Glo Sideload ePub slow to load

MarcLaf · 01-17-2014, 10:55 PM

Noticing that sideloaded epubs take forever to load up when selected. Even to the point where I think the device has crashed. Holding the power switch does nothing. Eventually they open and once open page turns are pretty quick. But taking 10-15 minutes to get into the book really puts a hampering on my reading! Has anyone else experienced this?

RobertJSawyer · 01-17-2014, 11:36 PM

Nothing at all like that, and I sideload a lot of books via Calibre.

First question: are you sideloading into main memory, or onto a Micro SD card.

If the latter, is the Micro SD card a brand name -- preferably SanDisk (people here have reported the fewest problems with them in Kobo devices).

Second question: how many sideloaded books do you have on the device? If it's thousands, performance might be impacted (although it shouldn't be slowed up that much).

Third question: what kind of sideloaded books? Plain mostly-text novels/nonfiction? Or heavily illustrated books?

Fourth question: do your sideloaded books have chapters and a working table of contents? Normally, the Kobo Glo loads a chapter at a time from the ePub file (which is really an archive of multiple files, one for each chapter).

A book should open in seconds; not minutes.

DNSB · 01-18-2014, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarcLaf

Noticing that sideloaded epubs take forever to load up when selected. Even to the point where I think the device has crashed. Holding the power switch does nothing. Eventually they open and once open page turns are pretty quick. But taking 10-15 minutes to get into the book really puts a hampering on my reading! Has anyone else experienced this?

My experience has been much like Robert Sawyer's. I've seen overly wait times to open a book on two occasions. Once was when I sideloaded a couple of epubs that did not have even a nodding acquaintance with standards compliance. After running them through Sigil, Flightcrew and epubcheck to locate and fix issues, they worked fine. The other time was on a friend's Glo where he sideloaded his content on a nonname uSD card removed from his old phone. After he copied his content over to a new Lexar card, his problems cleared up.

Another possible issue that I haven't run into personally is when using jgoguen's plugin to convert epub files to .kepub.epub to use the ACCESS renderer rather than the RMDSK renderer. When the ebook is opened, you see loading chapter at the bottom of the screen for extended periods.

Regards,
David

RobertJSawyer · 01-18-2014, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

Another possible issue that I haven't run into personally is when using jgoguen's plugin to convert epub files to .kepub.epub to use the ACCESS renderer rather than the RMDSK renderer. When the ebook is opened, you see loading chapter at the bottom of the screen for extended periods.

Now, that issue I have occasionally seen, although not lately.

MarcLaf · 01-18-2014, 10:26 AM

Thanks for the suggestions. I timed it last night and had grossly exaggerated the load time. It was only 5 minutes (not 10-15)... but still 5 min is a long time!

To answer your questons RobertJSawyer
1. Sideloaded into main memory
2. 2 sideloaded books
3. Text only book
4. (I think this is the culprit). There is only 1 giant chapter for the entire book. It's 325 pages long.

That and possibly combined with what DNSB said about books that weren't standard compliant. I think I need to do a bit of editing on this epub. I will need to get Sigil again. Haven't heard of Flightcrew or epubcheck before. Will do some Googling.

Thought it was an issue with the device but it looks like it's the epub.

Does this plugin to convert to kepub allow you to utilize the "5 minutes until next chapter" features? I really like that.

DNSB · 01-18-2014, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarcLaf

That and possibly combined with what DNSB said about books that weren't standard compliant. I think I need to do a bit of editing on this epub. I will need to get Sigil again. Haven't heard of Flightcrew or epubcheck before. Will do some Googling.

Flightcrew is built into Sigil as it's epub checker. Epubcheck is a separate program. I use the Epubcheck GUI interface to simplify checking 1 or 2 files.

Regards,
David

MarcLaf · 01-18-2014, 11:36 PM

Well I edited the book in Sigil and transferred via Calibre using the kepub conversion and the book works great now. I'm guessing it was because it had no chapters (just one long file).

Thanks for the help with this, appreciate it.

davidfor · 01-19-2014, 12:21 AM

Yes, the bigger the chapter file, the longer it takes to load. And it gets worse as you read the book. If you are opening it towards the end, it will take longer than at the start of the file. Even turning the page will be slower towards the end of a large file.

