Settings

Everyday choices are in Settings (top right). A few rarer ones only live in config.json.

The Settings panel

Settings opens in a panel over the page, like Tags, Stores and Tasks; one of them is open at a time. ×, Escape or a click on the page around it closes it. Each change is saved as you make it: a box or a list straight away, a folder or the Payhip shops when you leave the field. The title bar says Saved.

• Downloads folder: where downloaded files are saved. A Hoard folder in your Documents unless you choose another: Browse… opens your system's folder picker (in Hoard's own window), or type the path. Default puts it back. Changing it doesn't move files you've already downloaded, so move those yourself if you want them in the new place.

• Library folders: your downloads folder and any folders on other drives (an external disk, say) that Hoard reads as part of your library, each with how many downloads it holds and the space free on its drive (or that its drive isn't connected), and Open. Add a folder… picks one and adds it (in Hoard's window), or type a path and choose Add. Remove only stops Hoard reading a folder: its files stay. Each folder gets a tab in Downloads. See Downloads.

• Stores: which stores Hoard shows and reads, with a few options:

  • Booth: Include gifts and Include free downloads.
  • Gumroad: Include archived purchases.
  • itch.io: Skip game builds (on unless you turn it off): files the creator marked as a program for Windows, macOS, Linux or Android aren't downloaded. See Stores.

• Payhip shops: the shops you've bought from on Payhip, one per line, such as myshop.store or payhip.com/ShopName. Importing a shop's saved page adds it for you. Hoard lists what you bought there, and you download it from Payhip yourself. See Stores.

• Offline: Save product images, so the library works offline.

• New in your library: how long something that appeared in your library after a refresh keeps its New badge: a day, 3 days, a week (unless you choose otherwise), 2 weeks or a month, or never. See Library.

• Failed downloads: a file download that fails (a dropped connection, a busy server) is tried again after a short wait: twice unless you choose otherwise, once, 3 times, or not at all. A store saying the file isn't there, or isn't yours, isn't tried again.

• Previous versions (4.0): how many old copies of a file to keep when an update replaces it: the last one unless you choose otherwise, none, or the last 2, 3 or 5. See Downloads.

• Routine check: Off (only when you ask) unless you choose every 6 hours, every 12 hours, once a day, once a week or once a month, while Hoard is open. It reads your stores (not Payhip), checks your downloads and checks for updates, then asks which of what it found to download. It replaces Sync automatically and Check your downloads: a sync you'd turned on keeps its timing. See Downloads. Tell me when it finds something to download (on unless you turn it off, from 3.1) shows a notification from your system when it finds new products or updates while Hoard is open in the background.

• Appearance (from 3.2):

  • Language (from 3.3): Match my computer, English, 日本語 (Japanese) or 한국어 (Korean). Match my computer uses the first of these your system or browser asks for, and English if it asks for none of them. The page reloads in the language you choose. Your product names, creators, tags and files are never translated. The task log, Hoard for Unity and the website are in English. The Japanese and Korean were made with AI help, so some wording may be off: tell us when something reads wrong.
  • Match my computer, Light or Dark: Hoard follows your computer's light or dark setting, or stays the one you choose.
  • A theme, each in a light and a dark version: Hoard (the cave and its gold), Dragonfire, Frost Cave, Geode, Mossy Ruins, Synthwave, Sakura, Midnight & Paper (true black, for OLED screens, and white), High contrast and Spooky Hoard. In a theme whose accent is close to a store's colour, that store's colour shifts a little, so the two aren't mistaken for each other. Store colours (below) still apply in every theme.

• Accessibility:

  • Text size: Normal, Larger, Large or Largest. Everything on the page grows with the text.
  • Pause animated pictures: animated product pictures (GIFs and the like) show as a still of their first frame. Turn it off and they move again.
  • Reduce motion: no sliding panels, lifting tiles or animated progress. Hoard also does this when your computer's own settings ask for less motion.
  • Coloured glow behind the page: the stores' colours rising from the bottom of the window. Turn it off for a plain background.
  • Store colours: Standard; Easier to tell apart (colour blindness), a set of colours chosen to stay distinct with the common kinds of colour blindness, clear on light and dark backgrounds; or My own, a colour for each store (and Local) that you pick. Choose Standard again to go back.

  These apply to both views straight away.

• Updates: Check for updates automatically (off unless you turn it on): once a day, when Hoard starts, it asks GitHub whether there's a newer version. Check now asks straight away, and Update to installs it (in the app installed with Hoard-Setup). See Installing Hoard. While an update is waiting (from 3.1.1), the Hoard logo at the top glows (and shakes now and then, unless motion is reduced): choose it to come straight here. Get beta updates (off unless you turn it on) is for testers: betas of the next version count as updates too, and you're offered the finished version when it's out. Betas may have problems. What's new in Hoard shows the changelog, version by version, with the one you're running marked; tick Include beta updates there to see betas' changes too.

• Browser for store sign-ins: Automatic (Microsoft Edge on Windows, Hoard's own browser elsewhere), Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Hoard's own browser. After changing it, you may need to sign in to your stores again.

While Hoard is refreshing or downloading, the downloads folder, the browser, the stores and the Payhip shops can't change (the job is using them): a change to one of those is put back, and you can make it again once the job has finished. Everything else changes straight away.

