News Explorer

Follow these steps to enable Dark Mode in News Explorer:

macOS

• Choose menu View > Theme.
• Select Standard or System if you're using macOS Mojave 10.14 or newer. The app will now use the macOS appearance setting from System Preferences > General.
• Select Dark if you're using an older macOS version, or want to use a dark theme independent of the macOS appearance setting.

iOS

• Open a news article.
• Tap the Aa icon at the bottom toolbar of the news article view. Scroll the article downwards when this toolbar is not visible, to make it visible again.
• Tap on one of the 2 dark color theme circles in the popop menu. If you own an iPhone X, you may use the black theme to help improve battery life.

tvOS

• The tvOS edition will use the appearance setting from tvOS.
• This can be changed in Appearance section of the Settings app on your Apple TV.

The Add to News Explorer share extension can be found in the Share menu of Safari and other compatible apps.

• To see the Share menu, click or tap on the Share button in the toolbar.
• If you don’t see the share extension, then you have to make it visible by tapping or selecting the More… item in the Share menu.
• The Add to News Explorer should be visible amongst all other share extensions.
• Enable the Add to News Explorer extension and optionally drag the extension to a higher position to make it easier accessible.
• Close the configuration dialog.
• The Add to News Explorer should now be visible and ready to use.

On macOS, make sure you have started the latest version of News Exporer at least one time, otherwise macOS isn't aware of the existence of the Add to News Explorer share extension. Also make sure you don't have other editions or versions of News Explorer on you Mac.

Normally you don't have to worry about how iCloud sync works. Just make sure that you use the same iCloud account on all your devices with News Explorer, and your feeds and related data will automatically sync between all your devices. However, if the synchronization stops working or is incomplete, it's useful to understand a little bit how synchronization works.

If you use multiple devices with News Explorer, then the first device must have uploaded all changes to iCloud, before you may expect to see the changes on a second or any other device. Uploading changes to iCloud happens immediately after each status mutation, unless your internet connection is offline. In that case, the unsaved changes are uploaded as part of a periodical sync session, as soon as you're back online.

If you switch from device A to device B, then device B must first perform a sync session to retrieve data from device A. If you start the app, it will sync automatically after a few seconds. But if the app is already started (which is often the case on iOS devices), then it may sometimes be necessary to start a manual sync. To do this, click on the Refresh icon on the bottom toolbar of the feeds list (macOS) or pull down the feed list until an activity indicator keeps spinning (iOS).

Please keep in mind that when device B syncs, it also downloads new feed data. As a result, the unread count maybe higher then device A. To compare the unread counts of two devices, you may need to run multiple sync sessions on all devices until all devices are in sync with each other and all current feed data has been downloaded.

The following tips will reduce the time needed to sync via iCloud:

• Use action Mark All as Read as much as possible.
• Choose short periods for settings 'Keep unread items' and 'Keep read items'.
• If possible, remove feeds that aren't updated for a very long time.
• If possible, choose for JSON feeds.
• Make sure your network connection works properly. More info about this can be found in section 'Check network connections' in article 'My devices are not in sync. How can I fix this?' below.

To resync one feed with iCloud:

• Mac: select a feed, right-click with your mouse and select 'Resync'.
• iPhone and iPad: open the feed, tap on the sync button and tap 'Resync'.
• Apple TV: select a feed in the feeds list, press again on the remote until a menu appears and choose 'Resync'.

To resync all feeds with iCloud:

• Mac: choose File > Resync All from the menu.
• iPhone, iPad and Apple TV: select one of the articles lists in the Smart filters section of the feeds view. Tap on the sync button and tap Resync all.

First, make sure you understand the basics of syncing with News Explorer as explained in 'How to use the iCloud sync feature?' in this FAQ. Devices can sometimes go out of sync, for example when a device has been offline for a long time. Normally devices will get in sync automatically when the app gets enough foreground time to perform a full sync procedure. The following troubleshoot steps may help to speed up or fix syncing issues.

Synchronize manually

Always perform one or more manual sync sessions on all your devices before you continue with other troubleshooting steps:

• Mac: press ⌘ Command + S on your keyboard to start a sync session.
• iPhone and iPad: pull down the feeds list until the activity indicator keeps spinning.
• Apple TV: select a feed in the feeds list, press again on the remote until a menu appears and choose 'Sync'.

Check network connections

Sometimes network connection problems result in degraded sync performance in News Explorer, especially the real-time sync feature. Follow these steps to test the correct working of real-time sync between two devices:

1. Open the same feed on the two devices.
2. Mark an article as read on device 1.
3. Check on device 2 if this article is automatically marked as read, after a few seconds.

