Troubleshooting Kindle Organization and Calibre questions

[kelleybean]

I'm having trouble figuring out how to organize stuff on my Kindle, and it's driving me insane! I'm sorry for the newbie questions, but I've browsed the Kindle and Calibre forums and tried searching, and I haven't found much in answer to my questions.

OK first, most of what I have on my new Kindle is just straight Amazon classics. But, some of them have title/author weirdness and I need to FIX. IT. (Like 10 books by one author and his name shows up 5 different ways). It looks like I can drag the files from the Kindle folder to Calibre, and edit the metadata from there...but then I have to resend the books to device once I edit them, leaving me with 2 copies of the book on my Kindle. What would happen if I then deleted the original through my Amazon page? Would my title-edited version still sync, etc? Would Amazon still recognize it on the manage Kindle page? It seems like a bad idea to delete all original versions of books I've actually bought if I'm not even stripping the DRM (which is a whole other subject). So I guess I'm just looking for what other people do about this, because it seems that most people on these forums use Calibre to organize their libraries - thoughts?

And that leads me to my next question - I have a few duplicate books, and a few samples that I ended up buying the full book on...leaving the sample on my Kindle. I've heard that I should "delete" the book from my Kindle, which will just send it to archives. I suppose I could maybe deal with that, but really I want them OFF my device. And I can't deal with it anyway because I can't seem to find a delete or archive option on my Kindle. The only other option I see is using the Amazon site to permanently delete it from the Kindle? That seems...clunky.

OK, last question - Is there a way to tell if a book is not in any collection, or an easier way to add things to collections than actually going inside the collection and then scrolling through all of my books to find the one I want to add? Some sort of "highlight the book and choose add to collection" doesn't seem to exist, so again - is there some trick you guys have figured out that I haven't?

Thanks for any help!

[TallMomof2]

I usually strip the DRM and then edit the metadata but I would think that Amazon would still recognize the book with edited metadata but if you redownload it from Amazon you would of course be redownloading the original ebook.

To delete an item off your Kindle, navigate to the item and push your little joy stick to the left and an option to delete or remove from the device should appear. Answer appropriately and the file is off your Kindle. If you're in the book, press menu and there should be an option to delete or remove.

To figure out quickly what is not in collections: in the Home screen navigate to the top and press the joy stick to the right and select Collections. Your Collection folders will appear first, then ebooks that are not in collections and subscription content.

HTH

[kelleybean]

You strip the drm and then permanently delete the original? I'm thinking that would be the best option for me also, but I wasn't sure if there is some sort of downside to that that I hadn't thought of.

Ahhhh, I can't believe I didn't find that way of deleting stuff from my Kindle, I feel dumb now! Thanks!

As for figuring out what is not in collections, yeah, that works but from doing that I see that I've got 250 or so books that are not in collections, out of about 700...and when I go into the collection and choose the option to add/remove files to it, it throws me back into the list of every book I have, and I don't see a way, from that list, to see which aren't in collections yet. Did that make sense?

Thanks for replying, I really appreciate it.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by kelleybean

I have a few duplicate books, and a few samples that I ended up buying the full book on...leaving the sample on my Kindle. I've heard that I should "delete" the book from my Kindle, which will just send it to archives. I suppose I could maybe deal with that, but really I want them OFF my device. And I can't deal with it anyway because I can't seem to find a delete or archive option on my Kindle. The only other option I see is using the Amazon site to permanently delete it from the Kindle? That seems...clunky.

reboot the kindle.
--
Alan

[lovesangelrn]

you don't need the strip the DRM to edit things like author and title in calibre from Amazon downloaded book. I've changes several, and have never messed with the DRM. here's the steps i take:
1. from the library screen, click "add books"
2. find the book you want to add in the kindle drive (usually pops up just like a flash drive). The actually book is the .azw or .azw1.
3. Edit the meta data (be sure the author name in both fields is last name, first name in order of it to sort on the kindle correctly by last name).
4. from the kindle tab, highlight the book and click "delete book"
5. from the library screen highlight the book and click "send to device" This will send the book back to the kindle with the new metadata in place. The kindle recongizes it as an official copy, thus you won't see it pop up in your archives.

Note....if you delete your "edited" book from the kindle and redownload it from amazon, you get back the original metedata

To answer you question about archives....you can permantly delete from archives from the amazon website. From the kindle store (or "manage your account), click on "manage my kindle." Scroll down to the bottom, here you will find all the books you've ever purchased from Amazon. You can delete them from there. However, once you do, they are permantly gone, and if you ever want the book back, you will have to pay for it again.

