Does Kobo use more storage space than Sony

[alstein]

Hi

I recently purchased a Kobo Glo reader. I noticed, that after putting 165 books from my Kobo library on the device, that I only have approximately 323 MB available out of 1.32 GB. When I compare this to my Sony PRS-T1 Reader with the same number of books, the Sony reader shows that I have 1.02 GB available out of 1.4GB. Is this normal? Does the Kobo take so much more space per book than the Sony Reader?

[hleo12]

I have 800 titles on my Glo and I still have 400+MB available. There's something hinky going on in your Glo... I suggest opening the Glo's folders on your computer and start adding up the size of the folders. If it really adds up to 1 or so GB, just look for the biggest file. There might've been an error when the books were being copied. If the folders don't equal the displayed consumed storage on you Glo (and your computer displays the appropriate storage pie chart) then there might be a problem on your Glo's database. Just log out under account settings and log back in. You will loose all your reading progress, annotations, and reading life though. You could make a back-up using Calibre and the Kobo Utilities plug-in. And speaking of the plug-in, you can also check the integrity of your Glo's database using said plug-in. But I can assure you, unless your books are 10MB each, you won't run out of storage that fast...

[alstein]

Originally Posted by hleo12

I have 800 titles on my Glo and I still have 400+MB available. There's something hinky going on in your Glo... I suggest opening the Glo's folders on your computer and start adding up the size of the folders. If it really adds up to 1 or so GB, just look for the biggest file. There might've been an error when the books were being copied. If the folders don't equal the displayed consumed storage on you Glo (and your computer displays the appropriate storage pie chart) then there might be a problem on your Glo's database. Just log out under account settings and log back in. You will loose all your reading progress, annotations, and reading life though. You could make a back-up using Calibre and the Kobo Utilities plug-in. And speaking of the plug-in, you can also check the integrity of your Glo's database using said plug-in. But I can assure you, unless your books are 10MB each, you won't run out of storage that fast...

Thanks. I decided to log out of Kobo on my ereader. It took me through the setup process again, and is now in the process of downloading my library. I opted for wireless setup this time, as opposed to connecting the reader to my PC as I had done initially. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that my Kobo library is comprised of quite a few books purchased from the Sony reader store site when they were around.

I also find charging the Kobo Glo via the USB connection on my PC is very slow. Its been connected for several hours and shows only 54% charged. Is it possible to charge via an AC adapter?

[davidfor]

When you put a book on a Kobo device, the following files and other things are created:

• The actual book is somewhere in the file system
• Covers - generated from the first page of the book. Up to 4 different sized copies. These are generated as needed.
• Database records - one row for the book (containing the metadata including the description), two rows for each chapter in the book, one row for each collection the book is in. Exactly how much space depends on the comments in the metadata and the number of chapters, but it shouldn't exceed 100KB. More rows will be added as you read and if you add bookmarks/annotations.
• ADE files - for epubs and PDF, there are some small files created by the RMSDK. The biggest will contain annotations if you make them.

From what I know about the Sony, it will have all the above, but, I think it uses less copies of the covers and the less database entries. Also, I don't know how big the cover images it has are. I would expect it to use less space for the same book, but not very much.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by alstein

Thanks. I decided to log out of Kobo on my ereader. It took me through the setup process again, and is now in the process of downloading my library. I opted for wireless setup this time, as opposed to connecting the reader to my PC as I had done initially. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that my Kobo library is comprised of quite a few books purchased from the Sony reader store site when they were around.

I also find charging the Kobo Glo via the USB connection on my PC is very slow. Its been connected for several hours and shows only 54% charged. Is it possible to charge via an AC adapter?

That charging bit is definitely weird. I mainly charge my Glo on a laptop and it only takes about 2-3 hours to fully charge.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by alstein

I also find charging the Kobo Glo via the USB connection on my PC is very slow. Its been connected for several hours and shows only 54% charged. Is it possible to charge via an AC adapter?