Test this in both directions on both devices. Before testing, make sure that the standard sync has been finalized.

Try the following troubleshoot steps if a test fails, and repeat the test after each step:

• Reconnect the device to your current Wi-Fi network, by disabling and enabling the connection in the Settings app (iOS) or System Preferences (macOS).
• Or connect the device to another Wi-Fi network.
• Or try connect to an Ethernet network (macOS).
• Restart News Explorer.
  • In macOS, choose File > Quit News Explorer, and restart the app.
  • For iOS and iPadOS, read this short manual to force close an app, and when done, restart the app.
• Restart your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

Check settings and configuration

Perform the following steps one by one to check app settings and device configuration, and perform a manual sync after each adjustment to test the performed change or action:

• Check if your Internet connection on your device is working properly and test this by opening a website in Safari.
• Make sure all devices use the same values for the following settings:
• The iCloud account must be the same on all devices.
  • In macOS, you can check this in the Apple ID section of the System Preferences app.
  • On all other platforms, you can check this in the Apple ID section of the Settings app.
• Within the iCloud settings, News Explorer must be enabled.
• Your iCloud account must have at least 100 MB of free space.
• In News Explorer, iCloud synchronization must be enabled. This setting is located in the General section of the News Explorer settings.
• All settings in section Storage of the News Explorer settings must be identical. Normally these settings are synced automatically across all your devices.
• Do this to open the settings of News Explorer:
• Mac: press ⌘ Command + , on your keyboard to open the Preferences panel.
• iPhone and iPad: on top of the feeds list, tap on the three dots button on top of the view. Then tap on menu item 'Preferences'.
• Apple TV: click multiple times on the home button until you see the start screen. Then start the Settings app. Then select Apps > News Explorer.
• After all settings are checked, check in the Settings app if your device has more then 100 Mb of free space. This can be done via 'Storage' in the General section of the Settings app.
• After checking the available space, perform multiple manual syncs on all devices, to rule out differences caused by downloading new articles.
• Disable and then enable News Explorer in the iCloud settings on your device, and when done, restart News Explorer as described below.
• Close and restart News Explorer:
• Mac: press ⌘ Command + Q on your keyboard to close the app. Then start the app in the normal way.
• iPhone and iPad: press the home button twice, and swipe the News Explorer app to the top, until it disappears. Then restart the app.
• Apple TV: click twice on the home button on the remote (the button with the display icon) and swipe the News Explorer app to the top of the screen, until it disappears. Then restart the app from the home screen.
• Restart your device.

Resync individual feeds

Do this to perform a resync for the feeds that are out of sync:

• Mac: select a feed, right-click with your mouse and select 'Resync'.
• iPhone and iPad: open the feed, tap on the sync button and tap 'Resync'.
• Apple TV: select a feed in the feeds list, press again on the remote until a menu appears and choose 'Resync'.

Resync all data

Follow these steps if you want to resync all feeds:

• Mac: choose File > Resync All from the menu.
• iPhone and iPad: tap on the three-dots icon on top of the feeds list, and then tap on Resync All.
• Apple TV: select one of the articles lists in the Smart filters section of the feeds view. Tap on the sync button and tap Resync all.

Reset everything

If none of the steps listed above works, then it can help to close News Explorer, delete the local database, restart your device and start a fresh resync based on the data in iCloud:

• Mac, standard editions: start Finder, choose Go > Go to folder from the menu and copy & paste this string:
  ~/Library/Containers/betamagic.News-Explorer
  Choose Go and move the presented folder betamagic.News-Explorer to the Trash can. When done, restart your Mac and then re-install the app.
• Mac, Setapp edition: start Finder, choose Go > Go to folder from the menu and copy & paste this string:
  ~/Library/Containers/com.betamagic.News-Explorer-setapp
  Choose Go and move the presented folder com.betamagic.News-Explorer-setapp to the Trash can.Restart your Mac and then re-install the app.
• iPhone and iPad: perform a long press on the app icon until it starts wobbling. Then press the cross mark to delete the app. After that reinstall the app from the App Store.
• Apple TV: perform a long press on the app icon until it starts wobbling. Then press the play/pause button. Select Delete, confirm and then reinstall the app from the App Store.

Important: the initial sync session may take a lot of time, especially when you have used News Explorer for a long period. Don't switch to other apps in iOS, iPadOS or tvOS during the first sync session, wait until the activity indicator disappears.

