Reading List Panel

Reading List allows you to add web pages to a list to keep for later. It prevents endless tabs from accumulating on your Tab Bar and Bookmarks being filled with entries you only need once.

Though, there are similar services out there, Vivaldi’s Reading List doesn’t require an Extension nor do you need to sign up for an account.

Access the Reading List Panel

To open the Reading List Panel:

  • Click on the Reading List panel button on the side of your browser window.
  • Go to the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu > View > Reading List Panel.
  • Type “Reading List Panel” in Quick Commands.
  • Create a Keyboard Shortcut or a Mouse Gesture for the action.

Add pages to the Reading List

To add an open web page to the Reading List:

  1. Open the Reading List Panel.
  2. Click on Add Current Page at the top of the panel, near the search field.

Alternatively:

View and manage articles on the list

Open a saved article

To open an article from the Reading List:

  1. Open the Reading List Panel.
  2. Select an article you’d like to read.
  3. Double-click on the entry to open the article in a new tab.

Opened articles will be marked as read automatically.

Mark articles as read / unread

To mark an article read without opening it:

  1. Open the Reading List Panel.
  2. Select an unread article you’d like to mark as read.
  3. Click on  Mark as read.

To mark an article unread:

  1. Open the Reading List Panel.
  2. Select a read article you’d like to mark as unread.
  3. Click on  Mark as unread.

Search articles

To find an article from the long list of saved pages:

  1. Open the Reading List Panel.
  2. In the top left corner of the panel, enter the search keyword in the Search field.

Sort Reading List

To change the sorting order of articles:

  1. Open the Reading List Panel.
  2. Click on Sort by [current sorting criteria] below the search field.
  3. Select either:
    • By Title,
    • By Read State,
    • By Date Updated,
    • By Address.

To reverse the order, click on Sort Ascending/Descending on the right side of the Sort by menu.

Remove articles from Reading List

You can remove both unread and read articles from the Reading List. To do that:

  1. Open the Reading List Panel.
  2. Select an article you’d like to remove from the list.
  3. Use one of the following options:
    • Click Delete at the top of the panel, near the search field.
    • Press the Delete key on your keyboard.
    • Right-click on the entry and select Delete.

Reading List Panel settings

To open a page from the Reading List Panel with a single click, instead of a double-click:

  1. Go to Settings > Panel > Reading List Panel.
  2. Enable Activate with Single Click.

To keep track of how many unread articles you have on your Reading List, make sure Show Unread Counter has been enabled in Settings > Panel > Reading List Panel. If the counter is a distraction untick the box.

Sync Reading List

Saved pages in your Reading List can be synced with Vivaldi on your other devices.

To sync your reading list:

  1. Go to Settings > Sync.
  2. Log in to your Vivaldi account.
  3. Sync either all data or make sure Reading List is enabled, when syncing only selected data.

Lists from different devices will be merged when synced.

Export and Import Reading Lists

Export the Reading List

To export your Reading List:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu > File > Export > Export Reading List.
  2. Select the destination folder.

Alternatively:

The list will be exported as a CSV file.

Import a Reading List

To import a Reading List:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu > File > Import from Applications or Files.
  2. From the drop-down menu select Reading List (CSV).
  3. Click Choose a File.
  4. Select the source folder.

Alternatively:

Translate on Android

Break down language barriers and open up the web with Vivaldi Translate.

Accessing the Translate Panel

To open the Translate Panel:

  1. Tap on the Panel button.
  2. Tap on the Translate panel button at the bottom of the page (on the side on tablets and larger screens).

Translate text

To translate text in the panel:

  1. Open the Translate Panel.
  2. Type or paste the text into the input field.
  3. Scroll through the lists or start typing the language name to select the input (From) and output (To) languages.
    If the text is longer, you can also rely on automatic detection of the source language and only need to define the translation language, in case you wish to translate to a different language from your default language.
  4. Tap Translate.

Clear translation

When you’re done with the translation or want to translate something else, tap Clear below the output field.

