TachiyomiSY MangaDex: Show Unavailable Chapters Bug

Ever been deep into a manga series on MangaDex, only to find that some chapters mysteriously vanish? It can be a real bummer, especially if you've previously downloaded them or just want to see the full history. Many users rely on the "Show unavailable chapters" option within the MangaDex extension to keep that continuity. However, there have been reports that TachiyomiSY doesn't seem to be playing nicely with this specific setting, leading to those elusive chapters remaining hidden. This article dives into this issue, exploring why it might be happening and what it means for your manga reading experience.

The Frustration of Missing Chapters

Let's set the scene: you've installed TachiyomiSY, a popular fork of the original Tachiyomi, known for its customization and community-driven development. You've added your favorite repositories, including Yuzono or Keiyoushi, and installed the MangaDex extension. To ensure you don't miss a beat, you configure the MangaDex extension to show chapters in English and, crucially, switch the "Show unavailable chapters" option to 'on'. You then navigate to a manga that has had chapters removed or altered on MangaDex. Intuitively, you expect to see all the chapters, including the ones that are currently marked as unavailable. This is especially useful if you previously downloaded these chapters when they were available, or if you're trying to piece together the complete publication history of a series. However, in TachiyomiSY, this option often seems to be ignored. The chapter list stubbornly refuses to display these chapters, regardless of the setting you've painstakingly enabled. This starkly contrasts with other applications, like Mihon (another Tachiyomi fork), where this exact functionality works flawlessly, presenting a clear screenshot of the expected behavior with unavailable chapters visible. The discrepancy is not just a minor inconvenience; it breaks the continuity that many readers value and rely on, especially when dealing with older or more obscure titles where chapter availability can fluctuate.

Why This Matters for Manga Enthusiasts

The ability to see unavailable chapters isn't just about nostalgia or completeness; it has practical implications. For instance, if a scanlation group re-uploads a chapter with edits, or if a chapter is temporarily removed due to copyright issues, readers might want to see the original version or simply acknowledge its existence. Having the "Show unavailable chapters" option active ensures that the chapter list accurately reflects the manga's entire history as it existed on MangaDex at some point. When this feature fails, as reported with TachiyomiSY, it creates a fragmented reading experience. You might be led to believe a manga has fewer chapters than it actually does, or you might be unable to locate a specific chapter you remember existing. This can be particularly frustrating for collectors and researchers who value the historical record of a publication. The fact that this setting works perfectly in Mihon, which is also a Tachiyomi fork, suggests that the issue might lie in how TachiyomiSY handles the extension API or specific implementations within its codebase. It highlights a potential inconsistency between different forks, which can be confusing for users trying to find a stable and feature-rich reading experience. The user's plea for help, even acknowledging the general rule about extension-specific issues, underscores the potential complexity here – it might not be a simple extension bug but rather a deeper integration problem affecting multiple forks or the core extension logic.

Diving Deeper: The Technical Hiccups

So, why is TachiyomiSY failing where others succeed? The core of the problem likely lies in the interaction between the TachiyomiSY application and the MangaDex extension. When you toggle the "Show unavailable chapters" setting in the extension's configuration, you're essentially instructing the extension's code to fetch and display all chapter entries from MangaDex, not just those currently marked as active or available. The MangaDex API itself provides this information. However, for this setting to work correctly, TachiyomiSY needs to properly interpret and relay this instruction to the extension, and the extension needs to correctly process the data it receives from MangaDex. If TachiyomiSY has a bug in how it communicates these configuration options to extensions, or if its chapter list rendering logic doesn't account for the flag indicating unavailability, then the chapters will remain hidden. The fact that Mihon, another derivative of Tachiyomi, handles this perfectly is a significant clue. It suggests that the issue isn't with MangaDex itself, nor necessarily with the MangaDex extension's code in isolation, but rather with a specific implementation detail or a regression within TachiyomiSY's codebase. This could be related to how TachiyomiSY manages extension preferences, how it parses chapter data, or how it filters the displayed list. The user's observation that Komikku, which is based on TachiyomiSY, also exhibits this problem further supports the idea that the root cause is within the TachiyomiSY branch of development, rather than an isolated incident. It's a subtle but important distinction, as fixing it requires understanding the internal workings of TachiyomiSY itself, not just tweaking the MangaDex extension.

Extension API and Fork Divergence

This situation also brings to light the challenges of maintaining multiple forks of a popular application like Tachiyomi. Each fork, while sharing a common ancestor, can diverge in its development path, leading to unique features, bug fixes, and, unfortunately, new bugs. The extension API, which acts as the bridge between the main application and the individual source extensions (like MangaDex), is a critical component. If TachiyomiSY implements or interprets this API differently from other forks, it can lead to compatibility issues. The "Show unavailable chapters" setting is a prime example of a feature that relies heavily on the correct functioning of this API. The MangaDex extension likely communicates to the core app whether a chapter is available or not. The core app, in turn, should use this information, along with the user's preference, to decide whether to display it. If TachiyomiSY's handling of this data is flawed, the setting becomes ineffective. It's possible that TachiyomiSY might be unintentionally filtering out unavailable chapters before the user's preference is even considered, or it might not be correctly passing the preference down to the extension's logic. This is why the user specifically mentioned it might be a