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Using the Library

The Library is where you import books, switch storage sources, browse by reading state, series, or tags, and choose books for bulk actions.

Opening books

In normal browsing mode, click a book card or list row to open it in the reader. The keyboard-focused book can also be opened with Enter.

Select mode

Select mode is for choosing one or more visible books before running a bulk action. Use the check control on a book to enter select mode and select that book.

While select mode is active:

  • Click a book card or list row to select or deselect it.
  • Shift + click selects the visible range between the last anchor book and the clicked book.
  • Drag a selection box across visible book cards or rows to add them to the selection.
  • Use arrow keys to move the keyboard focus.
  • Press Space or Enter to select or deselect the focused book.
  • Press Shift + an arrow key to extend the selection from the current anchor.
  • Press Ctrl + A or Cmd + A to select all visible books.
  • Press Esc or the close button in the select toolbar to leave select mode.

Selection follows the current library filter and sort order. If you switch to a different shelf, series, or tag, books that are no longer visible are removed from the active selection. Use Select all visible when you want every book in the current filtered view.

Bulk actions

After selecting books, the select toolbar can update series, add or remove tags, blur or show covers, mark progress as complete or unread, export the selection, open statistics for selected local books, delete statistics, or delete the selected books. Supporters can also set or clear the author for selected books.

Some actions depend on the current storage source. For example, renaming and local statistics actions are only available for books stored in this browser.

Complete local backups

Use More library actions -> Get complete local backup when you want one portable .zip copy of the data Yatsu has stored in this browser. This is different from exporting a selected set of books: it always reads from the local Browser library and includes every supported local book-data type Yatsu can export.

The backup can include local books, current reading positions, saved bookmarks, highlights and notes, statistics, reading goals, audiobook state, subtitle data, covers, and a versioned settings snapshot. The settings snapshot is limited to known safe Yatsu settings such as Reader, Tracking, Library, and Statistics preferences. It does not include account sign-in, cloud authorization, browser extension data, uploaded local font files, or unrelated browser storage.

To restore the backup in another browser, choose Browser as the storage source, then use Import -> Import Backup and select the downloaded zip. Older backup zips without a settings snapshot still import normally. If a future backup contains settings that the current Yatsu version does not recognize, those unknown settings are ignored.

Book actions

Open a book's three-dot menu to update per-book details such as series, tags, cover visibility, and reading progress. The details submenu shows stored metadata such as author, character count, last read time, bookmark time, and last update time when available.

The library display settings can show optional cover-card details. Press Q in the library to toggle this panel. Author, series, tags, and character count appear as compact strips when those fields are enabled and available, with multiple tags shown as comma-separated text.

Yatsu groups compatible shelves by series by default. Use Group by -> Author to group by author instead, or None to return to a flat grid. Grouping works on shelves such as All books, Unread, Reading, Completed, Tags, and Untagged. Each row header opens that series or author shelf, matching the sidebar. Books in the Not in a series or No author section use the normal cover grid at the bottom instead of a horizontal row, so large loose-book collections stay scannable. When a series or author row has more covers off to the side, edge arrows appear to move that row one cover at a time. Series shelves can be grouped by author, and author shelves can be grouped by series. A series shelf is not grouped by series, and an author shelf is not grouped by author.

Yatsu Supporters can also choose Change cover from this menu and upload a JPG or PNG image. This replaces the book's stored cover. For browser libraries, the replacement is saved in this browser. For Drive, OneDrive, and file-system libraries, the replacement is saved as the book's cover file in that storage source, so other devices using the same library can display it.

Yatsu imports author metadata from new EPUB/HTMLZ imports when the book file includes creator metadata. Supporters can also choose Edit author from the book menu to choose an existing author or add, change, or clear the stored author field for any book. The Authors section in the sidebar also has Supporter-only actions to rename an author across matching books or delete the author value from those books.