Translate text from a web page

To translate content on a website you can use the full page translation option accessible from Vivaldi menu > Translate. To translate only some sections of the web page, you can use translation of selected text. The output of translation will be displayed in the Translate Panel.

To translate just a small block of text:

  1. Highlight the text you want to translate.
  2. Tap on Translate selection in the small menu that appears.

The Translate Panel will open with both the source text and the translation. If your selected text is very short, you may have to select the source language manually.

Translation history

To view past translations, tap on Show Translate History at the bottom of the panel.

Delete history

To delete all history:

  1. In the Translation Panel open the translation history.
  2. Tap on Clear Translate History above the list of history entries.

Import events to Vivaldi Calendar

Import Calendar events (ICS file)

To import calendar files ending with an .ics extension that you have exported from other calendars, downloaded from the web (for example, local holiday calendars) or someone has shared with you:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu > File > Import from Applications or Files.
  2. Select Calendar Events (ICS file).
  3. Click Choose a File.
  4. Find and open the file you have saved on your computer.
  5. Choose which calendar you want to add the events to.
    Alternatively, choose New calendar to create a new calendar for the imported events and give the new calendar a name
  6. Click Start Import.
  7. When the events have been imported, click OK, when you have nothing else to import or New Import, if you want to import more data.

When you have enabled Open ICS files in Vivaldi in Calendar Settings, you can import calendars by opening the .ics file

Import Calendar events from remote servers (iCal)

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu > File > Import from Applications or Files.
  2. Select Calendar events from Remote Servers (iCal).
  3. Enter the Remote ICS address.
  4. Choose which calendar you want to add the events to.
  5. Alternatively, choose New calendar to create a new calendar for the imported events and give the new calendar a name
  6. Click Start Import.
  7. When the events have been imported, click OK, when you have nothing else to import or New Import, if you want to import more data.

Add online Calendar accounts and calendars

To import and sync your online calendars with Vivaldi Calendar, go to Settings > Calendar > Calendar Accounts and add the accounts there. For more detailed instructions, take a look at the Help page about Adding and managing Calendar accounts.

Troubleshooting issues in Vivaldi Calendar

If there’s something odd going on in Vivaldi Calendar, there are a few things you can do in order to troubleshoot the issue.

Missing events

If you don’t see an event you’ve added:

  • Make sure displaying the calendar’s events has been enabled.
    1. In the Calendar tab, click on Calendars in the top left corner.
    2. Make sure the calendars you want to see have been enabled.
  • Browse through different Calendar views to see if the event ended up on a different date.
  • Use Search to find the event.

When you don’t see events from an online calendar in Vivaldi Calendar:

  1. Go to Settings > Calendar > Calendar Accounts.
  2. Make sure the Calendar account has been properly set up.
  3. Then check Settings > Calendar > Calendars.
  4. Select the calendar you don’t see any events for.
  5. Make sure calendar sync is active.

Re-add an online calendar

If you’ve encountered issues with an online calendar, you can try whether removing and adding it again will help. Since the events are stored on the calendar service provider’s servers, there will be no data loss.

To remove an account:

  1. Go to Settings > Calendar > Calendar Accounts.
  2. Select the account that’s having issues.
  3. Click on Delete Account below the list of accounts to remove it.

To add an account:

  1. Click on Add account below the list of accounts.
  2. Choose the account type and fill in the necessary data.
  3. Finish with clicking Add Account.

Reset local calendar

If you don’t have any important data in Calendar, you can reset it by deleting the calendar database. Your local account and calendars will be deleted and online accounts with their calendars will be removed. Follow these steps to reset the Calendar:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu > Help > About or type vivaldi://about in the Address Field.
  2. Make note of the Profile Path.
  3. Exit the browser.
  4. Locate the folder in your operating system’s File Manager/Finder.
  5. In the profile folder, find a file named Calendar.
    If you wish, you can make a backup of the database by making a copy of the file first.
  6. Then delete the Calendar file.
  7. Start the browser.
  8. Set up your calendar accounts and their calendars.

