xgi
Viewed Chapters Being Reset to Not Viewed
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Houdoku version
2.16.0
Operating system
Windows 10 Pro
Steps to reproduce
I am unable to reproduce this issue. I can say that it has happened multiple times for different titles.
Expected behavior
Once a chapter is read it should never be reset unless I specifically change the setting myself.
Actual behavior
N/A
Log files
There is no log folder located in the /roaming/houdoku/ folder.
Additional information (optional)
I am unable to determine what is causing the resetting of viewed chapters. A group of titles that I have completely read up to the latest available chapter I have not seen this issue with. I have only seen this issue with titles that I have only read some of the chapters. I only have a guess. My guess is maybe when a new chapter is added to the title it causes the previously read chapters to reset.
If you think of anything you want me to add please advise. Thank you.
I think the reading state is also stored in the /roaming/houdoku/ folder so maybe it's a problem of Houdoku not being able to access that location (either because of a read-only folder or a user limited access), it could also be the location disappearing in the eyes of Houdoku (if /roaming/houdoku/ is located in a ram disk or on an external storage or if there's a problem with the drive like a lose connector or a formatting issue or simply errors because of age) forcing it to recreate the reading state file ? You could start by trying to create a new folder in /roaming/houdoku/ to see if it works. And if it asks you for adminitrator rights, you can try to launch Houdoku as administrator.
ok question, was this only happening with stuff from mangadex.. and now is anyone else unable to get anything from mangadex after it came back online?
Hello, most of my downloads have come from "MagnaFire". I use them because they only have the chapters where Magnadex includes volumes. That way I don't have rename everything to remove the volume information. By the way Willishakes thank you for the information. I believe that what you talk about would have an effect on all of my titles. But only a few as far as I can tell have had the chapters read count reset. That is why it is so hard to get an idea what is really happening.
Thank you.
Oh right sorry my bad, I didn't think of that because i recently have been using an other program to download my series and replacing them one by one in houdoku (easier for me to manage) so It's been a while but I also had that problem once and it was because the chapters on the site were updated (in my case to a better quality) and it seems every chapter has a unique id in houdoku (which is also used for the reading state) so the updated chapters were given new ids which, for houdoku, I hadn't read yet.
This also brought another problem for me as the downloaded chapters are also stored with those ids but since there's only the updated chapters on the site the old ones didn't exist for houdoku anymore so I had to redownload all the chapters and delete manually the old ones (thankfully there was enough time between the downloads so it was easy to identify them).
Anyway it could be that for you too and it shouldn't be too hard to find out : You can start by adding a filesystem series (to be sure since those should never be reset and if they do then the problem has nothing to do with what I'm telling you) Then you can download at least one chapter of your series and when they are reset download the same chapter(s) and go to the download folder where you can compare the new one with the old one.
I realise though that if this can help understand the problem, it doesn't solve it. Sorry
One workaround I can think of is to try to use a tracker ? No idea if it'll work though, I'm not using one myself (not even tried yet).
My process is as follows. I find the story I wish to read. I create a folder for that story. I use Free Manga Downloader to download and save the story (.cbz). And finally use Houdoku to read.
I found that when using Free Manga Downloader if I need to re-download chapters it just over writes the existing.
I will continue to try and see if this issue continues. But sadly it is so hard to really track I doubt anything will come of it.
Thank you.
Unfortunately I have noticed some other partially read stories have had their read chapters reset to none. I took a look at the folder that WilliShakes mentions and looked at the folders properties. (Please see attached pictures).
Since I am the only one who uses this computer all users shown have full control as shown.
I am going to try and make a backup of my current settings, uninstall the program, re-install the program. and then restore the backup. Hopefully I will not loose any current settings and links.
I will let you know if I see any changes after doing that.
Thanks
On the note of backup, Houdoku backups contains the reading state. It could be interesting to see if restoring a backup also restore the reading state of the series that have been reset (by creating a backup and restoring it after a series is reset).
Hello WilliShakes, so I tried what you suggested and I do not see any indication the the data that is backed up has any effect on the reading state. My earliest backup was from 05/02/2025 compared to my latest 06/04/2025.
The version I downloaded this time was the Houdoku-2.16.0-win.zip. Even though this seems to be the portable version it still created the same folder structure under /roaming/houdoku/.
Speaking of versions do you know what the difference between the Houdoku-Setup-2.16.0.exe and the Houdoku-Setup-2.16.0.exe.blockmap is?
It stills seems weird that if all of the chapters have been read they stay that way. I even have a couple that just had a new chapter added and so far they have not had any issues.
I guess I will have to keep digging for a fix.
As always thank you for your support.
So, just to make sure I understood you correctly : you tried to restore a backup from last month but it didn't restore the reading state of the series that got reset between last month and today. Is that it ? Or did it not restore the reading state of any series (so 0 chapter of your whole library is marked as read) ?
As for blockmap file it's just an archive (gzip) that contains a json file, which is just a text file listing all the files that are made when building the software (so I think it's mainly used by people building from sources to make sure there's no errors). Someone explained the differences of the windows files here: https://github.com/xgi/houdoku/discussions/340 But all versions store the configuration files in /Roaming/Houdoku/. By the way, has the logs folder been created with the portable version ?
Hello WilliShakes, I did not see any read state changes to any of my files.
Thank you for the explanation and link.
No currently there is no logs folder.
Thank you.