Glo: synching with the Kobo shop library

[franklekens]

Does the Kobo Glo always insist on downloading all the books you have in your Kobo shop library? Isn't there something like the Kindle archive function?

The reason I'm asking is this: I already had quite a few books in that library before I bought a Kobo. Now that I have the Glo, I wanted to quickly sort the books in that library into different shelves. I preferred to use the shelve plugin for Calibre to do that (easier than going through the Glo interface). So I deleted all the books it had initially downloaded from the Kobo shop library, and re-uploaded them to the device from Calibre. (With the DRM removed, yes, only for my own purposes.)

But now as soon as I switch on Wifi and want to synch because I've bought a single new book, the device starts to download everything in the library again. So I'll end up with numerous duplicates of all those books, one shelved and one unshelved (and DRM'ed) copy of each. The DRM doesn't bother me, of course, but the duplication does, and the mess it will create.

Of course I can just leave wifi turned off forever and upload every book I buy through Calibre from now on. But.

[taming]

You can archive the books from Kobo on the device. You can also go to the Kobo website and delete books you have purchased from I'm Reading. They will go to the trash folder, which (so far) has never permanently deleted anything I have put there. You can always download books you have purchased again be either restoring them from the trash or by going to the Purchase History part of your account and downloading them again. I am saying that this works with books you have purchased, because books you receive as gifts or which were free downloads are never in your purchase history, and do not seem to be restorable from the trash.

[franklekens]

Okay, thanks. I just noticed the archive function on the device.

Of course, the downside to this is I will first have to redownload the entire library again. And then manually archive all those items one by one through the device interface. Quite a bit more bothersome than managing them from my desktop computer.

I'm a little wary of using the trash feature of the library as long as it isn't documented exactly how Kobo is going to deal with that.

Maybe I should try out the Kobo Desktop App?

[ottdmk]

franklekens: It shouldn't be that bad, actually. Last time I did a factory reset, it auto-archived most of the books. So they never actually hit the device again. Surprised the heck out of me.

There's also an option to only display books that are on the device. I think you'll want to use it; it'll avoid displaying the books twice (archived & side-loaded).

[franklekens]

Thanks for the tip.

The Kobo Desktop app obviously isn't the answer. I just installed it. What a weird app. I'll stick to Calibre.

[taming]

Actually, if you are never going to want kepub versions of the books you bought prior to buying a Kobo device, you could just start a new account and use that one with the device. You can continue to get epubs of your older books using the old account.

My husband has an account that he has never used to purchase a book. He uses one of my readers (hehehe) and he reads the ePubs of the books I have bought. He updates his firmware using his own account. No books involved.

[davidfor]

To do what you want I use the Kobo desktop app. Like the devices, this automatically downloads all new books. Then I delete them from the library. This then removes the book from the "I'm Reading" list on the site. Anything not on that list, will not be downloaded to the device. And will be removed at the next sync if it already is on it. If the device is connected when doing this, it will be removed from the device immediately.

The other thing you can do, and I'm surprised taming didn't mention it, is to let calibre manage the shelves. To do this, let the device sync the new book. And add the epub version to calibre. At the next sync with calibre, the books should get matched and the shelves set up.

The only problem with this is that the title and author of the two versions of the books have to match exactly. If there is a mismatch in some way, it doesn't work. But, you can fix it in calibre for the next sync.

[taming]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The other thing you can do, and I'm surprised taming didn't mention it, is to let calibre manage the shelves. To do this, let the device sync the new book. And add the epub version to calibre. At the next sync with calibre, the books should get matched and the shelves set up.

I thought the issue was that the OP was trying to avoid having kepub books of epubs she owned before buying a kobo device on the reader at all.

I do all of my management using calibre. I have the books I bought from Kobo as kepubs on the device, and backed up epubs in calibre. As David mentioned, unless there is a mismatch between the two titles, I can use the shelves just fine in calibre and whatever format is actually on the device ends up on the shelves.

[franklekens]

Originally Posted by davidfor

To do what you want I use the Kobo desktop app. Like the devices, this automatically downloads all new books. Then I delete them from the library. This then removes the book from the "I'm Reading" list on the site. Anything not on that list, will not be downloaded to the device. And will be removed at the next sync if it already is on it. If the device is connected when doing this, it will be removed from the device immediately.

But doesn't that remove the books from the library altogether, without archiving them? (At installation the desktop app popped up a message about archiving, but I don't see that option anywhere in the programme.) I would like to keep the books in the cloud, in the library, just as an extra backup in case I ever lost all other copies and had to redownload it.

[davidfor]

The Kobo site has three lists for your library. "I'm Reading" is what is on the device, "Purchased" is the books you have bought and "Trash" for anything deleted from either of the other lists. Books that are archived are in the "I'm Reading" list, so maybe I should say it is the books the device knows about.

If you delete a book from the device, or desktop app, the book is removed from the "I'm Reading" list, but left in the "Purchased" list. To get it back, select the book in the "Purchased" list and press the "Bookmark" button at the top of the list. The next sync to the device will put it back on the device.

The archive option in the desktop application is there when the device is connected., but it doesn't use the term "archive". There is an icon on each book showing whether it is on the device or not. Clicking on the icon or right clicking will give the option to remove the book from the device.