Troubleshooting

Nothing downloads after subscribing

1. Check the download switch. Subscribing doesn't turn downloading on. Open the story and look at the download switch. A card that says not downloading means the same thing.
2. Check whether it's a trial. A trial stops after the first few chapters. The story screen has Download the whole story.
3. Check the site's account. Open Settings → Sources. A login problem shows on the site's card. Questionable Questing can't be used at all without an account.
4. Check the queue. The Queue screen shows what's waiting and why.

Downloads are slow

They're meant to be. Fiction Reader asks each site for one page every few seconds, so a four-hundred-chapter thread takes well over half an hour. Each site's pacing is on its card in Settings → Sources.

You can raise the limits, but that puts more load on the site. See why downloads take a while.

"The site asked to check that a person is reading"

SpaceBattles and FanFiction.net sit behind an anti-bot check that appears now and then. Fiction Reader doesn't try to get round it. It puts the request aside and tries again later, after fifteen minutes at first and then at longer intervals, up to four hours.

You'll see this message on a waiting job in the Queue. It usually clears without you doing anything. If a story has been waiting for a long time, press Refresh now on its screen to try again.

FanFiction.net needs a real browser every time. The desktop and Android apps have one. A server needs the browser image, and without it the site's card in Settings says every request will be refused.

AO3 chapters contain only a line or two

Before version 0.8.4, an AO3 chapter that had its own chapter summary was saved as the summary and not the chapter. This is fixed, but chapters downloaded earlier still hold the wrong text.

To repair a story, open it and choose More → Download all chapters again. The corrected chapters show as edited, because their text has changed.

A device says it can't reach the server

1. Check FR_CORS_ORIGINS first. For the Android app, the server has to list https://localhost. This is the usual cause. See Letting the Android app in.
2. Check the address, including the port. If the app says nothing answered at that address, it's a network problem. Any other message means the server answered but isn't set up to allow the app.
3. Check the route. Away from home, the device needs a VPN into your network.
4. Check the server is running, using a browser on the same network.

Chapters mark themselves read half way through

Check Mark read at under Behaviour in the reading settings (the panel in the reading view, not the Settings screen). Its lowest value is 50%, and at that setting every chapter is marked read at the halfway point. The default is 90%.

The setting belongs to your profile, so it applies on every device you read on.

Pictures don't appear in a chapter

• One picture failed. Press Try again on it. The server fetches that image again.
• A picture says it was archived without its address. Chapters downloaded by old versions can be missing image addresses. Choose Download this chapter again to restore its pictures.
• Every picture in every chapter is missing on a phone or tablet. Update the app.

A chapter opens blank

• It isn't downloaded. Opening it should start the download and say so.
• It's past the end of a trial. The reader offers the rest of the story.
• You're offline and it isn't saved on this device. The reader says so. See Reading offline.
• It's blank with no message. Go back to the story and open it again. If it keeps happening, note the story and chapter and report it.

A site won't search

• FanFiction.net has no search. Paste a link.
• SpaceBattles sometimes refuses search requests. Browsing a forum section usually still works, and so does pasting a link.
• Questionable Questing needs an account before anything works.
• A site that used to work and now returns nothing has probably changed its pages. That needs an update to the app.

When one site fails, you still get results from the others.

The inbox filled up with "chapters were edited"

Versions before 0.8.3 reported an edit for every chapter they re-checked, whether or not the text had changed. Updating removes those entries, and from then on an edit is only reported when a chapter's text is different.

The tour starts on a server that has it turned off

This was a bug before 0.8.4. Update the server.

Progress bars never move

Live progress arrives over a streaming connection. A reverse proxy that buffers responses or has a short timeout breaks it, while everything else carries on working. With nginx, set proxy_buffering off; and a long proxy_read_timeout. See TLS and reverse proxies.

Sync isn't arriving on the other device

• Give it a few minutes. A synced folder takes time to copy between machines.
• Check both devices use the same folder, each with its own path to it.
• Read the error on the Sync card. It also says when sync last worked.
• Downloaded chapters don't sync yet. Reading positions, notes and your own books do. See What travels.

A book won't import

• DRM. Protected files are refused.
• It needs converting. PDF, old-style DOC, RAR and CBR need Calibre's ebook-convert on the machine.
• It's too large. There are size limits on uploading and importing.
• The drive is unplugged. A book the app can't see is marked as unavailable. Nothing is deleted.

Settings → My Books shows how many files couldn't be read.

Reporting a problem

Look at the issue tracker and the latest release notes first. A site that has stopped working has often changed its pages.

A useful report includes the Fiction Reader version, how you run it (desktop, Android or server), what you did, and the error message.