iOS App Kobo iOS apps future version request thread

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by holymadness

Another persistent error that myself and family members have experienced on Kobo for iOS:

We download a free sample of a book through the app, enjoy it, and head to the website to purchase the full version. However, the book does not update to the full version on the iOS app, even if you force-quit and restart it. Instead, getting the full book into your library requires following this ridiculously convoluted ritual (courtesy of Kobo tech support):



Another reason why I just don't use the app anymore and try to tell others to avoid it as well. I'd strongly suggest your development team make seamless synchronizing a priority for future updates.

Does this happen every time you go from a preview to a purchased copy of the book? I have had this behaviour reported a couple of times, and believe me when I say I've tried to track down exactly what is happening.

Another option to going to the web site is to long press on the book cover, tap the downward facing arrows on the right hand side of the big blue button, typically saying "Read Now" (what it says depends on the books status), it should pop a menu down, and there should be a remove option, which you should select. If should have three options; "from Library", "from Device", and "Cancel". Do NOT select "from Library" (if you do, then the steps from support WILL need to be used to restore the purchase). Select "from Device".

This will remove the data file for the book from the device. It will also put the book back into a downloadable state. Now tap on the book to download it, and open it, and see if it is the full version of the book.

My guess as to what is happening is that on library refresh, the info from the server that is returned to the app still lists the book as a preview and not the fully purchased version. Why the server info is not updated, I do not know.

If this problem does seem to happen 100% of the time for you, what I would very much like is if you could let me know before the purchase is made, and I can send information on how to enable enhanced logging in the app. Then purchase the book, and then refresh the library with the logging enabled, hopefully the problem will occur (well, I hope it does not, but if it does, I'll have more info to go on) and you can send over the logs so I can try and figure out what is happening.

More likely than not, it'll just show that the refresh post-purchase results in the book still being listed as a preview. However, that would allow me to provide information to others to indicate that it's not the app itself that is at fault.

[Orn8one]

I have never been able to purchase a book on the app post preview and had always had to do the steps in the post #90. Now I have the new version of my app all my unread previews are at an end and they won't reload to the start. I despaired a while ago, nowhere else to go.

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by Orn8one

I have never been able to purchase a book on the app post preview and had always had to do the steps in the post #90. Now I have the new version of my app all my unread previews are at an end and they won't reload to the start. I despaired a while ago, nowhere else to go.

In regards to the preview to purchase issue. If you do decide to purchase a preview and you are willing to assist, drop me an email here and I'll give you a list of steps to run through.

As for the previews being at an end and won't reload. If you happen to bring up the menus (tap in the middle of the book) and select the Table Of Contents item from the menu (it will be the left-most of the icons that appear on the right hand side of the top menu, the one nearest to the centre of the screen) then can you select one of the chapters from the Table Of Contents, and if so, does it take you there?

[Orn8one]

Hi again!
Yes I did try the table of contents and the preview is at an end at the end of the table of contents. I thought I should see at least part of one chapter but if I tap chapter 1 it says no further content available or similar words. They are previews I hadn't opened before so I now realise now its possible they were always like that.
I plan to change to Kindle this year but still have some unread books on my KT and was given £20 WHS tokens for Christmas so I will be buying a few more books on Kobo.com. I'll email you when I have chosen the books if that's ok?
I was also frustrated that the sync didn't work yet again between my app and KT. The new app had extra shelves and changed quite a lot of my organisation. I reorganised it all and started a new book. I refreshed the app and closed and opened it twice. The whirly icon showed so it seemed to be syncing up ok. When I synced my KT the new book wasn't on the home page and the book I had 'closed' still the main book. The shelves were the usual 6 (another documented problem) "shortlist"shelves containing the wrong books and one other shelf that was empty. It didn't resemble the iPad app in any way.
I use my KT and iPad app in the simplest way, it really should work for people who don't use Calibre and the like.
Thank you.

[Docno]

Anyone else experiencing this?

First, when listing the smaller book covers in the library (a view that I prefer), the book covers are wrong in many instances. One book may 'adopt' the cover of a different book. This doesn't happen with the 'larger cover' view (i.e., the view we had in previous versions).

Second, now when you want to add a new book to an existing collection and you go to list your full library of books to select from, the titles list in alphabetical order. This means you need to scroll down to find your new book or do a search on the title. I liked the previous version for listing newly purchased books at the top. Adding a new book to a collection was painless.

