Mini Getting Started?

[ShelaghDB]

I have access to thousands of best sellers and all the new books etc, as iam sure many others do and up until now I have been using my iPhone to read my eBooks on.
I also have 2 HP Touchpads but I just found it much easier to read on the iPhone especially when out of my home, The small size does not bother me and I get lost in the book but I purchased a KOBO Mini a week ago on sale for Black Friday without having done research about it first.

I do have the software Calibre as it is needed in order to transfer ebooks onto my HP Touchpads but I haven't really used it much.

I gather the KOBO MINI I can use .mobi files?

Well, I have tried sending my eBooks to my device on Calibre but nothing has happened.
Or must i just simply drag and drop them into the Kobo mini icon that is on my desktop, like a folder? ( I use Mac )

This mini certainly didnt come with any instructions other than to download the deskop app which i have done but even that is rather vague.

So the question?


HOW DO I GO ABOUT PUTTING ONTO THIS KOBO, THE HUNDREDS OF EBOOKS I HAVE THAT ARE ON MY OTHER DEVICES?

Thank you in advance!!

[ShelaghDB]

#1 question as there seems to be some discrepancy about this...



The KOBO MINI ...does it read .mobi files or only .phub??????

[meeera]

Have you set up your Kobo Mini, and put in your Kobo registration details? You won't be able to do anything before you do that.

There's a bit of contention over whether the Mini reads .mobi adequately. Either way, it's a simple matter to highlight all your books in Calibre, and convert to epub, which is a known quantity and which the Kobo will handle well. (While you're converting, you might want to strip any hardocoded margin, line spacing, and font size settings - in the Conversion settings, they're under Look and Feel > Filter Style Information.)

You'll need to disinfect any DRM-infested files before you do this.

[ShelaghDB]

thank you, I have registered and am now converting files to .pjub for i think and am hoping that this is the problem.
As for any DRM-infected files ( hahah love that expression) Ive been led to believe that that is not an issue with the files i have and i assume not for i seem able to install them on most other things I have.....I believe, but i have that at the back of my mind if any further problems develop


I must say, this min reader doesn't really come with any instructions ;-)

[ShelaghDB]

Originally Posted by meeera

Have you set up your Kobo Mini, and put in your Kobo registration details? You won't be able to do anything before you do that.

There's a bit of contention over whether the Mini reads .mobi adequately. Either way, it's a simple matter to highlight all your books in Calibre, and convert to epub, which is a known quantity and which the Kobo will handle well. (While you're converting, you might want to strip any hardocoded margin, line spacing, and font size settings - in the Conversion settings, they're under Look and Feel > Filter Style Information.)

You'll need to disinfect any DRM-infested files before you do this.

JUst to double check what you mean, I am in the box now for FILTER STYLE INFORMATION


I see 5 blank boxes,
Fonts, Margins, Padding, Floats, Colors



Do you mean I should be checking the boxes besides each of the above?
( I have the latest build of calibre)


( I will need to look into what you mean by disinfecting any DRM---although I am pretty sure its been done for the files i have but i suppose i best learn exactly what to do and how to do it for future reference so i do know what i am talking about )

[Cdesja5]

Originally Posted by ShelaghDB

thank you, I have registered and am now converting files to .pjub for i think and am hoping that this is the problem.
As for any DRM-infected files ( hahah love that expression) Ive been led to believe that that is not an issue with the files i have and i assume not for i seem able to install them on most other things I have.....I believe, but i have that at the back of my mind if any further problems develop


I must say, this min reader doesn't really come with any instructions ;-)

Do a little reading here:
www.kobo.com/help/kobomini

Kobo generally explains how to use its products on its' Web site, much like mobile phone companies. If it's Calibre help you need, try the Calibre threads on Mobileread.
Ps: the format is "epub" not "pjub"...

[ShelaghDB]

epub eh? I actually thought it was ephub but somehow it came out pjub......thanks, no i an figure it out without reading a web page but since it was explained that its best to go the epub route rather than mobi.....that will likely solve the issue.

as for the striping of hard margin, etc, yes, thats all news to me but up until now I have not had to do anything in calibre other than convert back and forth between epub and mobi so all the rest of the margin spacing etc will come one at a time, first, once i know I have the kobo running fine and then i will be able to look at it and see if there are any nuisance problems---at which point i likely will look further into this margin spacing issue mentioned.

thanks for your help ;-)

[EldRick]

Do you mean I should be checking the boxes besides each of the above?

Yes.

Do it from the Change calibre Behavior menu item, and it will become the default for conversions.

[ShelaghDB]

Cdesja5


Thank you.

