Bookrest Help

Install on iPhone or iPad

Install Bookrest before you set up your library. On iPhone and iPad the Home Screen app keeps its own storage, separate from Safari, and Safari can clear data for websites you haven't used for 7 days.

1. In Safari (not a private tab), unlock Bookrest with your Etsy order number.
2. Tap Share. If it isn't in the toolbar, tap ⋯ first.
3. Choose Add to Home Screen (under View More if you don't see it), then Add.
4. Open Bookrest from your Home Screen and set up your library there.

Chrome on iPhone works the same way: tap Share in the address bar, then Add to Home Screen.

If the Home Screen app shows the Bookrest product page, tap Already bought it?, type your order number again and tap Unlock. The Home Screen app can count as one more browser.

Install on Android

1. In Chrome, unlock Bookrest with your Etsy order number.
2. Tap Chrome's menu ⋮, then Install (it may say Add to Home screen or Install app), then Install again.
3. Open Bookrest from its icon on your Home screen.

Install on a Windows, Mac or ChromeOS computer

• Chrome or Edge: unlock Bookrest, then choose Install in the address bar. Bookrest opens in its own window and can be pinned to the taskbar or Dock.
• Safari on a Mac: unlock Bookrest, then choose File › Add to Dock.
• Firefox: can't install apps. Bookrest works fully in a normal tab; bookmark it.

Unlock Bookrest with your Etsy order number

1. Open START HERE.pdf from your Etsy download and tap Unlock Bookrest, or go to bookrest.jykdigital.com/unlock.
2. Type your Etsy order number and tap Unlock. It is on the first line of the receipt Etsy emailed you, and on Etsy under You › Purchases.
3. Use your normal browser, not a private or incognito window: Bookrest keeps your library in ordinary browser storage.
4. Afterwards Bookrest opens at bookrest.jykdigital.com in that browser, without asking again.

One copy bought unlocks up to 5 browsers or installed copies. On a phone, the browser and the installed app can count as two. A copy you haven't opened for 120 days gives its place to a new one. Your order number is just for you: please don't share it or post it online.

Set up your library

1. Choose Add my first book and scan its barcode, or type its ISBN, search by title, or add it by hand.
2. Or choose Import from Goodreads, StoryGraph or a spreadsheet to bring in a library you already keep.
3. Choose Take the tour to try the sample library and its guided steps first.

Explore the demo

Choose Take the tour to try Bookrest with the sample library and its step-by-step tour. In the free demo on the web, nothing is saved: reloading starts over. In your own copy, the sample library stays until you start your own.

Adding books, and what book search sends

Add opens the scanner. Point it at the barcode on the back of a book, or choose Type the ISBN, Search by title, or Add by hand. Every way ends on the same card, where you choose whether you own it, borrowed it or want it, and whether you are reading it.

To find a book, this app sends the barcode number or the words you type straight from your device to Open Library and Google Books. Like any web request, this also shows them your device's internet address. Your library, notes, ratings and reading history are never sent to them. They stay on your device; if you turn on device sync, they travel only end-to-end encrypted between your own devices, and neither the seller nor the sync service can read them. Where a provider allows it, covers are downloaded from them and kept on your device; otherwise the app draws a cover, or uses a photo you add.

Online book search can be turned off in Settings. Adding by hand always works.

The scanner and its limits

The scanner reads the barcode of a printed book (ISBN-13, the number starting 978 or 979) with your camera. It needs camera permission and a camera that can focus close up. Low light, glare and curved covers can make it slow: tilt the book or type the ISBN instead.

Scan several keeps the scanner open and gathers books in a tray, so you can add a shelf at a time and review them before they are filed.

Print, ebook and audio in one book

A book is the work; its copies are the editions you have. One reading can switch between print, ebook and audiobook: log pages, a percentage or a time, and the app keeps one position for the reading.

Pages read and hours listened count each finished reading once, split by how much of it you read on the page and how much you listened to.

How the picker chooses

What should I read? looks at the books in Up Next, or all your Want to read, keeps those that fit your filters, and puts first the ones you plan this month, then high priority, then those that continue a series you are reading. It gives the same answer for the same books, filters and day; Surprise me picks at random among them.

