Setting up the Offline Library

About an hour of your time, then the downloads run on your home internet. When they finish, Wikipedia, the medical references, the practical guides and the books open with no internet at all. Do it now, while the internet works.

This is the guide we email with every Household order. It is the same for everyone and free to use. What each file contains, and its licence, is on the Offline Library contents page.

What you need

• A device to hold it: a laptop or desktop (Windows, Mac or Linux), or an Android phone or tablet. iPhones and iPads can run Kiwix too, but most do not have the space for the full set.
• Space: about 175 GB for the full set. A phone, or a laptop that is nearly full, can take the smaller starter set below instead.
• A USB drive (optional, recommended): 256 GB or larger, so the library is not tied to one device.
• Home internet, not mobile data. The full set takes roughly 4 hours to download at 100 Mbps and 8 hours at 50 Mbps. Start it in the evening and let it run overnight.

1. Install Kiwix

Kiwix is the free, open-source reader for these files. Install it only from Kiwix or the official app stores:

• Windows, Linux and every other option: get.kiwix.org download page
• Mac, iPhone and iPad: Kiwix on the App Store
• Android: Kiwix on Google Play. The Google Play version can only open files in its own folders. If you want to read the library straight from a USB drive or memory card, install the full Android version (APK) from the Kiwix download page above instead.

2. Download the files

The easiest way is inside the Kiwix app: open its online library, set the language to English, search for each title below and tap download. You can also download in a web browser from library.kiwix.org and open the files in Kiwix afterwards.

Several titles come in versions. The file name says which: maxi has everything including images, nopic is text only, and mini has just the opening section of each article. Take the newest date.

Starter set for a phone or a small drive (about 18 GB): Wikipedia mini, WikiMed, the five zimgit guides, Ready.gov and Appropedia. Get these first; add the rest when you have the space.

3. Copy it to a USB drive (optional)

1. Format the drive as exFAT. Most new drives come as FAT32, which cannot hold a file over 4 GB, and the Wikipedia file is far bigger. exFAT works on Windows, Mac and most Android devices. Formatting erases the drive, so copy off anything you want first.
   • Windows: in File Explorer, right-click the drive, choose Format, set the file system to exFAT, then Start.
   • Mac: open Disk Utility, select the drive, choose Erase, set the format to ExFAT, then Erase.
2. Make a folder on the drive called Offline Library and copy the downloaded files (they end in .zim) into it. Big files take a while to copy; let it finish before unplugging.
3. Also copy the Kiwix installers for Windows, Mac and Android from the Kiwix download page into the same folder. Then the drive works on a computer that has never had Kiwix and has no internet.

4. Open it, and test it offline

• Computer: open Kiwix, choose Open file, and select a .zim file. Files you downloaded inside the app are already in its library.
• Android: files downloaded in the app appear in its library. To open files from a USB drive or memory card, use the full version from the Kiwix site and pick the file from the drive. Many Android phones can read a USB-C drive plugged straight in.
• Test it: turn Wi-Fi and mobile data off, open Kiwix and look something up, such as "Water purification" in Wikipedia or a first-aid page in WikiMed. If it opens, you are done.

5. Share it around the house

The Kiwix apps can share the library over Wi-Fi. Start sharing in the app on the device that holds the library, and it shows an address. Other phones, tablets and laptops on the same network type that address into an ordinary web browser and read the whole library, with no app and no internet.

In a power cut your home Wi-Fi router is off, so use a phone instead: turn on that phone's personal hotspot, connect the other devices to it, then start sharing in Kiwix on the phone or on a laptop connected to it. Hotspots use battery; keep that phone on a power bank.

6. Keep it ready

• Store the USB drive with the rest of the kit, in the Faraday pouch or the document pouch.
• Once or twice a year, download the newest version of any file you use most and delete the old one. New snapshots are free.
• Stuck on any step? Email hello@darkdayready.com and a person will walk you through it.

Licence notices and sources

Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, WikiMed, MDWiki and Appropedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) and is © their respective contributors; sources at wikipedia.org, wiktionary.org, wikibooks.org, wikiversity.org, mdwiki.org and appropedia.org. Energypedia (energypedia.info) is CC BY-SA. Project Gutenberg texts (gutenberg.org) are public domain in the United States; Project Gutenberg asks readers elsewhere to check their local copyright law. Ready.gov, CDC and FAS military medicine are public-domain US Government publications; NHS medicines content is © Crown copyright under the Open Government Licence. Images may carry other free licences noted on each page. The ZIM files are produced and published by the Kiwix project at library.kiwix.org. The Kiwix reader apps are free software © Kiwix contributors under the GNU GPL v3, source code at github.com/kiwix. Dark Day Ready is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation, Kiwix, Project Gutenberg or any government. Content is general reference, may be out of date, and is not a substitute for professional medical or emergency advice. In an emergency, call 000.