Touch Stupid Kobo Touch stuck checking for books

[phoenix6911]

It seems after my Kobo Touch updated about a month ago it stopped working. (Well it definately stopped working and I'm guessing it was because of the update). If I remember correctly it was frozen on some screen so I reset it using the pin hole. Of course then I had to set it back up again by connecting it to the computer. That's when the fun really started. It got stuck checking for books (step 3 of 4). Here's what I tried then

Resetting it again
Restarting my computer
Turning off all virus protection programs and spyware programs
Trying another computer
Trying another USB cord
Resetting it again and again and again and trying all the steps above again and again and again
Gave up and contacted Kobo Help.

So they wanted to replace the Kobo. Ok fine. 3 weeks later (and another email to them) I finally get the "new" Kobo.

Issue #1: There's no return label to ship back the old one. They expect me to pay them. They never even asked if that was ok, they just shipped out the replacement.

Issue #2: This "new" is stuck at the same spot, too. This time I tried uninstalling the Kobo software and downloading it again. Tried a different usb cord and a different port on my computer and... one sec, let me check... yup, it's still checking for books. It's been maybe 10 minutes now. Is there anything else I can try?

I'm beyond pissed right now. The Kobo I original had is just under a year old and I still have the receipt. If this can't be fixed (and I'm all for fixing it) is there anyway I can just get my money back?

[Corpsegoddess]

I had this problem, too, and Taming helped me out. Try this:

From this Kobo help page: http://kobo.intelliresponse.com/inde...esktop+upgrade
While pressing and holding the Home button, turn your eReader over and locate the small hole on the back.
Slide one end of the paperclip into the hole.
Press gently until you feel a click. Don't release the Home button yet.
You'll see a flashing light next to the power button.
Remove the paperclip.
When your eReader says "Restoring..." let go of the Home button.
When your eReader finishes restoring, connect your it to your computer using your USB cable.
Open Kobo Desktop, and sync your eReader.

PS: If you have been playing with this for several hours, you may want to let the reader charge for a bit before you go any further with resets.

I tried EVERYTHING before trying this and nothing worked--but this worked immediately. Give it a go.

[phoenix6911]

Great, thanks. That helped. (I'm definatly not paying to send the old Kobo back since they never tried to troubleshoot at all).

Now it helped but it still doesn't work right. Right now I'm trying to get it sync up with the one book I bought with the Kobo credit I got way back. It shows up in my Kobo Desktop library and when I connect the Kobo it says it's synced but then it doesn't show up on the Kobo after I eject. Just shows the manuals only.

I think I tried that two times and nothing. This third time it says it's syncing the book but the progress bar is all done but it still sits there. I just eject it and cancel the sync but now it's downloading ereader upgrade... it did this the last time already.

Getting so pissed off with this piece of crap.

[Corpsegoddess]

Okay, a couple of suggestions.

First of all, I *never* use the Kobo Desktop software for anything if I can help it. To load my books onto my Kobo, I either use the Adobe Digital Editions software, Calibre software or download my purchased Kobo books via wifi--or a combination of the three.

I'd try using one of the above. Don't bother with the Desktop software at all. Let me know if I can help you some more.

I know it can be frustrating at times, but once you get things ironed out, it really is worth it.

[PeterT]

Any chance the book you bought is in a format intended for the Vox only?

[phoenix6911]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Any chance the book you bought is in a format intended for the Vox only?

Nope. I read it on this kobo before. I'm only trying to sync because I figured if anything worked it should.

Tried Calibre but it doesn't show it on the device. I eject and go into the Kobo and it's not in the library. On the home screen their is an icon of a black book (along with Quick Toor and Kobo Read On) that if I click on the device freezes then reboots. The book I tried to load was originally in mobi (which should work) but I converted to epub and deleted the mobi version.

Ok using Calibre and not setting up the Kobo with the desktop, I right-click on a book and choose send to device. I click on the device icon and I see it there. I did this with 3 books and see all three on the device. They're by the same author so when I open the Kobo to see all the files I see all three books in their own folder named after the author. All three are in epub format.

