Troubleshooting How can I transfer my backup of highlights and bookmarks to reseted Kindle ?

[Dalva88]

Hello,

I had to do a factory reset of my kindle (Paperwhite 11) because all my books transferred with Calibre had disappeared.

What's most important to me is getting those books back with their highlights, bookmarks and reading progress. (I read multiple books at a time and a lot of long and complex series, so I always highlight and bookmark the important parts so I can go back and read them when I start a book/series again after a while. It's the very reason why I got a Kindle, and represents years of reading/annotating.)

Now that I reset my Kindle, I can transfer those books (.mobi) again using Calibre, but I don't know how to transfer their highlights etc back.

I did make a backup of my kindle folder's content on my mac before the factory reset, and tried to transfer those files back manually after the reset.

Both files transferred with Calibre and manually now show up on my Kindle library but the ones I transfer manually do not have cover art, and neither have my highlight, bookmarks and reading progress. Even though I did transfer the clippings files and the .mdp files at the same place as before ;__;

If somebody a little more tech savy than me knows what I'm doing wrong, that would be of great help. Thank you.

[j.p.s]

The clippings file is just a transcript of annotations, bookmarks, highlights, etc. Kindles don't use that file for anything except to write to it.

Did you put the .mdp files into the .sdr directories for the corresponding books?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Dalva88

Even though I did transfer the clippings files and the .mdp files at the same place as before

If the books were in MOBI format then the reading position and annotations were stored in .mbs and .mbp1 files stored in the .sdr folder associated with the book.

I am unfamiliar with .mdp files. Where are you seeing those?

[Dalva88]

Thank you for your responses.

I indeed meant .mbs and .mbp1 files, not .mdp, sorry about that.

I've attached a screenshot of the way the books are filed in each folder.

In the Kindle folder was a "Document" folder.
In the Document folder were folders with the name of the author.
In that folder was the .mobi file of the book + another folder with the same name than the .mobi file, but ending in .sdr.
And in THAT folder were three files, one with the same name as the .mobi file but ending in .apnx, and two with the same name as the .mobi file but with numbers on the end and ending in .mbp1 and .mbs

So I'm guessing that this is were my highlights and bookmarks are located, but for some reason they are not being linked to the .mobi file when I open it on my device...

[j.p.s]

Do the page numbers show for the Before They Were Hanged book? (You might have to tap the lower left corner a few times to cycle through the progress choices.)

[jhowell]

Is your Kindle registered to the same Amazon account as it was before you reset it?

[Dalva88]

I Think I almost fixed It !!



I found a way to transfer my .mbp1 and .mbs files, which completely restored my highlights and bookmarks

However this only worked for the books with the .azw extension, as they’re corresponding .sdr folders had .mbs and .mbs files with I could switch with my backups. However this wasn’t the case for the books with the .azw3 extension, as they’re corresponding .sdr folders had .az3f and .az3r files which couldn’t be replaced with my .mbs and .mbp1 backups… so I don’t really know what to do about that.


But if this helps someone else in the same position I was, here is how I half fixed it, for some of my books :


- First I backed up everything that was on my Kindle : I plugged it into my Mac, went into the Kindle Folder, and copied everything in there onto a folder on my desktop that I named Kindle Backup.

- Then I made a factory reset of my device.

- Once I did that, I started sending books to my device using either https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle, or by using my “send to Kindle” email address.

- When I had the book I wanted on my device, I opened it, and leafed through it a little (which I think you have to do so your Kindle will create a file for you reading progress, highlights, notes and bookmarks on you system.)

- I then plugged in my device to my Mac, and opened up the Kindle folder. In there I went to the folder where my book was named (Kindle/ documents/downloads/items01/ name of the book I want to update)

- There I saw that there were multiple files with the same name, a .azw file of my book and a .sdr folder with the same name.

- In the .sdr folder of the same name were two .mbs and .mbp1 files.

- I opened up my Kindle Backup folder that I made in step 1, and found the .sdr folder corresponding to that book. In there were also 2 .mbs and .mbp1 files.

- I figured those were the files containing my original highlights and bookmarks. So what I did is I took those files, and gave them the same names as the .mbs and .mbp1 files in the .sdr folder we just opened, the one located on my Kindle’s system. The names are similar ( they’re both named after the book for which I want the highlights & bookmarks, but with a random sequence of letters and numbers). I copy the name of the .mbs file from my Kindle’s system, and give it to the .mbs file in my Kindle backup folder. I copy the name of the .mbp1 file on my Kindle’s system, and give it to the .mbp1 file in my Kindle backup folder. I then take those two files and put them in the folder on my Kindle’s system, replacing the other.

- And tadaa, now those files carry my highlights & bookmarks, but have the proper names to be linked to their corresponding ebook when I open it on my device.

- I eject my device, start it, open my book, and boum : all my highlights and bookmarks are back !

Now as I said, this worked perfectly for the books that were in the .azw format, but for some reason I can’t do it for the ones in the .azw3 format, as there highlight and bookmarks files are not in .mbs and .mbp1 format….
I don’t really know what to do about that, and I I have to idea why those books have different formats as they were just .epub books that I send via my “send to kindle” email address or via https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle.

I will keep looking for a solution and will update this post if I do !