Glo Sideloaded books don't always arrive on the reader

[Illyria]

Occasionally some of the books I side-load to my Kobo don't arrive on the reader. Yesterday I loaded one book on it and it was not on the reader afterwards. Just now I added six more and again one didn't make it. It's really strange and very annoying... Does anyone have the same issue?

[Mrs_Often]

No, I've never had this issue... What are the exact steps you take to put the books on the ereader? Do you put them on the ereader directly with your computer's OS, do you use Calibre? Are you sure you eject the ereader before you unplug it? What are the file types you are trying to put onto the ereader? Which file types do make it onto the reader? Lots of questions, but they might help us understand what's going wrong

[samhy]

So far, that didn't happen to me. But I haven't put that many books in the first place, since I'm still trying to figure a couple of things out.
I'd say that I may have added 15 documents (proper ebooks, text documents converted in .epub, a couple of PDF) and removed half of them. Not once a document disappeared after the transfer.

How do you load them? Via Calibre? Or do you drag-and-drop them?

Best of luck in figuring out what's happening fast

[Illyria]

Ok, I think I have figured it out. Both books were on my reader already and then I deleted them when I connected it to the PC with the USB cable. Then I put an edited version of them on the Kobo again. I still have no idea why I can only do both steps when I connect the reader for the second time but apparently these are the only cases this happens so it's not random and I can live with that.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Illyria

Ok, I think I have figured it out. Both books were on my reader already and then I deleted them when I connected it to the PC with the USB cable. Then I put an edited version of them on the Kobo again. I still have no idea why I can only do both steps when I connect the reader for the second time but apparently these are the only cases this happens so it's not random and I can live with that.

How did you delete them, and how did you put the book on the device again? And what firmware version are you using?

If you did everything through calibre, then it should manage this correctly. It removes the entries from the database and deletes the file. But, depending on the changes you made to the book, you can avoid the delete and just send the book over again.

If you deleted the book while connected via USB, and then copied a new version over manually (using explorer or whatever), then I would expect the book to disappear from the device when it is disconnected. The device stores the size of the book in its database, and if the books size changes, removes the book from the database and device. There may be other criteria the device uses, but that is the one I fixed in calibre recently.

There has also been a firmware version where if you deleted an book using the devices menus, then you couldn't put a new version on until you did a sync to Kobo. But, I didn't think the Glo ever ran this firmware version.

[Illyria]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you deleted the book while connected via USB, and then copied a new version over manually (using explorer or whatever), then I would expect the book to disappear from the device when it is disconnected. The device stores the size of the book in its database, and if the books size changes, removes the book from the database and device. There may be other criteria the device uses, but that is the one I fixed in calibre recently.

Yes, that's the way I was doing it. Thank you. I was used to doing it this way with my Cybook and for some reason with this device it works. But now I know how to avoid this problem.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Illyria

Yes, that's the way I was doing it. Thank you. I was used to doing it this way with my Cybook and for some reason with this device it works. But now I know how to avoid this problem.

It is a reasonable expectation. I think the reason the Kobo does this is that it load details from the book and the TOC into its database. If you modify and replace the book, this can get out of sync and cause problems. The problems depend on what changes you make. If they are changes to the file structure or anything that affects the TOC, there can be problems. Generally, it just means that navigation via the TOC doesn't work and bookmarks might not work. If the changes are text changes, such as spelling, styles or layout of the text, or to the metadata, they should be OK.

The latest driver in calibre updates the file size in the database when a book is sent again. I frequently tweak the formatting of books I read, so this saved me from having to delete and send the book again. And I don't lose the bookmarks. I know a lot of other people do the same thing.

[Illyria]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If the changes are text changes, such as spelling, styles or layout of the text, or to the metadata, they should be OK.

They are changes to the text, to the text volume, to be exact. I'm writing my own stories and every time a few more pages are done, I convert them to epub and replace them on my reader.