Frequently Asked Questions

This is the main download button. Tap it and the app takes the link from the clipboard and starts the download. It uses the first supported link it finds, including a link inside a longer text.

If there is no supported link, an alert says No link found. Copy a link and try again.

While a download is running, tapping the pond does nothing. Links you share to Black Duck from other apps during a download are added to the queue.

If you have used up today's free downloads, a short rewarded ad plays before the download starts.

In queue: N is the number of links waiting to download.

While a download runs, the status line shows Downloading X of Y when several files are in one batch, or Already downloading for a single file.

If something was just downloaded, the button shows +1. Tapping it opens the folder with the new item. If the item came from Amazon, the Amazon tab opens instead.

If nothing new was downloaded, the button opens the history in the All tab.

Five shortcuts: Radio, Audio (LibriVox catalog), Books (Open Library), TV Channels and Podcasts. Tapping one opens that section of the library.

To hide them and keep only the pond, turn off the API buttons option in Settings > Personalize.

When you have two or more lists, they appear as pill buttons in the top row. Tap one to switch to it. Each list has its own library. A lock icon next to the name means the list is locked with a password.

Tapping the list that is already open locks it again if it has a password.

+ creates a new list. You can have up to five lists.

− deletes the open list. It is shown when you have two or more lists. A list that still has items is not deleted; the app tells you how many items it holds.

A menu opens with: Rename; Block now (locks the list with its password); Unlock or Remove lock (depending on your access); and Delete.

A locked list asks for its password before you can change or delete its contents.

It opens the Sleep Timer menu: off, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. The time left is shown next to the icon, in green during the last minute.

During the last 20 seconds the volume fades out. When the timer reaches zero, playback is paused.

It opens the app settings.

It appears while something is playing. It has three parts: a play/pause button; the title (tap it to open the current item); and an ✕ button that stops playback.

It opens the Last Added list in the library: the items you downloaded most recently.

It opens the Last Viewed list in the library: the items you opened most recently.

The free version of Black Duck shows ads at the bottom of the main screen and in the library. A premium plan removes them. See the Privacy Policy for how ads work.

It closes the library and returns you to the main screen. If a folder is open, ✕ closes only the folder.

It shows statistics. On the Books tab it opens the Reading Hub: quotes, tags and statistics. On other tabs it shows the statistics for that tab. Inside a folder it shows the statistics for that folder.

On the Audio and Photos tabs, this button creates a new folder. You enter its name in the dialog that opens.

▶ plays the whole folder in order, each track from the start. ⟳ turns on album repeat: after the last track the folder starts again. This is not the same as the repeat button inside the player, which repeats one track.

Tap the magnifying glass. Search looks at the title, author and notes. Matching words are highlighted. To close the search field, tap ✕ in it.

This is the history: everything you opened and downloaded, in order of last use. If the history is empty, the screen says "History is empty".

The clock icon is the same as the "Last Viewed" button on the main screen.

All downloaded videos. Tap a video to watch it; if you watched it before, playback continues from the same place.

Available actions: Subtitles; Extract audio (saves the sound as a separate file); Share; Move to folder; Delete. Press and hold to open the menu; swipe a row to delete it.

If the file is missing from the device, the app offers to restore it. Restoring does not use today's free download limit.

Subscriptions to YouTube channels are also shown in this tab.

Two buttons: TV (live channels) and Radio (online stations). You can search channels and stations, filter them by country and genre, and open them on a world map.

The "Add radio or TV" button lets you add your own stream by its link. Such streams are deleted by swiping left.

Images you downloaded or imported. Tap a photo to open it full screen.

Available actions: Slideshow (shows the photos one by one, including a folder); Save to Photos (a copy goes to the system Photos library; allow access to Photos in the iPhone settings); Share; Delete (swipe). Create folders with the "+" button.

Audio files and audiobooks. An audiobook made of chapters is shown as one row with a books icon: tap it to open the chapter list.

The "Add free books from Librivox" button opens the LibriVox catalog of free audiobooks.

For chapters, available actions are: Play; Delete chapters; Delete (swipe). Create folders with the "+" button; inside a folder the ▶ and ⟳ buttons work (see above).

The tab has two groups of folders. Shelf folders: Want to Read (books you have not bought yet) and Virtual (books you already have). Reading folders: New, Reading, Paused, Finished.

The "Add books from Open Library" button opens the Open Library catalog. The search field searches all books, including "Want to Read" and "Virtual".

Tap "+" on the Books tab. There are several ways:

• Add by link - paste a link to the book in Apple Books, Google Books or Amazon.
• Find in libraries - search by title and author.
• Scan ISBN - point the camera at the ISBN barcode.
• Manually - enter the title, author and pages. You can add a cover: take a photo, pick one from the gallery or from downloaded photos. The "Add and OCR" button reads the text on the cover and fills in the title and author.

Before saving, the app checks whether the book is already there: "Already in your Want to Read list", "Already on your Virtual shelf" or "You already have this book downloaded".

The app looks for the price of a book in three sources: Apple Books, Google Books and Amazon. Amazon covers the US store only.

For each source it shows one of these states: a price; free; pre-order; "see only" (the book is in the catalog but not for sale); "not found". If there are no prices at all, it shows "Not available".

If the book was added from somewhere other than Amazon, the app searches for it on Amazon by title and author.

If a source does not find the book, you can enter the price yourself in the fields "Real price" and "Where you saw it" (for example, the store name).

It checks the book's prices again in all sources and saves the result. The button is available in the Pro plan.

Every day the app checks the prices of books in "Want to Read". You get a notification when a book goes on sale, or when its price drops by at least $1 (for Apple Books, Google Books and Amazon).

Books you already have: on Kindle, in Apple Books, Google Books or on your device. The "Move to Virtual shelf" button on the book card moves a book from "Want to Read" here. For each book you can say where it is: "Home", your own source or a store.

To move a book back, use "Move to Want to Read".

Amazon prices are checked for the US store only.

The book card shows Amazon as a block with prices for each format. Tapping it opens the product page on Amazon.

The button with a waveform (bottom right) opens podcast search. You can subscribe to a found podcast with Subscribe and unsubscribe with Unsubscribe.

Settings for each podcast: Auto-download; Use cellular data; Delete watched episodes automatically.

An episode row shows the time left (for example, "12 min left"). If episodes did not load, pull the list down to retry.

If an episode was deleted, its place says "Deleted:".

This tab is hidden until the experimental "Amazon Tracking" mode is turned on in Settings > Personalize.

The "+" button adds a product by its Amazon link (US store only). Each product shows its price and when it was last updated. When the price changes, you get a notification.

If the product is still being checked, the app says "Amazon is busy - the item will appear shortly". The "Open in Amazon" button opens the product page. Delete a product by swiping it.

⚙ opens notification settings. If notifications are turned off for the app, tap the button on this screen to open your phone's Settings. Below it, choose which notifications you want for tracked products: Item available, Item not available, Price increased ($1+), Price decreased ($1+) and Used offer. A type you turn off is not sent to you. If you never change these settings, you get all of them.

Swipe left or right gives quick actions, usually "Delete". Press and hold gives more actions: move to a folder or list, share, delete all chapters.

Press and hold a folder to rename or delete it. A folder that is not empty cannot be deleted: move or delete its files first.