Downloads
Downloading is a trusted-tier capability: viewers (read-only accounts) don't see the download pages, buttons, or queue counters described here. See Users & access.
The pipeline
When an issue is queued, a download worker takes it through four steps:
- Find — each enabled source is asked, in your priority order, whether it can serve this issue. The first confident match wins. Matching is strict about series name and issue number (aliases included), so Spider-Man never grabs Amazing Spider-Man.
- Fetch — the winning source downloads the file. Immediate sources download in-app with live byte/speed progress; deferred sources (Usenet, torrents) hand off to your download client and a background monitor picks the file up when the client finishes.
- Convert & tag — the file's real format is detected from its bytes (mislabeled files are common). With embedded tag placement (the default), CBRs are repacked to CBZ and ComicVine metadata is embedded as
ComicInfo.xml; with sidecar placement, the downloaded file is kept byte-identical and the metadata is written to a.xmlbeside it. - File — the finished CBZ is named to your file pattern (default
Series VYYYY #NNN.cbz) and placed in the series folder, and the issue flips to owned.
Several workers run in parallel (see downloadConcurrency in the settings reference), so a big batch downloads from multiple sources at once.
Issue statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pending | Known but not queued — nothing is happening |
| queued | Waiting for a download worker |
| downloading | A worker is actively searching/fetching it |
| grabbed | Handed to an external client (Usenet/torrent); the monitor is watching it |
| done | Downloaded, tagged, and filed — you own it |
| failed | Every source came up empty or errored (the reason is recorded; see Logs) |
Failed issues can be re-queued any time — sources change constantly, so a miss today often succeeds next week.
The Queue
The Queue section shows the whole pipeline live. Every downloading item has its own progress bar and phase label, so concurrent downloads are each visible:
- Searching… — looking through your sources for a match (this step can take a few seconds, especially for peer-to-peer sources).
- Downloading — with page/byte progress and speed, or a percentage and seeders for torrents.
- Importing / Tagging — converting, embedding metadata, and filing.
You can pause and resume the whole queue, retry or clear failed items, and cancel individual downloads. If the app restarts mid-download, the queue resumes on its own.
Blocked releases
A Usenet release that the download client reports as failed — broken PAR2/repair, missing articles — is very likely to fail the same way every time. So when that happens, the exact release is added to a blocklist and skipped on future searches: a retry grabs the next-best release instead of re-fetching the same broken one over and over.
- Only a genuine client-reported failure blocks a release. An import hiccup on our side, a download timeout, or an unreachable client does not — none of those mean the release itself is bad.
- Releases are matched by both their indexer id and a normalized title, so the same broken post is caught even if it reappears under a new id or on another indexer.
- History → Blocklist lists blocked releases with the reason they failed. Remove one to allow it to be auto-grabbed again, or clear the whole list. A manual source search is never filtered — if you deliberately pick a blocked release, that choice stands.
This applies to Usenet only; torrent seeding/removal is managed in your torrent client.
Manual searches
Sometimes you want to pick the exact release yourself:
- Search sources (on any issue) queries every enabled source at once and shows a single ranked list — release name, size, source badge, and quality signals. Pick one and it downloads through the normal pipeline, bypassing automatic selection.
- Your pick is pinned to that issue: the queue uses your chosen release rather than re-searching.
Packs
Multi-issue collections ("packs") are the fastest way to fill a mostly-empty series.
- Search packs (on a series) asks every pack-capable source for collections related to the series and shows them in one list.
- Grabbing a pack downloads it, then walks its contents issue-by-issue against your collection: missing issues are imported, tagged, and filed; issues you already own are skipped. A pack never overwrites what you have.
- Only listings that actually contain multiple issues are treated as packs (a trade paperback is not a pack).
- Pack imports show progress under the queue's pack section, and results (imported / already owned / unmatched) are summarized in the logs and history.
The Wanted page
Sidebar → Wanted lists every missing issue across every monitored series — your global gap list. From there you can queue individual issues or batches. The wanted-search schedule works through this list automatically on a timer, in batches, so long backfills happen gradually without flooding your sources.
Weekly releases
The Releases section shows this week's new issues for series you monitor, with one-click grab for anything you don't have yet — and you can page back through previous weeks. A scheduled job can check for new releases automatically and notify you.