MarcLaf · 01-26-2014, 10:51 AM

Sorry to resurrect this thread but it's not working again - same (if not worse) symptoms. Here's what I've tried.
Kepub to SD card
Kepub to internal
epub to internal.

The Kepub has the chapters which is nice and if I close the book at the beginning of the chapter then it will open fine. If it's anywhere else the reader shows a blank screen with Loading Chapter # page #. It does not progress past this. I need to hard power off, mark book as unread and then start from the beginning, cycling through until I get to the point I left off at.
The Epub shows # of total pages and no matter where I leave (even on a chapter start) it will refuse to load. Don't understand. I never had these problems with my old Kobo Touch (sideloaded epubs all the time).

Flightcrew checked out fine in Sigil (will try epubcheck next) but I have no idea why it's doing this. Quite annoying too. Not sure if it matters but there's only 2 other books on my reader as well so it's not as if it's running low on space.

MarcLaf · 01-26-2014, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

Another possible issue that I haven't run into personally is when using jgoguen's plugin to convert epub files to .kepub.epub to use the ACCESS renderer rather than the RMDSK renderer. When the ebook is opened, you see loading chapter at the bottom of the screen for extended periods.

Yeah this is what I meant I'm getting and the only way to remedy it is to either stop on the beginning of a chapter OR to mark book as unread and open from the beginning.

GeoffR · 01-26-2014, 11:21 AM

When you copied the new book onto the device, did you delete the old book first?

If you change the file structure by splitting up a big html file into one file per chapter and then transfer the book without first deleting the old book (using the remove function on the device itself), then the device will try to navigate the new book using information about the old book's structure, which can result in all sorts of strange problems.

If that sounds like the problem, you should be able to fix it just by deleting the book using the remove function on the device, then plugging it in and transfering a new copy.

MarcLaf · 01-26-2014, 11:46 AM

Hi GeoffR,

Yes I removed the old book using Calibre first.

I've just tried reinstalling the KoboExtended driver (and disabling the built in Kobo Touch driver) to see if that works but I still get the same issue - stuck on Loading.

Also, I don't seem to get all the functionality that the KoboExtended says it provides such as the time left to reading chapters and whatnot. I only get page x of y for the chapters. I have conflicting information on properly setting up the driver and Calibre. Maybe I'm not doing something right.

I just tried loading the book again and now it won't even seek to chapter beginnings from the ToC. Stuck on Loading. Beginning to get very frustrating.

MarcLaf · 01-26-2014, 12:10 PM

I've also posted a report on Launchpad for KoboExtended under the exiting bug #1258521 "Converted epub causes Kobo Glo to freeze, when reloading the converted book"

https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre-k...r/+bug/1258521

I'm really starting to think it's how the epub is put together. I mean it passes all the checks I've done (Flightcrew, epubcheck, some online one I found) but perhaps it's the Kobo that isn't supporting certain things.

Is there a validator that's available specifically for Kobo devices?

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01-17-2014, 10:55 PM	#1
MarcLaf Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2014 Device: Kobo Glo	Sideload ePub slow to load Noticing that sideloaded epubs take forever to load up when selected. Even to the point where I think the device has crashed. Holding the power switch does nothing. Eventually they open and once open page turns are pretty quick. But taking 10-15 minutes to get into the book really puts a hampering on my reading! Has anyone else experienced this?

01-17-2014, 11:36 PM	#2
RobertJSawyer Guru Posts: 730 Karma: 3871570 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Libra 2, Clara 2E, and Clara HD; Kindle PaperWhite	Nothing at all like that, and I sideload a lot of books via Calibre. First question: are you sideloading into main memory, or onto a Micro SD card. If the latter, is the Micro SD card a brand name -- preferably SanDisk (people here have reported the fewest problems with them in Kobo devices). Second question: how many sideloaded books do you have on the device? If it's thousands, performance might be impacted (although it shouldn't be slowed up that much). Third question: what kind of sideloaded books? Plain mostly-text novels/nonfiction? Or heavily illustrated books? Fourth question: do your sideloaded books have chapters and a working table of contents? Normally, the Kobo Glo loads a chapter at a time from the ePub file (which is really an archive of multiple files, one for each chapter). A book should open in seconds; not minutes.

