Your device
Use ShelfChronicles offline, find an answer and take your data with you.
Offline
With Keep a copy on this device on, pages you have already opened stay available offline. New sessions wait on this device until they can sync.
What works with no signal
With no signal, pages you have opened come from the copy kept on this device. A session you log goes into the outbox, which sends it as soon as you are back online. There is nothing to press.
Home, Stats, Top 10, your weekly letters and the Inbox open on what this device kept last time, with a line saying how old it is, and the new answer replaces it when it arrives. A page with nothing kept shows an outline while it loads, then says Still fetching. The Feed is always live.
What you see while a session waits
While there is no connection, a pill says Offline and how many sessions are waiting (above your account in the sidebar on a computer, across the top of the tab bar on a phone). The session sits in History with a Waiting stamp until it goes.
When the connection comes back, the pill's count rolls down to 0 and each stamp turns to Saved.
When a page will not open
With no connection, a page this device has never opened says it could not load, and tries again when the connection is back. Online, a page that will not load usually means ShelfChronicles was updated while it was open. It reloads once by itself, and if it still will not open, press Reload.
More on logging with no signal:
Logging offline.
Great Western Trail
Tonight · 1h 20m
The copy on this device
Keep a copy on this device (Settings > Import and export) decides whether the copy that makes offline work is kept. It is on by default.
Open Settings > Import and export and find the This device card. Keep a copy on this device is its switch.
On a shared or public computer, turn it off.
Installing the app from this card
Above that switch is Install the app, until the app is installed. The steps are in Install the app.
What turning it off removes
With it off, nothing of yours stays in the browser once you close it, except sessions still waiting to send, which leave as soon as they are sent. Signing out always removes the copy.
Why the copy is not encrypted
The copy is not encrypted, on purpose. In a browser the key would have to sit on the same device as the copy, so it would stop nobody who can open this browser. Not keeping a copy is the honest version.
Keyboard shortcuts
On a computer, most of ShelfChronicles is a key away. The keys work anywhere you are not typing in a field, and ? shows this list in the app:
The keys to learn first
L is the one to learn, it opens the log sheet from any page, and Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac) saves it.
G then a number goes to a place: 1 Home, 2 Shelves, 3 History, 4 Stats, 5 Top 10, 6 Tier lists, 7 Discover, 8 Pick for me, 9 Letters. The sidebar shows each number when you point at its place. G then H, S or T reaches History, Stats and Trophies by their letter.
After G, a strip shows each key; g in the search lists them.
Search
One search for pages, settings, the guide and your items (/ or Ctrl+K). It knows your own titles first, and logs a session typed in one line.
Open Search: press / or Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac), or tap the magnifying glass on a phone or tablet.
Type what you mean rather than the page's name: dark mode finds Theme.
Press Enter to open the page it found; on a phone or tablet, tap its row.
Every way to open Search
On a computer
Search, at the top of the sidebar.
On a phone or tablet
The magnifying glass, at the top of the first screen of Home, Shelves, History and More. On a screen opened from one of those, go Back first.
From the keyboard
/ anywhere you are not typing, or Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac) from anywhere, even from inside a field.
What Search finds
Search finds pages, settings, chapters of this guide and, signed in, your own items, people, session notes and the volumes of a series, then what the catalogues behind your shelves have. It also reads your own notes on your items, and says which note matched.
A row that has a chapter here carries a small Guide link, and Tab (or the right arrow) opens the chapter instead of the page.
With the box empty, it shows your recent searches on this device and the items you logged last.
Your own items come first
Search knows what is yours first.
A slip in one of your own titles (wingspn) offers Did you mean Wingspan? first.
A tag you use, typed whole (co-op, or #co-op), lists what carries it.
An item's catalogue code (SC-2024-0041, in Your copy on its page) opens that item's page.
The Log sheet's search does the same.
Logging a session from Search
Search logs too. Type a session in one line, such as root 1h with maya won, and the top row shows the session it would make; Enter saves it with the usual receipt and Undo.
When something is unclear (two people called Sam, no length), it opens the Log sheet with the rest filled in.
Any item you have or have played has Log on its row; an item on your wishlist, pre-ordered or sold opens instead.
Catalogue results
A catalogue result has Wishlist, Add and Log. One that is already yours says what it is to you instead and opens it. Log asks first, since it puts the item on that shelf.
When nothing matches, the box says so and offers to add the item by hand, with the title filled in.
Offline, and signed out
What happens offline
With no connection it searches what is on this device, and says the catalogues need a connection.
When you are signed out
Signed out, the header has a Guide button in place of the magnifying glass. It searches this guide and the public pages.
Your data
Your data is yours: export all of it free, block anyone, or delete the account for good. The plan adds looks and the explorer, never your history.
Export, blocking and deleting your account
Your data is yours, and three places in Settings are about exactly that:
Export your data
(Settings > Import and export) downloads everything as one zip: JSON, a CSV for each table, and the pictures you uploaded. It is always free, on any plan.
Blocked users
(at the end of Settings > Who sees what): nothing of theirs appears anywhere you look, and nothing of yours reaches them. Unblocking never brings back a friendship or a follow.
Delete my account
(at the foot of Settings > Account) removes your account, your collection and your history for good, straight away. You type your username to confirm, because it cannot be undone. Export first if you want to keep a copy.
Your plan, and gift codes
Settings > Plan says what your account has. ShelfChronicles is free, with no cap on your collection or your history. Supporter adds the stats explorer, looks (accent colours, avatar flair, decorations), your own cover designs and a supporter badge if you want one.
Your history, your recaps and your export are never behind the plan. For the looks, one by one, see
Make it yours.
From Settings > Plan, Give a gift buys three or twelve months of Supporter as a code for someone else, and Redeem a gift code takes one you were given.
Settings > Budget
Settings > Budget holds the Budget page's settings: Home currency (every Budget total is shown in it), Notify me at (the share of a budget, from 50 to 99%, at which a notification reaches your Inbox) and Weeks start on (Monday or Sunday).
What you spend is never shown on anything another person can open, and your export carries it.
Two kinds of email, each with its own switch: the weekly letter, off until you ask, and what people send you. No newsletters, no marketing, no tracking.
The two emails
ShelfChronicles can email you two things, and nothing else. Both are in Settings > Notifications and email, each with its own switch:
The weekly letter
is off until you ask for it, from a letter, Home's letter card or Settings. It comes on Monday morning in your time zone, for any week that has a letter.
Trades and people
is on from the start, because each is something another person did that waits on you: a trade note, a friend request, a Circle invite. A few at once come as one email, at most one an hour.
The address they go to
Emails go to the address you sign in with at Google or Apple; Settings shows which. With no verified address, nothing is sent and Settings says so.
Your address is never shown to anyone else, unless you choose Share my email in a trade you both agreed to.
See Trade notes, in Trades.
Unsubscribing, and what is never sent
Every email has an unsubscribe link that works without signing in, and your mail app's own Unsubscribe button works too. Either takes effect at once.
There are no newsletters and no marketing, and no tracking in the emails.