PRS-650 Text Marking gets awful slow with time on my PRS650

[vxf]

I am really not sure why putting documents on an SD card seems to speed things up. Yet, it did - at least on my PRS950. I have not tried it on other devices. And there is a poster above who is claiming the same, so it might be worth a shot... But it is puzzling.


The indexing problems that plague SONY devices with a high number of books are well known and have been discussed here on the forums extensively. If I am not mistaken, PRS+ (the alternative firmware developed by the community) allows to turn indexing off exactly for that reason. But I have not tried it out - I just remember reading about it.

I don't know about the best contact at SONY. I have spoken to their CS directly over the phone. They argued back saying it was all fine.

As I mentioned above, I think the only recourse is the BBB:
https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx

In my experience, when enough complaints are filed, businesses do listen.

[elcreative]

vxf should try PRS+... easy to install and lets you carry whatever size library you want (and doesn't insist on indexing every damn book each time you add one)... I have an SDHC card with 25K books/docs on it and I just unplug it from one device and plug into another as needed with no delays...

And as for Leserli's outrage and need for people to complain to... well, good luck... I have better things to do with my time like find solutions and do my research before buying... there are solutions out there such as PRS+ (for large numbers of files) and realising that a tablet is far superior for lots of annotations especially if what you require is access to science books which are not exactly displayed at their best on any 6" or less e-ink device and really need something of the order of 10"+

[Leserli]

And as for Leserli's outrage and need for people to complain to... well, good luck... I have better things to do with my time like find solutions and do my research before buying...

As I said before. In advance I read several reviews of what I thought good sources. But not one review even mentioned these problems!

Sure you could say, that you also have to dwell deep in all the forums to get all the problems, but should that really be necessary?
For you have several ebooks in your "possible buy"-list. And if you wanna really inform yourself in the forums about all the problems of all the readers, then you certainly have too much time...
Usually, it is enough reading several reviews. But it seems, not this time...

here are solutions out there such as PRS+ (for large numbers of files)

But as it unfortunately seems no solution for the annotation problem...

and realising that a tablet is far superior for lots of annotations especially if what you require is access to science books which are not exactly displayed at their best on any 6" or less e-ink device and really need something of the order of 10"+

Believe me, I thought exactly the same, this is why I at least bought a 650 and not a 350. But as it seems there are no bigger screen usable EPaper-Ebooks around, and as I said before IMHO are TFT-Screens of tablets just not made for reading a longer time...
This is at least like that for my eyes...
And these arguments IMHO just cannot be an excuse for these problems on the Sony-Readers. Why do they advertise features which are completely impracticable or implement features which are purely cosmetical, for like it seems it is not intented that they actually should be used?

[sun surfer]

Ah, I've found my comrades-in-arms here! The funny thing is, I googled this problem, and this thread was the first result. I should've just come over to this forum and started looking instead.

So, I've read the thread and have some comments and questions because I still need help. I have a 950, but it sounds like the problem is the same on them all. I am a heavy annotater, and it starts slowing down way too much. Here is my experience:


-I only keep about 10-20 books on my e-reader, so I have no problem with indexing and all that which some of you mentioned.

-I read mostly fiction and I think it's all epub, but even with that, I annotate often.

-I checked my notes section and right now I have 200+ separate "notes"

-Right now, any book I go into annotated or not will at least give a delay of about 3-5 seconds. When the 950 was brand new, I don't remember such a delay (maybe a second or two) but I could be mistaken.

-However, some of you say the annotation becomes slower on all books equally the larger the notes file gets. I am here to say that for me at least, that is definitely not the case. The books with more annotations without a doubt become much slower than other books when annotating. The one I'm reading right now, which I'm only 1/4 of the way through and is rather large, is already at the 15 second mark on each annotation, which is the longest delay I've gotten so far. Hearing some of you say 30 or 60 seconds sounds like a horror story as 15 already seems ridiculous to me. I'm scared to continue on the same way with this particular book for fear of minute plus annotations by the time I get to the end.


So I need help finding a solution. Please keep in mind I'm very much of a tech newbie. Initially, before reading this thread, I was thinking of trying to find a way to split each book into mulptiple separate books so that I'd be onto a new "book" (really section) each time before the annotations got too slow on the one before. I didn't and don't know if that was or is possible or easy enough for me to do though. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

From what I've read here, I have two other possibilities though.

