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chaley · 01-25-2013, 05:42 AM

Kindle for Android (K4A) is one of the very few reader apps that does not publish to Android the kinds of books that it can open. Because of this, Calibre Companion cannot automatically pass books to it. It is possible that this can happen with other reader apps, in which case the steps below could help resolve the problem.

You can resolve this problem one of two ways:

Use a different reader app that can open .mobi files (or the format you are trying to open). There are several. This will work only if your books are not infested with Amazon's DRM.
Set Calibre Companion's storage folder to K4A's books folder. Its name is "kindle". Its location depends on the version of Android you are running. NB: later versions of Kindle for Android put books into different places. Some experimentation may be required to find the right folder so the K4A will see books stored by CC ("side loaded" in Amazon terminology).

To change the folder CC uses for amazon books see FAQ How do I control which book extensions for instructions on how to change the storage folder.

Important: K4A does not support subfolders in the "kindle" folder. Because of this, when using K4A you must not use a calibre save template that sends books to subfolders. The default calibre save template for smart phones does not use subfolders. If you have changed the template using the preferences for the "smartdevice", you must change it back or use CC's setting to use the calibre "book identifier" as the filename. To change the save template in calibre, click on Preferences, then Plugins (on the last line of icons). Enter SmartDevice into the search box as shown in the following image then press Enter.

Double-click on the Smartdevice line. The following dialog will open.

You should uncheck the box "Use sub directories", and you should also change the template to something that has no slash characters ('/') in it. The example in the image, "{title} - {authors}" typed without the quotes, should work in most cases. If you have different books with the same title and authors, then use "{title} - {authors} {id}", again without the quotes.
After having changed the storage folder, the next time K4A is started it will import the books you have sent to Calibre Companion so you can read them.

Note: CC does some things with files to try to make Kindle for Android put the book you want to read at the top of its list. Unfortunately, starting with Kindle for Android version 3.8.2.4 (or perhaps a bit earlier), these "things" no longer work; the books are not re-sorted. We have tried and failed to find a way to cause K4A to reorder its list of books.

Note: Starting in early 2013, Kindle for Android started putting books in the Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files folder, and switched to using the .prc extension. CC 3.2.1 supports that folder as well as the existing /kindle folder, and also knows that .prc books in either folder can be opened by the kindle app.

01-25-2013, 05:42 AM	#5
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,742 Karma: 6997045 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	Old FAQ posts Kindle for Android (K4A) is one of the very few reader apps that does not publish to Android the kinds of books that it can open. Because of this, Calibre Companion cannot automatically pass books to it. It is possible that this can happen with other reader apps, in which case the steps below could help resolve the problem. You can resolve this problem one of two ways: Use a different reader app that can open .mobi files (or the format you are trying to open). There are several. This will work only if your books are not infested with Amazon's DRM. Set Calibre Companion's storage folder to K4A's books folder. Its name is "kindle". Its location depends on the version of Android you are running. NB: later versions of Kindle for Android put books into different places. Some experimentation may be required to find the right folder so the K4A will see books stored by CC ("side loaded" in Amazon terminology). To change the folder CC uses for amazon books see FAQ How do I control which book extensions for instructions on how to change the storage folder. Important: K4A does not support subfolders in the "kindle" folder. Because of this, when using K4A you must not use a calibre save template that sends books to subfolders. The default calibre save template for smart phones does not use subfolders. If you have changed the template using the preferences for the "smartdevice", you must change it back or use CC's setting to use the calibre "book identifier" as the filename. To change the save template in calibre, click on Preferences, then Plugins (on the last line of icons). Enter SmartDevice into the search box as shown in the following image then press Enter. Double-click on the Smartdevice line. The following dialog will open. You should uncheck the box "Use sub directories", and you should also change the template to something that has no slash characters ('/') in it. The example in the image, "{title} - {authors}" typed without the quotes, should work in most cases. If you have different books with the same title and authors, then use "{title} - {authors} {id}", again without the quotes. After having changed the storage folder, the next time K4A is started it will import the books you have sent to Calibre Companion so you can read them. Note: CC does some things with files to try to make Kindle for Android put the book you want to read at the top of its list. Unfortunately, starting with Kindle for Android version 3.8.2.4 (or perhaps a bit earlier), these "things" no longer work; the books are not re-sorted. We have tried and failed to find a way to cause K4A to reorder its list of books. Note: Starting in early 2013, Kindle for Android started putting books in the Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files folder, and switched to using the .prc extension. CC 3.2.1 supports that folder as well as the existing /kindle folder, and also knows that .prc books in either folder can be opened by the kindle app. Last edited by chaley; 11-24-2014 at 04:30 PM.