Challenges and the goal

The yearly goal counts the books you finish in that year; re-reads count unless you turn that off in Settings. A challenge is a bingo card or a list of prompts: the app places a finished reading on a square it can check, and you place the others yourself.

Loans and calendar reminders

A borrowed or library copy can have a due date. Home shows it from your chosen reminder day, in plain words and never in red. Add to my calendar saves a calendar file with the date, so your calendar app reminds you even while this app is closed; reminders inside the app show only while it is open.

Share cards

Make a card turns a quote, a finished book or your year into an image in your theme, square, portrait or story-sized. It is made on your device and shared from there; nothing is uploaded.

Import, export and backup

Import brings your books from Goodreads, StoryGraph or a spreadsheet saved as CSV. Nothing is written until the last step, and a safety copy is made first.

A backup is one file with everything, covers and photos included. You can protect it with a passphrase; without one, anyone who has the file can open it, so keep it somewhere private. Save one now and then and keep a copy yourself: restoring it replaces the library on a device.

The exports are for reading elsewhere; to come back to this app, use a backup. Keep your own copies of a backup and of both exports, as browser storage can be cleared.

Sync between your devices

Devices links your phone, tablet and computer with a six-digit code, with no account. Your library is encrypted on your device before it travels, and only your linked devices can read it. Sync keeps your devices the same. It isn't a backup: keep a backup file too.

Unlocking, and what keeps working offline

Bookrest unlocks once per browser or installed copy, online, by typing the Etsy order number. The unlock request carries the order number and nothing of your library, notes, progress, challenges or searches.

The unlock service keeps, per unlocked browser, a random id, a coarse device label such as “iPhone · Safari”, and the first and last dates it was seen; the host sees the request's IP address.

An already installed and unlocked copy keeps opening offline while its app files and browser storage remain on that device. An activation-service outage does not relock it.

A fresh installation, unlocking another device, reinstalling after browser data is cleared, book lookup and device sync need the relevant online services.

Back up your library

1. Open Backup and choose Save a backup. The file holds everything, covers and photos included.
2. Keep the .bookrest file somewhere safe, such as iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive.
3. Back up again after you make changes. Bookrest reminds you when it's been a while.

You can protect the file with a passphrase. Without one, anyone who has the file can read your library, so keep it private.

Move to a new device or to the installed app

1. On the old device (or in Safari), back up your library.
2. On the new device (or in the installed app), unlock Bookrest with your order number.
3. Choose Restore a backup on the welcome screen, or Choose a backup file in Backup, and pick the file. Bookrest checks it and shows what's inside before anything changes.

Want to keep using both devices? Link them instead, and they stay up to date.

Use Bookrest on more than one device

1. On the device that has your library, open Devices (on a phone it's in the menu) and choose Link another device. The first time, name this device and choose Show a code. A six-digit code appears; it works for 5 minutes.
2. On the other device, unlock Bookrest with your order number and, on the welcome screen, under Moving from another device?, choose Link to your other device. If Bookrest is set up there and not linked yet, open Devices and choose Enter a code instead; linking replaces what that device has.
3. Type the code and choose Link this device (Replace and link on a device that's already set up).
4. On the first device, check the name and choose Approve. The other device opens with your library.
5. From then on, changes made on either device reach the other when both are online.

Your library is encrypted on your devices before it leaves them, and only your linked devices can read it. Nobody can recover it for you, so linking isn't a backup: keep saving a backup file now and then. To stop, open Devices and choose Stop syncing on this device; the library stays on every device.

I see the Bookrest product page instead of my library

This browser hasn't been unlocked yet, or its cookies were cleared. Tap Already bought it? on that page and unlock Bookrest again with your Etsy order number. Your library is still in this browser's storage; unlocking brings it back.

If the unlock page says your order is already unlocked in all its places, message us with your order number and we'll free one.

Contact us

Message us on Etsy at JYKDigital. Tell us which device and browser you use, and your order number if it's about unlocking. Please never send your backup file.