Check Calendar logs

To check Vivaldi Calendar’s logs for any errors:

  1. Click on the Calendar Status button on the Status Bar.
  2. In the popup, select Logs.

Some examples of errors that can be seen in logs:

  • Error synching updates to server. Changes not saved. – Likely a network issue.
  • Server error for account ‘[account name]’. – Contact the online calendar’s service provider.
  • Parser error – Invalid calendar data received or valid data that we have not added support for yet.

You can copy the logs or save them in a file to include them when reporting issues on the Forum or in a bug report.

The logs are cleared on browser restart. To get relevant logs go through the steps that cause the issue.

Importing events from an .ics file fails

Events from an .ics file can be imported via Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu > File > Import from Applications or Files. When it fails, it’s possible that file includes some invalid or corrupt content.

To see if the file is valid or whether there is a problem with it you can use a validator. For example, https://icalendar.org/validator.html.

To discuss Calendar issues with the team and expert users in the Community, find an ongoing discussion about the same issue or, if there aren’t any, create a new topic on our Forum.

Inactive accounts

We encourage people to actively log in and use Vivaldi services when they register an account. To keep your account active, be sure to log in at least once every 6 months. Accounts and their contents may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity.

Determining inactivity

Inactivity is based on a combination of participating in community activities on Vivaldi Social, Forum, Blogs, Themes, using the browser’s Sync feature or webmail. Therefore, unconfirmed or mass-produced accounts without virtual practice in any of these community activities are also subject to permanent removal at any time. Please note that you may not be able to tell whether an account is currently inactive, as not all signs of account activity are publicly visible.

Keeping the account active

To keep your account active, log in to your Vivaldi account at least once every 6 months. A login to any of the following counts:

Email reminders

When an account is regarded as inactive and is in danger of deletion, we’ll send three warning emails to the account’s recovery email. With a couple of weeks between each email, you will have plenty of time to log in to your account. After the date given in the 3rd email, the account with all its data will be deleted.

That’s one of many reasons, why it’s important to keep the account’s recovery email up to date. You can review the recovery email and, if needed, update it on your account’s profile on Vivaldi.net. For detailed instructions, take a look at our Help page about updating Vivaldi account information.

Deleting inactive accounts

When the owner of the inactive account doesn’t log in before the given deadline the account and all its data will be permanently deleted.

For security reasons, we don’t recycle usernames, so the username will be lost too and a new account needs to be created with a different username. The recovery email that was linked to the account will become available again.

Restoring an inactive account

Once the account and data have been deleted, there is no way to recover neither the account nor the data. To use Vivaldi services, please create another account with a new username.

Need help with your Vivaldi account?

Send us a message

Please note that replies to support messages will mostly be in English.

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We use Jira Software hosted on our servers in Iceland to manage messages sent to us via this form. Once you submit your message, our support team will review it and get back to you as soon as possible (normally within 2 to 3 business days).

If you’d like to know more about our privacy policy and the 3rd party software we use, check our privacy resources page: vivaldi.com/privacy

Reading List Popup

Reading List allows you to add web pages to a list to keep for later. It prevents endless tabs from accumulating on your Tab Bar and Bookmarks being filled with entries you only need once.

Though, there are similar services out there, Vivaldi’s Reading List doesn’t require an Extension nor do you need to sign up for an account.

Add a Reading List button to the User Interface

To add the button to one of the Toolbars:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi Menu > View > Customize Toolbar.
  2. Drag the Reading List button to your preferred location on the Address Bar or Status Bar.

Then you can access and manage your Reading List from a popup

Section of the Address Bar showing the Reading List button.

Add pages to the Reading List

To add an open web page to the Reading List:

View and manage articles on the list

To open an article from the Reading List:

  1. Click on Show the Reading List on the Address Bar.
  2. Select an article you’d like to read.
  3. Click on the entry to open the article in a new tab.

Opened articles will be marked as read automatically and moved to the Read Articles section.

Vivaldi Window with the Reading List open showing a few added articles.

Mark articles as read / unread

To mark an article read without opening it:

  1. Click on Show the Reading List on the Address Bar.
  2. In the Unread Articles section, select an article you’d like to mark as read.
  3. Click on Mark as read.

