Copying books from calibre to SD card via card reader

[Iskariot]

When I connect my Kobo Aura HD it frequently loses connection with my PC. The device's drive letters show something like "no disk inserted".
This is very inconvenient when I am in the middle of copying large batches of books to my sd card as you can imagine.

1. REQUEST:
What I would like to be able to do is mounting the SD card via a card reader and have calibre recognize and treat that card as if it is in my Kobo.
That way I will be able to copy large batches of books to the card without stress and trouble; The books will be automatically converted into kepubs etc.

2. CONNECTION PROBLEM:
By the way if anybody knows why the Aura HD loses connection I would be very happy. I have no idea what is going on. I don't think I ever saw it lose connection when it was connected to the Kobo Desktop app. Could it be a calibre thing? Something else?
I already disable the sleep and power off settings when I connect the device to my PC. It makes no difference.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Iskariot

When I connect my Kobo Aura HD it frequently loses connection with my PC. The device's drive letters show something like "no disk inserted".
This is very inconvenient when I am in the middle of copying large batches of books to my sd card as you can imagine.

1. REQUEST:
What I would like to be able to do is mounting the SD card via a card reader and have calibre recognize and treat that card as if it is in my Kobo.
That way I will be able to copy large batches of books to the card without stress and trouble; The books will be automatically converted into kepubs etc.

2. CONNECTION PROBLEM:
By the way if anybody knows why the Aura HD loses connection I would be very happy. I have no idea what is going on. I don't think I ever saw it lose connection when it was connected to the Kobo Desktop app. Could it be a calibre thing? Something else?
I already disable the sleep and power off settings when I connect the device to my PC. It makes no difference.

Connect to folder is what you want (on the icon with 3 blue orbs)
NOTE: you may need to re configure the template or plugboard for that 'device' (I 'copied' my template from my real device , then pasted it into the folder device ) I did this in the Preferences: Plugins, but you can do it from the device (when connected) icon. Remember only 1 Device can be connected at a time. The folder is now a device.

[Iskariot]

Originally Posted by theducks

Connect to folder is what you want (on the icon with 3 blue orbs)
NOTE: you may need to re configure the template or plugboard for that 'device' (I 'copied' my template from my real device , then pasted it into the folder device ) I did this in the Preferences: Plugins, but you can do it from the device (when connected) icon. Remember only 1 Device can be connected at a time. The folder is now a device.

Thank you so much.
I did not even know what icon you were talking about and I discovered it must have been accidentally removed from my toolbar a long time ago. So when I was searching for an option like this I found nothing. I restored the icon now.

At least now I have something to start with.
The plugboard stuff sounds complicated -never did that before- but I think I can figure it out.

Thanks.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Iskariot

Thank you so much.
I did not even know what icon you were talking about and I discovered it must have been accidentally removed from my toolbar a long time ago. So when I was searching for an option like this I found nothing. I restored the icon now.

At least now I have something to start with.
The plugboard stuff sounds complicated -never did that before- but I think I can figure it out.

Thanks.

Once a folder is "connected", you will see an device icon appear, just like a cord attached device. Yo 'use that to eject the device as well as switch to Device view
If you don't already use the plugboard, you still don't HAVE to use it.

[Iskariot]

Originally Posted by theducks

Once a folder is "connected", you will see an device icon appear, just like a cord attached device. Yo 'use that to eject the device as well as switch to Device view
If you don't already use the plugboard, you still don't HAVE to use it.

That was the conclusion I reached after just having studied calibre's plugboard. I never used it. I hardly know what it can do to be honest. I never felt I needed it.


I supposed what I needed to do is duplicating the information I found in the "Configure this device" window when the Aura HD is attached to my new Folder based device, but I do not have the same options.

I cannot set needed kepub related special options (KoboTouchExtended Plugin) and Aura HD related options like bookshelves as I can for the Aura HD itself. I only have these options if the SD card is accessed via the card slot on the Aura HD.

