Sync and Supporter

Koona Pin is free. Supporter is an optional subscription that keeps the project going and adds a few extras. For prices, taxes and refunds, see Pricing.

What stays free#

Supporter takes nothing away from the free version. The library, the browser button, search, backups, import and export, feeds, reading mode and AI assistants stay free. Your library is a file on your computer whether you pay or not, and ending Supporter never touches it.

What Supporter adds#

• Sync between your computers, Reading list and reading progress included. See Sync between your computers.
• Automatic backups to a folder of your choice, such as one that Dropbox or Google Drive keeps. See Automatic backups to a folder.
• Paper and Sepia, two more themes in the Aa panel of reading mode.
• A Supporter badge: the heart in the sidebar, in the colour of the season.

Get Supporter#

In the app#

1. Click Support Koona Pin at the bottom of the sidebar.
2. Choose a plan and press Continue.
3. The payment page opens in your browser. Paddle, our reseller, handles the payment and the taxes.
4. Pay. Koona Pin notices the payment by itself, even if you close the dialog, and says Thank you for supporting Koona Pin.

If the page didn’t open, or you closed it, press Open the page again. If the email you paid with already has a Koona Pin account, the app says Payment received and asks you to sign in with a code.

On the website#

Choose a plan on the pricing page and pay there. Then sign in in the app, as below.

Sign in, manage and cancel#

Sign in on a computer#

Sign in on each computer where you want Supporter, for example one that didn’t make the purchase:

1. Click Support Koona Pin in the sidebar, then I’m already a Supporter.
2. Enter the email you paid with and press Send code.
3. Enter the 6-digit code from the email and press Sign in.

There is no password. This code is only for signing in; it is not the code you compare when you add a computer to sync.

If the account has no active plan, the dialog says so and offers See plans. If the plan can’t be checked right now, it says that too, and the app tries again within the hour. Already a Supporter? Wait before buying again.

Manage your plan#

As a Supporter, the heart at the bottom of the sidebar reads Supporter. Click it to see your plan, for example when it renews, or that it doesn’t renew and Supporter lasts until a date.

• Manage opens Paddle’s customer page in your browser, where you can cancel. Cancel any time: Supporter stays until the end of the period you paid for.
• Update card appears when a renewal didn’t go through.
• Switch to 5 years appears for a subscription that renews, while the five-year plan is on sale. You pay once; your current plan runs until the end of its paid period and stops renewing, and the five years start that day.

Sign out removes your account and plan from this computer only. Your subscription goes on, your library is not touched, and you can sign in again later.

If you are offline#

Your plan is checked with Koona’s server about once a week, daily in the last three days of a paid period, and when you open the Supporter dialog. Without a connection, Supporter keeps working for up to 30 days after the last successful check, but not more than a week past the end of the period you paid for. When that time is running out, the dialog says until when the plan stays on.

Sync between your computers#

With sync, the same library is on all your computers: a link you save on one appears on the others.

What syncs and what stays local#

Sync carries your bookmarks, collections and tags, the Reading list and where you stopped reading, and the feeds you follow with the names you gave them.

These stay on each computer: the posts in your feeds and their read marks, offline copies of articles, and your settings.

How it works and what Koona sees#

Your computers talk through a relay run by Koona. Changes are encrypted on your computers before they leave them, with a key only your computers have, so the relay can neither read nor change them. The relay stores nothing of your library and only passes changes between computers that are online. It keeps the list of your computers (their names, status and when each was last seen) and which one is the main one.

So sync works only while Koona Pin is running on two computers at the same time. A change waits on the computer where you made it until another of your computers is online. If your laptop and your desktop are never on together, they never meet. Keeping Koona Pin in the tray, or starting it with the system, helps: see Settings.

Details of what the app sends, and when, are in the privacy policy.

Set up the main computer#

One computer is the main one: only it adds and removes your other computers. Changes sync between all of them, main or not.

1. Open Settings, and under Data press Set up… next to Sync. (The sync row of the Supporter dialog does the same.)
2. Check This computer’s name. Your other computers will see it.
3. Press Turn on sync.

Add another computer#

1. On the other computer, install Koona Pin and sign in as a Supporter with the same email.
2. Press Set up… next to Sync, then Turn on sync. The bookmarks already on this computer stay and merge in.
3. This computer shows a code and waits for the main computer.
4. On the main computer, a dialog says the other computer wants to join, with a code. If both show the same code, press Codes match. If you didn’t ask to add a computer, press Reject.
5. The library arrives on the new computer. You can keep working meanwhile.

The main computer must be running. If it is offline, it is asked again when it is back.

Manage your computers#

Manage… (in Settings or the Supporter dialog) shows your computers, which one is the main one, and which are online:

• Sync now syncs without waiting.
• Rename… changes this computer’s name.
• Remove… (on the main computer only) stops syncing another computer. Its library stays on it, and your other computers get a new key, so it can’t read anything sent after that.
• Make this the main computer asks the main computer to hand over the role; it has to Allow it.
• Turn off here stops sync on this computer. Its library stays.
• Details shows the state of sync. Copy report copies a report for the developer, with states and ids only: no bookmarks, no names.

If the main computer is lost or offline for a long time, Start over… on another computer makes that one the main one and disconnects the others. You confirm with a code sent to your email. Nothing is deleted: each computer keeps its library, and when you add them again they merge back.

When sync pauses or waits#

You see	What to do
Waiting · your other computers are offline	Start Koona Pin on another computer. Changes wait until one is online.
Waiting · this computer is offline	Reconnect to the internet. Changes go out then.
Waiting for … to approve this computer	Approve it on the main computer: see Add another computer.
Paused · update Koona Pin	After some updates, sync waits until every computer has the new version. Update the computer with the older one; the dialog names the computer that has the newer version.
Paused · check your clock	Set the right time on this computer.
Paused · Supporter isn’t active	Press Renew…, or sign in again in the Supporter dialog. Your library stays on the computer.
Paused · sign in again	Press Sign in… and use the code from your email.
Paused · sync was started over on another computer	Press Join…; your bookmarks merge back.
Paused · too many computers	Remove a computer on the main computer.
Stopped · this computer was removed	Your library stays here. Press Add again to sync it.
Sync stopped: the library was replaced	You restored a backup. Add the computer again and it merges with your other computers.
Sync runs in another copy of Koona Pin	Close the other copy, then try again.
This build has no sync	Install Koona Pin from the downloads page.

Automatic backups to a folder#

Koona Pin already makes automatic backups in its own backups folder. With Supporter, every automatic copy (and Back up now) is also copied into a folder you choose, such as one that Dropbox or Google Drive keeps in the cloud.

1. Click Supporter at the bottom of the sidebar.
2. Next to Automatic backups to a folder, press Choose folder… and pick the folder.
3. The row shows the folder and when the last copy was made. Change… picks another folder, Open folder opens it, and Stop copying here ends it.

The folder keeps copies the same way: the newest of each of the last 7 days and of 4 earlier weeks. Koona Pin removes only copies this computer put there; other files, and the copies of your other computers in the same folder, are left alone. If the folder can’t be reached, the row says so, and Choose… picks another.

Without an active plan nothing is copied, and the folder stays chosen for when the plan is back. To restore one of these copies, use Choose a file… in Restore from a backup.

Turn off the badge colour#

While you are a Supporter, the heart at the bottom of the sidebar is filled in the colour of the season. The Supporter badge switch in the Supporter dialog turns that off; the heart stays as a plain outline and still opens the dialog.