So I finally have 2 iPads with the same comic present in the local files library. How will this work?
The second iPad is still indexing but as of now I can see the Reading Progress accurately but the comics in the library do not reflect reading status and completion.
It should be completely transparent if you are logged in with the same Panels account on both devices.
You can configure your library to show the reading progress. Make sure “Show progress bar” is enabled in the “Reading Progress” section. If I recall correctly, it’s not enabled by default.
Major Edit
I have the show progress and completion turned on.
How is the reading progress and completion applied? If I put it in a different collection from where I originally placed it, does it make it difficult to index this? Will renaming the file also cause problems?
I put 3000+ titles on a different collection and name and I was stuck on an indexing loop. This is how it was setup. My oldest device is a 1TB 2018 iPad. It is my pull list device. Unfortunately, due to life circumstances I wasn’t able to read all the pulls I have. I recently purchased another 2021 2TB iPad. It was able to contain one chronological collection that I had on my spare 2020 1TB iPad and my pull list plus backlog. Originally I did not use my Panels 2 multiple collections feature. Now that I’m combining the content of at least 2 iPad, I am trying to sort it using different collection names than what they originally had. This is where the progress display encounters problems during syncing and indexing content.
I unfortunately had to delete the app to stop it as it was draining the battery.
How is the reading progress and completion applied? If I put it in a different collection from where I originally placed it, does it make it difficult to index this? Will renaming the file also cause problems?
The reading progress is associated with the file binary hash. You can move the file wherever you like and rename it, and the binary hash will remain the same. Panels should be able to find the proper reading progress for your files. Unless you modify the file content, the binary hash remains the same.
About the indexing issues: We would need more specific information to know exactly what’s going on, but I suggest you import your library in smaller chunks. Indexing the library requires calculating the binary hash for each individual file (which can take some time on files larger than 1GB) and generating the thumbnails. If you dump a few thousand comics at once, it will take some time to index them.
I’ve never seen or received any reports of Panels getting stuck in an indexing loop. Are you sure it was looping? The index progress popup shows the file name being indexed.
By the way. If you move a file to a different location using an external app (like Files.app), Panels will have to re-index it, yes. If you move the file inside Panels it won’t, because it can carry over the index information.
I moved the location internally using collections (or directly importing comics after making a collection etc.) and the reading and completion history is still broken for some reason. Comics that would be considered 100% read while browsing the history of “Reading Now” would sometimes appear unread if they were moved or imported inside a collection. But there are times, the progress and completion are respected by the app. This was one of the reason I was afraid of using collections to organize the comics.