Important: Marvin and iOS 8

[twowheels]

Thanks for the awesome app kguil. It's such a beautiful app that it makes me wish I didn't hate long form reading on an LCD so much. :-) I keep it around with books that are good for quick reading while waiting in a line or something (right now I've got Andersen's Fairy Tails in progress) and every time I use it I think how very nice it is. I've been trying to find some free time (HA!) to learn iOS development and can only hope to make something as nice as you've created!

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by kguil

@DuskyRose: Have you got any more details about the problem you encountered like whether you experienced a crash? I haven't received any reports of this problem.

No, I just noticed that for a few days, between one chapter and another in the same book, it would take a long time to get to the next chapter. Used to be instantaneous, but then took over 30 seconds with the little timer spinning. I was in and out of that same book, then into another, and the same thing started happening.

Closed the book to move some stuff from one collection to another. Then closed Marvin for the night, closing it on the Collections List. Next day, opened Marvin and it took a really long time to open "My Library". After a couple of minutes of loading it finally pulled up the Collections list. But they were all empty. I went in and out of several, but nothing in the collections or "Unread Books" or "All My Books".

So I uninstalled Marvin, went back into iTunes and re-installed after making sure there were no updates available.

I've dropped a couple hundred books back into it from iTunes. Opened the same book I was on the last time, so far, no problems going from one chapter to another.

I can't really recreate it, since I can't load the books from Marvin like I was doing before, until the iOSRA plugin gets fixed.

I can only guess that an index somewhere got corrupted for the books to disappear, but don't know what was up with the lag time between chapters.

[chookie2]

Thanks Kris , look forward to the fix.

[redjawriter]

I love Marvin. It's the best ereading software I've ever used, and I've been reading electronically since 2000.

I noticed that after the last update, the dictionary no longer comes up as a popup; instead, it comes up full-screen. Is this by intent? Is this an IOS issue? Is there a setting to change this? Personally, I was disappointed to see this change, as the popup looks far more professional.

Keep up the great work!

[mistert20]

Hello,
New user. Very much like what I've seen so far, but unfortunately I can't type anything! I installed the paid app on my iPad running iOS 8.0.2. Was able to connect to calibre, upload some books, read them, tweak settings, everything is really cool, and looking forward to using the app, especially after the iBooks nightmare from mavericks. When i tried to search for a book, or a collection, or make a new collection, though, the cursor in the window pops up but the keyboard doesn't appear. Or rather, it looks like the very top edge of the keyboard runs along the bottom edge of the screen. With some random tapping, I was able to see a messed up version of the top row of keys. I sent a message to support email, but I thought Id try here to see if anyone has encountered this or even if I am doing something wrong. I have tried restarting the iPad, and also I don't have this keyboard issue in any other app. I also loaded the app onto my iPod Touch (an old model running iOS 6.2, and the KB works just fine there. Maybe something broken with 8.0.2? Anyway, thanks in advance for any information you may have.

Cheers
MRT

[twowheels]

I suspect it's an iOS issue as I have numerous keyboard problems, including those problems, in numerous apps ever since iOS 8 was released -- especially the Messaging app.

[mistert20]

As a follow up, I tried the app on my wife's IOS7 iPad, no problems there. Only happening on my iOS 8 iPad.

[huser]

I've been using Marvin reader on ios for several months now, recently update to ios8. for the past week, there has been time lag in between chapters and on first loading the library exactly as described by DuskyRose but no missing books. Opened the same book in ibooks and no problems. So should i uninstall and reinstall Marvin?

[kyrilson]

I have also encountered issues with Marvin in iOS 8. Formatting takes a very long time. for example, when I try to adjust line spacing, the app appears to freeze for about 8 seconds before it finally adjusts. Major bummer.

[sglinert]

After upgrading to iOS 8, when I tap on the dictionary icon in the menu bar, the screen dims...and nothing happens. System Dictionary is set, but somehow, Marvin can't find it. The dictionaries works in KyBook, but not in Marvin. Also, I can no longer change my language from the keyboard in Marvin, sigh.

[chookie2]

Have now lost connectivity between Calibre and Marvin and IOS is unistalling in Calibre each time I install it. I am up to IOS 8.02 update on my ipad. Everything else seems to be working ok except Calibre and MarvinXD and ibooks and itunes....so I am one frustrated reader just now...luckily I have a few TBR on both Marvin and ibooks to go to but cannot syc over any books at all now. Sync acts like it is happening but the books do not get there with ibooks and with Marvin it just doesn't show up in Calibre at all....all down to IOS I am told. Am hoping there is a fix on the way that is not too complicated.

[Apocalypto]

Originally Posted by chookie2

Have now lost connectivity between Calibre and Marvin and IOS is unistalling in Calibre each time I install it. I am up to IOS 8.02 update on my ipad. Everything else seems to be working ok except Calibre and MarvinXD and ibooks and itunes....so I am one frustrated reader just now...luckily I have a few TBR on both Marvin and ibooks to go to but cannot syc over any books at all now. Sync acts like it is happening but the books do not get there with ibooks and with Marvin it just doesn't show up in Calibre at all....all down to IOS I am told. Am hoping there is a fix on the way that is not too complicated.

I saw something like (after importing a Marvin backup to a new phone) and gave in and installed Calibre 2.5 where it gave a communicating with device error ending in "DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed" rather than just uninstalling itself. So I went into Marvin's preferences in the System preferences (I really, really dislike splitting up preferences like this, I know Apple started it but it's unintuitive and terrible, not to mention Marvin's settings are scattered around the app as well) and in the support and maintenance section turned on the clear cache and optimize database toggles, restarted Marvin and can now transfer books (though it still gives the same error).

If that doesn't work for you then turn on the server in Calibre (sharing over the net option in preferences -> start server) and choose the OPDS option in Marvin rather than Calibre in get books, and it'll show your Calibre library there and you can import books that way until things get sorted the normal way.

[chookie2]

Kyteflyer got me to go through the OPDS option and now I can at least transfer from Calibre.
Thanks for the heads up Apocalypto. Just hoping a fix will happen soon for the whole shebang.

[kguil]

@redjawriter - Yes, the dictionary showing full screen seems to be an iOS 8 issue, but I worked around it and you'll see popups again in the next update (already in review at Apple).

[kguil]

@mistert20 - iOS 8 has lots of keyboard problems, especially in landscape. This is true even on iPhone. Next Monday we should be getting 8.1 and it's much better.