kindle paperwhite

[Matthew Standley]

Thank you for making Calibre available.

Kindle 2 Int'l (UK Amazon account) / Kindle-PW (Japan Amazon account)

Calibre 0.9.8 OSX.

First
I tried to use Calibre 0.7.28 (another person's computer) to put these files on my Kindle PW:
1. mobi files from my PC.
2. azw (I assume) purchased book files from my Kindle 2 Int'l, via "save to disk".
I had the same problems as mentioned above, then I found this forum and read the above posts.
I reset the Kindle-PW.

Second
Reregistered Kindle-PW.
Downloaded 4 dictionaries.
Kindle-PW now contains 4 dictionaries / User's guide, Set-up guide / Welcome book.
Using Calibre 0.9.8 OSX / Kindle-PW setting: do not use sub folders.

Sent purchased ".azw" book file (Amazon UK on Kindle 2 Int'l) to Kindle-PW.
Result: "This item cannot be opened because it is licensed to a different user"
NOT a DRM hack request.
Pointing this out for other disappointed users. Old purchased books are no good on a new device with a new Amazon account. Anyone know if Amazon would help with this?

Sent ".epub" to Kindle-PW.
Result: Book appears in "all items" and "books", list and cover views, book opens.

Sent ".mobi" to Kindle-PW
Result: Book appears in "all items" and "Docs" (Personal), list and cover views, book opens.

Sent ".azw3" to Kindle-PW
Result: Book appears in "all items" and "books", list and cover views, book opens.

** Sent 5 ".mobi" files at once to Kindlle-PW.
** Result: Failure
"My Items" = 0 in both cover and list views.
"Books" = 0 in cover and list views.
"Docs" = 4 in cover and list views. However, there are 6x ".mobi" files / 1x azw3 / 1x pub in total actually on the device, plus the downloads from Amazon.

4 out of 6 mobi files, and zero other files now show on the kindle screen.
All above mentioned files still show on the Calibre screen.

Removing all mobi files restores normal functionality to the Kindle - the .azw3 / .epub / Amazon downloads are now visible on the Kindle screen again.

As I experiment more with this, I will continue to update this post or add others if updating is not possible / follow advice from other users or Kovid Goyal.

[Matthew Standley]

Addition to post #105

It seems that if only one book is added at a time, the chance of causing a (disappearing books) problem is reduced. However, it also seems that certain books cause the problem, too. I can not identify why.

Example:

(Add 1 book)
Add 1 book, it appears as "on device", eject device and check, Kindle screen shows 1 book more than before. OK
(Add 2 books)
Add 1 book, it appears as "on device", repeat, eject device and check, Kindle screen shows 2 books more than before. OK
(Add 3 books)
** Add 1 book, it appears as "on device", repeat, repeat, eject device and check, Kindle screen shows "My Items = zero".

Deleting those final 3, one at a time, did not fix the problem, until I deleted the final one of the offending 3.

Then noting what the 3rd book was, I added that alone. Problem occurred again. So, skipping this book, I added the other 2, as above. Those 2 books appeared on the Kindle screen.

For the time being, I will do this: Add 1 book, eject device, check Kindle screen, if good, next book, and if bad, remove that book and leave it on the PC.

Sorry if I have missed a point that someone has made that explains or fixes this.
I wish I could explain it more clearly in fewer words.

Still impressed with what Calibre can do for me.

[kovidgoyal]

Your kindle is probably choking on that one file. Do a mobi to mobi convert in calibre before sending it.

[ext233]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Your kindle is probably choking on that one file. Do a mobi to mobi convert in calibre before sending it.

I seem to have this problem of certain books crashing the entire library. What could be causing that?

Also, I notice you suggest 'mobi to mobi' conversion quite a lot...what is the best way to do this in bulk, overwriting the old files? I don't want to have one mobi that works, and one that doesn't, and no way to tell them apart.

[lowfive]

This appears to be the main Paperwhite/Calibre discussion thread (please correct me if I'm wrong) so I'd like to ask a quick question.

My wife just got a Paperwhite and I would like to help her transfer all of her books to it. I believe most are .mobi format. Am I to understand that the newest version of Calibre incorporates the most up-to-date solutions for the Paperwhite? In other words, should I expect all books to behave nicely when moved onto the Calibre or and I still going to have to worry about troubleshooting stuff like converting mobi to mobi, modifying metadata, changing Calibre settings, etc etc etc?

Basically just trying to figure out how long this is going to take me before I commit to doing it.

Thanks!

[kovidgoyal]

The necessity for doing mobi to mobi conversion comes from the brokenness of Amazon's firmware, or the brokenness of older mobi files that dont allow metadata to be updated, neither of which has anything to do with calibre.

If all your mobi files work on an older kindle, they are likely to continue to work on a newer kindle. And if not doing a bulk mobi to mobi conversion is just a couple of clicks in calibre.

[Sapa888]

I'm having a problem with my PW where it isn't remembering my last page after going back to the home page, it just starts the book back at the beginning. I've tried this with several books, removing them and trying again and also restting the device. Has anyone experienced this?

[lizardlix]

Boom! Fixed my problem. I added some books this morning and then everything disappeared except a few in my "docs" section. I couldn't figure out what was going on and since it was a new paperwhite that I'd not used in a couple of weeks and even then only a couple of times, I was thinking it was all kinds of problems.

I deleted all the new books and baam! the rest were back. Then I did the mobi to mobi conversion and everything looks good. thanks! I never would have figured that out.

[applesauce]

Now my brain is mush. I do not care if the cover shows. I just want all the books I send to the paperwhite to show. So do I convert all my mobis to mobis ? or to azw3? and do I need to select share in this process? I do not sync my books to another device or the cloud.
This is very frustrating and I have now had to reset my paperwhite 3 times.
Thank you for any help

applesauce