One, I could transfer a book onto my computer. This confuses me, because as I say I'm a tech newbie. If I transfer all the ones I'm done with to my computer only, I'm scared all the annotations may not transfer or erase. Obviously, I haven't tried that at all yet. Is it easy and safe? Is it automatic when I connect my 950 to my computer (the syncing of notes?) or will I somehow have to manually transfer the notes?

Even done, that way will not solve the slowness really, as it seems the main problem resides in each individual book as I'm annotating. So, really I'd have to transfer the notes multiple times while I'm reading a book, leaving them on my computer and erasing them from my 950, to affect the slowness. And all that seems confusing to me at the moment.

A related possibility I read mentioned is that I could somehow just transfer the notes only. It sounds like I can't do this straight to the Reader Library software, so I'd have to save it in a document. But then I read somehow it won't let you do that. I'm confused. And, when consulting my notes, I like to be able to easily go back to the page in the book, and this way sounds like it won't allow me to do that, only transporting the notes.

Two, I could try an SD card. Here is where it will be really obvious I'm a tech newbie: I've never on any kind of device really fooled with an SD card so I don't know the first thing about them. Obviously I don't need it for space on my 950 since I don't even need one hundred books on my ereader at a time, let alone thousands.

So, here's where some very simple questions come in, but to me they are complex. I think there are many kinds of SD cards right? So what kind would I need to buy and how much do they go for? Once I get one and plug it in, what would I do that you guys did to make my annotations run faster? I feel very inclined to try this way if it'll help my annotation speed, but if I try to figure it out on my own, as simple as it may seem to all of you, it would take me a lot longer than probably necessary, so I hope someone here can help!

[Richey79]

I've found note-saving to be unpleasantly slow from note one, to be frank.

The strange thing I found was that I saw no perceivable difference in speed of operations on the device between a class 2 SD card and a class 10 speed one. This was, of course, tested with all documents and notes on the respective SD card.

The difference between the super-smooth use of the dictionary, turning pages etc. Just seems to jar terribly with waiting 8 seconds for a note to save. It really interrupts your train of thought amd makes the feature not worth using yet (for me, anyway). Shame.

[sun surfer]

No one has any advice for me? I might start a new thread for more exposure, but I'll try one more time here in case my other post was tldr:

Basically, I want to try an SD card to see if it helps the speed of my annotating, but I haven't the slightest idea about SD cards. Could someone help by telling me exactly what I'd need to buy, and then once I put it in, what to do to change how things are saved so that my annotating speed will (hopefully) fasten?

Also, does anyone know of any way to manually split book sections into separate books (in my 950's eyes), as an alternative way to be able to annotate through a book without it becoming extremely slow as I move through the book?

[Bookworm_Girl]

Hi, sunsurfer. Here is an old thread on SD cards. I typically buy Sandisk. They cost a bit more but have good performance.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=106978

Right now I have 209 notes, and I'm not noticing any slowness in opening books. I have had that issue in the past. I have found that I have certain books that I know will cause a slowdown. They are typically big books with complex formatting and lots of highlights + typewritten notes. When that happens, I power down and then back up, and the speed returns to normal. My typical process is that I use the Reader Library software to sync/merge all of my notes between the copies of ebooks on my computer and on my reader. When I am done with a book, I will typically save the notes to an RTF file with the Sony software and then delete them. That way I keep a revolving amount of notes somewhere between 100 - 300.

If the notes are that important, then I keep backup files. I have successfully restored notes from my backups. It's another option besides exporting the RTF file. Here is an old thread on notes that might give you some ideas. Warning: it's a bit complicated though and not without effort.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=120302

Hope that helps!

[sun surfer]

Thanks so much for the info, Bookworm_Girl!

OK, I'm in the middle of figuring all this out; it can take me awhile to get my head wrapped around things I'm learning.

I have a question though: Is it legal to make multiple copies of your own bought ebook for yourself?

[vxf]

[QUOTE=sun surfer;1698001
I have a question though: Is it legal to make multiple copies of your own bought ebook for yourself?[/QUOTE]

But... now... I mean... I can understand not wanting to break the law... but... really?

Truth is, I have no idea. I would just never ask that question.

[vxf]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Ah, I've found my comrades-in-arms here! The funny thing is, I googled this problem, and this thread was the first result. I should've just come over to this forum and started looking instead.

