Use Kioku on more than one computer

Kioku keeps everything on your computer and has no cloud of its own, so it doesn’t sync by itself. To study on more than one computer, keep Kioku’s Collections folder in step with Syncthing, a free, open-source app that copies folders directly between your devices, with no server in between.

Use Kioku on one computer at a time

Quit Kioku before you switch computers, and open it on the other one only once Syncthing shows the folder as Up to Date. If Kioku is open on both, or you open it before the changes arrive, the two computers end up with different versions of a Collection, and Syncthing keeps only one of them in place (see If the two computers disagree).

Before you begin

• Install Kioku and Syncthing on both computers, and connect the two in Syncthing with Add Remote Device. Syncthing’s getting started guide walks through it.

• Find Kioku’s Collections folder on each computer. It’s the collections folder in Kioku’s data folder (see Data locations):

  Platform	Collections folder
  macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Kioku/collections
  Windows	%APPDATA%\Kioku\collections
  Linux	~/.config/Kioku/collections

  On macOS the Library folder is hidden: in Finder, choose Go → Go to Folder and paste the path. On Windows, paste it into File Explorer’s address bar.

• Back up first: in Settings, select Export everything (.zip). See Back up & export.

Set up syncing

1. Quit Kioku on both computers.

2. On the computer whose Collections you want to keep, open Syncthing and select Add Folder. Set Folder Path to Kioku’s Collections folder, and give it a Folder Label such as Kioku.

3. On the Ignore Patterns tab, add these lines. Kioku uses these files only while it’s open, so they shouldn’t travel:

   *.db-wal
   *.db-shm
   *.db-journal

4. On the File Versioning tab, choose Simple File Versioning. Syncthing then keeps each version it replaces, in case you ever need one back.

5. On the Sharing tab, select the other computer, then Save.

6. On the other computer, Kioku already has a Collection of its own. If there’s anything in it you want to keep, export it first (Back up a Collection). Then rename its Collections folder, for example to collections-old, so the incoming folder doesn’t mix with it.

7. When Syncthing offers the shared folder, accept it and set its Folder Path to Kioku’s Collections folder on this computer. Add the same ignore patterns, and turn on Simple File Versioning here too.

8. Wait until both computers show the folder as Up to Date, then open Kioku.

Your Collections, with their pictures and sound, are now the same on both computers.

Day to day

• Quit Kioku when you finish on one computer. On the other, wait for Up to Date, then open Kioku.
• A Collection you create on one computer appears on the other the next time Kioku opens there.
• Each computer keeps its own list of Collection names, so a rename shows only on the computer where you made it.
• To delete a Collection, delete it on each computer.
• Each computer keeps its own automatic backups, outside the synced folder, so you can always restore one there.

If the two computers disagree

If you used Kioku on both computers between syncs, Syncthing keeps one version of the Collection and saves the other beside it, under a name like Default.sync-conflict-20261003-101500-ABCDEFG.db. Kioku leaves that file alone. To see what’s in it, open Settings, go to Collections, select Import, and choose the file: it opens as a separate Collection, without its pictures and sound.

Related

• Back up & export
• Data locations
• Collections