Problem with Calibre AZW3 Conversion...

[thecompanion]

I recently tried converting with Calibre an .odt file (Open Office) to MOBI format and observed that my non-breaking spaces and hyphens were converted to thick vertical lines and squares respectively; oddly though, not all of them. I posted a message to the forum as a bug; and the reply was to choose the AZW3 format, rather than MOBI for conversion. Well, this took care of the strange characters, but it did nothing to keep my non-breaking spaces and hyphens; there were many non-breaking spaces and hyphens broken in the conversion process. Is there a solution that I can try? It is important that these non-breaking spaces and hyphens be retained in the conversion process.

[kovidgoyal]

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=186697

[mobile369]

Okay I tried solving this myself and couldn’t find the plugins that need to be deleted. This is where I was told to delete certain plugins and reinstall everything.
http://stream-recorder.com/forum/cal...ks-t10256.html

I’ve downloaded and reinstalled and used the new tools, but I couldn’t remove whatever plugin I was supposed to remove because I can’t find them.
I’m running a mac with mavericks and mine was working until I deleted my kindle and reinstalled it and now I keep getting the error message. Cannot Convert this book is locked by DRM. well duh!
I found some python files in the tools zip folder. is this what I'm supposed to delete.
Any help I’d be grateful. Thanks.

Spoiler:

Convert book 1 of 1 (Chain Letter: Chain Letter; The Ancient Evil)
Resolved conversion options
calibre version: 1.13.0
{'asciiize': False,
'author_sort': None,
'authors': None,
'base_font_size': 0.0,
'book_producer': None,
'change_justification': u'original',
'chapter': u"//*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2') and re:test(., '\\s*((chapter|book|section|part)\\s+)|((prolog|pr ologue|epilogue)(\\s+|$))', 'i')) or @class = 'chapter']",
'chapter_mark': u'pagebreak',
'comments': None,
'cover': u'/var/folders/2w/wsw796w53l1b22x_5r7hqd000000gp/T/calibre_1.13.0_tmp_tPkkU7/iyLt9L.jpeg',
'custom_size': None,
'debug_pipeline': None,
'dehyphenate': True,
'delete_blank_paragraphs': True,
'disable_font_rescaling': False,
'duplicate_links_in_toc': False,
'embed_all_fonts': False,
'embed_font_family': None,
'enable_heuristics': False,
'expand_css': False,
'extra_css': None,
'filter_css': u'',
'fix_indents': True,
'font_size_mapping': None,
'format_scene_breaks': True,
'html_unwrap_factor': 0.4,
'input_encoding': None,
'input_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.InputProfile object at 0x108cbac10>,
'insert_blank_line': False,
'insert_blank_line_size': 0.5,
'insert_metadata': False,
'isbn': None,
'italicize_common_cases': True,
'keep_ligatures': False,
'language': None,
'level1_toc': None,
'level2_toc': None,
'level3_toc': None,
'line_height': 0.0,
'linearize_tables': False,
'margin_bottom': 5.0,
'margin_left': 5.0,
'margin_right': 5.0,
'margin_top': 5.0,
'markup_chapter_headings': True,
'max_toc_links': 50,
'minimum_line_height': 120.0,
'no_chapters_in_toc': False,
'no_inline_navbars': False,
'old_pdf_engine': False,
'output_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.OutputProfile object at 0x108cbafd0>,
'override_profile_size': False,
'page_breaks_before': u"//*[name()='h1' or name()='h2']",
'paper_size': u'letter',
'pdf_add_toc': False,
'pdf_default_font_size': 20,
'pdf_footer_template': None,
'pdf_header_template': None,
'pdf_mark_links': False,
'pdf_mono_family': u'Courier New',
'pdf_mono_font_size': 16,
'pdf_page_numbers': False,
'pdf_sans_family': u'Helvetica',
'pdf_serif_family': u'Times New Roman',
'pdf_standard_font': u'serif',
'prefer_metadata_cover': False,
'preserve_cover_aspect_ratio': False,
'pretty_print': False,
'pubdate': None,
'publisher': None,
'rating': None,
'read_metadata_from_opf': u'/var/folders/2w/wsw796w53l1b22x_5r7hqd000000gp/T/calibre_1.13.0_tmp_tPkkU7/crSARB.opf',
'remove_fake_margins': True,
'remove_first_image': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size': 1.5,
'renumber_headings': True,
'replace_scene_breaks': u'',
'search_replace': '[]',
'series': None,
'series_index': None,
'smarten_punctuation': False,
'sr1_replace': None,
'sr1_search': None,
'sr2_replace': None,
'sr2_search': None,
'sr3_replace': None,
'sr3_search': None,
'start_reading_at': None,
'subset_embedded_fonts': False,
'tags': None,
'timestamp': None,
'title': None,
'title_sort': None,
'toc_filter': None,
'toc_threshold': 6,
'toc_title': None,
'uncompressed_pdf': False,
'unit': u'inch',
'unsmarten_punctuation': False,
'unwrap_lines': True,
'use_auto_toc': False,
'verbose': 2}
Python function terminated unexpectedly: Chain Letter: Chain Letter; The Ancient Evil
InputFormatPlugin: MOBI Input running
on /var/folders/2w/wsw796w53l1b22x_5r7hqd000000gp/T/calibre_1.13.0_tmp_tPkkU7/ZVBCs_.azw
Found KF8 MOBI of type 'standalone'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/Resources/Python/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 208, in main
return run_entry_point()
File "/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/Resources/Python/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 114, in run_entry_point
return getattr(pmod, func)()
File "site-packages/calibre/utils/ipc/worker.py", line 189, in main
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/convert/gui_conversion.py", line 31, in gui_convert_override
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/convert/gui_conversion.py", line 25, in gui_convert
File "site-packages/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py", line 1035, in run
File "site-packages/calibre/customize/conversion.py", line 241, in __call__
File "site-packages/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plugins/mobi_input.py", line 43, in convert
File "site-packages/calibre/ebooks/mobi/reader/mobi8.py", line 71, in __call__
File "site-packages/calibre/ebooks/mobi/reader/mobi6.py", line 148, in check_for_drm
calibre.ebooks.DRMError: Chain Letter: Chain Letter; The Ancient Evil

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by mobile369

Okay I tried solving this myself and couldn’t find the plugins that need to be deleted. This is where I was told to delete certain plugins and reinstall everything.
http://stream-recorder.com/forum/cal...ks-t10256.html

Following 2 year old instructions is not advised since calibre has gone through about 100 version revisions since then.

Originally Posted by mobile369

Cannot Convert this book is locked by DRM. well duh!

We can't provide you detailed instructions on how to remove DRM in this forum. Google Apprentice Alf and seek the tools and help you require there.