Manga Downloader Assistant
Status Platforms Download
Active
Active
Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Opera Microsoft Edge v1.0
(Chrome/ium)
v1.0
(Firefox)
v1.0
(Opera)
v1.0
(Edge)

Manga Downloader Assistant is a very simple extension for web browsers to obtain the necessary data (cookies and user agent) useful to bypass Cloudflare and similar anti-bot protections in the Manga Downloader desktop application.

The extension is developed using WebExtensions and therefore it is compatible with all web browsers that support this method.
This essentially includes all popular web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge).

You can download the extension directly from the official Chrome Web Store page.

You can download the extension directly from the official Mozilla Add-ons page.

You can download the extension directly from the official Opera Add-ons page when it will be accepted (currently under review).

You can download the extension directly from the official Edge Add-ons page.

The usage of this extension is really as trivial as possible: essentially it will be enough simply to click on the extension button and the popup window will open with all the necessary data.
So, just to recap and to be as precise as possible, the correct usage is the following:

  1. Visit to the website you want to access (for example https://mangadex.org).
  2. Wait the full loading of the main page (after having passed all active anti-bot protections, whether they are waits for a few seconds, redirects or captchas).
  3. Click on the extension's button

Now a popup window will appear that will show you the steps to follow which essentially consist simply in copying the acquired data (in case it's not copied automatically, which in any case should happen automatically unless the browsers or operating systems in use are incompatible) and paste it inside the appropriate window of the Manga Downloader desktop application.

Note: some websites (as currently1) Bato.to) have protection systems that recognize the most famous web browsers by their “signature” and therefore they don't show any anti-bot protection. Obviously this does not apply to the Manga Downloader desktop application (as even by emulating a web browser it will never be able to reproduce a legitimate “signature”).
To overcome this problem (because in these cases no cookies are generated by the web browser since the anti-bot protection is not enabled at all) in the extension I have also included an extra function: a helpful button that can be used to “force” the activation of the anti-bot protection (simply by changing a header of the browser which invalidates its “signature” and its identification).
So if you are unable to access the website even after using the extension, you can retry to acquire the data AFTER pressing the button (the web page will be reloaded and you will have to close the extension window popup and open it again in order to reacquire the necessary data). Usually this solves the problem (tested with Bato.to, which to date is the only website that has this particularity).

As written also in the extension window, within the acquired data there will be all the cookies of the website you are trying to access, this also means that if you have logged in (for example when you have an account registered with that website and you are logged in with the browser in use) then the cookies relating to your account will also be included in the acquired data. For this reason you must be very careful to NOT share the acquired data elsewhere, because it could be used to access your own account on that website!

However, I would like to clarify that Manga Downloader uses this data ONLY to be able to access the website by bypassing the anti-bot protections.

If you want to be 100% safe, just remember to logout from your account BEFORE acquiring the data with the extension, so that there will be nothing within the acquired data and you can be assured that no one will have access to your account.

Here's a preview of what the extension window will look like when you click on its button:

  • To the creators of WebExtensions method, which has greatly simplified cross-platform development and obviously to all the web browsers that support it.
  • To users who support Manga Downloader with their donations.
  • To my girlfriend for her infinite patience despite all the time I take away from her to devote myself to this hobby.

1)
This in April 2021 at least, by the time you are reading this page maybe things will have been changed, who knows