Also here:

• Backup (4.0): Make a backup saves what you've set up in Hoard to one file in your Documents, in Hoard backups: your settings (the downloads folder and other library folders as places), tags, sets, archive and removed choices, and your library list without its download links. Hidden items, with the PIN and recovery words that hide them (as their slow hashes, never the words or PIN themselves), go in only while your hidden library is unlocked. It never holds your store sign-ins, your itch.io key, the key Hoard seals its records with, or anything you downloaded: on a new computer, copy the downloads folder yourself and sign in to your stores again. Restore a backup... asks what's in the file, saves a backup of how things are now first (marked "before restoring"), then puts the file's settings, tags, sets and choices in place, each checked as if you'd made it here. A folder that isn't on this computer is left as it is, and so is a downloads folder that's a whole drive, your home folder or Hoard's own app-data folder. The library list fills in only stores that have nothing listed yet. A backup with hidden items replaces yours only once your hidden library is unlocked.
• Set up Hoard again: the setup assistant, step by step. See Getting started.
• Closing the window minimizes Hoard to the taskbar (in Hoard's own window; on unless you turn it off): the close button minimizes the window to the taskbar (the Dock on a Mac), and downloads, syncs and the routine check carry on. Click it there, or open Hoard again, to bring the window back. Turn it off and the close button quits (asking first while something's running). On a Mac, Command-Q always quits, as Quit Hoard does.
• Quit Hoard: stops Hoard. While something is running (or waiting its turn), it asks first, as closing the window does: see Closing Hoard while it's working.

Settings only in config.json

config.json is in Hoard's app-data folder: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Hoard on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/Hoard on macOS, ~/.local/share/Hoard on Linux. Quit Hoard before editing it, and keep it valid JSON.

Setting	Default	Meaning
allow_unprotected_signins	false	Linux without a keyring only: keep sign-ins protected by folder permissions alone
automated_sign_in	false	Sign in to stores in a window Hoard drives, as before 2.11, instead of the browser's own window. Google, Discord and X refuse to sign in there, so only use it if the browser's own window gives you trouble
profile_dir with advanced_signin_location	"", false	Keep sign-ins somewhere other than Hoard's private folder. Used only when advanced_signin_location is true, never on a network share; how well they're protected then depends on that drive
routine_hours	null	Hours between routine checks while Hoard is open: 0 (off), 6, 12, 24, 168 or 720 (Routine check in Settings). null until you choose: then it's auto_sync_hours if you'd turned that on, else 0 (off)
auto_sync_hours, integrity_check_days		Before 3.0: how often to sync by itself, and to check your downloads. auto_sync_hours is read only to set the routine check's first timing
display.text_size	100	Text size in percent: 100, 115, 130 or 150 (Accessibility in Settings)
download_skip	[]	Products to always skip when downloading, by tag key (Always skip in the list Download new shows; see Downloads)
display.glow	true	The coloured glow behind the page (Accessibility in Settings)
display.colours	"standard"	Store colours: "standard", "colourblind" or "custom" (Store colours in Settings)
display.theme	"hoard"	The theme: hoard, dragonfire, frost, geode, moss, synthwave, sakura, midnight, contrast or spooky (Appearance in Settings)
display.mode	"system"	"system" (match your computer), "light" or "dark" (Appearance in Settings)
display.language	"system"	"system" (match your computer), "en", "ja" or "ko" (Appearance in Settings)
display.custom_colours	{}	Your own store colours, as #rrggbb by store (booth, gumroad, jinxxy, payhip, itch, local), used when colours is "custom"
check_for_updates	false	Ask GitHub once a day, when Hoard starts, whether there's a newer version (the Updates checkbox in Settings)
beta_updates	false	Count betas (pre-releases tagged v<version>-beta.<n>) as updates too (Get beta updates in Settings)
close_to_taskbar	true	Closing Hoard's window minimizes it to the taskbar, and Hoard carries on (Closing the window minimizes Hoard to the taskbar in Settings)
local_copy	true	Whether Add your own offers to copy into Hoard (true) or to list where it is (false). Set by your last choice
edits_root	""	Where Make an editable copy puts copies; empty means Hoard Edits beside your downloads folder. Never inside the downloads folder. See Changing a download
request_delay	1.0	Seconds between page loads on a store
new_days	7	Days something new in your library is marked New: 0 (never), 1, 3, 7, 14 or 30 (New in your library in Settings)
keep_previous	1	How many previous versions of each file an update replaces are kept: 0, 1, 2, 3 or 5 in Settings (Previous versions), up to 10 here
download_retries	2	How many more times a failed file download is tried: 0 to 3 in Settings (Failed downloads), up to 5 here
payhip.bot_check_wait	180	Seconds to wait for you to complete Payhip's bot check
jinxxy.item_link_pattern		Which links on Jinxxy's inventory page are your items
tags.min_count, tags.max_share	3, 0.4	When a word becomes a suggested tag: in at least this many names, and in no more than this share of them
tags.blocklist	[]	Words never to suggest (the Tags panel's Hide does the same)

The command line's --config <file> uses a different settings file. See Command line.