The cookie warning must be confirmed, before Reader view starts working normally. This is only possible by opening the original website article in News Explorer in the same web browser control.

iOS

• Open a RSS article of the feed in question.
• Tap on the Share button.
• Tap on 'Open in Place'.
• Confirm the cookie warning.
• Try if the Reader view works correctly. Sometimes you have to repeat the procedure.

macOS

• Open a RSS article of the feed in question.
• Open the website version of the article by tapping on the article header of the RSS article.
• Confirm the cookie warning.
• Test the Reader view.

To use Reader view with paywalled content, you must open the website version of an article, as a one time operation, so you can login. After logging in, Reader view should work for all articles of the paywalled source. The login must take place in the same web browser control as used by Reader view.

iOS

• Open a RSS article of the paywalled source.
• Tap on the Share button.
• Tap on 'Open in Place'.
• Search for the login button or link, and login.
• Try if the Reader view works correctly. Sometimes you have to repeat the procedure.

macOS

• Open a RSS article of a paywalled source.
• Open the website version of the article by tapping on the article header of the RSS article.
• Search for the login button or link, and login.
• Test the Reader view.

When you set the primary view of a feed to Website Article with option Open in Safari view controller enabled, articles for this feed will be opened in Safari view controller. This view doesn’t have the Reader view button.

Follow these steps to change the primary view for a feed:

• In the feed list, swipe from left to right on the feed you want to change.
• In the context menu, tap on View Options.
• The Primary view dialog will appear for the selected feed.

Make sure that the following conditions are met:

• Background App Refresh and/or Background Push Notifications is enabled:
  • Use the Settings app to enable Background App Refresh for News Explorer.
  • Switch on setting 'Enable silent push notifications' in the Syncing section of the News Explorer Preferences to enable Background Push Notifications. When done, make sure that the status is 'Subscribed'. Otherwise tap on the Info icon for more details.
• If you use Background App Refresh, then make sure all additional conditions for Background App Refresh are met. See previous FAQ article Background App Refresh doesn't work. How do I fix this?.
• Notifications with banners must be enabled for News Explorer in the Settings app.
• Make sure that the Mute switch on the side of your iPhone is off.
• Do Not Disturb is disabled in the Settings app.
• If you have more than 20 feeds, you should consider to select the feeds you want to be notified for.
  • Tap on the settings icon on the top right in the feeds list.
  • Then tap on Open Feed Manager. This option is not available when the app is syncing.
  • Make your selection in the Notifications tab and tap Done.
  • You can instead also copy the selection made in the Background App Refresh tab to the Notifications tab by using the Copy button.
• If you prefer to have one notification for each new article, then must change setting Summarize notifications to a higher value.

Notification are generated by your macOS or iOS device, initiated by News Explorer. To adjust or disable notifications you must therefore change settings on system level.

• Mac:
1. Open the System Preferences app.
2. Open the Notification item.
3. Select News Explorer in the list on the left.
4. Set 'News Explorer alert style' to 'None'.
5. Disable all other checkboxes, except 'Badge app icon'.


• iPhone and iPad:
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Open the News Explorer section.
3. Open the Notification item on top.
4. Disable setting 'Allow Notification' on top.

Removing an app from the recent applications list, also known as force closing an app, will prevent the app from receiving any background processing time by iOS. The app needs background processing time to download news and generate notifications.

If an iOS app is in the background, then it is not allowed to do anything unless iOS assigns background processing time, triggered by ‘background app refresh’ or by silent push notifications. Each background processing session must be completed within 30 seconds, otherwise the session is terminated by iOS.

To install the Mac App Store version, you need to delete the trial version first.

Please follow these steps:

1. Start Finder
2. Type News Explorer.app in the search box
3. Hit the Enter key on the keyboard
4. Make sure that This Mac is selected on top to the search results list
5. Move each instance of News Explorer.app to the Trash bin
6. Empty the Trash bin
7. Install News Explorer from the Mac App Store

If you have used or started the trial version since your last login on your Mac, then first restart your Mac before you start using the freshly installed App Store version.

Mac App Store

If you have purchased News Explorer from the Mac App Store, then the store will automatically propose to download the latest compatible version of News Explorer if you use a Mac that's not compatible with the latest version of News Explorer

However, due to Mac App Store restrictions, if you haven't purchased News Explorer yet, you must do so on a Mac that's compatible with the latest version of News Explorer for macOS. Once done, you can download older versions on other Macs. If you don't have a recent Mac, you can also buy the app on a Mac of somebody else, after logging into the Mac App Store with your account.

