[GUI Plugin] Kindle Collections

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by Deep Cover

Does jailbreaking a paperwhite make sense if the collections thing is your only problem?

I was disappointed on getting a paperwhite to find out that this plugin doesn't work with that model. I've found Collections to be very, very helpful in managing my previous kindle.

It's been mentioned in this thread that you can manage collections via Calibre if you "jailbreak" the paperwhite, and there's a thread on the Kindle Developer's Forum discussing that.

I'm not entirely incompetent or tech-phobic, but I don't think I was really able to follow the discussion in the Developer's Forum, and I don't understand the implications of a jailbreak (or even what the term means).

Is it worthwhile to jailbreak my paperwhite just to get the Collections functionality back; and what notes of caution should I be aware of in deciding whether to do it?

I am working on figuring out this whole thing right now. Well, I've been jailbroken and using Collection Manager for quite some time. I am now figuring out how to use the Kindle Collections Calibre plugin in conjunction.

You have to update your Kindle Collections, go here and read

It is working well, but if you use multiple Calibre libraries on the same device, there are some quirks.

[Deep Cover]

Thanks—very helpful!

What I can't figure out is how to install NiLuJe's Kindle Collections. I'm using Calibre on my Mac and did go to Calibre preferences to install the command line interface, but I'm afraid that's as far as my competence could take me. Any hints?

[booklover6]

Well I am on windows, but pretty sure what I did was to go into Calibre preferences, plugins, load plugin from file, then load in the NiLuJe zip file. I can't find a readme in the zip and it's been awhile since I did it.

[booklover6]

But to answer your question at the top of the page. Yes if you want to use Calibre to manage collections this way, then you do have to jailbreak, which can be complicated depending on what firmware your paperwhite is on, and add the prerequisites, and the Kindle Collection Manager, in addition to NiLuJe's Kindle Collections Calibre Plugin.

Once that is all set up, you set a column (such as tags) that you want to make collections from. You load some books onto the paperwhite from Calibre. You select Create Collections on the Kindle from Calibre.

Then you eject, unplug, and go to Collections Manager, start it up. Then go to settings and select "Import collections from Calibre." It can take a few minutes.

You have to do that each time you add books via Calibre (if you want them to go into a collection), if you don't, your changes will not appear.

[Deep Cover]

Originally Posted by booklover6

But to answer your question at the top of the page. Yes if you want to use Calibre to manage collections this way, then you do have to jailbreak, which can be complicated depending on what firmware your paperwhite is on, and add the prerequisites, and the Kindle Collection Manager, in addition to NiLuJe's Kindle Collections Calibre Plugin.

Once that is all set up, you set a column (such as tags) that you want to make collections from. You load some books onto the paperwhite from Calibre. You select Create Collections on the Kindle from Calibre.

Then you eject, unplug, and go to Collections Manager, start it up. Then go to settings and select "Import collections from Calibre." It can take a few minutes.

You have to do that each time you add books via Calibre (if you want them to go into a collection), if you don't, your changes will not appear.

Brilliant! It worked (it works the same way on the Mac as in Windows, just as you described. It just took me a while to work out that I didn't need to use the command line interface to install NiLuJe's plugin).

[Greymage]

I just updated to latest calibre and kindle collections and am getting this error:

calibre, version 0.9.28
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>AttributeError</b>:CalibreInfo instance has no attribute 'kindle_model'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.kindle_collections.ui", line 152, in customize
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\__init__.py", line 150, in do_user_config
File "calibre_plugins.kindle_collections.__init__", line 73, in config_widget
File "calibre_plugins.kindle_collections.customize" , line 46, in __init__
AttributeError: CalibreInfo instance has no attribute 'kindle_model'

It's an older kindle, not touch or paperwhite, and worked fine with this plugins last year. What should I look for?

calibre version 0.9.28
Kindle Collections 1.7.11 (30 Sep 2012)

[edwdecarlo]

Originally Posted by Greymage

I just updated to latest calibre and kindle collections and am getting this error:

calibre, version 0.9.28
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>AttributeError</b>:CalibreInfo instance has no attribute 'kindle_model'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.kindle_collections.ui", line 152, in customize
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\__init__.py", line 150, in do_user_config
File "calibre_plugins.kindle_collections.__init__", line 73, in config_widget
File "calibre_plugins.kindle_collections.customize" , line 46, in __init__
AttributeError: CalibreInfo instance has no attribute 'kindle_model'

It's an older kindle, not touch or paperwhite, and worked fine with this plugins last year. What should I look for?

calibre version 0.9.28
Kindle Collections 1.7.11 (30 Sep 2012)

I have the same versions of calibre and Kindle Collections. I just ran Kindle Collections against my Kindle Keyboard (pre touch and whitepaper) without any errors.

Perhaps you need to uninstall Kindle Collections plug-in and re-install it.

Another thing to consider, which version of calibre you were on prior to upgrading to 0.9.28. If it was a big enough jump, or you went from the 32-bit version to 64-bit version, you may need to uninstall calibre and re-install 0.9.28 again.

Another thing to look at is if you are using a Metadata Plugboard. I am and the Device is set to KINDLE2. Perhaps you have this set yours to something different; a change to calibre may have made the Device type more sensitive/critical.

I hope at least one of these are helpful, or point you into the correct direction.

[Greymage]

Thank you for the suggestions - I had not used calibre in over a year and updated it from a 0.8.x version when I went to install new books on my Kindle. Your suggestion below fixed the issue - when I uninstalled calibre and then reinstalled it Kindle Collections worked perfectly. I did not have to uninstall/reinstall the plugins.

Thanks for your help!

Originally Posted by edwdecarlo

Another thing to consider, which version of calibre you were on prior to upgrading to 0.9.28. If it was a big enough jump, or you went from the 32-bit version to 64-bit version, you may need to uninstall calibre and re-install 0.9.28 again.

[kitenski]

good afternoon,

I've just come across this thread as I have a kindle keyboard and want to copy the collections on there over to my new paperwhite.

So I've installed calibre and the plugin, copied the books over from old kindle, and created the collections.

Calibre has the four kindle collections in it, but I cannot get them over to the PW.

I have downloaded these tweaks kcoll_pw_tweaks-v31.patch.gz but I have no idea how to install the tweaks?

My assumption is I need the tweaks in order to get the collections created successfully on the PW?

Thanks for any help,

Greg