Calbre Mobi to Epub taking forever

Alanw888 · 07-24-2012, 01:48 PM

I'm a newbe so please forgive if I am not doing this in the correct way.
I have successfully converted EPUB to mobi. But Mobi to epub is taking forever.
Converting 3 books Two seem to be stuck at 67% both report 'Splitting on page-break' and seem to be still working (Lots of processor activity on all 4 cores!) current time taken 1533m 27s & 179m 26s. The other has no percentage, status Working and time of 1101 5s. Should I just give up or hang in...
Thanks

DoctorOhh · 07-25-2012, 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alanw888

Should I just give up or hang in...

Hang in.

BetterRed · 07-25-2012, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Hang in.

@dwanthny, If those times are accurate then Alanw888 has been "Hanging In' for 25 HOURS already.
On my side of planet earth that's more than a day. ¬

Conversions can be slow but...

I'd pull the plug and run one at a time

But see OP's follow up, it was a 20K page document - lucky he took dwanthny's advice and not mine

BR

kacir · 07-25-2012, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alanw888

Should I just give up or hang in...

A long time ago I was complaining (*) that conversion from lit to epub or other formats takes waaaay too long for my taste. The author of software Kovid Goyal has explained patiently, that the convertor does a *lot* of things with a book during conversion, besides the obvious unpacking html data and repacking it in a slightly different format. All that is done using interpreted language - Python. I was told that they are not going to work on speeding up the conversion at that moment. (There are many features that are more important for users that need to be done first). By the way ... that Python bit is very important, because it allows us to have Calibre on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, all running from one development source. And for me, the availability in Linux is much more important than speed of conversion. The use of Python also facilitates lots of very powerful features, such as using Regular Expressions for quite a few things.

So I have installed lit2epub package for my Linux distribution and I use that for converting lits. Convertlit [that lit2epub uses] takes seconds to convert a lit file to a format good-enough-for-me. I use Calibre for the other one thousand and one things that it does extremely well.

So, if you can, wait for the result.
If you need to convert lots of books, look around for other software for conversion.

(*) or, to say it more diplomatically, I was asking something "Am I doing this the way it is supposed to be done? Am I missing something obvious?"

BetterRed · 07-25-2012, 08:56 AM

irrelevant in light of OP's follow-up post

Alanw888 · 07-25-2012, 09:07 AM

Thanks all for the replies.
The book did eventually finish taking around 28 hours

It is also possible that I didnt supply enough info in my first post (learning curve) the book was a Dictionary and the completed/converted book had 19,996 pages. Each word/definition having its own page! This is obviously why it was taking so so so long. For those interested that works out at about 12 pages a minute.

As I have some more English to (other language) Dictionarys to convert it looks like I will have to get my hands 'dirty' and peer into the 'settings' to see if this behaviour can be restricted in some way and assuming I can understand the various variables.

Once again thanks to all and for the insight into the programme.

Alan

BetterRed · 07-25-2012, 09:49 AM

Ouch !

If you are inclined you could try the amazon's Kindlegen Gadget

Or... if you open an EPUB in the Kindle Previewer then it will create the Mobi for you

But I have no idea if they will be any faster, the previewer is written in Java, yet another interpreted language - Yacc.

Problem with long running jobs is that Sods Law is always looking for an opportunity to strike.

BR

DoctorOhh · 07-25-2012, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kacir

So I have installed lit2epub package for my Linux distribution and I use that for converting lits. Convertlit [that lit2epub uses] takes seconds to convert a lit file to a format good-enough-for-me. I use Calibre for the other one thousand and one things that it does extremely well.

Nice tip for folks who have a bunch of poorly sourced lit files.

Lit like any other html based format usually converts quickly in calibre. But lit has more than its share of badly formatted MS Word books as their origin and dictionaries aside bad MS Word origins are frequently the cause long conversions in calibre.

naisren · 07-30-2012, 02:41 AM

The converting speed is slow in many books.
I loved Mobi format 5 years ago, Mobipocket soft providing many friendly functions using their own mobi format on many platforms, such as WM, PC. Though it could not turn page backword in a normal way, it was better than others in the same period. I converted many other formats to Mobi.
With the android becoming popular, I turned to epub reader, so I did the convertsion again, mobi 2 epub this time.
I studied a lot of wares, and I conclued I had to return to the portable document, PDF.
So I am now trying a new conversion, mobi and epub 2 PDF.

naisren · 07-30-2012, 02:54 AM

Calibre does a lot of conversion, it is an excellent soft.

