Problem with Calibre Companion

[seacity1]

I set up a wireless connection with Calibre under Connect/Share. (I set it up to connect automatically upon start up). The device icon appeared & I selected 1 book as a test to send to my Nook HD+. The device icon then disappeared. On my Nook HD+ is says "Syncing with Calibre...Receiving books from Calibre & the name of the book that is being received. It has been sitting that way for about 15 minutes. Under Connect/Share it looks like I am still connnected but I have no device icon on the taskbar & nothing else seemed to be happening.

I gave it another 15 minutes. Then I stopped the connection, closed Calibre on my laptop & closed Calibre Companion on my Nook. I also completely closed down the Nook & restarted. When I reopened Calibre on my laptop it looks like it auto connected but no device icon appeared. I opened Calibre Companion & it still have the same message re "Syncing with Calibre..." So it looks like I am stuck in some sort of loop. Is this normal behavior? How long does it normally take for the syncing process to complete? suggestions??

[seacity1]

This is a followup to the message above. I repeated the shut down/restart process & removed the auto-connect feature. The connection appeared to "take" & the device icon appeared. I then got this error message & Calibre Companion stopped the syncing process;

Assigning to this object is forbidden

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 85, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 500, in _sync_booklists
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 49, in _synchronizer
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 1095, in sync_booklists
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 716, in _set_known_metadata
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\metadata\book\base.py", line 182, in deepcopy
File "copy.py", line 163, in deepcopy
File "copy.py", line 257, in _deepcopy_dict
File "copy.py", line 190, in deepcopy
File "copy.py", line 334, in _reconstruct
File "copy.py", line 163, in deepcopy
File "copy.py", line 257, in _deepcopy_dict
File "copy.py", line 190, in deepcopy
File "copy.py", line 358, in _reconstruct
File "site-packages\calibre\library\field_metadata.py", line 427, in __setitem__
AttributeError: Assigning to this object is forbidden

Any idea what I should try now?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by seacity1

File "site-packages\calibre\library\field_metadata.py", line 427, in __setitem__
AttributeError: Assigning to this object is forbidden

It looks like you may have the same problem reported in this thread.

Originally Posted by seacity1

Any idea what I should try now?

According to the thread the fix has been pushed out. Delete your 0.9.29 install file. Re-download from calibre's site and re-install and you should be fine.

[chaley]

My guess is that you downloaded calibre on Friday or Saturday morning. A bug was introduced in calibre 0.9.29 that broke CC connections. That bug has been fixed and a new version of calibre was put online on Saturday.

Re-download and re-install calibre. The problem should go away. It has for other people.
See this post for more information.

Edit: same information as DoctorOhh supplied. Sorry about the overlap.

[seacity1]

Thanks Chaley!
I downloaded .9.29 again & that appears to have fixed the problem - yeah!! Do you know if I can choose to run this app as either content server or wireless connection dependent upon what I want to do? (I have a large collection of about 12K books & I felt content server might take forever to load so I chose wireless.)

[chaley]

Originally Posted by seacity1

Do you know if I can choose to run this app as either content server or wireless connection dependent upon what I want to do? (I have a large collection of about 12K books & I felt content server might take forever to load so I chose wireless.)

If in calibre you have started both the content server and wireless device connection service then in CC you can choose to connect to either one, switching between them as needed. Both services can be auto-started when calibre starts.

Our intention when we built CC and added the wireless device driver to calibre was that the wireless device connection would be used for bulk changes and that the content server would be used for quickly grabbing a book or two. That said, use it in whatever way makes sense for you.

I am curious -- how did you get CC for your Nook HD? B&N has refused to sell CC on the nook store and I don't think the HD supports google play. Have you rooted your nook?

[DoctorOhh]

B & N opened up their device to Google Play store last week. I guess this might be the source.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

B & N opened up their device to Google Play store last week. I guess this might be the source.

Cool. I didn't know that. The decision saves us a lot of trouble dealing with "appealing" B&N's decision not to allow CC in the nook store.

Now I need to change the CC FAQ. Oh what a trial.

[Madmik]

I have version 0.9.30 (both 32 and 64 bit versions on Win 7), and 64 bit version still displays connection problem. 32-bit version connects, but takes forever to synch, compared to previous versions of Calibre (when it was like few seconds). Companion and calibre seem to be sending methadata back and forth... I think that issue is NOT Fixed yet!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Madmik

I have version 0.9.30 (both 32 and 64 bit versions on Win 7), and 64 bit version still displays connection problem. 32-bit version connects, but takes forever to synch, compared to previous versions of Calibre (when it was like few seconds). Companion and calibre seem to be sending methadata back and forth... I think that issue is NOT Fixed yet!

I am using calibre 0.9.30 and am having no problems connecting my Nexus 7 as a wireless device. It takes less than 7 seconds to connect and sync metadata for 108 books. The fixed release 0.9.29 and release 0.9.30 work for many other people that have contacted us. Because of this, I strongly suspect that your problem is caused by something else.

