Using the external library
Hentoid has a feature called the External Library. It has been created for the following use cases :
- Viewing archives (supported formats : ZIP, RAR, 7Z, CBR, CBZ, CB7, EPUB)
- Viewing books that have been downloaded with 3rd party apps (i.e. image files inside folders)
You can also move former Hentoid folders inside the external library. They will be recognized properly.
The term "external" means "external to the app". It has been named that way to express the fact that, contrary to the app's main downloads folder, that second location isn't internally managed by Hentoid. The app just scans whatever's inside and turns it into a viewable entry.
It has no relation whatsoever with "external" drives (SD cards, USB drives...). Both the app's primary library location and the external library's location can be either on your phone's internal memory or on an external drive.
Also, selecting a folder to become Hentoid's external library won't magically move it to any external drive. If that's what you want to achieve, you'll have to move these files manually using a file manager.
| Feature | Primary library | External library |
|---|---|---|
| Target location for the Hentoid downloader | x | |
| Container for Hentoid books (folders previously downloaded with Hentoid, with a contentV2.json file inside) |
x | x |
| Container for archives | x | |
| Container for non-Hentoid books (folders with plain images inside, without any JSON file) |
x | |
| Can be set on your device's internal storage (e.g. phone memory) | x | x |
| Can be set on your device's external storage (e.g. SD card, USB drive) | x | x |
To enable the external library :
- Go to Settings / Storage / Storage management
- Using the External library feature, select any folder that contains books or archives
- The app will import them as new books for you to read !
By default, the "Allow deleting external content" setting is disabled. This prevents you from accidentally removing content using the library screen's delete actions. Keeping that setting off is especially useful when your external library is set inside your 2nd most favourite app downloads folder.
When you don't want to display your external library anymore, you may use "Detach external library". It will remove all external books from the Hentoid database, but won't delete any file whatsoever.
So far, Hentoid does not actively scan folders for new content. You'll have to manually refresh the external library by using Settings / Storage / Refresh library.
Please read carefully the current page, especially the part about the "external" word. Selecting that folder will just import books into your library. It won't move them to any external drive.
Q : The volume where my library is located is full. Can I use the external library as a secondary download location ?
No, you can't. The external library folder is meant to be managed externally, not by Hentoid's downloader. The downloader will always use the primary location of your library.
