Sync your reading progress across devices — without giving anyone your library

There’s a better model: sync through a cloud folder you already own. No new account, no vendor server, no reading analytics. Here’s how it works and how to set it up.

The folder-sync model, explained

Instead of talking to a company’s sync server, the reading app writes small files — reading position, bookmarks, highlights, statistics — into a shared folder on storage you control: Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or your own Nextcloud. Every device pointed at that folder stays in sync automatically.

Why this is quietly brilliant:

• You choose the storage. Big-tech cloud, self-hosted Nextcloud on a Raspberry Pi, or your NAS — the app doesn’t care.
• No account with the app maker. Nothing to sign up for; nothing for them to see. If the developer disappeared tomorrow, your files are still sitting in your folder, readable.
• Your reading habits stay private. No server on the other end logging what you read at 2 a.m.

Setting it up in Lectern

Lectern uses exactly this model — it has no accounts at all, by design.

• Put your books in a folder inside Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Nextcloud (their apps expose these folders to Android).
• In Lectern, add that folder as a library location and enable sync.
• Repeat on your other devices — phone, tablet, Boox e-reader. Progress, highlights, bookmarks and stats now follow you around.

That’s it. Reading offline on a flight? Changes queue up locally and reconcile when the folder next syncs.

Bonus: OPDS for the full self-hosted setup

If you run Calibre for your library, pair this with Calibre-Web: Lectern browses OPDS catalogs, so you can download from your own server straight into the app — and Project Gutenberg’s 70,000+ free books work the same way. Self-hosters get the complete loop: your server, your storage, your reader, zero third parties.

Frequently asked