To mark an article unread:

  1. Click on Show the Reading List on the Address Bar.
  2. In the Read Articles section, select an article you’d like to mark as unread.
  3. Click on Mark as unread.

Remove articles from Reading List

You can remove both unread and read articles from the Reading List. To do that:

  1. Click on Show the Reading List on the Address Bar.
  2. Select an article you’d like to remove from the list.
  3. Click on Remove from Reading List.

Sync Reading List

Saved pages in your Reading List can be synced with Vivaldi on your other devices. (Currently available only on desktop.)

To sync your reading list:

  1. Go to Settings > Sync.
  2. Log in to your Vivaldi account.
  3. Sync either all data or make sure Reading List is enabled, when syncing only selected data.

Lists from different devices will be merged when synced.

Reading List Panel

In addition to the Reading List popup, you can use the feature in a Panel. Find out more about it on the Help page about the Reading List Panel.

Themes on Android

To change the browser’s theme:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu > Settings > Appearance > Themes. 
  2. Choose between:
    • System default,
    • Light theme,
    • Dark theme.

Accent color

By default, with a light theme, Vivaldi on Android will change the Address and Tab Bar colors based on the open website. To change the accent color:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu > Settings > Appearance > Themes.
  2. Choose between:
    • Adaptive color based on web page,
    • One of the preset colors,
    • Custom color (insert the color’s HEX value).

Start Page Wallpaper

To customize the back of the Speed Dials with a custom image or color:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu > Settings > Appearance > Start Page Wallpaper.
  2. Choose a preset image or color, or select an image from your device’s gallery by tapping on the first gray square with the + icon.
Two phones - one showing Start Page Wallpaper settings, the other showing the Start Page with a colorful wallpaper.

Dark mode for web pages

If, in addition to the app’s user interface, you also wish to view websites in dark mode, enable Dark mode for Web Pages from Theme settings.

In case some sites don’t look good in the forced dark mode, you can toggle it off for that particular website from Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu > Dark theme.

Preventing Vivaldi profiles from being uploaded to Git repositories

There was a recent news report that showed that thousands of people had accidentally uploaded their home directories/folders to public Git repositories that they were working on, and that included the profile directories for other browsers. You can read more about this here: https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/18/firefox_cookies_github/

We added a detection and protection to the latest release of Vivaldi, to prevent you from having the same thing happen to your Vivaldi profile.

The detection checks if there is a .git folder either in the Vivaldi profile folder, or a parent folder of the Vivaldi profile folder and will show a warning message when .git folder has been detected.

For example, on Windows, the default Vivaldi profile folder is:

C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default

So you would need to check for the following folders:

C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default\.git
C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\.git
C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\.git
C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\.git
C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\.git
C:\Users\<your_username>\.git
C:\Users\.git
C:\.git

On Linux, the default Vivaldi profile folder is:

/home/<yourusername>/.config/vivaldi/Default

So you would need to check for the following folders:

/home/<yourusername>/.config/vivaldi/Default/.git
/home/<yourusername>/.config/vivaldi/.git
/home/<yourusername>/.config/.git
/home/<yourusername>/.git
/home/.git
/.git

For snapshot releases, the default profile folder is /home/<your_username>/.config/vivaldi-snapshot. Note that these folders could be placed somewhere else on some distros.

On Mac, the default Vivaldi profile folder is:

/Users/<yourusername>/Library/Application Suppert/Vivaldi/Default

So you would need to check for the following folders:

/Users/<yourusername>/Library/Application Support/Vivaldi/Default/.git
/Users/<yourusername>/Library/Application Support/Vivaldi/.git
/Users/<yourusername>/Library/Application Support/.git
/Users/<yourusername>/Library/.git
/Users/<yourusername>/.git
/Users/.git
/.git

For snapshot releases, the default profile folder is /Users/<yourusername>/Library/Application Suppert/Vivaldi Snapshot/Default.

Check your profile folder location to work out where to start. You can see this using Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu > Help > About, or Vivaldi application menu > About Vivaldi on Mac.