So, I've read the thread and have some comments and questions because I still need help. I have a 950, but it sounds like the problem is the same on them all. I am a heavy annotater, and it starts slowing down way too much. Here is my experience:


-I only keep about 10-20 books on my e-reader, so I have no problem with indexing and all that which some of you mentioned.

-I read mostly fiction and I think it's all epub, but even with that, I annotate often.

-I checked my notes section and right now I have 200+ separate "notes"

-Right now, any book I go into annotated or not will at least give a delay of about 3-5 seconds. When the 950 was brand new, I don't remember such a delay (maybe a second or two) but I could be mistaken.

-However, some of you say the annotation becomes slower on all books equally the larger the notes file gets. I am here to say that for me at least, that is definitely not the case. The books with more annotations without a doubt become much slower than other books when annotating. The one I'm reading right now, which I'm only 1/4 of the way through and is rather large, is already at the 15 second mark on each annotation, which is the longest delay I've gotten so far. Hearing some of you say 30 or 60 seconds sounds like a horror story as 15 already seems ridiculous to me. I'm scared to continue on the same way with this particular book for fear of minute plus annotations by the time I get to the end.


So I need help finding a solution. Please keep in mind I'm very much of a tech newbie. Initially, before reading this thread, I was thinking of trying to find a way to split each book into mulptiple separate books so that I'd be onto a new "book" (really section) each time before the annotations got too slow on the one before. I didn't and don't know if that was or is possible or easy enough for me to do though. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

From what I've read here, I have two other possibilities though.

One, I could transfer a book onto my computer. This confuses me, because as I say I'm a tech newbie. If I transfer all the ones I'm done with to my computer only, I'm scared all the annotations may not transfer or erase. Obviously, I haven't tried that at all yet. Is it easy and safe? Is it automatic when I connect my 950 to my computer (the syncing of notes?) or will I somehow have to manually transfer the notes?

Even done, that way will not solve the slowness really, as it seems the main problem resides in each individual book as I'm annotating. So, really I'd have to transfer the notes multiple times while I'm reading a book, leaving them on my computer and erasing them from my 950, to affect the slowness. And all that seems confusing to me at the moment.

A related possibility I read mentioned is that I could somehow just transfer the notes only. It sounds like I can't do this straight to the Reader Library software, so I'd have to save it in a document. But then I read somehow it won't let you do that. I'm confused. And, when consulting my notes, I like to be able to easily go back to the page in the book, and this way sounds like it won't allow me to do that, only transporting the notes.

Two, I could try an SD card. Here is where it will be really obvious I'm a tech newbie: I've never on any kind of device really fooled with an SD card so I don't know the first thing about them. Obviously I don't need it for space on my 950 since I don't even need one hundred books on my ereader at a time, let alone thousands.

So, here's where some very simple questions come in, but to me they are complex. I think there are many kinds of SD cards right? So what kind would I need to buy and how much do they go for? Once I get one and plug it in, what would I do that you guys did to make my annotations run faster? I feel very inclined to try this way if it'll help my annotation speed, but if I try to figure it out on my own, as simple as it may seem to all of you, it would take me a lot longer than probably necessary, so I hope someone here can help!

If you transfer a book using the Reader Library software, it will transfer notes as well. If you then transfer the book again to your device, it will transfer, once more, the notes back.

I know there are ways to sync notes across documents (so you can merge annotations taken on two different devices) but I have never done anything like it. Also, I have never tried exporting a portion of the annotations.

Truth is, I don't think SONY's software is designed to handle the type of problem you seem to be having - a slow-down that is specific to the book, or document, you are handling. I never had that problem either - it was always an 'overall' type of sluggishness, not book-specific.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by vxf

I know there are ways to sync notes across documents (so you can merge annotations taken on two different devices) but I have never done anything like it. Also, I have never tried exporting a portion of the annotations.

I do that to keep my notes and bookmarks the same on my 350 & 950. I have my books organized by collections that I auto-sync with both my 350 & 950 through the Sony software. Also, in Reader Library preferences, you can check a box that says "Merge all notes when syncing with Reader device". So, for example, I make a note on my 350. I then sync my 350 with my computer and it transfers the notes to my computer. I then sync with my 950 and it transfers the notes from the computer to my 950. Many people are critical of the Reader Library software, but syncing works great and efficiently for me.