[TallMomof2]

I strip the DRM do that I can read the file on other devices and can have a readable backup copy of my own for when either Amazon stops supporting ebooks (don't scoff, they did it before) or the DRM servers crash or are permanently removed.

But you can manipulate the metadata without disinfecting the file.

[koland]

Originally Posted by kelleybean

...And that leads me to my next question - I have a few duplicate books, and a few samples that I ended up buying the full book on...leaving the sample on my Kindle. I've heard that I should "delete" the book from my Kindle, which will just send it to archives. I suppose I could maybe deal with that, but really I want them OFF my device. And I can't deal with it anyway because I can't seem to find a delete or archive option on my Kindle. The only other option I see is using the Amazon site to permanently delete it from the Kindle? That seems...clunky.

Archives are not on your Kindle. It is a listing of your account (which is stored at Amazon), minus any books that ARE on your Kindle. Deleting a book from your Kindle simply allows the listing to be seen in the Archives instead (it doesn't move it and it is removed from the Kindle). Since you don't own a sample, though, deleting it from the Kindle does only that; it doesn't show up in the archives.

If, however, you accidentally (or on purpose) purchased a book that you don't want in your account anymore, you can permanently delete it on the Manage My Kindle page. Doing so will remove it's reference on the archive page and if you change your mind and want it back later, you have to purchase it again.

Think of it this way: The Kindle is a magical purse or backpack, you can stuff in as many books or samples as you want, without it getting any heavier (up to the limit of the internal size, of course). Each book you add is only a copy of the original book you own back in the library of your house, while the samples are a few copied pages from the local bookseller. Pull them out, read them or discard them - it only affects the magical purse, not your library shelves. Want one back - if it's your book, you go back home, make a new copy of the book on your shelves and stuff it in the purse; if you want a new sample, of course, you have to hit the bookseller's store. But, if you have a few on the shelves that are truly, truly horrid, or are the ones the seller gives away for free and they are cluttering up the (limitless) shelves or are afraid someone who is coming to visit your home will peruse your shelves and discover you were buying "those" books, you can remove them from your shelves to toss them into the fireplace, permanently removing any record of them from your home. Doing so is not something that can be undone, however - after the visitors are gone and you want that dreadful book back, it requires a trip back to the bookseller and payment of a few more shekels to restock the shelves.

[retrolution]

Since nobody else mentioned it, on the Home screen you can navigate to a book and press right on the 5-way pad to add to collections. You'll probably find this easier than adding from inside the collections (which, incidentally, I didn't know was possible until I read your question).

[spygrl]

I have a question that is related to this... in my calibre library my books say the correct title and author of my books... when I upload them to my Kindle it will instead show something like this...

MONTGOMERY_Anneof

instead of displaying it as...

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Is this something I need to fix in the file structure/label or is it something in the meta data?

[Pushka]

You need to delete the original book off your kindle, (as long as you have saved it through calibre) and then reload it from calibre to your kindle. Before doing that, check in Calibre that you have entered exactly the metadata information you want, and there are no random commas and spaces etc. I had a lot of trouble sorting that author's books myself!

[spygrl]

Originally Posted by Pushka

You need to delete the original book off your kindle, (as long as you have saved it through calibre) and then reload it from calibre to your kindle. Before doing that, check in Calibre that you have entered exactly the metadata information you want, and there are no random commas and spaces etc. I had a lot of trouble sorting that author's books myself!

okay, I tried the above and on the reload I still have the same error. Perhaps its in my file structure?

All of the metadata is correct, but it's almost like it's using the file name rather than the metadata information.

I should probably add, not all of my books are doing this... so it's not a problem with the calibre or kindle.

[Pushka]

Maybe you could try restarting the kindle? Like you have to do with the screensavers when you change them? I remember having this problem; in the end I took every book off the kindle, checked the metadata scrupulously for errors, and then reloaded. Took me a long time....Now, I always load books into calibre before the kindle ever sees them!

[bear4hunter]

Seems I found someone with the same problem: title on kindle is different from title in metadata (changed with calibre or mobi2mobiGUI)

Attached the screen of my Twilight copy - Author displays and sorts correctly, but the title shows on my kindle as "Twilight" and not "Twilight Saga 1 - Twilight"

So far, I found no solution to this yet.

[spygrl]

Originally Posted by bear4hunter

So far, I found no solution to this yet.

hmmm maybe I should have made this it's own thread then.

Pushka I will try deleting them from the Kindle and then restarting and see if that works.

[spygrl]

Well that didn't work either... I'm perplexed. I'm wondering if maybe it has something to do with the type.. the ones that are showing the odd labels are prc files.. the mobi files look fine.