Reading List and Sync FAQ

How does the Sync feature work?

The Sync feature works by creating bookmarks on AO3 for the works that you add to the list. In this way it is really just a handy shortcut for manually creating bookmarks. However, due to how bookmarks are implemented on AO3, they can be both slow, and there is no good way to update them without needing to delete and then recreate them. Therefore another place to store data was also needed. For this Sync uses collections. But not in way you might think it would. Instead of adding bookmarks/works to the collection, all the data is instead stored inside the Introduction field in the collection settings. This allows Sync to very quickly fetch a lot of information without needing to sift through perhaps hundreds of pages of bookmarks.

How can I use it on my phone?

Please see Usage on Android. Note that usage on iOS/iPadOS devices seems to be impossible at the moment. (please correct me if I'm wrong!)

How can I keep using my own bookmarks?

If you are using a different Pseud for Sync than the one you normally bookmark from, Sync will be perfectly able to create bookmarks of works that you have already bookmarked. The other way around (Sync having created a bookmark, and now you want to create one too for the same work) is a little more difficult - when going to the work page you will see that you only have "Edit bookmark" and no "Create bookmark". Unfortunately this is only something that the AO3 development team can fix, and while it does seem like they are aware of the issue, it does not seem to have any priority. In the meantime you can append /bookmarks/new to the work page URL to create another bookmark for the same work. (full URL would then be https://archiveofourown.org/works/WORKID/bookmarks/new)

( NOTE: TODO: This is not the case danmit)

What does the "Do not delete manually" tag on my bookmarks mean?

This tag is added because AO3 Enhancements expects the bookmark to exist, and if you delete it via the AO3 website, then AO3 Enhancements will no longer be able to fetch updates for that work, but it will still think that it is able to. If you want to delete a bookmark, first delete it from your reading list, and then do a sync. It should automatically be removed. Alternatively if you just want to prevent other users from seeing the bookmark, then you can instead edit the bookmark and set it to private.

Why not store the data in the bookmark instead of in the collection?

This would require updating the bookmark every time a thing changes (such as a chapter read, rating changed etc.). This would put a lot of strain on AO3's servers, by using a collection, these changed are all updated in one go. Additionally Sync would then need to check through these bookmarks every time a sync is run - since when updating a bookmark the bookmark date is unaltered - putting even more strain on AO3's servers.

Is this not putting a lot of strain on AO3's servers?

The only heavy operation is the handling of bookmarks, and care has been taken to ensure that these requests are spread out and won't accidentally rate limit AO3. Also see the question above.