PRS-650 Reader won't load in Reader Library

[Dereks]

Something happened to my new Sony Reader PRS-650.
At some point it stopped showing up properly in Sony's Reader Library.
When I try to access it from in Software I receive a message like "Unable to locate the file. The item has been moved, renamed or deleted" and "Error" near the Reader's icon in sidebar.
It doesn't matter in which order I start up the software - the message is always the same.
I also tried to do a clean re-install of RL, which didn't help. Neither did deleting of media.xml file in the database folder on the Reader itself.

Also, I normally use calibre to manage contents of the Reader and it's still everything fine there, no complications whatsoever. And I would have rather used just it and deleted RL completely, but only Sony software can export notes, AFAIK.
Thanks

[Xanthe]

Using Windows Explorer:
Computer > READER > database > media > notepads

will take you into the note files. I would assume that you can just copy and paste them from there.

[Dereks]

oh, cool. didn't know that they where there. But to post them where exactly? is there a program of some kind, which can open them... or???

update: also, I'd have to say, you're probably wrong. Notepads - are only hand-written notes. Markups and highlights are integrated into database xml files and can't be extracted so easily.

[Xanthe]

Well, you did say "notes" in your first post. To me, notes are are handwritten.

You mentioned "exporting" them. I assumed that you already had some program that you planned to export them to.

Corel WordPerfect is supposed to open .note files, as far as I can find.

I went in and highlighted and circled items on a page in a book. The page showed up as .jpg and .svg files in

Computer > READER > database > markup > database > media > books > [book file (and/or)] > [book name]

The .svg file there can be opened by any browser other than IE, but it just seems to show the handwritten annotations to the book page without the actual page itself showing.

The .jpg file was so small, that upon enlarging was not really readable.


From the Sony Library Help files:

Q. The message "Unable to locate the file." appears and you cannot preview the content.
A. The imported content file may be deleted or moved. When importing a content file from the hard disk of the computer, its title and file name are registered in the Library. The information is retained even if the content file is deleted or moved.
If this message appears after deleting the content file, delete the content file from the Library also. If this message appears after moving the content file to another location, delete the content file from the Library, then import it again.


Q. An eBook cannot be read.
A. You may not have performed authorization, which is necessary for reading eBooks. Authorize your computer and the Reader device to the eBook store.
A. You may have tried to read the content owned by another user. The content owned by another user cannot be read.
A. The authorization data may be damaged caused by a shut down while reading an eBook. De-authorize your computer and the Reader device, then authorize again.
A. In cases of Adobe DRM protected content, you may not have completed authorization and obtained an Adobe ID. Install or re-authorize your computer, the Reader device and Adobe DRM protected content.
A. The Reader Store has changed the book format from DRM-protected BBeB to DRM-protected EPUB, and DRM-protected BBeB books are no longer supported. Go to the "My Account" page in the Reader Store, then download the EPUB version of the books.


Q. The Reader device cannot be recognized.
A. Is the power of the Reader device turned on? Is the USB cable connected properly?
Verify the above and try again.

A. Are you using a USB hub or USB extension cable?
Connecting the Reader device via a USB hub or extension cable may not work and is not supported. Connect the USB cable directly to the computer.

A. Verify that the is displayed in the upper right of the Reader device screen.
If the Reader device still cannot be recognized, disconnect the USB cable from the Reader device, then reconnect it after a few moments.

A. If "Device Lock" of the Reader device is set to "On," set it to "Off." If the Reader device is locked, it will not be recognized on your computer.
A. Use the USB cable supplied with the Reader device.
A. There may be a malfunction with the USB port on your computer. Connect the supplied USB cable to another port on the computer.
A. It may take a while for the software to be recognized by the computer. Wait for a moment.
A. If none of the above solves the problem, press the RESET button of the Reader device, turn on the Reader device again, and then reconnect the supplied USB cable.
A. If you are using PRS-500 (Ver.1.0), you need to update to new version of the Reader device software. Refer to Sony support web sites.

Have you gone into the Initialization settings on the reader? Maybe "Format Internal Memory" might work? (Copy off your files first, though) I've never used that function, so I don't know what it will do. Everything might go kablooey.

[Dereks]

Yes, sorry, by notes, I meant not only handwirtten notes, but also highlights, bookmarks, markups and comments.
Actually I've figured where the problem lies. It's a conflict between Calibre and RL - the former, when used for editing mediadata directly on the Reader creates some conflicts, or inconsistencies in xml files and causes RL to refuse to load the reader.
Was cured by simple deleting of all xml files - Reader rescanned the contents of discs and created, new proper files.
Also, this problems seems to be specific to 650 model or new x50 series - I have my old PRS700 - this problem doesn't happen to appear there.
Also, regarding highlights and markups - the rest (actually highlighted text) seems to be located in
D:\Downloads\reader\database\cache\cacheExt.xml file.
But it is yet to be figured out how exactly can it be exported. And I can clearly see that pdf markups are done somehow different - while lrf and epub contain exact quotes highlighted and comments.

[May51]

Hi Dereks,
I am having the same problem with my 650 that you described. Could you please explain your cure in a bit more detail. I am not too computer literate and I'm just not sure which files to delete from where? And then how did you get the reader to rescan?
Any help would be much appreciated.

[Dereks]

Sure, if you don't mind loosing your bookmarks and highlights then simply delete everything from
<Reader drive>G:\database\cache
This should do the trick.
However, this may create lot's of litter around your reader, like duplicates of thumbnails.
Alternatively, you can simply delete absolutely all the files on your folder. All the content that you've uploaded to the reader is located in
G:\database\media
or in the root folder of
G:\Digital Editions
if you ever used Adobe Digital Editions.
So clean way to do it would be simply to back up those folders, delete everything, move back those folders (folder structure should be preserved, of course) and let Reader do the job and rescan the contents.

[samysam]

Hi Derek,

I have the same problem that you have.
You wrote that you solved it by simply deleting all xml files.

I have loads of annotations, bookmarks and highlights (most important are the highligts)

Did Reader Library recover the highlights? Or means using your method loosing all those things?

Thanks
Sam

[Dereks]

Originally Posted by samysam

Hi Derek,

I have the same problem that you have.
You wrote that you solved it by simply deleting all xml files.

I have loads of annotations, bookmarks and highlights (most important are the highligts)

Did Reader Library recover the highlights? Or means using your method loosing all those things?

Thanks
Sam

regretfully, it is so. Highlights and bookmarks are kept exactly in those xml files, so if you delete them you'll lose them.
If you really need them I'd suggest
a) make a copy of the whole drive and keep it for later use (who knows, maybe it get's fixed later).
b) identify which book exactly causes the conflict (presuming, the source of trouble is the same as mine) and try to delete all the related metadata in both xml files. but i'm not that familiar with the syntax, so can't advise you what exactly to delete.

[janakaclk]

I am having the same issue in my prs-650. Solved the issue by formatting the reader's internal memory(I tried formatting about 5 times) but it worked only for 2-3 days. I made sure that I ejected the device properly before disconnecting. Wondering whether this is bug introduced by the latest Sony Library software version. I am using 3.3.00.07130.

I am not hoping to reformat the reader again. Using calibre but the problem is with the DRM ebooks.