Syncing your own eBooks between PCs and Android - Page 3

bemymonkey · 08-30-2013, 12:59 AM

Hi, I stumbled across a working solution a few days ago: Dump Kindle and use Google Books. You can upload ePubs in the Google Play Store, which can be viewed in a browser or in the Google Books app (on Android). I use the browser on my Windows machines and the Android app when I'm out and about... syncs perfectly.

Brianrh · 08-30-2013, 05:15 AM

Google books nearly work for me. It synchronises books perfectly all the time and some of the time it synchronises last read position ok but not always. I haven't been able to work out why and when this is happening across my two Android devices and two PCs.

So I seem to have problems with Kindle for PC and Google books and I seem to be the only common denominator. Should this be telling me something?

bemymonkey · 09-06-2013, 12:46 AM

Google Books is a bit temperamental... in the web viewer, make sure you use the "Exit" (not sure if that's the actual word, it's in German here) button in the top left corner to close the book... if you just close the tab, it won't always sync.

And on the Android app, use the back button to leave the app - not the home button. And make sure Google Books sync is actually on (in your Google Account settings on Android).

Working fine for me this way

Brianrh · 09-06-2013, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bemymonkey

Google Books is a bit temperamental... in the web viewer, make sure you use the "Exit" (not sure if that's the actual word, it's in German here) button in the top left corner to close the book... if you just close the tab, it won't always sync.

And on the Android app, use the back button to leave the app - not the home button. And make sure Google Books sync is actually on (in your Google Account settings on Android).

Working fine for me this way

Thanks for that advice bemymonkey I will give that a try. I think I normally "exit" and Back button in Android but perhaps I need make sure I definitely do this each time. I had a feeling that at times at the end of a reading session Google books would only have synced at a point a few minutes before I exited the book.

Perhaps I need to try again but take note of what I am doing and what is happening to try to understand the problem.

Thanks.

Brian

jduck · 09-08-2013, 01:30 AM

Brianrh,

Yes, I think there is a bit of confusion here about what we mean by syncing. In my case I want last-page-read syncing between devices, which includes as part of it getting the books delivered to the different platforms.

I too have switched to google books for non-Amazon books. The kindle
apps/programs are all much nicer than the google books versions but at least google books mostly works to sync last page read. Figuring out how to get it to download the whole book to my Kindle so that I could read it offline was kind of tricky and I do it infrequently enough that I have to take the time to figure it out again every time.

On my kindle fire I grabbed one of the 'sync settings' apps on the market to be able to get to the account sync settings. I make sure to sync google books (toggle it off and on) before and after reading. I had not noticed an exit button on the web reader. Wish there was just a 'sync' button for the control freaks among us.

Brianrh · 09-12-2013, 08:07 AM

After trying different methods to get a reliable sync with Google Books, the only method I have found is to set a book mark at the last page read before exiting the book. Invariably when I open the book on another device (or even the same device at times), it can't detect the last page read and opens a few pages away from where it should. However Google Books seems to sync the book marks reliably so I use this to get to the correct place in the book.

kge · 09-30-2013, 05:36 AM

I am so glad I stumbled on this thread. Wanting to sync reading positions between two Android devices and two PCs. Originally I had used FBReader on Android to read. But in order to sync it I would have to root my nexus 7 tablet as it wasn't rooted yet. Which would mean I would have to backup everything, as rooting destroys all loaded apps. Also it wouldn't sync to PC of course. I then started to check out many other readers on Google Play. I also tried the Kindle app, but I couldn't get it to sync at all.

Now after a week of fiddling, I stumbled on this thread and tried Google Books. At a first try it seemed to sync, between one PC and the phone. Very cool! Will try to switch devices the next few days and see what happens.

BTW I have the calibre instances of those two PCs and another two (one of them linux!) synced with Dropbox. Ideally the reading solution would make use of this, somehow keeping the reading positions stored in the library itself, but hey, this is quite ok for the moment.

absk82 · 09-30-2013, 09:43 PM

Seems like you want something like readmill, but sadly it is only for i-devices.

If file sync is what you are interested in, you can also check out https://register.blib.us using which you can host your library on your laptop/desktop or the cloud and access it anywhere over any device on the browser.

Abhishek.
https://register.blib.us

kge · 10-01-2013, 04:23 AM

absk82: had a quick look at readmill. Yes it sounds much like what I want.

blib sounds very strange, not really trustworthy. If I wanted to be sure about the confidentiality of my files I'd go for something totally open source, like owncloud.org Anyway I was looking for a solution to sync reading positions, so that wouldn't cut it.

BTW, I switched back and forth between phone, tablet and a PC with Google Play Books (or whatever it's called) and it seems to work as long as you exit properly.

henrikberggren · 10-02-2013, 04:16 AM

Readmill for Android should come out any day now so sign up here to be notified right away!

https://readmill.com/android

kge · 10-03-2013, 02:50 AM

Cool! Thanks for the tip!

kge · 10-03-2013, 12:07 PM

Incredible! I signed up this morning for the readmill android release announcement and an hour ago I received the release announcement! (Maybe the got scared of me, and released it early? Who knows :-) )

Installed in both android devices and on the way to trying it out!

kge · 10-03-2013, 04:09 PM

henrikberggren: now I have uploaded a book in the browser on readmill. how do I read it there? or on the Windows desktop.

henrikberggren · 10-04-2013, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kge

henrikberggren: now I have uploaded a book in the browser on readmill. how do I read it there? or on the Windows desktop.