You haven't given us enough information to try to work out what the problem is. Some questions ...

1. What version of CC (calibre companion) are you running?
2. What version number does calibre display in the lower left corner of the screen?
3. Has it ever worked, or is this a new install?
4. What connection problem does calibre 64 have? Does it display a message?
5. Does syncing with calibre 32 ever finish?

It would be very helpful if you posted a debug log for a connection that "takes forever". See the CC FAQ answer https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...37#post2396437 for instructions to get a debug log.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am using calibre 0.9.30 and am having no problems connecting my Nexus 7 as a wireless device. It takes less than 7 seconds to connect and sync metadata for 108 books. The fixed release 0.9.29 and release 0.9.30 work for many other people that have contacted us. Because of this, I strongly suspect that your problem is caused by something else.

In trying to replicate the user's problem I had all kinds of trouble. Let me answer your questions first.

Originally Posted by chaley

1. What version of CC (calibre companion) are you running? Version 2.8.1
2. What version number does calibre display in the lower left corner of the screen? 0.9.30
3. Has it ever worked, or is this a new install? CC installed since beta. Calibre installed for years.
4. What connection problem does calibre 64 have? Does it display a message? I run calibre portable so I can't address this concern.
5. Does syncing with calibre 32 ever finish? Yes (explained further)

When I connected CC it sent the metadata of all 2100 books to calibre as normal, but usually calibre only sends to CC the updated metadata, most of the time a few books. This time it insisted on sending info on all 2100 books.

When that was done I sent a book to my Nexus then disconnected. I immediately connected again this time everything went as expected. CC sent the metadata to calibre and calibre didn't send any metadata back to CC, connection in about a minute and 20 seconds (Great!).

I disconnected then restarted calibre and tried again. This time calibre insisted on sending metadata on about 1700 of the 2100 books. I tried variations of this for an hour and after each calibre restart it insisted on sending metadata back to CC in progressively lower amounts. It has now leveled out at around 600 or so books after each restart of calibre, the number isn't steady.

I have never had this problem before, but I am not ready to rule out something on my system. For the last month I have been experimenting with running calibre from a different cloud service directory. In the morning I will hopefully try again from my setup of the past couple of years.

Originally Posted by chaley

It would be very helpful if you posted a debug log for a connection that "takes forever". See the CC FAQ answer https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...37#post2396437 for instructions to get a debug log.

I am working 12 hour days through Wednesday morning so I most likely won't be able to gather the debug info until then.

Until I provide you with debug info I would take my report as anecdotal and not rely on it, since there is the distinct possibility of a problem local to my setup. I just wanted to put this out there in case Madmik's problem is similar.

It will be interesting to hear more specifics from Madmik.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

When I connected CC it sent the metadata of all 2100 books to calibre as normal, but usually calibre only sends to CC the updated metadata, most of the time a few books. This time it insisted on sending info on all 2100 books.

When that was done I sent a book to my Nexus then disconnected. I immediately connected again this time everything went as expected. CC sent the metadata to calibre and calibre didn't send any metadata back to CC, connection in about a minute and 20 seconds (Great!).

I disconnected then restarted calibre and tried again. This time calibre insisted on sending metadata on about 1700 of the 2100 books. I tried variations of this for an hour and after each calibre restart it insisted on sending metadata back to CC in progressively lower amounts. It has now leveled out at around 600 or so books after each restart of calibre, the number isn't steady.

It might help to describe how calibre decides to send metadata back to the device. It is a multi-layered decision.

Metadata is sent to the device if:
1) The unique ID of the book on the device does not match the unique ID of the book in calibre. This can happen if using multiple libraries and the same book is in more than one library.
2) The last modified date in calibre does not match the last modified date stored with the book on the device. This means that something in the book's metadata has changed. This is the most common case.
3) Calibre has a cover for the book but there is no cover on the device.
4) The size of the cover image generated by calibre does not match the size of the cover on the device. This will happen if you change the cover size option in CC.

My guess is that this has something to do with the last_modified date changing for some reason. One suspect is metadata backup. If you use Library Maintenance to force metadata backup of all books, all last_modified dates will be changed. This will force calibre to send the metadata to the device. The number of books progressively getting smaller is consistent with something like this.

Other actions also change the last_mod date. A large bulk update would do that, even if it doesn't actually change any metadata.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by chaley

My guess is that this has something to do with the last_modified date changing for some reason. One suspect is metadata backup. If you use Library Maintenance to force metadata backup of all books, all last_modified dates will be changed. This will force calibre to send the metadata to the device. The number of books progressively getting smaller is consistent with something like this.

Even if I triggered a library wide event (seems like I must have). I thought that after one complete pass through everything should be equal and the number each subsequent time should be zero. But you are right it does seem the most likely reason.