I must say, I am in another thread, " A Quick Guide to Shelf Management with Calibre 0.9.1 and above for Touch/Gio/Mini"

and I have to say I am a bit lost. All I want to do is put a couple of books onto this thing, without having to hack it ;-)

So I will go check out that link you have given.
Thank you again!



EldRick

Thank you Will do!!

[ShelaghDB]

Ok, let me get this right.........since I am just now reading up on how to use this thing and am signed into www.kobo.con.........am I right in suggesting that the KOBO is not designed for us to use our own ebooks and that it is set up just in order that it wants us to only have books on it we have purchased from them???


IF that is the case.....i am going to assume that there is a method for me to use to get my own ebooks on this device yet I still have not figured it out and what seems to be clear to all of you is not yet clear to me

[meeera]

Originally Posted by ShelaghDB

Ok, let me get this right.........since I am just now reading up on how to use this thing and am signed into www.kobo.con.........am I right in suggesting that the KOBO is not designed for us to use our own ebooks and that it is set up just in order that it wants us to only have books on it we have purchased from them???

No.

IF that is the case.....i am going to assume that there is a method for me to use to get my own ebooks on this device yet I still have not figured it out and what seems to be clear to all of you is not yet clear to me

Once your Kobo is set up properly and your books are in the right format, you can either just drag and drop them straight onto the device, or you can put them on there with Calibre. You don't need to read every single thing about Calibre first if you're just doing a default move-to-device action. Just make sure your version of Calibre is up to date, use its setup wizard defaults and you're good to go.

If you're still having problems with Calibre itself, you might want to post in that forum. Be prepared to give exact examples of what books are causing you trouble, their source, and the precise steps you've taken so far.

[ShelaghDB]

I understand that Meera but so far its not clear on what i should be doing at all.

I have registered.
I have converted to epub as you suggested and stripped the hardcoded margins as suggested, I double checked and made sure there were no DRM infested files, and believed at that point that I should have been properly set up to get books into my library, right?

Did I miss anything?

As you will see from these 2 screenshots, I am unable to send anything to the device. Not sure ifs even connecting so I have also tried dragging and dropping into the icon i have for Kobo on my desktop.

I could go into the calibre forum but I dont know at this point WHAT the problem is?


Have I not set it up right?
I wish I could find something really straightforward about how to do this but i haven't.


If someone could just tell me what the problem is....whether its my set up for Kobo or a Calibre problem or just me somehow missing something right in front of me than i will know what to do...

TIA


Sorry to be a pain in the a** but I am pretty adept at computers but have found this Kobo to be the more poorly set up device for instructions etc.
I dont understand if people have paid money for ebooks in the past, why would they not be able to just easily install them on this reader???

[meeera]

From your screenshot it is clear that Calibre and your reader are not connected. When they are connected, you will see a Device icon in the Calibre top menubar. At the time that you took this screenshot, had you clicked "Connect" on your Kobo after connecting your cable, and was the Kobo showing up on your desktop? Have you set up Calibre to connect and transfer files to your Kobo? (Go to Preferences and click "Run Welcome Wizard" down the bottom.)

One other thing to try is to start the Calibre content server (Connect/Share > Start Content Server). Then click Connect/Share again and note the IP shown there (third line, includes a port number). Then go to the Kobo's browser, and type http://IPnumberhere:Portnumberhere . When the page loads, click on the "epub" button next to the book you want.

If you've done all this and nothing works, I again suggest posting your question in the Calibre forum, including all details including app version numbers, screenshots, and all details of what you've done so far.

I double checked and made sure there were no DRM infested files

Can I double check with you exactly how you did that? Since your issue is unclear right now, it's worth double checking everything.

I dont understand if people have paid money for ebooks in the past, why would they not be able to just easily install them on this reader???

Many of us have had no trouble installing them. Your problem is atypical. People here are willing to help.

[ShelaghDB]

Thanks, I got it working.......not sure what i was doing last night as I believe I was doing the same as I just did this morning, and I know i did see it say that it was coonnected to the Kobo in the lower left hand window last night but for some reason, nothing was going on the Kobo.

But one thing I noticed that was this morning, the books I believed I had converted to .phub last night, I c ould not find in Calibre. I was only able to locate the original .mobi files so i took each book I wanted and one at a time i converted one at a time rather than several at once.....and when each was done, I transferred it to the device and it worked.

Yesterday i converted a bunch at once.......and they all said they had converted but none of them would go over to the Kobo as it did today, so I believe it was something in that conversion, more than one at a time that was causing the problem yet i can see phub in the screenshot so who knows what it was but i did the same this morning and it all worked so perhaps just one of those annoying things that happens and sometimes no reason for it


Thanks for all of your help as it is now finally figured out