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30 changes: 30 additions & 0 deletions website/src/docs/faq/downloads.md
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Expand Up @@ -42,3 +42,33 @@ No, you must choose a single location. Internal storage performs better than ext
However, in some cases, this might not function as intended.

A quick solution is to create the `.nomedia` file yourself, name it as such, and place it in your downloads folder. If the issue pertains to local source, put the `.nomedia` file in the respective local folder.

## How are downloads organized on the filesystem?
They are stored as `downloads/Source Name/Manga Name/Chapter Name (abcdef).cbz`.
The `abcdef` string is the first 6 hexadecimal digits of the MD5 hash of the URL of the chapter, so that if two chapters have the same name, they won't try to write to the same filename.
In the case of a scanlator, it is `Scanlator Name_Chapter Name` instead of just `Chapter Name`.

Because of the prevalence of operating systems like Windows which have arbitrary limitations on special characters in filenames, by default Mihon will avoid using certain characters in filenames, specifically: `"*:<>?\|`.
Of course, `/` is also banned.
All of these characters are replaced by underscores if they appear in source, manga, chapter, or scanlator names.

Some users have reported using exceptionally buggy operating systems which also have problems with other Unicode characters, such as (but not necessarily limited to) emojis.
If you must use Mihon with such an operating system, you can enable the option in the advanced settings for "Disallow non-English filenames", which will prevent any non-English (non-ASCII) characters from being used in filenames.
Such characters will be replaced with their hexadecimal representations instead.
The special characters mentioned above are still replaced with underscores, if present, rather than hexadecimal.

None of the above considerations affect the way series and chapters are displayed in Mihon, which is based on their metadata rather than filenames.
Because the local source reads comic metadata files, if present, its functioning is also not affected by filename changes if you convert an external source download directory into a local source directory.

If you need to change the "Disallow non-English filenames" option, you may need to do some manual work to ensure that Mihon can still find your existing downloads.
Chapter filenames do not need to be changed, as Mihon is able to check multiple options for a chapter filename, and will find the already-downloaded chapters.
Manga and source directory names, however, need to be updated manually if they contain non-ASCII characters.
Here is an example:

```text
./例 ソース (ALL)/最高のマンガ!/Scanlator Name_始まり_182cce.cbz
./e4be8b20e382bde383bce382b9 (ALL)/e69c80e9ab98e381aee3839ee383b3e382acefbc81/Scanlator Name_e5a78be381bee3828a_182cce.cbz
```

The inability for a device to handle Unicode characters in filenames is a bug.
Please consider contacting your device or operating system vendor to report this, or consider using a standards-compliant device in future, if possible.
3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions website/src/docs/guides/local-source/index.md
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Expand Up @@ -82,6 +82,9 @@ You can refer to the following example:
Mihon will see three chapters in a single series.
The path to the folder with images must contain both the series title and the chapter name (as seen above).

Note that this is the same folder structure used by downloads of non-local sources.
However, the filename format is not required to be the same; for example, Mihon adds a disambiguating hash based on the chapter URL when downloading chapters, but you do not need to do this.

### Archive files

Archive files such as `ZIP`/`CBZ` are supported but the folder structure inside is not.
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