The cloud: your libraries on all your devices

The cloud means keeping your libraries also on the internet, on a computer called a server, and not only on your devices. It is optional. Without an account, the app works completely: your libraries are on your devices and are shared with the ones at home over Wi-Fi (Share at home). With an account, in addition, your libraries are updated from anywhere, without the devices being on the same Wi-Fi, and you can invite other people.

What you need to know first

• What you upload is stored on a server (the official one, or the one someone has told you to use with “Other server”). Whoever runs that server can read it. If you do not want anyone else to read it, do not upload the library: the Wi-Fi at home does not go through any server.
• For now, the official server only lets some email addresses create an account. If yours is not one of them, the app warns you: “If yours isn’t one of them, no code will reach you.”
• Only whoever administers a library can upload it (the administrator permission; see People and permissions).
• Changes from other devices reach you when you open the app or it updates, not at the same moment. The official server does not yet send instant notices.
• If you have no internet, everything keeps working. See Away from home and offline.

Create an account

1. Open the menu (on a phone, the three bars at the top left) and go to “Settings”. Under “Cloud and account”, tap “Sign in or create an account”.
2. Choose how:
   • “Continue with Google”: the browser opens, you sign in there and come back to the app. The app does not see your Google password.
   • With email: tap “Create account”. Write your name (this is how the people you share with will see you), your email and the language. A 6-digit code reaches your email, valid for 15 minutes only. Type it and choose your password (at least 8 characters).
3. Only if someone has told you to use another server, tap “Other server” and write its address.

If you forget the password, tap “Forgot it?”. A code is sent to your email so you can set another one. When you change it, your other devices stop having the account open. Nothing is deleted: you will sign in with the new password.

An extra check when you sign in

It is optional and the app calls it “Second factor”. When you sign in, besides the password, the app asks you for a 6-digit number that an app on your phone gives you (an “authenticator app”, such as Google Authenticator; you have to install it first).

1. Sign in to your account (open “Settings” and tap your name) and, under “Second factor”, tap “Turn on”.
2. With the authenticator app, scan with the camera the square of dots (the QR code) shown on the screen, and type the 6-digit number it shows you.
3. The app gives you 10 backup codes. Each one works only once if you lose your phone. They are only shown now: write them down on paper.

Unlock with fingerprint or face

Apart from the account, in “Settings”, under “Security”, you can turn on “Unlock with fingerprint or face”. The app asks for your fingerprint or face when you open it and when you come back after the time you choose. It also works without an account. Your phone must already have a fingerprint or face set up.

Upload a library

1. With your session started, open “Settings”, tap your name and look at “Libraries in the cloud”.
2. Under “Which libraries do you want in the cloud?”, tick the ones you want and tap “Upload”. The ones you do not tick stay as they are until now, over the Wi-Fi at home.
3. The app tells you when they are in the cloud.

Some cannot be uploaded as they are:

• If you do not administer it: “Uploaded by whoever administers it”.
• If it was started with a very old version of the app, it cannot be uploaded as it is. Tap “Duplicate as new”: another library is created with the same books, and that one can be uploaded.

In the settings of each library there is a switch, “The cloud can give access to new devices”. If it is on, the new phone of someone at home who has an account gets in by itself, with the same permissions that person has in the library. If it is off, you give access by hand to each new device (see Share at home).

A new phone gets its libraries by itself

1. Install the app on the new phone.
2. Tap “Sign in” with the same account.
3. The app says “Downloading your libraries from the cloud”: it is downloading them. With big libraries it can take a while.
4. When it finishes, it tells you which ones you are in and with what permission: “You are now in “Home” in the cloud. As editor.”

Two more things:

• If whoever administers the library marked that device as belonging to another person, the app tells you (“In “Home”, this device belongs to Laura”). It stays that way; to change it, whoever administers has to do it from their device, in “People and permissions”.
• Only what you uploaded to the cloud reaches the new phone. The libraries you did not upload stay on your other devices.

When the cloud is not the official one

Kosmotheka’s official cloud is kosmotheka.app. Anyone can run their own server and the app connects to it if you type its address under “Another server”, but then your account and the libraries you upload are on a server that someone else runs. The app tells you every time it matters, in one line: “This cloud is not the official one of Kosmotheka: … runs it”, with the name of the server.

You see it in these places:

• when you type another server’s address while signing in, before you continue, and on the sign-in screen while you are on one;
• in “Account”, next to the server, with the label “Not official”, and in “Sharing and devices”, above the cloud rows;
• when you open an invitation from a server that is not the official one, before accepting it;
• in the library, if it is in the cloud of a server that is not the official one, and when you receive it by QR (see Share at home).

It is only a notice: it does not stop you using that server. If it is not yours or someone you trust, go back to “Use the official one”.

Bring down a library you removed

If you remove a library from a device (“Remove from this device”, see Several libraries) and your account’s cloud has it, it appears in “Sharing and devices”, in the cloud part, under “Removed from this device”, with the button “Bring down again”. The app does not bring it down by itself when it syncs: only when you ask.

Only the ones you removed yourself show up. If your access to a library was withdrawn (yours, your account’s or this device’s), or if you left it with “Leave the library”, it does not come back this way: in both cases whoever administers has to give you access again.

Invite other people

To invite someone, the library has to be in the cloud, you have to administer it, and you have to be signed in. If something is missing, the app tells you what (“Upload it first and then you can invite”).

1. Open the menu, go to “People and permissions” and tap “Invite”.
2. Write the person’s name (they will appear under “People” until they come in).
3. Choose:
   • “By email”: they get an email with a link (an address that opens when tapped). They can only open it with that email address. The app does not keep that address.
   • “Copy link”: whoever opens it first gets in. Pass it only to that person. Copy it before you close the screen: it does not show again. If you lose it, tap “Cancel” under “People” and make another invitation.
4. The person comes in as a reader (they can see the library and ask for changes). Afterwards you can change their permission under “People”.

Each link works only once and expires. While it is not used, under “People” you see “Has an unused invitation”, and you can tap “Cancel”: the link stops working.

If someone invited you

1. Copy the link you were sent.
2. Open the app and, in “Settings” (or in your account), tap “I have an invitation”. Paste the link (press and hold the text box and choose “Paste”). If opening the link launches the app by itself, that is better, but it does not always happen: pasting is the safe way.
3. Sign in or create an account if you do not have one, and tap “Join “Home”” (or the name of the library).

If the library is not in the cloud, or the server does not send invitations, access can still be given with a QR code (the square of dots that is read with the camera; see Share at home).