Troubleshooting¶

Solutions to the most common issues users encounter.

I forgot my password¶

Currently, Jinbocho does not have an automated password-reset email flow. Ask your family Admin to:

Go to Settings → Users
Find your account
Click Reset Password and share the temporary password with you

If you are the Admin and have no other admin in the family, contact the person who deployed Jinbocho to reset the password directly in the database.

Try these in order:

Hard refresh — Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) — clears cached JS
Clear cookies for the Jinbocho site
Check if Jinbocho is reachable: open https://your-jinbocho-url.onrender.com/health — it should return {"status":"ok"}
If the health check times out, the server is waking up — wait 30–60 seconds and try again

Your browser is blocking cookies or localStorage for the site.

Disable any aggressive privacy extensions for the Jinbocho domain
Allow cookies for the site in your browser settings
Try a different browser to confirm

"Session expired" appears frequently¶

Jinbocho access tokens expire after 30 minutes. The app refreshes them automatically when you are active. If you see "session expired":

You may have been inactive for more than 30 minutes with the tab in background
Simply log in again — your library data is unaffected

Books and Scanning¶

I scanned a barcode but nothing happened¶

Make sure camera permission is granted (see ISBN Scanning)
Ensure you are pointing at the EAN-13 barcode on the back of the book (the wide barcode above the ISBN number), not a QR code or a smaller barcode
Try moving the phone 5 cm closer or further
Use Enter ISBN as a fallback

A book appears with no title or author¶

This means the ISBN lookup returned partial metadata. Open the book → Edit and fill in the missing fields manually.

I added a book twice by accident¶

Find one of the duplicates in your library
Open it → Delete → Confirm
The other copy is kept

A book disappeared from my library¶

First, check the search bar (someone may have moved it to a different shelf). If you cannot find it with search, it may have been deleted by another family member.

Check the audit log on a related book from the same shelf — it may show the deletion. Deleted books cannot be recovered.

Locations¶

I can't delete a room/bookcase/shelf¶

Locations with books cannot be deleted. Move or delete all books first.

To quickly move all books from one location to another:

Browse to the location
Select all books (checkbox in the list header)
Click Move selected → choose the new location

A book is showing in the wrong location¶

The book's location was probably changed by another family member. Check the audit log on the book detail page to see who moved it and when.

Performance¶

The app is very slow¶

Most likely cause: Render free-tier cold start (see FAQ).

Wait 30–60 seconds for the services to wake up. The app will be fast afterwards.

The app is slow even after waiting¶

Check your internet connection
Try a different browser or device
Open DevTools → Network tab → look for failed or very slow requests
If many requests are timing out, the Neon database may be auto-suspended — the first query wakes it up, which can take 5–10 seconds

Images (book covers) don't load¶

Book covers are loaded from Open Library's CDN. If Open Library is having issues, covers may not appear. This does not affect your book data.

Reload the page in a few minutes. If specific covers are consistently missing, edit the book and paste a direct cover URL.

Synchronisation and Multiple Devices¶

I added a book on my phone but it's not visible on my desktop¶

Jinbocho updates in real time using TanStack Query. If the book is not visible:

Pull to refresh on mobile, or press F5 on desktop
The new book should appear within a few seconds

If it still doesn't appear, log out and back in to force a full data reload.

Two family members edited the same book at the same time¶

The last save wins. There is no conflict resolution. Coordinate with your family members when editing book metadata.

Still Stuck?¶

If none of the above solves your problem:

Check if the issue is known: GitHub Issues
Open a new issue with:
What you tried to do
What happened instead
Your browser and device
Any error message visible on screen