With the conversion of mobi 2 epub, I shared my experience here.

Calibre is dealing a lot of formats, not mobi format only though in most cases.

There is a tool in this forum, called mobiunpack, it focus on only mobi, it works very well and quick.

Using it, you could turn the DeDRM mobi into html format. When the html format, epub or re-mobi or pdf is an easy of cake to get.

07-24-2012, 01:48 PM	#1
Alanw888 Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: kindle & Kobo Touch	Calbre Mobi to Epub taking forever I'm a newbe so please forgive if I am not doing this in the correct way. I have successfully converted EPUB to mobi. But Mobi to epub is taking forever. Converting 3 books Two seem to be stuck at 67% both report 'Splitting on page-break' and seem to be still working (Lots of processor activity on all 4 cores!) current time taken 1533m 27s & 179m 26s. The other has no percentage, status Working and time of 1101 5s. Should I just give up or hang in... Thanks

07-25-2012, 08:56 AM	#5
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 20,569 Karma: 26954694 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	irrelevant in light of OP's follow-up post Last edited by BetterRed; 07-25-2012 at 09:51 AM.

07-25-2012, 09:07 AM	#6
Alanw888 Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: kindle & Kobo Touch	It finished! But... Thanks all for the replies. The book did eventually finish taking around 28 hours It is also possible that I didnt supply enough info in my first post (learning curve) the book was a Dictionary and the completed/converted book had 19,996 pages. Each word/definition having its own page! This is obviously why it was taking so so so long. For those interested that works out at about 12 pages a minute. As I have some more English to (other language) Dictionarys to convert it looks like I will have to get my hands 'dirty' and peer into the 'settings' to see if this behaviour can be restricted in some way and assuming I can understand the various variables. Once again thanks to all and for the insight into the programme. Alan Last edited by Alanw888; 07-25-2012 at 09:12 AM. Reason: Oooops spelling errors/ word omissions

07-25-2012, 09:49 AM	#7
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 20,569 Karma: 26954694 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	Ouch ! If you are inclined you could try the amazon's Kindlegen Gadget Or... if you open an EPUB in the Kindle Previewer then it will create the Mobi for you But I have no idea if they will be any faster, the previewer is written in Java, yet another interpreted language - Yacc. Problem with long running jobs is that Sods Law is always looking for an opportunity to strike. BR Last edited by BetterRed; 07-25-2012 at 10:14 AM. Reason: add Kindle Previewer link

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
18MB EPUB converts to 40MB Mobi! What can I do to reduce Mobi file size?	perdman	Conversion	11	12-09-2017 04:18 AM
Sony Reader zeigt Epub anders als Calbre, Sigel etc. Hilfe!!	samy2	Erste Hilfe	14	05-08-2011 11:52 PM
Calbre pdf conversion to MOBI	DrDee	Conversion	1	02-18-2011 12:09 AM
calbre conversion epub to mobi	dragonflies	Conversion	4	01-24-2011 12:17 AM
PDF 2 epub conversion taking forever..	jtndesigner	Calibre	7	01-08-2011 04:28 PM

07-30-2012, 02:41 AM	#9
naisren Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 12 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: ppc	The converting speed is slow in many books. I loved Mobi format 5 years ago, Mobipocket soft providing many friendly functions using their own mobi format on many platforms, such as WM, PC. Though it could not turn page backword in a normal way, it was better than others in the same period. I converted many other formats to Mobi. With the android becoming popular, I turned to epub reader, so I did the convertsion again, mobi 2 epub this time. I studied a lot of wares, and I conclued I had to return to the portable document, PDF. So I am now trying a new conversion, mobi and epub 2 PDF.

07-30-2012, 02:54 AM	#10
naisren Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 12 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: ppc	Calibre does a lot of conversion, it is an excellent soft. With the conversion of mobi 2 epub, I shared my experience here. Calibre is dealing a lot of formats, not mobi format only though in most cases. There is a tool in this forum, called mobiunpack, it focus on only mobi, it works very well and quick. Using it, you could turn the DeDRM mobi into html format. When the html format, epub or re-mobi or pdf is an easy of cake to get.

Advert

Advert