Download sources ​

BackIssue ships with two source families built in — Usenet and torrents — and loads more as plugins. Enable as many as you like; every download tries them in your priority order and takes the first match.

Usenet ​

Usenet needs two pieces: one or more Newznab indexers (to find releases) and a download client (to fetch them).

Indexers ​

Add any Newznab-compatible indexer (NZBGeek, NZBFinder, althub, a private one — anything exposing the Newznab API). For each: a URL and an API key. You can add several; searches fan out across all of them and results merge into one ranked list.

Download client ​

Both major clients are supported:

• SABnzbd — host, port, API key (plus an optional URL base when a proxy serves it under a subpath, e.g. /sabnzbd)
• NZBGet — host, port, username/password

Plus a category (e.g. backissue) so comic downloads stay separate in your client, and a poll interval / timeout for the monitor that watches for finished downloads.

Completed-download paths ​

If BackIssue and your Usenet client run on different machines (or one is in Docker), the client's "completed downloads" folder has two names — the path the client sees and the path BackIssue sees. Set both:

• Completed folder (client's view) — e.g. /downloads/complete/backissue
• Completed folder (BackIssue's view) — e.g. \\NAS\downloads\complete\backissue

If both run on the same machine with the same paths, set just one (or neither, if the client reports absolute paths BackIssue can read).

Torrents ​

Same shape as Usenet: Torznab indexers (via Prowlarr or Jackett) plus qBittorrent as the download client.

• Torznab indexers — one or more URL + API key entries. Prowlarr gives you a Torznab URL per indexer it manages.
• qBittorrent — host, port, username/password, optional SSL.
• URL base — set this when a reverse proxy serves the client under a subpath rather than at the root, so its API lives at http://host:port/qbittorrent/api/…. Blank for a normal install. (Seedbox providers commonly do this; it's the same field the *arr apps call "URL Base".) Transmission and Deluge have the same option.
• Category — keeps BackIssue's torrents grouped in qBittorrent.
• Completed-folder mapping — same two-path idea as Usenet, for remote/Docker setups.

Grabbed torrents are handed to qBittorrent and monitored to completion; the finished file is then imported, tagged, and filed like any other download. Seeding continues per your qBittorrent rules — BackIssue copies files in rather than moving them.

The weekly 0-day pack ​

An optional torrent-only automation: each week the scene releases a "0-day" pack containing that week's comics. With the zero-day schedule enabled, BackIssue grabs the newest weekly pack, and when it completes, imports only the issues you're missing from series you track — optionally adding brand-new series it finds (zeroDayAddNew). It never re-grabs a week it has already processed.

MangaDex ​

The MangaDex plugin downloads manga chapters: it finds the wanted chapter, fetches its pages and hands the app a finished file — no download client or indexer involved. A manga series added from the hosted metadata service already carries its MangaDex identity, so a chapter maps straight to the right upload; any other series is looked up by title and matched against its names and aliases.

Enable it in Settings → Sources → MangaDex, where you can set which chapter languages to accept (best first), which scanlation groups to prefer when a chapter has several uploads, and whether to take the smaller data-saver images. Otherwise the newest readable upload wins. A manual search from an issue's ⋯ menu lists every upload with its group, language and page count, so you can pick a different one.

WeebCentral ​

The WeebCentral plugin downloads manga chapters from the site: it finds the chapter, fetches its pages and hands the app a finished file. The site sits behind Cloudflare, so set the FlareSolverr URL in Settings → Downloading — one setting shared by every source that needs it — and this works on the standard build; on the browser build it can also fall back to the built-in browser.

A manual search from an issue's ⋯ menu lists the matching chapter of each candidate series with its release date.

MangaTaro ​

The MangaTaro plugin downloads manga chapters from the site. It needs nothing extra: ordinary requests on the standard build, no Cloudflare helper and no account. Enable it in Settings → Sources → MangaTaro and set which chapter languages you accept, best first.

Among the uploads of a chapter, the first language you listed wins, then the newest. Chapters that are prose rather than scans are skipped. A manual search from an issue's ⋯ menu lists every upload with its language, scanlation group and release date.

Atsumaru ​

The Atsumaru plugin downloads manga chapters from the site, needing nothing extra: ordinary requests on the standard build, no Cloudflare helper and no account. Enable it in Settings → Sources → Atsumaru.

Series are matched against the site's own alternate titles as well as the names your library holds, so a series listed under a different title is still found. When a chapter number has been uploaded more than once, the newest wins, and a manual search from an issue's ⋯ menu lists every upload with its page count.

Anna's Archive ​

The Anna's Archive plugin downloads books (EPUB and PDF) for Books libraries — an approved book request, for instance. Comic and manga libraries never search it.

It works with or without a membership. With a member account's secret key (from your account page on the site; masked on the card), files come through the site's fast-download API — a direct link, no browser check per file — and the log shows how many fast downloads you have left after each one. Without a key, files come from the site's free slow partner servers: a browser check per file, a slower transfer, and a daily limit per IP; a server that asks for a wait is waited out once, one that asks for a captcha is skipped for the next. Test connection checks the key without spending a download, or, with no key, that the site answers.

What it does need is:

• The browser build of the app (the image tagged -browser). The search page checks for a real browser and escalates headless browsers and FlareSolverr to a manual captcha, so the app's own browser clears it; after that its cookies carry ordinary requests for a while. On the standard build the source stays off and the card says why.

Set the languages you accept, best first (en, de; empty = any). The site moves between domains now and then — change the Site URL on the card when it does. Among matches, your first language wins, then EPUB over PDF, then the larger file.

Source priority ​

Settings lists every enabled source in a drag-to-reorder priority list. For each issue, sources are tried top to bottom — first match wins, so put your fastest/cleanest source first and slower or scarcer ones lower as fallbacks.

Priority also shapes manual search result ranking and pack searches.

Which should I use? ​

Whatever you have. Practical notes:

• Usenet is fast and reliable for recent comics and popular back-catalogue; retention limits very old material.
• Torrents shine for weekly 0-day packs and long-tail material with healthy swarms.
• Plugin sources can cover the gaps both leave. The AirDC++ source adds Direct Connect (DC++) — good for long-tail material, with some etiquette and rate limits worth reading first. See Plugins for the plugin system.