices call this one. Type a new name and choose Rename.
ID: a short code that identifies this device. You can select and copy it.

Members and Sync Status

The Personal circle section lists your other devices. With none yet, it says so.

In Explained, it opens with one sentence, such as "4 devices are caught up. omarchy is behind." The devices follow in groups: Here now (in range or on this network), Away, and Dormant. Each is one line, like a table of contents: its name, a dotted line, and how it stands, "caught up" or how many changes behind. Under the name, in small capitals, is how it was last reached (Bluetooth or the local network), "plugged in" when it is on power, and when. The note under the section says how many changes this device stores.

In Advanced, above the list, one line sums up the circle, such as "All 4 devices synced", or names the device furthest behind and when it was last heard from. Below it, a smaller line says how many changes this device stores, and how many are not on every device yet. The number falls after a history cleanup.

In Advanced, each member's row shows:

Its name and ID.
How it stands: Caught up, a number of changes behind, Not reported yet, or Dormant.
Where it is now: "In range" (Bluetooth) or "On this network", and "Plugged in" when it is on power.
"Last seen" and how, such as over LAN or BLE, or "Not seen by this device yet".
If one of you needs a newer Bindle to sync, the row says which: "Update Bindle on this device" or "Update Bindle on" and the device's name.

Sync Now and Restart Sync

Bindle syncs on its own whenever members meet. To sync right away, choose Library > Sync Now from the menu bar, or press Command-R with a keyboard.

If a nearby device stops syncing, choose Restart Sync in the Personal circle section. It looks for your devices afresh without quitting Bindle.

Either way, a note says how it went:

"Synced with Mac", or with two devices "Synced with Mac and iPad".
"Couldn't sync with iPad", with the reason.
"Still syncing with Mac" when a big change takes longer than 20 seconds. It carries on.
"Asked your devices to sync" when the devices in reach start the sync themselves.
"No devices in reach": none of your devices is nearby with Bindle open.
"No devices to sync with": you haven't paired another device yet. See Add a Device.

Dormant Devices

A device you have not heard from for a while is marked Dormant. Its row explains, "Not heard from in" so many days, and offers two buttons:

Remove removes it from your circle, as below.
Keep Waiting keeps it as a member and resets the clock.

"Mark dormant after" sets how long that is: 7, 14, 30, 60, or 90 days. The default is 30 days. A dormant device stops holding up history cleanup until it returns. When it comes back, it simply syncs and catches up.

Remove a Device

To remove a device from your circle, touch and hold its line (right-click on the Mac) and choose Remove from Circle. In Advanced you can also swipe its row and choose Remove. Confirm with Remove.

A removed device keeps what it already has but gets nothing new. To come back, it has to be set up again and paired.

On the removed device, Settings shows a banner, "Removed from your circle". The device keeps its library but no longer syncs. To rejoin, delete Bindle from it, install it again, and pair with a device in the circle.

Add a Device

You pair two devices once. You can use a code on screen, a pairing link, or a sound. All of them are in Settings > Add device, on both devices.

Before you pair a new device, you can keep a copy of your library to fall back on. Pairing and syncing never remove a link on their own: a link goes away only when someone deletes it on a device in the circle. Still, a copy costs a minute. Export your library as Bindle JSON (see Export Links) on a device already in your circle and keep the file. If you ever need the links back, import that file.

With a Code or Link

On a device already in your circle, choose Show Pairing Code. It shows a QR code, a pairing link that starts with bindle://pair/, and a countdown. The code works once and expires after two minutes.
On the new device, do one of these:
- iPhone and iPad: Choose Scan Pairing Code and point the camera at the code. If the camera sees some other QR code, it says "That isn't a Bindle pairing code" and keeps looking.
- Paste the link into "Or paste a bindle://pair/ link" and choose Join.
- Open the link on the new device, for example from a message you sent yourself.
Check the confirmation code, below.

With Sound

Pairing by sound is handy when neither device can easily see the other's screen.

On a device in your circle, choose Play Pairing Sound. It shows the code and link too, and plays a short sound. The "Pairing sound" toggle under the code turns the sound on or off while the code is shown.
On the new device, choose Listen for Pairing Sound, and hold it near the other one. A bar shows the microphone level. Choose Stop Listening to give up.
Check the confirmation code, below.

You can also choose Show Pairing Code first and turn on "Pairing sound" afterward.

