Clara Battery Drain: Sleep cover?

[Ken Maltby]

While I am a big fan of Tshering's Kobo Start Menu (KSM), and find it the best way to have all the features of several reader, utility & game programs, on my device at the same time - there are alternative install methods described at the installation link I provided. KFMon is the latest version of the method that lets you launch KOReader within Nickel.

Luck;
Ken

[Scott479]

So I began closing the pdfs before putting the unit to sleep and the battery did NOT drain. One day I forgot to close it and sure enough, the next day the battery was down to 1/4. Kobo support says the Kobo eReaders "were not built originally to support PDF files" and are not guaranteed to work 100% of the time. This is my third Kobo eReader, and none of the others had problems with pdfs. It seems it is a problem with Clara. I'm not sure I want to install a foreign app like KOReader on it. Maybe I should just return it and buy some other eReader.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by Scott479

So I began closing the pdfs before putting the unit to sleep and the battery did NOT drain. One day I forgot to close it and sure enough, the next day the battery was down to 1/4. Kobo support says the Kobo eReaders "were not built originally to support PDF files" and are not guaranteed to work 100% of the time. This is my third Kobo eReader, and none of the others had problems with pdfs. It seems it is a problem with Clara. I'm not sure I want to install a foreign app like KOReader on it. Maybe I should just return it and buy some other eReader.

Just curious, are you reading manuals, textbooks, etc? Or are you reading novels as PDF?

If the first, ok, makes sense. If the second, can you not get them in EPUB, change them to EPUB? Although I do use PDF occasionally, I can't imagine trying to use it as the only thing I used on an ereader, which seems to be your case.

And to answer your question, if you have had 2 other Kobo ereaders that you also used exclusively with PDFs and this is the first annoyance you've had, I am very surprised. Over the years, there have been many many many problems with PDFs and Kobo.

I can *almost* guarantee this has nothing to do with the Clara and everything to do with the firmware, and had you had the same firmware, you would very likely have the same problem, although firmware problems that only manifest themselves with one device, have been known to happen.

My advice? Be patient. Close your PDFs before putting your device to sleep and wait for the next firmware update. It may then be fixed, and then you will have returned your device for nothing.

If you really only want to read PDFs and want eink, there might be a better option and maybe you should go with that, but if you were fine using PDFs before this issue, then I don't know if it's worth the time researching for the best eink device to read PDFs with your personal usage in mind.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Scott479

So I began closing the pdfs before putting the unit to sleep and the battery did NOT drain. One day I forgot to close it and sure enough, the next day the battery was down to 1/4. Kobo support says the Kobo eReaders "were not built originally to support PDF files" and are not guaranteed to work 100% of the time.

Well, they are wrong. PDF support is listed for all Kobo devices. In fact, the original Kobo only supported ePub and PDF. They don't support all PDF features (such as reflow) or all functions (highlighting), but, they are sold as devices to read PDFs. And personally, the display of PDF is good. The problem is speed and navigation. Books formatted for a small page seem to work well.
[/QUOTE]This is my third Kobo eReader, and none of the others had problems with pdfs. It seems it is a problem with Clara. I'm not sure I want to install a foreign app like KOReader on it. Maybe I should just return it and buy some other eReader.[/QUOTE]

As @Uschiekid stated, it is unlikely that this is a Clara HD specific problem. It is more likely to be a firmware issue. It might be a recent change is causing it. I pretty much only look at PDFs on the devices when testing a problem like this, so I wouldn't normally see this. I'll test it now one some of the devices and see what happens.

[Scott479]

Uschiekid, I read epub books, pdf books and academic papers in pdf. I like pdf because navigating epubs on my desktop can be annoying, but pdfs are easy everywhere. On my previous Kobo eReaders, I don't recall any specific issues with pdfs. Sometimes scrolling down the page was slow or screwy, but nothing ever like this. I returned my first Clara last month because of this problem, and this replacement has the same issue. I hope it's a firmware issue that can be fixed with a download.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by Scott479

Uschiekid, I read epub books, pdf books and academic papers in pdf. I like pdf because navigating epubs on my desktop can be annoying, but pdfs are easy everywhere. On my previous Kobo eReaders, I don't recall any specific issues with pdfs. Sometimes scrolling down the page was slow or screwy, but nothing ever like this. I returned my first Clara last month because of this problem, and this replacement has the same issue. I hope it's a firmware issue that can be fixed with a download.

Ah, ok, I must have either misunderstood or misremembered a previous post.
If the book is available as PDF and EPUB, you can always download the PDF for use on your PC and the EPUB for use with your Kobo.
But I get the academic papers thing. They pretty much are all PDF, and most of the time, there's even a good reason to be PDF, as formatting can be crucial. Aside from manuals, that is the other time I read PDFs on my Kobo.

It's annoying that this problem caused you to return your last Clara, as it is one of those times that the cause of the problem can be quite hard to ferret out. And since battery issues can be either caused by firmware bugs or faulty hardware, it can be difficult to know what to do.
But since you've confirmed that the problem is only there when the device is put to sleep with a PDF open (just curious, have to tried putting it to sleep with an EPUB open?), I think you can rest assured that your device is not faulty, and it is just a bug causing this issue. And bugs can be fixed without replacing the device.

[Scott479]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

just curious, have to tried putting it to sleep with an EPUB open?

I'm trying this now. I'll let you know.

[Scott479]

Sleeping with epub open presents no problems with battery drain.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by Scott479

Sleeping with epub open presents no problems with battery drain.

Good to know. So you have the same experience as others, so looks like it is the same bug. Which is good, since it's the bugs that affect only a small proportion of devices that tend to stick around a lot longer. Though the more it's reported, the more likely it is fixed as well.

[Gabsteria]

Might help in a way:
My battery draining problem began with the winter. When the t˚ goes below -10˚c, my battery drains from 100% to 5% when I'm outside. I contacted Kobo, sent them my Clara, they sent me a new one. The exact same battery problem.

[JAC70]

I have experienced overnight battery drain on my Clara HD at least twice that I know of. Once with epub, once with an epub converted to kepub. I had thought it to be my third-party sleep cover, but now I'm not so sure. I also get more missed page turns and swipe double-page turns with this model than any of my previous Kobos. Have to say I'm rather disappointed in it.

[PeterT]

Weird I'm getting fewer missed taps and page turns on the Clara than on any other Kobo I've owned

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Gabsteria

Might help in a way:
My battery draining problem began with the winter. When the t˚ goes below -10˚c, my battery drains from 100% to 5% when I'm outside. I contacted Kobo, sent them my Clara, they sent me a new one. The exact same battery problem.

That doesn't surprise me. I can't find details now, but, I'm sure I have seen something about Li-Ion batteries not working well in low temperatures. And I do remember watching the last Winter Olympics coverage and people complaining about the need to keep the phones warm because otherwise the batteries stopped working. I have to admit it isn't something I've paid much attention to. I'm generally concerned about the other end of the scale.

And checking the manual, it has the operating temperatures as "0°C~45°C".

[compurandom]

Lots of batteries don't work well at low temperatures. I think generally it's not a permanent problem and it should work normally once it warms up.

However, I've had problems with wifi and stuck sync draining my battery.