Is there a solution?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Iskariot

That was the conclusion I reached after just having studied calibre's plugboard. I never used it. I hardly know what it can do to be honest. I never felt I needed it.


I supposed what I needed to do is duplicating the information I found in the "Configure this device" window when the Aura HD is attached to my new Folder based device, but I do not have the same options.

I cannot set needed kepub related special options (KoboTouchExtended Plugin) and Aura HD related options like bookshelves as I can for the Aura HD itself. I only have these options if the SD card is accessed via the card slot on the Aura HD.

Is there a solution?

My guess is NO.
Those features require the KOBO because they interact with the devices DB, not just the storage (SD card).

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Iskariot

That was the conclusion I reached after just having studied calibre's plugboard. I never used it. I hardly know what it can do to be honest. I never felt I needed it.


I supposed what I needed to do is duplicating the information I found in the "Configure this device" window when the Aura HD is attached to my new Folder based device, but I do not have the same options.

I cannot set needed kepub related special options (KoboTouchExtended Plugin) and Aura HD related options like bookshelves as I can for the Aura HD itself. I only have these options if the SD card is accessed via the card slot on the Aura HD.

Is there a solution?

As theducks said, not really as the drivers need access to the database on the device. This is where it gets the list of books on the device plus does the shelf management.

A lot of what you want can be achieved using the theduck's folder-as-driver suggestion plus the Kepub Output plugin to convert the epubs to kepubs. The latter will do the conversion separately and you can send the books to the SD card.

The other options depend on when the problem occurs. If it only happens when you are sending books, then you could put them on the card and then put the card into the device and let them be processed. Then you could connect the device and let the driver do the other things such as shelf management. Just make sure you don't send any books at the at point.

Of course, the real question is why is this happening in the first place. So, some questions that might help:

- What sort of computer are you using? Windows or Mac? Which version of Windows?
- What firmware on the device?
- Have you tried a different cable? Different USB sockets?
- Have you tried a different computer?
- How many books on the device?
- When does it happen? During the initial connection or only when sending a lot of books? If the latter, how many is a "large batch"? And have you tried sending in smaller batches in the same session?
- Have you done check of the database on the device? How big is it? How much space is available on the drive?

Problems like this have been reported before, but not much recently and not quite what I think you are reporting. The most common report was for AMD based PCs running Windows XP. I don't know why these had problems, but they did.

[Iskariot]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Of course, the real question is why is this happening in the first place. So, some questions that might help:

- What sort of computer are you using? Windows or Mac? Which version of Windows?
- What firmware on the device?
- Have you tried a different cable? Different USB sockets?
- Have you tried a different computer?
- How many books on the device?
- When does it happen? During the initial connection or only when sending a lot of books? If the latter, how many is a "large batch"? And have you tried sending in smaller batches in the same session?
- Have you done check of the database on the device? How big is it? How much space is available on the drive?

Problems like this have been reported before, but not much recently and not quite what I think you are reporting. The most common report was for AMD based PCs running Windows XP. I don't know why these had problems, but they did.

Thank you for your time Davidfor.

I will check the points you mentioned. Trying a different cable or port had not occurred to me and I could try copying some books to the reader via my old laptop. Perhaps it helps.

I use firmware 3.3.0 and I love it. It has improved the general performance of my Kobo considerably. My PC runs Windows 7 with all the latest updates.

The size of the batch does not really seem to be the problem. If the Aura HD is connected for a longer time the chance of losing connection with it seems to grow. For example I might copy 50 books to the SD card without a problem directly after I hooked the reader to my PC, but it might lose connection at the moment I send just 1 book to the SD card when the reader has been connected for 10 to 20 minutes or so. Also it might not happen during the process of the book copying itself, but during the sending of the metadata.
Correction: I just lost connection to the reader after only a minute... So it seems completely random.