That is a rather slow charging time. However, you can use pretty well any USB AC charger as long as it is rated at 5V.

Regards,
David

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by alstein

I noticed, that after putting 165 books from my Kobo library on the device, that I only have approximately 323 MB available out of 1.32 GB. When I compare this to my Sony PRS-T1 Reader with the same number of books, the Sony reader shows that I have 1.02 GB available out of 1.4GB.

Are these the same books? In the same format? You know, different books have different sizes...

[GeoffR]

A book in kepub format (either sideloaded by Calibre's KoboTouchExtended driver or synced from Kobo) takes up a lot more space than the same book sideloaded as a plain epub, both for the books themselves and in the database.

[alstein]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Are these the same books? In the same format? You know, different books have different sizes...

They are the same books. Many were purchased from Kobo and loaded on to my Sony Reader. Then the same books were put on the Kobo Glo.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by alstein

They are the same books. Many were purchased from Kobo and loaded on to my Sony Reader. Then the same books were put on the Kobo Glo.

If you put them on the Glo by syncing with Kobo or using the extended driver in Calibre, then the books will actually be in kepub format, and will take up a lot more space (often twice as much space). If you sideloaded them using the standard Calibre driver, or manually, then they will be in plain epub format and should take roughly the same space as on the Sony (maybe a little more, but nowhere near twice as much).

There are other things that consume storage space besides books though, I think the main one is the recommendations you get when you sync with Kobo. Each recommendation has a full set of cover images, and new ones seem to be added faster than the old ones are deleted, so after a while you can end up with a lot of them.

[alstein]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

A book in kepub format (either sideloaded by Calibre's KoboTouchExtended driver or synced from Kobo) takes up a lot more space than the same book sideloaded as a plain epub, both for the books themselves and in the database.

I checked the individual files on my Sony Reader and on my Kobo Glo. There are size differences; for example, on my Kobo one of the books - Decision Points takes up 54.3 mb, while the same book on my Sony reader takes up 46 mb. Another example is Jerusalem which takes up 33.14mb on my Kobo, while the same book takes up 23.7 mb on my Sony reader. But the magnitude of the difference is not the same as the overall difference in the two ereaders. When I look at the folders on my Sony Reader I found a folder within the Sony Reader folder called media which contains 190 files totaling 392MB, the bulk of the storage. Those are the epubs . Then there is a folder called database with 179 files, 345 folders which takes up a total of 2.8 mb.

On my Kobo Glo, I found a folder within the .kobo folder called "kepub" which contains 166 files and uses 709MB, almost double the space that the Sony Reader epub files use.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by alstein

On my Kobo Glo, I found a folder within the .kobo folder called "kepub" which contains 166 files and uses 709MB, almost double the space that the Sony Reader epub files use.

From that I gather your books are in kepub format, synced direct from Kobo. If you sideloaded them to the Glo in epub format they would use a lot less space, probably similar to the Sony.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

From that I gather your books are in kepub format, synced direct from Kobo. If you sideloaded them to the Glo in epub format they would use a lot less space, probably similar to the Sony.

No... The only books in that directory are ones directly loaded from the Kobo store, either via Desktop or WiFi. Side loaded kEpubs go in the same directory structure as sideloaded ePubs do.

One possibility is that those are free previews downloaded from Kobo.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by PeterT

No... The only books in that directory are ones directly loaded from the Kobo store, either via Desktop or WiFi.

Edit: I see what you mean. The books could be sideloaded and the kepub directory could just contain 709MB of other stuff.

So to be clear, if the books are in kepub format (either because they were synced from Kobo or sideloaded as kepubs) then the books themselves and their associated database entries will take up about twice as much space compared to the same books sideloaded as epubs. But either way, there could be a whole lot of stuff taking up space and database entries other than just the books.

[alstein]

Originally Posted by hleo12

That charging bit is definitely weird. I mainly charge my Glo on a laptop and it only takes about 2-3 hours to fully charge.

It charged very quickly when I connected it to the wall charger that I used to use with my Sony Reader.