Note that any .git folder is hidden on most systems by default. On Windows, you need to tell Windows Explorer (My Computer) to show hidden files and folders, in the folder options. On Mac, open the Finder and press Cmd Shift . to show or hide hidden files and folders. On Linux, use your favourite terminal/console application, and use the following command to see all files and folders, including hidden ones:

ls -a

Alternatively, on Mac or Linux, you could use your favourite terminal/console application, and use the following command to search for .git folders:

find ~/ -name '.git'

You can also use / instead of ~/ to search the entire filesystem, but be aware that it might show a lot of errors when there are folders that you do not have access to.

Once you find the folder containing the .git folder, you may wish to note that everything from that folder and below, might be in a Git repository. The “git status” command can give more details.

Shareable Vivaldi Themes

In the Vivaldi browser, you can choose a theme from a selection of pre-installed themes, create your own theme or install themes shared by other Vivaldi users. In this article we’ll focus on the latter, how to install user created themes and also how to share your own themes.

Browse Vivaldi Themes

To see the selection of user created and shared themes:

  1. Go to Vivaldi Themes on https://themes.vivaldi.net.
    Alternatively, in the browser, go to Settings > Themes and click on Get more themes in the bottom right corner of the Theme Library.
  2. Browse through the themes on the page.

You can filter themes by category, color, whether the theme has been featured by the Vivaldi Team and whether the theme includes custom icons. You can sort themes by popularity, upload time or alphabetically. Also, you can view themes from the same author by opening one of their themes and in the theme info, clicking on their name next to Made by.

Install a new theme

A theme page on Vivaldi Themes.

When you’ve found a theme you like:

  1. On the theme’s page, click Download theme for a live preview of the theme.
  2. When you’re happy with the theme and want to keep it, click Install in the small popup dialog in the middle of the window. Click Cancel to discard the theme.
Theme preview with an install dialog.

The installed theme will be added to your Theme Library, where you can view the theme’s settings and edit it further.

After having installed the theme, it’d be great if you could rate the theme

Install a theme from a ZIP file

In case you’re on an older version of Vivaldi or a different browser, you can download the theme as a ZIP file. When you’ve found a theme you like:

  1. On the theme’s page, click Download theme.
    In case you’re on the latest version of Vivaldi, but want to install the theme as a ZIP, right-click on the Download theme button and select Save Link As.
  2. Save the theme’s ZIP file on your computer.
  3. To add the theme to your Vivaldi browser (needs to be version 5.0 or newer), go to Settings > Themes > Library, click Open Theme below the themes in your library.
  4. Find the ZIP file and click Open. You’ll get a live preview of the theme.
  5. When you’re happy with the theme and want to keep it, click Install in the small popup dialog in the middle of the window. Click Cancel to discard the theme.

Share your themes

When you’ve made your own theme and would like to share your creation with everyone else, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings > Themes > Library and select the theme you want to share.
  2. Click on Export Theme below the themes.
  3. Save the ZIP file to your computer.
  4. Go to Vivaldi Themes on https://themes.vivaldi.net.
    Alternatively, in the browser, go to Settings > Themes and click on Get more themes in the bottom right corner of the Theme Library.
  5. Log in to your Vivaldi account.
  6. Click Upload in the top right corner of the page.
  7. Fill in the details about the theme (in English) and upload the ZIP file.
  8. When you’re ready, click Create theme.

Vivaldi Team will review your theme and publish it. You’ll be notified once the theme has been published (also, when for some reason, the theme was rejected). In addition, you’ll receive notifications when someone leaves a comment on your theme.

Reasons for rejecting a theme

In some cases, we may reject a theme for one of the following reasons:

  • The theme is not in line with our Terms of Use and/or Code of Conduct.
  • The theme’s title and/or description is not in English. We require all themes to have a title and description that is readable by English speakers.
  • The image used for the theme’s background has a low resolution or poor quality. For example, when using lossy format images (such as JPEG), we may reject a theme in case the picture has poor quality due to high level of file compression. For wallpaper backgrounds, we recommend using pictures with a resolution of at least 1920×1080px.
  • The theme did not install correctly when we tested it. Before uploading, to make sure that there are no issues when installing it, try testing your theme in a clean User Profile.
  • Other reasons, such as poor visibility of the UI elements due to the choice of colors, copyright infringement, etc.