[Docno]

Oh, as a future version request. I think it would be great to have our own 1-5 star rating for a book showing alongside a book's cover (just as photo catalogue programs do for image collections). I buy a lot of nonfiction that I use for reference, and some books are of higher quality than others. I would like to 'track' which books in my library I can ignore and which are worthwhile to refer to again.

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by Docno

Anyone else experiencing this?

First, when listing the smaller book covers in the library (a view that I prefer), the book covers are wrong in many instances. One book may 'adopt' the cover of a different book. This doesn't happen with the 'larger cover' view (i.e., the view we had in previous versions).

Hello,
Could you provide a little more information on this:
What iOS version and iOS device are you using? When exactly does this problem start to occur, for example, if you happen to scroll through the list of books does it seem to start, or does it only seem to happen after initial sign in, or when a new book appears in the library?

Originally Posted by Docno

Second, now when you want to add a new book to an existing collection and you go to list your full library of books to select from, the titles list in alphabetical order. This means you need to scroll down to find your new book or do a search on the title. I liked the previous version for listing newly purchased books at the top. Adding a new book to a collection was painless.

Originally Posted by Docno

Oh, as a future version request. I think it would be great to have our own 1-5 star rating for a book showing alongside a book's cover (just as photo catalogue programs do for image collections). I buy a lot of nonfiction that I use for reference, and some books are of higher quality than others. I would like to 'track' which books in my library I can ignore and which are worthwhile to refer to again.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll pass it onto the development team.

[Docno]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

Hello,
Could you provide a little more information on this:
What iOS version and iOS device are you using? When exactly does this problem start to occur, for example, if you happen to scroll through the list of books does it seem to start, or does it only seem to happen after initial sign in, or when a new book appears in the library?


Thanks for the feedback. I'll pass it onto the development team.

Sharkus, thanks for your prompt reply. I'm using an iPad Air with iOS 7.0.4. I only noticed the problem with the covers the other day, but it may have been there since installation of the latest version of the app. It's a stable problem: shows up in collections and in the all-books listing. Some books I've owned for months. Certain books always have the same wrong cover associated with them in the small-cover view (ex., book x and y may both show the cover of book y; book a and b may both have cover b). But it's only for about 10-20 percent of the books. And it's only for the small covers. And the titles to the side are correct. I don't see any pattern re what books get it wrong and where they 'steal' their covers from.

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by Docno

Sharkus, thanks for your prompt reply. I'm using an iPad Air with iOS 7.0.4. I only noticed the problem with the covers the other day, but it may have been there since installation of the latest version of the app. It's a stable problem: shows up in collections and in the all-books listing. Some books I've owned for months. Certain books always have the same wrong cover associated with them in the small-cover view (ex., book x and y may both show the cover of book y; book a and b may both have cover b). But it's only for about 10-20 percent of the books. And it's only for the small covers. And the titles to the side are correct. I don't see any pattern re what books get it wrong and where they 'steal' their covers from.

Thanks for the additional information. I'll keep an eye on it and see if I can reproduce the issue.
One other question, how many books are typically in the collection / shelves where you see this (total number should be displayed to the right of the collection / shelf name)

[Docno]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

Thanks for the additional information. I'll keep an eye on it and see if I can reproduce the issue.
One other question, how many books are typically in the collection / shelves where you see this (total number should be displayed to the right of the collection / shelf name)

It was happening even in small collections (less than 10 books). If the book had the wrong cover in the '[all] books' listing, then it had the same wrong cover in a collection, regardless of size.

But something curious happened just now. I did a full charge from 0% last night. When I went to the kobo app after charging, it did a reload [blue Kobo intro screen]. When I then went to the library (small cover view), I noticed the book covers 'flickering' as if they were being refreshed. And indeed they were! It appears that the problem has rectified itself. All is well...

Not sure why. I noticed the 'small covers problem' 2-3 days ago (or longer), but assumed it had always been there and that I'd simply missed it. I have, during that time, removed the Kobo app from memory (done a reload), and I'm almost always on wifi. I also do a recharge almost every day. So I don't know why it decided just now to do a refresh of the covers. Feels like when you go to the doctor's office and you start feeling better while in the waiting room Anyway, I'll let you know if it happens again and under what circumstances. Thanks.

[Docno]

While I'm here, one small additional feature request:

I'd personally much prefer it if the 'word definition, wiki, etc' pop-up did not come up every time you select text. Two reasons...

