Sync and data freshness
When TrueRoyalties refreshes your data, how fresh Amazon's own reports are, and how to force a sync.
When syncs happen
You never have to trigger a sync. Your KDP royalties and your Amazon Ads spend come from two different places, so they refresh on their own schedules.
KDP royalties — read by the extension:
| Trigger | When |
|---|---|
| App open | While a TrueRoyalties tab is visible, and at most once every 15 minutes |
| Background alarm | Every 15 minutes, even with the app closed — only if New sale alerts is on |
| Sync now | Whenever you click it, in Platforms |
Amazon Ads spend — read from Amazon's API, no extension involved:
| Trigger | When |
|---|---|
| App open | Any TrueRoyalties tab, open or in the background, once the last successful sync is over 2 hours old |
| Reconnecting | Straight away, without waiting for the 2 hours — you reconnect because something was wrong |
| Automatic repair | Every 15 minutes we resume any sync that stopped halfway |
Amazon generates the ad report on its own time, so a refresh usually takes a few minutes to land. Nothing to press while you wait.
A sync only runs if one is actually due, so opening the app ten times in a row does not hit Amazon ten times.
When ad spend looks out of date
The dashboard says so, in amber, above your figures. In almost every case it fixes itself — keep the tab open and it refreshes.
One case needs you: if it says Amazon wants you to reconnect, your authorization expired or was revoked on Amazon's side. Go to Platforms and connect Amazon Ads again — a sync starts as soon as you come back. Nothing else on this list requires a click.
How fresh Amazon's data is
This is the part most people are surprised by. TrueRoyalties can never be fresher than the report it reads:
- KDP royalties — the estimator refreshes roughly every 24 to 48 hours.
- KDP orders — usually within 24 hours.
- Kindle Unlimited — pages read appear quickly, but the KU royalty rate for a month is only set by Amazon in the middle of the following month.
- Amazon Ads — daily, and Amazon keeps revising the last few days.
So today's sales are normally visible tomorrow. A "Sync now" will not make Amazon publish a number it has not published yet.
Why the last 60 days are re-read
Amazon revises recent figures — returns, refunds, corrected attributions. Every sync re-reads the last 60 days so your history reflects those corrections. Older data is already final and is left untouched.
Ad orders "pending shipping"
On the Orders page you may see a note about orders generated by ads that are pending shipping. Amazon reports a print sale when it ships, not when it is ordered, so ad-attributed print orders show up a day or two later. Nothing is lost.
Forcing a sync
Platforms → Sync now. It bypasses the 15-minute interval.
Requirements: the extension enabled, and an active KDP session. If the button does nothing, see Troubleshooting.