I eject the device and remove the usb cord. On the kobo I X out of the setup again and I'm on the home screen. It shows three "books". The quick tour, kobo read on, and the blank black one. Under Home/Library it shows only the first two books. No where are the three I tried to move to the device.

Now what??
BTW thanks for your help. You're doing a lot more then Kobo tried.

[Corpsegoddess]

Just out of curiosity, where did you buy this book? Not from the Kobo store, obviously, if it had a mobi file.

It sounds like the file itself might be corrupted, not the Kobo. Try using Adobe Digital Editions.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by phoenix6911

Nope. I read it on this kobo before. I'm only trying to sync because I figured if anything worked it should.

Tried Calibre but it doesn't show it on the device. I eject and go into the Kobo and it's not in the library. On the home screen their is an icon of a black book (along with Quick Toor and Kobo Read On) that if I click on the device freezes then reboots. The book I tried to load was originally in mobi (which should work) but I converted to epub and deleted the mobi version.

That black book and reboot means that the Touch had what it thought was a book, but when you started reading it, there was a problem. Deleting a book that the Touch knows about using the PC (not the Kobo desktop or calibre) could be it, but I doesn't usually reboot. Editing a book that the Touch knows about has in the past. But, with FW 2.0.x, the Touch will frequently delete these when it starts.

Ok using Calibre and not setting up the Kobo with the desktop, I right-click on a book and choose send to device. I click on the device icon and I see it there. I did this with 3 books and see all three on the device. They're by the same author so when I open the Kobo to see all the files I see all three books in their own folder named after the author. All three are in epub format.

I eject the device and remove the usb cord. On the kobo I X out of the setup again and I'm on the home screen. It shows three "books". The quick tour, kobo read on, and the blank black one. Under Home/Library it shows only the first two books. No where are the three I tried to move to the device.

There is probably something wrong with one or all of the books. The Touch process all the new books and puts info about them in its database. This is what is displayed in the library. With the 1.9.x firmwares, the Touch could hang doing the processing and it had to be restarted. Or it would just not process that book and all the others after it. Then you needed to send the books over one at a time to see which was the problem. With the 2.0.x firmware, it seems a little more robust. I think it is hanging less often but, it seems to delete books it doesn't like.

Determining the problem with the books could be hard. The few times I have seen this it was an obvious error in the construction of the epub. epubs converted by calibre are usually OK, so that is a bit strange.

[Corpsegoddess]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That black book and reboot means that the Touch had what it thought was a book, but when you started reading it, there was a problem. Deleting a book that the Touch knows about using the PC (not the Kobo desktop or calibre) could be it, but I doesn't usually reboot. Editing a book that the Touch knows about has in the past. But, with FW 2.0.x, the Touch will frequently delete these when it starts.



There is probably something wrong with one or all of the books. The Touch process all the new books and puts info about them in its database. This is what is displayed in the library. With the 1.9.x firmwares, the Touch could hang doing the processing and it had to be restarted. Or it would just not process that book and all the others after it. Then you needed to send the books over one at a time to see which was the problem. With the 2.0.x firmware, it seems a little more robust. I think it is hanging less often but, it seems to delete books it doesn't like.

Determining the problem with the books could be hard. The few times I have seen this it was an obvious error in the construction of the epub. epubs converted by calibre are usually OK, so that is a bit strange.

This is what I was thinking as well--I had this issue with a book I downloaded from The Gutenberg Project. I had loaded a whole boatload onto my Kobo, but *one* of them was corrupted, and it kept the device from seeing *any* of them. It sounds similar to what's happening here.

Phoenix, I'd suggest deleting the book in question, along with the two "Welcome to Kobo" thingies, going to kobobooks.com and downloading one of their free books. Try putting that on your device (you can do that either by wifi, Calibre or Adobe) and see if you can access it. If you can, you know the problem isn't your Kobo, it's one of those three books.

[phoenix6911]

Originally Posted by Corpsegoddess

Just out of curiosity, where did you buy this book? Not from the Kobo store, obviously, if it had a mobi file.

It sounds like the file itself might be corrupted, not the Kobo. Try using Adobe Digital Editions.