Betamagic Store

If you have purchased or want to purchase the Betamagic Store version of News Explorer for macOS High Sierra 10.13.6, then please use the following download link:
https://betamagic.nl/downloads/News Explorer Retail 1.9.4.dmg

If you have purchased or want to purchase the Betamagic Store version of News Explorer for macOS Mojave 10.14.6, then please use the following download link:
https://betamagic.nl/downloads/News Explorer Retail 1.9.10.dmg

Setapp

Setapp will automatically download the latest compatible version of News Explorer for macOS. On Setapp, the oldest supported macOS version for News Explorer is El Capitan 10.11.

App Store (iOS, iPadOS or tvOS)

The situation on iOS, iPadOS or tvOS is comparable to macOS. This means that if you have purchased News Explorer from the App Store on iOS, iPadOS or tvOS, then the store will automatically propose to download the latest compatible version of News Explorer if you use a device that's not compatible with the latest version of News Explorer

However, due to App Store restrictions, if you haven't purchased News Explorer yet, you must do so on an iOS, iPadOS or tvOS device that's compatible with the latest version of News Explorer for the used platform. Once done, you can download older versions on older devices. If you don't have a recent device with one of the said platforms, than you can also buy the app on a device from somebody else, after logging into the App Store with your account.

Follow these steps if you want to remove all your current feeds, and start again from scratch:

macOS

• Open System Preferences ​
• Open Apple ID ​
• Select iCloud in the sidebar
• Click on the Manage button at the right side
• Select 'News Explorer' in the list on the left side
• Click on the 'Delete all Files' button

When done, start News Explorer while pressing the Shift key. This will automatically delete the local database and resync the app with the now empty iCloud container of News Explorer.

iOS / iPadOS

• Open the Settings app
• Open the Apple ID settings item
• Tap on 'iCloud'
• Tap on 'Manage Storage'
• Open 'News Explorer'
• Tap on 'Delete Documents & Data'

When done, open News Explorer and then open one of the Smart filter items in the Feeds list. Then tap on the Refresh icon in the bottom toolbar and choose 'Resync All' from the popup menu. This will delete the local database and resync the app with the now empty iCloud container of News Explorer.

How to remove News Explorer data from iCloud

To remove your News Explorer database from iCloud without affecting other apps, navigate to the iCloud pane in System Preferences on your Mac, click the Manage... button, and select News Explorer from the list of third-party apps. Click the Delete All Files button to remove your data from iCloud. In macOS 10.15 and later, you must first click on the Apple ID icon in System Preferences to get access to the iCloud settings.

On the iPad, iPhone or iPod, select iCloud in Settings app (part of your Apple ID settings in the latest iOS versions), tap Manage Storage, and select News Explorer from the list of third-party apps. Tap Delete Documents & Data to remove your iCloud data for News Explorer.

How to remove News Explorer data from your Mac

To remove all News Explorer data from your Mac, you'll need to delete the local Sandbox container folder:

• News Explorer, standard editions: start Finder, choose Go > Go to folder from the menu and copy & paste this string:
  ~/Library/Containers/betamagic.News-Explorer
  Choose Go and move the presented folder betamagic.News-Explorer to the Trash can.
• News Explorer, Setapp edition: start Finder, choose Go > Go to folder from the menu and copy & paste this string:
  ~/Library/Containers/com.betamagic.News-Explorer-setapp
  Choose Go and move the presented folder com.betamagic.News-Explorer-setapp to the Trash can.

Note: Please restart your Mac first, if you use this procedure to start with an empty feed list.

How to remove News Explorer data from your iOS and tvOS devices

To delete all News Explorer data from your iOS or tvOS devices, you must delete the News Explorer app:

• iPhone and iPad:
  1. Perform a long tap on the app icon until it starts wobbling.
  2. Tap the cross mark to delete the app.
• Apple TV:
  1. Select the icon.
  2. Perform a long press on the icon with your remote until it starts wobbling.
  3. Press the play/pause button on your remote.
  4. Select Delete.
  5. Confirm.