Unfortunately we don't support reading in a browser atm... http://librarus.com/ is building support for it though, maybe email him and ask.

kge · 10-04-2013, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by henrikberggren

Unfortunately we don't support reading in a browser atm... http://librarus.com/ is building support for it though, maybe email him and ask.

Needs online access on the mobile device. Not what I need. Maybe you should think about browser support?

09-30-2013, 05:36 AM	#37
kge Nameless Being	I am so glad I stumbled on this thread. Wanting to sync reading positions between two Android devices and two PCs. Originally I had used FBReader on Android to read. But in order to sync it I would have to root my nexus 7 tablet as it wasn't rooted yet. Which would mean I would have to backup everything, as rooting destroys all loaded apps. Also it wouldn't sync to PC of course. I then started to check out many other readers on Google Play. I also tried the Kindle app, but I couldn't get it to sync at all. Now after a week of fiddling, I stumbled on this thread and tried Google Books. At a first try it seemed to sync, between one PC and the phone. Very cool! Will try to switch devices the next few days and see what happens. BTW I have the calibre instances of those two PCs and another two (one of them linux!) synced with Dropbox. Ideally the reading solution would make use of this, somehow keeping the reading positions stored in the library itself, but hey, this is quite ok for the moment. Last edited by kge; 09-30-2013 at 05:39 AM. Reason: forgot to mention calibre

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08-30-2013, 12:59 AM	#31
bemymonkey Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Various Android devices	Hi, I stumbled across a working solution a few days ago: Dump Kindle and use Google Books. You can upload ePubs in the Google Play Store, which can be viewed in a browser or in the Google Books app (on Android). I use the browser on my Windows machines and the Android app when I'm out and about... syncs perfectly.

08-30-2013, 05:15 AM	#32
Brianrh Connoisseur Posts: 84 Karma: 559550 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Swindon, UK Device: Kindle	Google books nearly work for me. It synchronises books perfectly all the time and some of the time it synchronises last read position ok but not always. I haven't been able to work out why and when this is happening across my two Android devices and two PCs. So I seem to have problems with Kindle for PC and Google books and I seem to be the only common denominator. Should this be telling me something?

09-06-2013, 12:46 AM	#33
bemymonkey Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Various Android devices	Google Books is a bit temperamental... in the web viewer, make sure you use the "Exit" (not sure if that's the actual word, it's in German here) button in the top left corner to close the book... if you just close the tab, it won't always sync. And on the Android app, use the back button to leave the app - not the home button. And make sure Google Books sync is actually on (in your Google Account settings on Android). Working fine for me this way

09-08-2013, 01:30 AM	#35
jduck Connoisseur Posts: 62 Karma: 2282 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: kindle Fire	Brianrh, Yes, I think there is a bit of confusion here about what we mean by syncing. In my case I want last-page-read syncing between devices, which includes as part of it getting the books delivered to the different platforms. I too have switched to google books for non-Amazon books. The kindle apps/programs are all much nicer than the google books versions but at least google books mostly works to sync last page read. Figuring out how to get it to download the whole book to my Kindle so that I could read it offline was kind of tricky and I do it infrequently enough that I have to take the time to figure it out again every time. On my kindle fire I grabbed one of the 'sync settings' apps on the market to be able to get to the account sync settings. I make sure to sync google books (toggle it off and on) before and after reading. I had not noticed an exit button on the web reader. Wish there was just a 'sync' button for the control freaks among us.

09-12-2013, 08:07 AM	#36
Brianrh Connoisseur Posts: 84 Karma: 559550 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Swindon, UK Device: Kindle	After trying different methods to get a reliable sync with Google Books, the only method I have found is to set a book mark at the last page read before exiting the book. Invariably when I open the book on another device (or even the same device at times), it can't detect the last page read and opens a few pages away from where it should. However Google Books seems to sync the book marks reliably so I use this to get to the correct place in the book.

09-30-2013, 09:43 PM	#38
absk82 Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: None	Seems like you want something like readmill, but sadly it is only for i-devices. If file sync is what you are interested in, you can also check out https://register.blib.us using which you can host your library on your laptop/desktop or the cloud and access it anywhere over any device on the browser. Abhishek. https://register.blib.us

10-01-2013, 04:23 AM	#39
kge Nameless Being	absk82: had a quick look at readmill. Yes it sounds much like what I want. blib sounds very strange, not really trustworthy. If I wanted to be sure about the confidentiality of my files I'd go for something totally open source, like owncloud.org Anyway I was looking for a solution to sync reading positions, so that wouldn't cut it. BTW, I switched back and forth between phone, tablet and a PC with Google Play Books (or whatever it's called) and it seems to work as long as you exit properly.

10-02-2013, 04:16 AM	#40
henrikberggren Member Posts: 21 Karma: 490012 Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Berlin Device: iPhone 5 / iPad Mini	Readmill for Android should come out any day now so sign up here to be notified right away! https://readmill.com/android

10-03-2013, 02:50 AM	#41
kge Nameless Being	Cool! Thanks for the tip!

10-03-2013, 12:07 PM	#42
kge Nameless Being	Incredible! I signed up this morning for the readmill android release announcement and an hour ago I received the release announcement! (Maybe the got scared of me, and released it early? Who knows :-) ) Installed in both android devices and on the way to trying it out!

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10-03-2013, 04:09 PM	#43
kge Nameless Being	henrikberggren: now I have uploaded a book in the browser on readmill. how do I read it there? or on the Windows desktop.