The book I bought was from Kobo. I tried to transfer it using the Kobo Desktop. I really don't care about that book since I've already read it but I was trying to sync it because since it's a Kobo book it should have worked without question.

I used Calibre to try and move the other books I have and they won't show either.

I used Adobe Digital Editions but it only works on epub so I tried with the couple of books I have in that format and when I add the book it says it's verifying the document and gets stuck there. However when I look at what's on the Kobo using it, it also sees the three books I previously moved over.

[phoenix6911]

Originally Posted by Corpsegoddess

Phoenix, I'd suggest deleting the book in question, along with the two "Welcome to Kobo" thingies, going to kobobooks.com and downloading one of their free books. Try putting that on your device (you can do that either by wifi, Calibre or Adobe) and see if you can access it. If you can, you know the problem isn't your Kobo, it's one of those three books.

Can't seem to access the wifi on the kobo. Every time I do it wants me to do the kobosetup.

So right now my Kobo has been factory reset back to the default settings. Like I said I couldn't connect with wifi so I'm using Calibre again. I downloaded Anne of Green Gables from kobobooks to my computer and added it to Calibre. I right click on it and send it to device. I click on the device icon and it shows up. Eject the device using Calibre and unplug the usb. I skip the set up again.... black book. No Anne. Factory restoring it again.

Tried it again with the other Kobo (#2) I have, sames steps, and no Anne there to. So factory restoring it and going back to the other kobo (#1) which is done restoring.

Trying Adobe. It authorizes the device. Anne is already in it's library so I drag it over to Kobo listed along the left. I click on Kobo and there it is with a picture of it's cover. Can't find an eject here so I eject it from the task bar. And unplug the usb, skip set up... and it's not there. Hook it back up and check it in Adobe and it's now missing it's cover when I open up the device. So factory reset it and check with the other Kobo.

It get's authorized. I drag Anne from the library to the device listed along the left. I then click on it and it already shows as a black book while still viewing it in Adobe. (I'm really hated this now). Eject, factory restore.

Tried it with 1st Kobo again and the book shows up black in Adobe now so I'm thinking the book is corrupted in Adobe. Delete it and re-add it. Try again with Kobo #2. Authorize, drag and drop, and it shows up fine this time, so I eject. Nope, doesn't show up at all on the kobo. Not even a black book. Reset.

Back to Kobo #1. Delete Anne from Adobe, readd it, connect the Kobo. Drag and drop. It shows up in Adobe under the Kobo. Unplug, skip setup and it's not there.

So to summerize. I can't access wifi unless I set it up using the kobo desktop. I downloaded a free book from kobobooks and it's saved on my computer. It won't add using Calibre or Adobe using either of the two Kobos I have. Kobo 1 is version 1.9.17 and has full power this whole time. Kobo 2 is version 1.9.6 and has half power.

[phoenix6911]

So I try the desktop program again figuring if I set it up I'd at least get to try the wifi download and neither Kobo will set up. At this point I have two Kobo's and neither will work. I realize the chances of two bad Kobo is unlikely but my Kobo worked fine until it updated. The replacement refurb Kobo isn't fairing any better. They are slow on their support and don't even tell me how to do the hard factory reset. I'm just sick of this product right now and don't like to jump through hoops to get something I bought to work. I will NEVER EVER buy a Kobo again.

[murg]

Another happy customer who will tell ALL of their friends about their wonderful experience with Kobo.

[mapline]

I had a problem in UK rang Kobo (Canada) on freephone number and they were very helpful.
They tried all resets as KT had frozen. In the end said try to get dealer to exchange or if problem they would do it!. Email me with instructions if I needed to deal with them. Dealer exchanged it and new machine and updated with no problems to ver 2. I have asked them another query by email and got a response within 48hrs. Well done Kobo!!!!

Seems also most of problems are related to epub books not Kepubs. Perhaps they want us to buy their books to stay in business!

phoenix6911 do you work for another manufacturer? As to be sent a new machine without a return is strange as well as all the problems, unless you have a pc problem.
Keep calm as you seem to have a short fuse.

[PeterT]

@Phoenix; Have you actually done the setup of the Touch via Kobo Desktop.. Believe it or not, doing it DOES make one heck of a difference....