In the News Explorer app

All data displayed in News Explorer is directly related to data in your iCloud container, 'what you see is what you have'. However, iCloud may contain some old data that's not visible in the app, due to storage and cleaning settings in the Storage section of the News Explorer settings. Perform these steps to retrieve all iCloud data in the News Explorer app:

1. Open the News Explorer settings. More info about this here, in the Settings section.
2. In the Storage section, adjust the following settings:
• Keep unread items: change to longest period.
• Keep read items: change to longest period.
• Keep favorite items: change to longest period.
3. Close settings.
4. Perform a Resync All operation. See question 'How to resync all feeds with iCloud?' above.
5. When finished, you'll have a local copy off all News Explorer iCloud data in the News Explorer app.

After this operation, you may restore your previous storage periods, to prevent unnecessary grow of your iCloud storage space.

On your harddrive

On device level, the data of News Explorer is stored in a SQLite database. In macOS, the SQLite database files can be found here:

• Mac, standard editions:
  ~/Library/Containers/betamagic.News-Explorer/Data/Library/Application Support/betamagic.News_Explorer
• Mac, Setapp edition:
  ~/Library/Containers/com.betamagic.News-Explorer-setapp/Data/Library/Application Support/betamagic.News_Explorer

To easily navigate to these files, start Finder, choose Go > Go to folder from the menu and copy & paste the string displayed aboe. Then hit to Go button.

Check the following settings if you don’t see an unread count badge on top of the app icon:

macOS

• Setting Dock unread count in the General section of the News Explorer Preferences must not be set to None. ​
• Setting Allow Notifications for News Explorer in the Notifications section of the System Preferences must be enabled.
• Sub setting Badge app icon of said setting Allow Notifications must also be enabled.

iOS / iPadOS

• Setting App icon badge in the General section of the News Explorer Preferences must not be set to None. ​
• Setting Allow Notifications for News Explorer in the Notifications section of the Settings app must be enabled.
• Sub setting Badges of said setting Allow Notifications must also be enabled.

tvOS

• Setting Notifications in the News Explorer sub section of the Apps section in the Settings app must be set to Always.

To change the article list source displayed on the Apple Watch, long press on an item in the Feeds list on your iPhone, and select Show on Apple Watch in the popup context menu.

Open a news article by tapping on it. Long press on the article to activate a menu, then choose Mark as Read to mark the news article as read.

Repeat this and choose Mark as Unread to set the article back to unread.

Open a news article by tapping on it. Long press on the article to activate a menu, then choose Mark as Favorite to mark the news article as favorite.

Repeat this and choose Mark as Unfavorite to remove the favorite mark.

If a long press doesn’t show a context menu in the watchOS edition of News Explorer, then you need to force quit and restart the app.

To force quit, open the News Explorer app and hold the side button until you see the power off screen. Then press and hold the Digital Crown until the power off screen disappears.

• To copy the URL of a feed:
1. Select the feed in the sidebar.
2. Choose Edit > Copy in the menu.


• To copy the URL of an article:
1. Select the article in the articles list.
2. Choose Edit > Copy in the menu.

No, but maybe in a future release as an extra sync option. News Explorer uses it’s own built-in sync mechanism based on iCloud.

If News Explorer keeps crashing on startup, chances are very high that the database or other files are corrupted, in most cases due to an forced update performed by the App Store.

To fix this you'll need to start with a fresh database and resync your data from iCloud. Close the app and delete the data by following these steps:

• macOS, standard editions: start Finder, choose Go > Go to folder from the menu and copy & paste this string:
  ~/Library/Containers/betamagic.News-Explorer
  Choose Go and move the presented folder betamagic.News-Explorer to the Trash can.
• macOS, Setapp edition: start Finder, choose Go > Go to folder from the menu and copy & paste this string:
  ~/Library/Containers/com.betamagic.News-Explorer-setapp
  Choose Go and move the presented folder com.betamagic.News-Explorer-setapp to the Trash can.
• iPhone and iPad: perform a long press on the app icon until it starts wobbling. Then press the cross mark to delete the app. After that reinstall the app from the Purchased list in the App Store.
• Apple TV: perform a long press on the app icon until it starts wobbling. Then press the play/pause button. Select Delete, confirm and then reinstall the app from the Purchased section in the App Store.

Start the app after deleting the old database and restarting your device. The app will automatically start resyncing with iCloud to retrieve all your synced data. This may take some time. Do not try to interrupt this to prevent sync problems.

Attention: Please contact support@betamagic.nl if the app still crashes after following the steps above.

The latest version of News Explorer contains the following known issues:

• macOS edition: Drag-and-drop of feeds during a sync does not work. Retry after the sync session is finished.
• macOS edition: The 'Add to News Explorer' extension does not work when News Explorer is still in trial modus.

Please send a message to the developer if you encounter other reproducible issues.