Email to Kindle randomly rejecting EPUB attachments

ajkessel · 06-29-2022, 04:33 PM

I wrote a procmail filter that converts certain HTML emails into EPUB books via the Calibre CLI and then forwards them as attachments to my Kindle email address. Usually, this works fine, but every once in a while the transmission is rejected with an email response "There was a problem with the document(s) you sent to Kindle." I'm definitely not exceeding the size limitations (the EPUB files are always less than 1MB), and I'm not using any unusual calibre convert options -- I've tried both --epub-version 2 and --epub-version 3, and both occasionally generate this rejection error.

Does anyone have any ideas for isolating what the cause of the occasional rejection might be? The Amazon email itself gives no detail as to why it thinks the attached EPUB is noncompliant.

jhowell · 06-29-2022, 04:51 PM

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=212

kovidgoyal · 06-29-2022, 10:46 PM

There is an entry in the calibre FAQ about it

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...-of-mobi-files

ajkessel · 06-30-2022, 12:08 PM

Thanks for the pointers. One workaround is converting from EPUB to MOBI to EPUB. But since I'm starting with HTML, should it work just as well to convert HTML->MOBI->EPUB? (I'm testing now but the problem is not entirely reproducible so just looking for any wisdom from people who have gone down this road.)

ajkessel · 06-30-2022, 06:35 PM

Alternatively, I wonder if just removing the Table of Contents would make the file more palatable to Amazon? Is there a way to do this from the command-line? I'm not seeing any applicable option in the ebook-convert manpage.

06-29-2022, 04:33 PM	#1
ajkessel Connoisseur Posts: 58 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2017 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3rd Generation	Email to Kindle randomly rejecting EPUB attachments I wrote a procmail filter that converts certain HTML emails into EPUB books via the Calibre CLI and then forwards them as attachments to my Kindle email address. Usually, this works fine, but every once in a while the transmission is rejected with an email response "There was a problem with the document(s) you sent to Kindle." I'm definitely not exceeding the size limitations (the EPUB files are always less than 1MB), and I'm not using any unusual calibre convert options -- I've tried both --epub-version 2 and --epub-version 3, and both occasionally generate this rejection error. Does anyone have any ideas for isolating what the cause of the occasional rejection might be? The Amazon email itself gives no detail as to why it thinks the attached EPUB is noncompliant.

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06-29-2022, 04:51 PM	#2
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,498 Karma: 84420419 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Tampa Bay, Florida Device: Kindles	https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=212

06-29-2022, 10:46 PM	#3
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,864 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	There is an entry in the calibre FAQ about it https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...-of-mobi-files

06-30-2022, 12:08 PM	#4
ajkessel Connoisseur Posts: 58 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2017 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3rd Generation	Thanks for the pointers. One workaround is converting from EPUB to MOBI to EPUB. But since I'm starting with HTML, should it work just as well to convert HTML->MOBI->EPUB? (I'm testing now but the problem is not entirely reproducible so just looking for any wisdom from people who have gone down this road.)

06-30-2022, 06:35 PM	#5
ajkessel Connoisseur Posts: 58 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2017 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3rd Generation	Alternatively, I wonder if just removing the Table of Contents would make the file more palatable to Amazon? Is there a way to do this from the command-line? I'm not seeing any applicable option in the ebook-convert manpage.