[sun surfer]

I have found a solution. It took time, maybe a lot more time than it would've taken some of you, but I'm persistent.

First, I synced the notes in my 950 with my computer Reader Library software. This took awhile. I knew nothing about it, so first I read up on it based on Bookworm Girl's post. Then I couldn't find the Sync button! Who knew it was in the 950's menu? I wasn't sure if I hadn't done something right. I was looking at all the buttons on the bottom and top of the library screen, then at the very top of the screen menu buttons, then when I found out that I can sync by folder, I was looking for a little sync icon next to each folder when I hovered over it. It was just so unassuming, sitting there like a bad little boy taunting me, looking like just another 950 folder that I was ignoring.

Once I found the sync button, it took forever to sync. I had to stop it multiple times thinking it would never end. For instance, the longest I left it was over 30 minutes and it never finished (I do have a lot of notes though). So I thought I was done for. But then I checked and voila! It had transferred all the notes over. At least, I hope it's all the notes. From the random parts I checked it seems to be all of them. Although, it didn't transfer all the books which I thought it would, just the notes. But maybe that's because I never let it finish.

Anyway....that's all besides the solution. But it is nice to have it synced now as a backup.

As mentioned in earlier posts, I was considering breaking the book up into separate sections. I have no idea how to do that, and no one posted any info on it, so I gave up on that. It just seems way too complicated. But after syncing, another idea came to me. If I could have multiple copies of a book, I could trade them out as the notes slow down and start afresh with another copy.

I figured though that if I just made the exact same copy it wouldn't work. They'd just go in together and for instance if I synced, it would sync with both books and make a big mess. So I figured I must somehow change each copy. Have I mentioned yet I'm not a techie? LOL. So it was like trying to see in the dark. It was a LOT of hit and miss.

I finally hit upon changing the file title and book name. Didn't work. I'd add the new file to the library and it'd add the same exact book. So I tried putting it into calibre (from googling). I've never used calibre but I had downloaded it when I first got an e-reader at the advice on mobilereaders, then just left it there never using it. So from google I heard I could change the title in calibre. I could, I eventually found out....but when I added it to the library it still wouldn't change! :O I could rename it "Billy Bob's Holiday in Yonkerville" and it'd still show up as its actual title in the library. *sigh*

I've never converted a file type in calibre, but I thought eh, let's give it a try. I didn't even change the file type...I converted it from epub to epub (it was non-DRM public domain so I don't know if this would work with DRM books). Then I put in in the library again for the thousandth time...and finally, it worked! It showed up as a different book with a different title and file name, but all the same contents inside! FINALLY!

Now that I know what to do, it should be easy. And I transferred it to my 950 and tried it out, and it's perfect. No more 15 second slowdown on the "new" book. This may not sound like it was too hard, but to me it was like performing brain surgery to figure out.

Of course, I would advise to only do this on books that it is legal to do so with. I'm assuming it must be legal with public domain books as I was doing, but I can't advise on any other type of book.

Bookworm_Girl, your advice was invaluable in getting me started. I am also going to try to back up my notes another way as you mention, but I need a rest first before jumping into that bog. Also, I am going to get an SD card and put it in to hopefully help speed even more.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Great job on sticking with it! I understand how frustrating it can be sometimes. Glad you found a solution that works for you.

Staples is having a sale on SD cards. I might head over there to get one for myself since my 950 main memory is nearing it's max. OfficeMax is having one of their brown paper bag 20% off sales, but I find Staples is usually cheaper with sales.
http://www.staples.com/BI193149/cat_BI193149

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I've never converted a file type in calibre, but I thought eh, let's give it a try. I didn't even change the file type...I converted it from epub to epub (it was non-DRM public domain so I don't know if this would work with DRM books). Then I put in in the library again for the thousandth time...and finally, it worked! It showed up as a different book with a different title and file name, but all the same contents inside! FINALLY!

Changing filenames does just that, changes the filename but the book title is taken from the book metadata which is why you need to convert epub to epub in calibre to fix the name change internally where the Sony reads it...

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Changing filenames does just that, changes the filename but the book title is taken from the book metadata which is why you need to convert epub to epub in calibre to fix the name change internally where the Sony reads it...

Let's just say I had to learn that the hard way...