View your themes

To view the themes you’ve shared:

  1. Log in to your Vivaldi account.
  2. In the top right corner of the Vivaldi Themes page, click on your avatar.
  3. Select My themes.

Alternatively, go to https://themes.vivaldi.net/users/YourUsername.

Click on a theme on the page to view more details about it. On the theme page you can see the theme’s:

  • status,
  • size,
  • version history,
  • upload date,
  • number of downloads,
  • comments,
  • and more.

Update theme

To update a theme you’ve shared:

  1. On the theme’s page, below the preview image, click Edit.
  2. On the theme editing page, make the changes. Upload a new ZIP file if you made changes to the theme itself.
  3. Click Update.

Vivaldi Team will review your theme and publish it.

Edit the theme file

The theme’s ZIP file consists of 1 or 2 files. First, the JSON file with the theme’s parameters and secondly, in case your theme uses one, the theme’s background image. In addition to changing the various values in the browser’s settings and exporting the theme, you can take one of the exported theme files as an example and change the values for the parameters using a code editor.

When you’re ready with the new theme, compress the JSON and background image files into a new ZIP file and test it in the browser.

Report a theme

Though all themes will be reviewed before publishing, some unsuitable themes may slip through the review. If you come across a theme that, for example, is broken, includes copyrighted/trademarked content, or something else, please let us know about it.

To report a theme:

  1. Go to the theme’s page.
  2. Below the theme preview, click Report.
  3. Fill in the form and submit it.

Vivaldi team will review the report and make a decision whether to remove or keep the theme.

Translate Panel

Accessing the Translate Panel

To open the Translate Panel:

Translate text

To translate text in the panel:

  1. Open the Translate Panel.
  2. Type or paste the text into to the input field. When typing, use Shift + Enter to add a line break.
  3. Select the input and output language.
    If the text is longer, you can also rely on automatic detection of the source language and only need to define the translation language, in case you wish to translate to a different language from your default language.
  4. Click Translate or press Enter.

Copy translation

To use the translation, click on Copy translation in the bottom right corner of the output field or use the common text highlighting and copying options.

Clear translation

When you’re done with the translation or want to translate something else, click Clear below the output field.

Translate text from a web page

To translate content on a website you can use the full page translation option accessible from the right side of the Address Bar. To translate only some sections of the web page, you can use translation of selected text. The output of translation can be displayed in a pop-up dialog or in the Translate Panel.

To display translations in the panel:

  1. Go to Settings > Panels > Translate Panel.
  2. Make sure Use Panel Instead of Dialog is enabled.

If you prefer the pop-up dialog, disable the setting.

To translate just a small block of text:

  1. Highlight the text you want to translate.
  2. Right-click on the selected text.
  3. Click on Translate Selection in the context menu.

Once the text has been highlighted, you can also type “Translate selection” into Quick Commands. In addition, you can create a Keyboard Shortcut or a Mouse Gesture for the action.

Automatic translation of selected text

In case you use the translation feature often and have the Translation Panel open, you can also cut out the command of translating selected text and do it automatically on text selection.

To translate selected text automatically:

  1. Open the Translate Panel.
  2. Tick the box for Auto-translate selected text.
  3. Keep the panel open to see the translations.
  4. On a web page, select text for translation.

Translation history

To view past translations, click on Show Translate History at the bottom of the panel. Double-click on the history entry to view the translation again. Right-click on the entry to open the context menu with options:

  • Copy – copies the translation
  • Copy All – copies the original text and the translation
  • Delete – deletes the translation from history.

Delete history

To delete a single history entry:

  1. In the Translation Panel open the translation history.
  2. Right-click on the entry.
  3. Select Delete.

To delete all history:

  1. In the Translation Panel open the translation history.
  2. Click on Clear Translate History above the list of history entries.