Background import and audio cache for long serials
Yomite imports 5,000-chapter serials in the background, even after you close the app, and caches finished chapters as AAC for instant replay.
Yes, Yomite can import a long serial in one go. The import runs in the background, keeps going after you close the app, and resumes if it gets interrupted. Chapters you have listened to are cached automatically, so replaying them starts without a wait, and the cache is capped at 1GB by default and tidies itself up.
Related use case: Your library and read-later
Once a serial runs past a hundred, a thousand, or even 5,000 chapters, “just import the whole thing” comes with two obvious worries: does it break if I close the app partway through, and will I be stuck waiting every time I go back to re-listen to a chapter I already finished? Yomite has a dedicated answer for each.
Does the import keep going if I close the app?
Yomite is built to keep importing a large serial in the background even after you close the app, and it can resume if the import gets interrupted partway through.
That matters most for the kind of long-running works readers tend to binge — untranslated web novels or a light-novel series that’s been serialized for years. You don’t have to open each chapter one by one and wait; once import starts, it keeps going while you do something else on your device.
If your plan is “import the whole backlog this weekend, start listening on the commute next week,” this asynchronous import is what keeps that plan from turning into a lot of staring at a progress bar.
Do I have to wait every time I replay a chapter?
The other half of the system is chapter-level audio caching. Once Yomite synthesizes a chapter’s audio, it’s automatically cached in AAC format. Play that same chapter again later and Yomite doesn’t re-synthesize it from scratch — it plays the cached audio directly. That means no wait when you jump back to a chapter you already listened to, or resume from a few chapters back after dozing off.
This caching layer traces back to a feature that shipped after launch — chapter-level audio caching was listed as an upcoming improvement for smoother offline playback, and it’s since become a standing feature of the app.
How much space does the cache use?
The cache doesn’t grow forever. By default it’s capped at 1GB, managed with an LRU (least-recently-used) policy: as the cache approaches that limit, chapters you haven’t played in a while get cleared out automatically to make room.
In practice, that means you never have to manage the cache yourself. Chapters you replay often, or listened to recently, tend to stay cached; chapters you finished dozens of episodes ago and haven’t touched since quietly age out. Following a serial’s latest chapter while occasionally going back to re-listen to an early arc works without ever thinking about cache housekeeping.
Does this have anything to do with voice storage?
This 1GB cache cap has nothing to do with voices: every voice is built into the app (see the storage guide). The chapter audio cache is temporary playback data, generated and discarded as you listen. If you’re importing a big serial, it’s worth keeping your books and the cache in mind together so storage doesn’t become the reason playback stutters.
Who is this built for?
- Readers who want to import a completed, sprawling series all at once and work through it gradually on the commute
- Readers following an ongoing web novel who also like to jump back and re-listen to earlier arcs
- Anyone with limited downtime who doesn’t want to wait around for an import to finish before moving on
The takeaway
Background import and chapter audio caching both exist for people who listen to long, ongoing serials as a matter of routine. Import doesn’t stop when you close the app, and it can pick back up if interrupted. Replaying a finished chapter doesn’t make you wait, thanks to the cache. And the cache manages itself through LRU eviction, so there’s nothing to clean up by hand.
As with everything else in Yomite, none of this touches a server — speech synthesis runs entirely on your device, and so does the importing and caching around it.
Related: Yomite storage guide: every voice is built in · Finding Great Untranslated Web Novels · Why Yomite’s Speech Synthesis Runs Entirely On-Device · How to have your iPhone read a web page aloud
Questions or feedback: [email protected]
— Yomite Team