Wrong-cover bug workaround?

[davidfor]

I haven't given up hope. But, it is an amazingly resilient bug. Maybe it will outlast the cockroaches.

[PeterT]

David; I forget (or never paid attention). Should PDF's get a cover when in sleep or power-off mode?

[davidfor]

PDFs use the first page as the cover. And it displays in sleep mode here.

[PeterT]

Ah well I was using a PDF of instructions for my bread maker; I see the first page correctly in the matrix, but not in sleep mode.

[vice-versa]

I work around that way :
Open a new book, let the device go to sleep or shut itself off will dysplay the wrong cover. So I open my new book, page inside once or twice then go back to the home page and put the device off. Power it on again, open the book I want to read and after that, it's the right cover that's displayed when in sleep mode or off.

[DNSB]

I was playing with Calibre and noticed that one of the book I was currently reading did not show up with the I'm_Reading tag. When I put my Glo to sleep while reading that book, it showed the cover from another book I had partially read which did have the I'm_Reading tag.

After playing with stepping through the other 4 books on the carousel and going back to Three Men in a Boat, the cover displays when the Kobo is in sleep mode and Calibre shows it as having the I'm_Reading tag.

Regards,
David

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I was playing with Calibre and noticed that one of the book I was currently reading did not show up with the I'm_Reading tag. When I put my Glo to sleep while reading that book, it showed the cover from another book I had partially read which did have the I'm_Reading tag.

I too have books that show as unread for a while after I have started reading them, it started with firmware 2.3.1 and still happens in 2.3.2. I wonder if the wrong-cover issue is simply a consequence of this bug?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I was playing with Calibre and noticed that one of the book I was currently reading did not show up with the I'm_Reading tag. When I put my Glo to sleep while reading that book, it showed the cover from another book I had partially read which did have the I'm_Reading tag.

After playing with stepping through the other 4 books on the carousel and going back to Three Men in a Boat, the cover displays when the Kobo is in sleep mode and Calibre shows it as having the I'm_Reading tag.

I noticed something related earlier and your report suggested an experiment.

I opened a new book and put the device to sleep. This showed the cover of the previous book. Then I opened another new book, went back to the home screen and reopened the book. This time the correct cover was shown.

Just now, I opened another new book and connected to the PC without returning to the home screen. Like you, the book doesn't show as "Im_Reading". Checking the database, the ReadStatus is 0 (unread) but the __PercentRead has a value and the current reading position is set.

From that, I would say that what is happening is that the while the reading position is being stored as you read (or maybe triggered by the connect to PC), the ReadStatus (whether the book has been opened, finished or closed) is not set until the first time it is closed. Then the rule for selecting the sleep cover is "ReadStatus = 1 and max(DateLastRead)". That basically means the last book you opened without finishing. The few occasions I have seen the wrong cover, agree with this.

The above also explains something that speakingtohe reported in the calibre forum. After a sync all books were marked as unread (and no I haven't a clue why). When the device went to sleep after this, it didn't show a cover at all. In that case, the device wouldn't be able to find a previously opened book to use the cover on.

This is with 2.3.2. It doesn't explain everything. But, it does explain why I haven't seen the wrong cover very often.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I noticed something related earlier and your report suggested an experiment.

I opened a new book and put the device to sleep. This showed the cover of the previous book. Then I opened another new book, went back to the home screen and reopened the book. This time the correct cover was shown.

Just now, I opened another new book and connected to the PC without returning to the home screen. Like you, the book doesn't show as "Im_Reading". Checking the database, the ReadStatus is 0 (unread) but the __PercentRead has a value and the current reading position is set.

From that, I would say that what is happening is that the while the reading position is being stored as you read (or maybe triggered by the connect to PC), the ReadStatus (whether the book has been opened, finished or closed) is not set until the first time it is closed. Then the rule for selecting the sleep cover is "ReadStatus = 1 and max(DateLastRead)". That basically means the last book you opened without finishing. The few occasions I have seen the wrong cover, agree with this.

I did some more playing with opening various books and seem to be consistent. For the heck of it, I backed up up the KoboReader.sqlite database and edited the ReadStatus. After disconnecting, I put the reader to sleep and the book cover showed up.

Regards,
David

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I did some more playing with opening various books and seem to be consistent. For the heck of it, I backed up up the KoboReader.sqlite database and edited the ReadStatus. After disconnecting, I put the reader to sleep and the book cover showed up.

I think that means you agree with me.

I'll send you a PM in a few minutes with something to try.

[tkavan]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

Thanks! The sequence that worked for me was:
1. Settings -> turn off full-size covers
2. Put to sleep, wrong cover still shown
3. Wake. Go to Table of Contents -> select Cover
4. Go to Table of Contents -> select current chapter
5. Put to sleep, correct cover now shown

Thanks treadlightly. Your clear instructions worked!

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by tkavan

Thanks treadlightly. Your clear instructions worked!

You're welcome and I'm glad it worked for you! But the thanks really go to rwhe.

I go through this little song and dance every time I start a book. I'm hoping Kobo will fix this and the sleepcover bug in the next release.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

I go through this little song and dance every time I start a book. I'm hoping Kobo will fix this and the sleepcover bug in the next release.

Did you try what I posted above? Simply return to the home screen after opening a new book before the device goes to sleep should prevent the wrong cover from being used. But, once the wrong sleep cover is associated with a book, it needs the song and dance to fix it.

I expect that Kobo will have THIS bug fixed in the next release. But, they seem to be able to find lots of different ways to mess up the sleep cover, so there might be a different bug.

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Did you try what I posted above? Simply return to the home screen after opening a new book before the device goes to sleep should prevent the wrong cover from being used. But, once the wrong sleep cover is associated with a book, it needs the song and dance to fix it.

I just tried it and it did work. So two workarounds are:

1) Open book
2) Go to Home screen
3) Open book

or

1) Open book
2) Table of Contents -> Cover

Just paging to the cover didn't work consistently for me. I suppose it could depend on how the book was formatted. Looking into that is beyond my skill set

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

I just tried it and it did work. So two workarounds are:

1) Open book
2) Go to Home screen
3) Open book

Good to know.

or

1) Open book
2) Table of Contents -> Cover

Just paging to the cover didn't work consistently for me. I suppose it could depend on how the book was formatted. Looking into that is beyond my skill set

There is a bit of sense in that. In my earlier post, the explanation of what is happening is that the database record for the book isn't being updated to show it is read until the book is closed. Maybe it gets updated when the TOC entry selected. A problem with this method is that most of my books do not have the cover page in the TOC. I can't test this right now, but, are you sure it has to be the cover and not just any TOC entry.