Check the Confirmation Code

When the two devices connect, both show "Pair with" and the other device's name, and a six-digit code. Check that both show the same code.

If they match, choose Codes Match. The new device joins your circle and starts to sync, and a note says "Paired with" and its name.
If they differ, choose Codes Differ. Nothing is paired.

If pairing started from a link opened on this device, the sheet adds a warning: anyone can send a pairing link, so continue only if you expected it.

If pairing fails, the reason is shown with Try Again. See Privacy and Troubleshooting.

History Cleanup

Bindle keeps a history of every change so devices can merge them. Once every active device has a change, the older history it replaced is cleared from this device, at most once a day. On iPhone and iPad it runs while Bindle is open, or while the device charges.

After a cleanup has run, Settings shows a History cleanup section with when it ran, what it cleared, and how many changes it kept. For 7 days after a cleanup, Undo Last Cleanup brings the cleared history back on this device (confirm with Undo Cleanup). Your links stay as they are, and nothing added since is lost.

A link you delete is kept as a small marker so every device knows it is gone. Once every device has the deletion, cleanup folds your deletions into a more compact record, and a cleanup says how many it folded. The marker is never forgotten, so a deleted link cannot come back, even on a device restored from an old backup.

Continue on Another Device

Your devices know when another of yours is nearby, and they use it to pass along what you are reading.

Walk Up and Continue

Have an article or book open in the reader on one device, then go to another device with Bindle open, such as walking up to your Mac with your iPhone. The second device shows "Continue from" and the first device's name, with the title, in the reader bar at the bottom of the window. On iPad and the Mac, if an article is collapsed in the bar, the offer is a row above it. Choose Open to pick up at the same place.

The offer goes away by itself after about 10 seconds, a thin ring around its close button counting down, or choose the close button.
An offer stays available for a while after you stop reading on the first device.
Each reading is offered once, so walking past a device does not keep interrupting you.
Only the newest reading is offered. If you have read something since, on this device or any other, the older article is not offered. An article left collapsed in the reader bar counts as put away, so it is offered only for a few minutes after you last read it.

To stop these offers, turn off "Continue from nearby devices" in Settings > Personal circle. It is on by default.

Send To

Send To hands a link to a nearby device of yours. Choose Send To from a link's context menu, the More menu in its details, or the reader's More menu, then choose the device. Devices in Bluetooth range are listed first.

The other device shows "Sent from" and your device's name, and, if Bindle may send it notifications, a notification such as "iPhone sent you a link". Opening it opens the link at the place you were reading. Sent links always show, even with "Continue from nearby devices" off.

A note says "Sending to" and the device's name, then "Sent to" when it arrives, or "Couldn't reach" if it never does. The note shows over the reader too. Until the other device takes it, which can be up to 10 minutes, the capsule at the bottom of the library says "Sending to Mac".

Send To appears only when one of your devices is in reach. It is not offered for books.

Read Together

Read the same article or book on two of your devices at once, with each following the other. Open it on both, on the same Wi-Fi network. Once they have synced, the reader shows a capsule at the bottom, the other device's name with "is reading this" and "Scroll and highlight together", and a tag with that device's name on a thin track at the right edge, at its place in the text. Choose Read Together.

The device where you chose Read Together leads: the other goes to your place, even in another chapter of a book.
After that, either device can scroll and the other follows. If both scroll at once, the last one you touch leads.
A highlight you add, change, or delete on one shows on the other at once.
While together, the other device's tag rides the track beside your place, and a Together chip at the bottom left has Leave.
Choosing the tag before you join jumps to the other device's place instead, with "Back to where you were".
To point something out, select it. The other device dims and shows the passage larger in a card, with your device's name and "points out", and yours shows "Showing on" and its name over the highlight bar. Clear the selection to put it away; on the other device, a tap anywhere does too.

Reading together ends when either device chooses Leave, closes the reader, or, on iPhone and iPad, leaves Bindle. If the other device goes out of reach, Bindle tries once to reconnect, then shows "Lost" with the device's name and Rejoin. It works over Wi-Fi only, not Bluetooth.

App Icon

Settings > App icon lets you choose the bandana's color: Red, Navy, or Black.

iPhone and iPad: The icon changes on this device's Home Screen.
Mac: The icon changes in the Dock while Bindle runs. Finder and Launchpad keep the red bandana.

The icon is a setting of this device only.