Read your comics from a NAS, without filling your iPad

A comic collection quickly takes up tens of gigabytes. Kept on a NAS at home, it leaves your tablet’s storage free: Foldbook reads the files where they are, page by page, on iPhone, iPad and Android.

What you need

A device that holds your files and stays on: a NAS (Synology, QNAP, Asustor…), or a Mac or PC sharing a folder. Your comics as CBZ, CBR, CB7 or PDF, your novels as EPUB. And Foldbook on your phone or tablet.

Get started in four steps

1. Put your books in a shared folderOne folder per library (Comics, Manga, Books), then one subfolder per series. On a Synology, create the folder in Control Panel › Shared Folder, then copy your files into it from your computer.
2. Check that SMB sharing is onOn a Synology: Control Panel › File Services › SMB. It’s the share your computer uses to open the folder, so it’s often already on.
3. Add the NAS in FoldbookTap “+” in the library, type the NAS address, your username and password, then pick the folder to read. The password stays on your device, in encrypted storage.
4. ReadSeries line up with their covers. A CBZ opens without being downloaded: Foldbook only fetches the pages you read. For a flight, download a volume or a whole series, and remove them once read.

Reading away from home

SMB sharing only works on your home network. To read on mobile data, at work or on holiday, you have three options:

• WebDAV. A Synology offers it through the WebDAV Server package. Add its https address in Foldbook and your library opens anywhere.
• A VPN such as Tailscale, installed on the NAS and on your devices. Foldbook then sees the NAS as if you were home.
• Foldbook Server. A Docker container on your NAS, set up in two minutes, with no port to open on your router. It goes through our relay and also lets you lend your library to family and friends. Remote reading needs Foldbook+. Install guide

Already running Komga, Kavita or Calibre-Web?

Add your server as an OPDS catalog: Foldbook shows its shelves and search. A book picked from a catalog is downloaded to the device before you read it.

No NAS?

On iPhone and iPad, a folder from iCloud Drive, Synology Drive or a USB drive, picked in the Files app, becomes a library read in place, without a copy. iOS only downloads an iCloud file when you open it.

On Android too

Foldbook runs on Android with the same reader: SMB shares, WebDAV, OPDS catalogs, CBR included. With an optional account, a volume started on your iPad picks up on the same page on an Android phone.

Questions