"Database Disk Image is malformed" when connecting to Calibre after adding new books

[djorkboy]

I keep getting errors in Calibre when trying to add books to my Kobo.

I tried to add a bunch of new books and a couple were having problems (badly formed epubs I think), so I deleted the iffy books from Calibre, after much trying, testing and head-scratching I found the only way to get the Kobo working again was to manually delete all books from the Kobo then replace the SQL database with a clean one.

This is the 3rd time in the last 24 hours I have had to wipe and start again. I replace the SQL database, start adding my books 100 at a time (or 50 at a time, or 20 at a time, doesn't seem to matter) and then disconnect the device to let it process the new content, then I go back and add some more books etc etc.

Eventually, some times after almost all the books are loaded, sometimes after less than half are loaded, I will reconnect the device to add more books after the last lot were processed successfully by the Kobo and Calibre will give me an error saying it cannot connect to the device and the details show it as a "database disk image is malformed" error.

From my checking it looks like either Calibre or (more likely) the Kobo is creating a corrupted file in the .kobo/images folder.

At this point if I disconnect the Kobo it might work fine, but will no longer connect to Calibre to load new books or it is toast, it won't start and I have to go back and wipe all the books from it manually, let Windows do it's disk check (If I don't do this the corrupted file in the .kobo/images folder won't delete) then reload the SQL database and start again, even though it was working fine before I connected it to the PC.

Anyone seen this before or know what I should do?

Full text of error message....

database disk image is malformed

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 69, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 289, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 186, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 567, in sync_booklists
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 458, in update_device_database_collections
DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed

[timlegge]

Originally Posted by djorkboy

I keep getting errors in Calibre when trying to add books to my Kobo.

[snip]

database disk image is malformed

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 69, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 289, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 186, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 567, in sync_booklists
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 458, in update_device_database_collections
DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed

Sorry for the delay. I did not see this until late last night. The driver attempt to update the database with the books on the I'm Reading List or Finished list. If no books are on either list it sets all books to unread. The updates are fairly simple and should not result in the issues you are seeing.

From other posts on the Kobo list it looks like you are having other issues with the device. Instead of doing the chkdsk I would be tempted to reformat that drive. That should clear up any file system issues.

However, you will need to make sure that you have a backup of any of the files that you want from the drive (like Desktop Installers). You should probably also deauthorize that device with Adobe Digital Editions if you have used that before formating the device.

NOTE!!! I have not attempted to format the drive on my kobo. You may want to ask Sameer or someone else at Kobo to see if that is okay. Logic tells me it should be okay but logic tells me a lot of things that seem to be downright wrong...

A bug listed at http://bugs.calibre-ebook.com/ticket/6849 has a similar issue and as far as I know the issue was the device/database not Calibre.

Update this if you find differently...

Tim