01-18-2014, 10:26 AM	#5
MarcLaf Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2014 Device: Kobo Glo	Thanks for the suggestions. I timed it last night and had grossly exaggerated the load time. It was only 5 minutes (not 10-15)... but still 5 min is a long time! To answer your questons RobertJSawyer 1. Sideloaded into main memory 2. 2 sideloaded books 3. Text only book 4. (I think this is the culprit). There is only 1 giant chapter for the entire book. It's 325 pages long. That and possibly combined with what DNSB said about books that weren't standard compliant. I think I need to do a bit of editing on this epub. I will need to get Sigil again. Haven't heard of Flightcrew or epubcheck before. Will do some Googling. Thought it was an issue with the device but it looks like it's the epub. Does this plugin to convert to kepub allow you to utilize the "5 minutes until next chapter" features? I really like that.

01-18-2014, 11:36 PM	#7
MarcLaf Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2014 Device: Kobo Glo	Well I edited the book in Sigil and transferred via Calibre using the kepub conversion and the book works great now. I'm guessing it was because it had no chapters (just one long file). Thanks for the help with this, appreciate it.

01-19-2014, 12:21 AM	#8
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Yes, the bigger the chapter file, the longer it takes to load. And it gets worse as you read the book. If you are opening it towards the end, it will take longer than at the start of the file. Even turning the page will be slower towards the end of a large file.

01-26-2014, 10:51 AM	#9
MarcLaf Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2014 Device: Kobo Glo	Sorry to resurrect this thread but it's not working again - same (if not worse) symptoms. Here's what I've tried. Kepub to SD card Kepub to internal epub to internal. The Kepub has the chapters which is nice and if I close the book at the beginning of the chapter then it will open fine. If it's anywhere else the reader shows a blank screen with Loading Chapter # page #. It does not progress past this. I need to hard power off, mark book as unread and then start from the beginning, cycling through until I get to the point I left off at. The Epub shows # of total pages and no matter where I leave (even on a chapter start) it will refuse to load. Don't understand. I never had these problems with my old Kobo Touch (sideloaded epubs all the time). Flightcrew checked out fine in Sigil (will try epubcheck next) but I have no idea why it's doing this. Quite annoying too. Not sure if it matters but there's only 2 other books on my reader as well so it's not as if it's running low on space.

01-26-2014, 11:21 AM	#11
GeoffR Wizard Posts: 3,821 Karma: 19162882 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Te Riu-a-Māui Device: Kobo Glo	When you copied the new book onto the device, did you delete the old book first? If you change the file structure by splitting up a big html file into one file per chapter and then transfer the book without first deleting the old book (using the remove function on the device itself), then the device will try to navigate the new book using information about the old book's structure, which can result in all sorts of strange problems. If that sounds like the problem, you should be able to fix it just by deleting the book using the remove function on the device, then plugging it in and transfering a new copy.

01-26-2014, 11:46 AM	#12
MarcLaf Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2014 Device: Kobo Glo	Hi GeoffR, Yes I removed the old book using Calibre first. I've just tried reinstalling the KoboExtended driver (and disabling the built in Kobo Touch driver) to see if that works but I still get the same issue - stuck on Loading. Also, I don't seem to get all the functionality that the KoboExtended says it provides such as the time left to reading chapters and whatnot. I only get page x of y for the chapters. I have conflicting information on properly setting up the driver and Calibre. Maybe I'm not doing something right. I just tried loading the book again and now it won't even seek to chapter beginnings from the ToC. Stuck on Loading. Beginning to get very frustrating.

01-26-2014, 12:10 PM	#13
MarcLaf Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2014 Device: Kobo Glo	I've also posted a report on Launchpad for KoboExtended under the exiting bug #1258521 "Converted epub causes Kobo Glo to freeze, when reloading the converted book" https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre-k...r/+bug/1258521 I'm really starting to think it's how the epub is put together. I mean it passes all the checks I've done (Flightcrew, epubcheck, some online one I found) but perhaps it's the Kobo that isn't supporting certain things. Is there a validator that's available specifically for Kobo devices?