A most frustrating issue I'm having with the reader is that whenever I add and delete eBooks to the internal memory the reader seems to erase all markers and history data for all the books. This happens repeatedly--but not on every occasion--when I delete an eBook and replace or add new eBooks. Does anyone understand how to retain the information, back it up, or otherwise avoid the problem? I'm tired of forward clicking 150 times to get to a page I left off reading at. (As fate would have it, I'm about halfway between two of the buttons until I get some more reading in....)

Whoa. Something's not right, 'cause that shouldn't be happening to you. :no:

It ought to just retain everything automatically. I've seen that sort of thing with files on an MMC card (which aren't officially supported) when I pull/replace 'em, but the internal memory? No, that's just not right.

The only thing I can suggest (other than contacting Sony -- [shudder]), is a Hard Reset, it might shake it out of whatever's going on....

I don't have a solution but have a hint: if you hold down the "next page" button for several seconds, it jumps 10 pages instead of one. Also, use numbered buttons to jump to the start, 20%, 30% ... end of the book.

All that stuff is in the cache.xml file. It should be retained. On the SD card I've been using it's got details on every book I read, including bookmarks that aren't even valid anymore. There's no reason that should vanish.

Thanks, I didn't think to do that. I'll give it a try.

Neat trick. That will help me hold on to my temper at least. Thanks.

That was what I thought as well--assuming it's the cache in my case. I have an SD card in the reader, but I haven't been storing any books on it yet; all my ebooks are currently on the reader itself. All I can think of (barring the suggested hard reset) is that it must be rebuilding the cache (or something) whenever I delete and replace books. Something empties the history files and bookmarks. It hasn't lost any data when I don't change any of the files. I'll try SONY support, but my last go around with them regarding the Connect store snafus took 3 weeks....

Report back when you can!

That just happened to me last night! It's the only time it's happened so far. I transferred about 7 new books to the Reader (not SD) and I noticed the problem a little while later, when every book I went into needed to re-format. It also lost all prior bookmarks and collections. Then, later (today) after about 10 minutes of use the screen went blank, I hit the power button and it re-started. So I'm pretty sure there was some software issue going on.

One thing to add to the litany of irritating things about the Connect software: I didn't want to have to wait for formatting on the Reader on every book I have on there, so I figured if I just re-copied all the books into the Reader with Connect, it'd update the formatting and I'd be good to go. Nope. Have to delete them from the Reader first and then re-copy (irritating because not all books on my reader are still in my Connect Library, so I have to individually figure out which ones I can safely delete from the Reader before re-copying). Might also be nice to have a function on the Reader to format everything that doesn't yet have formatting info for any of the 3 font sizes. And while we're here, might as well also add some bookmark (etc) synching so when something goes wrong and I lose all my bookmarks on the Reader they will still be stored on my PC and I can just upload them back. <sigh>

The issue seems to be systemic to the reader, but I haven't been able to find the root cause condition(s). Sometimes if I delete and replace the same book (I've been converting some gutenberg texts to PDF with restored illustrations), the issue doesn't occur, but othertimes when I add new books the reader deletes all the history, etc. data. Keeping track of where I leave off reading is getting to be annoying. I'm hoping SONY will issue a firmware/unit software update that will fix a lot of these teething issues....

I can't remember, have you talked to the support folks? That seems more like a problem with the unit, than something generally wrong with design (since it doesn't seem to be happening to everyone) ....

Or caused by an unusual usage pattern.... If that's the case they wouldn't know they have a bug unless they test that usage pattern or are told about it.

No, I haven't talked to them yet. I wanted to focus down a bit more on the root cause so I can repeat it at will. Right now it happens about 2/3 of the time when I'm doing delete/replace/add new content. Having dealt with tech support folks far too often, it's best to eliminate as many variables as possible.

Amen to that. :yes:

I'm mostly using the SD card for storage, but other than that I'm having the same problem with disappearing history, bookmarks, and continue reading markers. They seem to disappear after adding new books using the CONNECT software.

I don't know the steps that cause it, but it happens with annoying frequency.

For what it's worth, I use an SD card for storage, frequently change content on the Reader with "Connect", and have not experienced this problem. Perhaps it's some specific sequence of actions which causes it?

I have deleted books only to readd them later. It keeps the history and bookmarks (if any) that were there before. It even kept the marks when the book was deleted from the card and later added to the internal memory.

Like Harry, I have never lost anything while changing books through CONNECT. This does raise the question of what happens when I fill the space available. Does it stop working or, like the history, keep only the last certain number of marks. (History is the last 100 pages viewed.)

Does it depend on the type of content being added, I wonder? All my books are RTF files. Is the problem perhaps occuring with PDF files?

The problem of the disappearing bookmarks and page positions seems only to happen if I drag files from my computer onto the internal memory of the Reader or the SD card in the reader using the Connect software. If I drag the file to the Connect Software Library first, then drag it from that onto the Reader, I haven't had the problem with the disappearing bookmarks.

Are other people happily dragging files directly onto the reader using the connect SW without ever losing their stored bookmarks and page positions?

Are other people happily dragging files directly onto the reader using the connect SW without ever losing their stored bookmarks and page positions?I have on several occasions -- you might try reinstalling the software. It's a shot in th dark, but it's all I got. :sad:

Are other people happily dragging files directly onto the reader using the connect SW without ever losing their stored bookmarks and page positions?