There is more than enough free space on my SD card. There is approximately 2 Gb of data on the 32 Gb card. 1725 MB of 3253 Mb of the internal onboard storage is free.

[Maggie-Me]

Hi, not claiming to know what the problem is but the 1st things that jumped out at me was you mention you are using a 32gb card, did you check what file system you are using, if using fat then try NTFS or the reverse.... lastly do you know that the Aura HD supports a 32Gb SD card.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Maggie-Me

Hi, not claiming to know what the problem is but the 1st things that jumped out at me was you mention you are using a 32gb card, did you check what file system you are using, if using fat then try NTFS or the reverse.... lastly do you know that the Aura HD supports a 32Gb SD card.

Maggie I would suggest FAT32 over NTFS only because not all devices support other file systems than FATn

A modern device that does not support a 32G SDcard? send that puppy back.

[davidfor]

Yes, the SD card has to be FAT32. The Kobo devices won't recognise anything else. And yes, the Aura HD supports 32GB micro SD cards. There are some cards the Kobo devices don't seem to like, and some that need to be reformatted to work properly. But these problems tend to be the device not seeing the card at all.

One thing I just realised is that I don't think the OP has said what happens when copying books to the main memory. There shouldn't be any difference, but it would be good to know.

[Iskariot]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Yes, the SD card has to be FAT32. The Kobo devices won't recognise anything else. And yes, the Aura HD supports 32GB micro SD cards. There are some cards the Kobo devices don't seem to like, and some that need to be reformatted to work properly. But these problems tend to be the device not seeing the card at all.

One thing I just realised is that I don't think the OP has said what happens when copying books to the main memory. There shouldn't be any difference, but it would be good to know.

My SD card is formatted properly. I read the Kobo manual .
I never had problems copying to the main memory. But I also never copied batches quite this large. However I do not feel it is the size of the batch that is actually the problem, but the fact that the device is connected for a much longer time, which increases the chance of the problem occurring.

I do not feel it is the SD card that is the problem. When problems occur the main device and the SD card both show up in windows as "no disk inserted" or something like that. Very often the systems seems to try to 'reconnect' as windows slows down somewhat if I open My computer to see what is going on.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Iskariot

My SD card is formatted properly. I read the Kobo manual .

Some people have found that they had to use a different formatter to get the cards working. But, when that happened, it was the device that wasn't seeing the card.

I never had problems copying to the main memory. But I also never copied batches quite this large. However I do not feel it is the size of the batch that is actually the problem, but the fact that the device is connected for a much longer time, which increases the chance of the problem occurring.

I do not feel it is the SD card that is the problem. When problems occur the main device and the SD card both show up in windows as "no disk inserted" or something like that. Very often the systems seems to try to 'reconnect' as windows slows down somewhat if I open My computer to see what is going on.

The problem is working out if a particular action causes the disconnection. Copying a lot of files might as it could overwhelm the hardware or drivers and cause problems. Or it might happen when calibre is making changes to the database. That means changes to a large file.

A test you could do is to copy the files to the SD card without calibre. If that fails, then it is an issue with how the PC talks to the device or the card. Which is at fault, I don't know. If it doesn't fail, then it might be something the calibre driver is doing.

[Iskariot]

Originally Posted by davidfor

A test you could do is to copy the files to the SD card without calibre. If that fails, then it is an issue with how the PC talks to the device or the card. Which is at fault, I don't know. If it doesn't fail, then it might be something the calibre driver is doing.

That is a good suggestion.
Will try that when I have the time.
I am very curious about what will happen.

I have developed a routine now that works but is slow.
After I successfully copy a new batch to my SD card I make an incremental backup with Puresync of the entire contents of the SD card. Then when a new batch goes wrong, because connection is lost in the middle of the copying process, I reformat the SD card and use a card reader to restore the backup to the SD card. Then I try copying the new batch again. If it succeeds this time I create a new backup...etc.