Pocket Premium: Permanent Library

Introduction

Permanent Library is part of Pocket Premium. To subscribe to Pocket Premium, click here.

After you upgrade to Pocket Premium, Permanent Library automatically creates copies of the eligible articles and webpages you’ve saved to your account. That way, even if an item changes or is taken offline, you will be able to open the version that you have saved in Pocket.

Permanent Library creates copies of your saved items, regardless of where they are in Pocket. The items in your List, Archive and Favorites are all included. There’s nothing to configure or manage.

How is this different from free Pocket accounts?

In free accounts, the Pocket apps manage downloading of content. The main purpose of this feature is to save the content for reading while offline. If you Archive an item or log out of the Pocket app, downloaded items are cleared from storage on your device. After this point, the original link must remain available and unchanged on the web to continue to access it.

Getting started with Permanent Library

When you upgrade to Premium, Pocket creates permanent copies of eligible articles and webpages in your List.

Any existing items in your account will also be preserved, as long as they are available at the time of upgrade. It may take some time to complete this process for existing items. You can check the progress here: Pocket Premium Account Status

What is not included in my Permanent Library?

Pocket’s Permanent Library is unable to create copies of the following content: 

• Video and audio files, and other embedded media
• Dynamic web content, powered by JavaScript or Flash
• PDF files or other documents
• Content within iFrames 
• Content that is available behind paywalls or require an account to access

Additionally, for accounts with very large numbers of items saved, Pocket will create permanent copies of the most recent 30,000 items that are present in the account at the time of upgrade. However, as more items are saved, no permanent copies will be removed.

How to access your Permanent Library

Permanent Library features are available in Pocket for iOS, Android and Web.

Pocket for iOS and Android

When you open an item in either Article or Web View in Pocket for iOS or Android, you’ll see your permanent copy of that item. If you’d like to update to the live version (that is, what’s currently available on the web), just tap Refresh. Here’s how:

• On iOS, tap ●●● in the bottom toolbar, and select Refresh.
• On Android, open the overflow menu in the top toolbar and then select Refresh

After the page is refreshed, you can update the copy that’s in your Permanent Library. Just look for the green bar at the bottom of the screen, and tap Update.

Pocket for Web

When using Pocket in your browser, you can access the permanent copies of your saved items by following these steps:

1. Move your mouse to the ●●● menu of an item
2. Click Share
3. Click Permanent Copy

To see the live published version of a saved item at any time, click View Original from the same Share menu.

Additional Questions about Premium Library

What is the difference between Permanent Library and how Pocket's free experience saves items?

Whenever you save an item, Pocket Premium’s Permanent Library feature stores a personal copy of this item’s content for you, in both the Article View and Web View formats. You will be able to view these copies even if the original page changes on or is removed from the web.

For free users, the way Pocket works, and will continue to work, is that we store the links to saved items, and not their actual content, on our servers. Pocket’s mobile apps will download any item’s content that’s saved in “My List” for offline viewing, but if you Archive an item, the copy will be removed from your device.

If you want to access items that have been Archived, or you are logging into your Pocket account on a new device, it’s possible that you will no longer be able to access any items that have been changed or removed from the web.

What happens to my Permanent Library if I unsubscribe from Pocket Premium?

Your Permanent Library will be deleted after 30 days of unsubscribing.

Is my Permanent Library available offline?

While offline, it’s possible to view permanent copies of items that are saved to your List when using Pocket’s apps for iOS and Android. However, since Pocket’s apps do not download items in the Archive, you must be online to access the permanent copies of items that have been Archived.

Can I share or export Permanent Copies?

It's not possible to share or export a Permanent Copy of a saved article.