Yes, that's what I do - drag straight from Windows Explorer to the SD card icon on "Connect". I never use the "Library".

this happened to me today!

i stopped using Library and do direct transfer from explorer to the SD card a few weeks ago.

today, i loaded about 300mb of mp3 and photos to the SD card via the Connect Software. upon disconnecting from the USB cable, all bookmarks and history are gone!

my first instinct was that maybe the internal store was running out of space and truncated or corrupted the xml file. upon examination, the internal store had 31MB free and SD card had 1.3GB free.

so i thumbed through the books, made a few bookmarks, returned to the home screen, turned the reader off and did a paperclip reboot. something strange happend. upon rebooting, all the new bookmarks and history are gone again. (strangely enough all subsequent resets retained the data).

this sounds like buggy software, perhaps, it is a good idea to reboot
the system every week or so?

I've had this happen as well and now it appears I'm losing my books too! I was halfway through a book, I bookmarked the last page I was one and later when I came back to read it the novel was gone but the bookmark was still there and I didn't do anything except turn the power back on. I'm not sure what happened to the novel because it was there not 1 hour before. :(

edit: I tried the soft reset and it appears all my stories are back. not sure what went wrong but I'm going to blame the Sony Connect Software on this one...

:help:

Wanted to reactivate this thread, in case anyone else was still having this problem, because I certainly am.

The reason I'm bringing it up again is that I've acquired (through purchasing in LIT format from Fictionwise.com and converting with ConvertLIT 1.5 and 1.8) an LRF copy of the Dragonriders of Pern trilogy that appears to cause the bookmarks-and-collections erasing behavior, pretty much on demand.

1. Load the book on the Reader (my PRS-500) with Sony e-Book Library.
2. Disconnect the Reader's USB cable and let it get to the menu.
3. Open the Pern book and read. You can even view one page.
4. Connect the Reader and open the Sony software.

5. One of the following will happen:

5a. The Sony Library software will lock up trying to recognize the Reader.
5b. The Sony Library session will go off perfectly, allowing book copying, etc.

6. Upon disconnecting the Reader's USB cable and letting it try to bring up the menu, the reader will take several times longer than normal, and come up with no bookmarks, no collections and no "continue reading" point.

If anyone's interested in working through the problem, either from ConvertLIT's POV or any other, please e-mail me at echoloc8{at}usa{dot}net, or reply here.

-Rich

I had the same thing happen this morning but I'm using libprs500 and not the Connect software. Interesting. One thing I know after only 8 hours of usage is that the Sony software is terrible.

I find my 505 to be quite good. The problem could be with your Windows. The 505 works very well here. Never a glitch when using eBook Library.

One thing I do is always run eBook Library before connecting my 505 to the USB port,.I have found sometimes it can lock up if you have the 505 connected to the USB before running eBook Library.

I am beginning to suspect that the bookmark/history wiping could be related to Windows AutoPlay, Today, I accidentally clicked Okay instead of Cancel when the AutoPlay action dialog came up and lost all collection/bookmark/history on my 505's internal memory. SD card didn't get affected. Can someone else verify this?

To turn off AutoPlay: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/WindowsXP/UserTips/Customization/DisableCDautoplayinWindowsXPPro.html

The Sony library software is what messes mine up. So frequently in fact I've stopped using it all together.

I solely use drag'n'drop now directly to internal memory. Works great.


It's a shame too, cause I really wanted to use the Collection feature. If I could make Collections by sorting into folders, that would be great. The reader, however, reads folders as transparent.

libprs500 also supports collections

I only use my SD card to put books my Reader because I hate connecting the device to my computer. Just extra time I don't need to waste. I used to have problems with the Reader losing my current spot in the book. Then I started bookmarking the page I'm on and exiting out of my current book before removing the SD card. I haven't had a problem since. So one solution might be to start loading books directly on to an SD card, but that doesn't seem to be an optimal solution. That's a pretty ridiculous problem for Sony not to have fixed by now.

The Sony library software is what messes mine up. So frequently in fact I've stopped using it all together.

I solely use drag'n'drop now directly to internal memory. Works great.


It's a shame too, cause I really wanted to use the Collection feature. If I could make Collections by sorting into folders, that would be great. The reader, however, reads folders as transparent.
When using eBook Library, what ou do is after you think you are finished organizing your content, click the black button next to Sony Reader in the left side pane. Then once the Sony is ejected, pull the USB cable out of the Sony and you are done. What may be happening otherwise is you are pulling the USB cable out of the Sony too soon and because it's not done updating the reader, you get lost data. I did pull out the USB cable too soon once when I had my 500 and never did it again. Now I always eject it to be on the safe side.

When using eBook Library, what ou do is after you think you are finished organizing your content, click the black button next to Sony Reader in the left side pane. Then once the Sony is ejected, pull the USB cable out of the Sony and you are done. What may be happening otherwise is you are pulling the USB cable out of the Sony too soon and because it's not done updating the reader, you get lost data. I did pull out the USB cable too soon once when I had my 500 and never did it again. Now I always eject it to be on the safe side.

I've tried using the Library eject and Windows USB eject. Neither would give me 100% reliable results. I might try their sw again when they update to a newer version.

Windows USB Eject is not what you want to use. That could eject the 505 from the computer before it was done. Using eject in eBook Library does work. I don't have any problems at all.