The below are answers to the most commonly asked questions. Check them out before contacting us.
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Is there a more recent version of Wikipedia, and when is the next update due?
Wikipedia updates have been put on hold for a while because of two main issues:
- We are revamping MediaWiki offliner to version 2.0 – this takes time and effort (which you can track here);
- The Wikimedia Foundation changed how its content can be accessed, and with great changes come great bugs, which we needed to identify and that they need to fix (full list here but there’s only one or two actual blockers).
After this is all done, it takes about 6-10 days for the scraper to crawl, harvest and package the full English Wikipedia (others are a bit faster). The crawl is monthly (or should be when everything works) and you can track its progress here.
As much as we would love it to, things do not happen by magic or sheer force of will. This is why your support is important – please donate here to support our developers and their work, and try to make it a recurring donation if you can (even a small one, there are many of you asking every day).
What do mini, nopic and maxi mean in the Wikipedia zim files?
File size is always an issue when downloading such big content, so we always produce each Wikipedia file in three flavours:
- Mini: only the introduction of each article, plus the infobox. Saves about 95% of space vs. the full version.
- nopic: full articles, but no images. About 75% smaller than the full version
- Maxi: the default full version.
Can I only download parts that have changed since I last downloaded Wikipedia?
Incremental updates are not available yet, but we’ve started looking into it. This is a pretty complex project, and we need your help to make it happen!
Where do I find zim files?
Kiwix comes without content files but these can be downloaded from the app. You can also preview the whole catalog, or generate your own via Zimit.
What is your business model?
Kiwix is a registered not-for-profit entity. We do not collect user data, nor do we put ads anywhere. Kiwix is entirely free and open-source, meaning that you can share and distribute it without having to ask for our permission (do drop us a note as a courtesy so we know where our users are; pictures are awesome too).
Our funding comes from users who enjoy Kiwix and people who support our mission to bring educational content to those who need it. Every help counts, so please consider making a donation.
We also get grants from Foundations to help us give access to specific content (the Wikimedia Foundation being one of them, for instance).
I can not copy Zim files on my hard drive or SD card.
Storage is often formatted using the FAT32 filesystem which can’t store files bigger than 4GB.
We recommend to use exFAT or NTFS which can deal with large files and are broadly supported.
Where can I buy your hotspot?
Physical hotspots are not for sale yet, but you can purchase a Raspberry Pi from your local reseller and create your bespoke image here.