The first is that if you are connected (unknowingly) to a bad wifi connection, the app freezes for 15 seconds or longer while it tries to connect to Google and Wiki before it gives up ... and there's no indication that's what's going on. [I thought the app was freezing for no good reason and kept restarting it until I realised it never happened when I had wifi off or was on a known good connection].

Second, I highlight a lot of text in some 'reference' books, and most times the text starts with "A" or "The", so it's a little disruptive to have that panel pop up. However, it's much less so in this new version of the app. Still, I'd like to have the auto-pop-up as an option... I'd personally set it to off, and only click on 'define' [maybe call it 'info'] if I need a definition or more information from wiki and google.

Great app nonetheless

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by Docno

It was happening even in small collections (less than 10 books). If the book had the wrong cover in the '[all] books' listing, then it had the same wrong cover in a collection, regardless of size.

But something curious happened just now. I did a full charge from 0% last night. When I went to the kobo app after charging, it did a reload [blue Kobo intro screen]. When I then went to the library (small cover view), I noticed the book covers 'flickering' as if they were being refreshed. And indeed they were! It appears that the problem has rectified itself. All is well...

Not sure why. I noticed the 'small covers problem' 2-3 days ago (or longer), but assumed it had always been there and that I'd simply missed it. I have, during that time, removed the Kobo app from memory (done a reload), and I'm almost always on wifi. I also do a recharge almost every day. So I don't know why it decided just now to do a refresh of the covers. Feels like when you go to the doctor's office and you start feeling better while in the waiting room Anyway, I'll let you know if it happens again and under what circumstances. Thanks.

I know we cache the cover images, perhaps what you were seeing was a refresh of the cache, ie; the currently cached image was removed and a new copy was downloaded.

The blue screen showing up indicates the app was launching from a cold start, rather than it being from a suspended state. I wonder if the weird image issue was hanging around because the app had not been fully quit, and the occasional odd issue can be fixed by fully quitting the app and relaunching it.

I was running a few tests with a library of 400 books, trying to reproduce the cover image issue, but have not seen it as yet.

[Docno]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

I know we cache the cover images, perhaps what you were seeing was a refresh of the cache, ie; the currently cached image was removed and a new copy was downloaded.

The blue screen showing up indicates the app was launching from a cold start, rather than it being from a suspended state. I wonder if the weird image issue was hanging around because the app had not been fully quit, and the occasional odd issue can be fixed by fully quitting the app and relaunching it.

I was running a few tests with a library of 400 books, trying to reproduce the cover image issue, but have not seen it as yet.

I'm pretty sure (though not 100%) that I had done a full quit on the app during the problem period (i.e., flicked the app up after a double-click on the home button). Anyway, if it happens again I'll make sure to fully close the app and see if that works. If not, will come back here. Thanks again for your assistance... Kobo has some good people on their team.

[Docno]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

I know we cache the cover images, perhaps what you were seeing was a refresh of the cache, ie; the currently cached image was removed and a new copy was downloaded.

The blue screen showing up indicates the app was launching from a cold start, rather than it being from a suspended state. I wonder if the weird image issue was hanging around because the app had not been fully quit, and the occasional odd issue can be fixed by fully quitting the app and relaunching it.

I was running a few tests with a library of 400 books, trying to reproduce the cover image issue, but have not seen it as yet.

Well, I just discovered that one book has slipped back to the wrong cover. See screen cap below.... [I opened the two books in succession so that they would be positioned next to each other - this is not how they started]. Have tried everything to get the cover right short of removing the problematic book from my library. Any way to force a cache refresh?

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by Docno

Well, I just discovered that one book has slipped back to the wrong cover. See screen cap below.... [I opened the two books in succession so that they would be positioned next to each other - this is not how they started]. Have tried everything to get the cover right short of removing the problematic book from my library. Any way to force a cache refresh?

Thanks for the screenshot.
So the books that are now 1st and 2nd from top left. Before you opened them, where where they respective to that screen, ie; did you have to scroll the list of books to see and open them?

Can you just remind me as to exact device and iOS version. I know it's an iPad, and it's running a version of iOS 7. I just want to try and reproduce this issue on a device of the same spec / os version.

As for refreshing the cache, I don't think there is a way to do that, beyond logging out and back in - which would remove all books and you'd have to download them all again - as this kind of thing should not happen.

Let me dig a little deeper into this though, as it's likely something new with v7.0 of the app due to the redesign and the library display code.