Maybe I wasn't patient enough with the new cloud software.

Thank you for the info. I'll investigate further. Like I stated, anecdotal until you hear otherwise.

Update: Seems as if every metadata.opf file was written fresh Saturday. The actual books (Date Modified) are unaltered.

[Madmik]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am using calibre 0.9.30 and am having no problems connecting my Nexus 7 as a wireless device. It takes less than 7 seconds to connect and sync metadata for 108 books. The fixed release 0.9.29 and release 0.9.30 work for many other people that have contacted us. Because of this, I strongly suspect that your problem is caused by something else.

You haven't given us enough information to try to work out what the problem is. Some questions ...

1. What version of CC (calibre companion) are you running?
2. What version number does calibre display in the lower left corner of the screen?
3. Has it ever worked, or is this a new install?
4. What connection problem does calibre 64 have? Does it display a message?
5. Does syncing with calibre 32 ever finish?

It would be very helpful if you posted a debug log for a connection that "takes forever". See the CC FAQ answer https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...37#post2396437 for instructions to get a debug log.

1. Version of CC is 2.8.1 on Samsung Galaxy S III
2. If I'm writing that it was 0.9.30 [64-bit], it is 0.9.30 [64-bit]...
3. Computer is about two years old, so is a calibre install (I'm using it for few years). I started using 64-bit version since 0.9.27.
4. 64 bit Calibre did display "Error communicating with the device" message...
5. Today 64 bit version did connect with companion, after 32-bit version performed lengthy (5-10 minutes) connection session... Since calibre does work, I can't post debug log.
Nevertheless, problem did exist, so there...

Edited: tonight it returned again, see copy of error message:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 85, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 470, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 49, in _synchronizer
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 1021, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 580, in _call_client
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 613, in _receive_from_client
TimeoutError: There was a timeout while communicating with the device in function: Device did not respond in reasonable time
Debug log:

1 Get device information started
SMART_DEV ( 37.05: 0.000) get_device_information
SMART_DEV ( 37.13: 0.001) _call_client GET_DEVICE_INFORMATION wfr True
SMART_DEV ( 38.75: 1.540) _call_client SET_CALIBRE_DEVICE_INFO wfr True
SMART_DEV ( 39.04: 0.234) card_prefix
SMART_DEV ( 39.10: 0.001) free_space
SMART_DEV ( 39.14: 0.001) _call_client FREE_SPACE wfr True
DeviceJob: 1 Get device information done, calling callback
DeviceJob: 1 Get device information callback returned
SMART_DEV ( 39.44: 0.257) set_progress_reporter
Job: 2 Get list of books on device started
Job: 1 Get device information finished
No details available.
SMART_DEV ( 39.48: 0.000) books None
SMART_DEV ( 39.52: 0.001) _call_client GET_BOOK_COUNT wfr True
SMART_DEV ( 99.57: 60.002) _receive_from_client timeout communicating with device
SMART_DEV ( 99.61: 0.001) _call_client other exception
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 580, in _call_client
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 613, in _receive_from_client
TimeoutError: There was a timeout while communicating with the device in function: Device did not respond in reasonable time
DeviceJob: 2 Get list of books on device done, calling callback
There was a timeout while communicating with the device in function: Device did not respond in reasonable time

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 85, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 470, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 49, in _synchronizer
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 1021, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 580, in _call_client
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 613, in _receive_from_client
TimeoutError: There was a timeout while communicating with the device in function: Device did not respond in reasonable time

DeviceJob: 2 Get list of books on device callback returned
SMART_DEV ( 99.66: 0.014) post_yank_cleanup
READING LIST: Device disconnected
Job: 2 Get list of books on device finished
There was a timeout while communicating with the device in function: Device did not respond in reasonable time

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 85, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 470, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 49, in _synchronizer
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 1021, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 580, in _call_client
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\smart_device_app\driver.p y", line 613, in _receive_from_client
TimeoutError: There was a timeout while communicating with the device in function: Device did not respond in reasonable time

Updating to 0.9.31 right now, will see if this helps.

Edit:
Yes it works fine
I hope I can stick to 64-bit version from now on...

P.S. BTW, 32-bit calibre when synching long time, behaved exactly as one at Doctor's device
Cheers,
Mike

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Madmik

1. Version of CC is 2.8.1 on Samsung Galaxy S III
2. If I'm writing that it was 0.9.30 [64-bit], it is 0.9.30 [64-bit]...
3. Computer is about two years old, so is a calibre install (I'm using it for few years). I started using 64-bit version since 0.9.27.
4. 64 bit Calibre did display "Error communicating with the device" message...
5. Today 64 bit version did connect with companion, after 32-bit version performed lengthy (5-10 minutes) connection session... Since calibre does work, I can't post debug log.
Nevertheless, problem did exist, so there...

Cheers,
Mike

So it is working now with 64-bit calibre, with no changes to either calibre or CC?