Virtual books

[crustacean]

Hello everyone.

I'm new here and pretty clueless. I have installed Calibre. When I open 'Device' I see all my Kobo library books. If I pick one up and try to drop it onto the Calibre library, I get a message telling me

calibre, version 2.44.1
Not Implemented: The following books are virtual and cannot be added to the calibre library:

E:/.kobo/kepub/ea61f44c-24cf-498b-bc98-bbaf1a0f1998

I have googled 'what is a virtual book?' but get nothing that deals with the virtual book referred to in Calibre.

I have no idea what this means or how to deal with it. I would be very grateful for any help.

[davidfor]

"Virtual book" is probably not a good term. I think it carries over from some other error message in calibre.

For Kobo ereaders it is referring to kepubs that have been downloaded from the Kobo server. The KoboTouch driver does not allow these books to be copied from the device to the library. This was done because calibre does not have much support for kepubs, so adding them to the library is pointless. And if the kepub has DRM, it is even less useful. Plus, nearly all the kepubs books can be downloaded as epubs from you library in the Kobo store. I think this is a better source for the books than the kepubs on the device.

Having said that, I might have to revisit this. There are plugins to do most of the support for kepubs, so copying them from the device isn't as pointless as it used to be. But, the DRM will still prevent these from being useful.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Having said that, I might have to revisit this. There are plugins to do most of the support for kepubs, so copying them from the device isn't as pointless as it used to be. But, the DRM will still prevent these from being useful.

Just as useless as the EPUBs and AZW3s with DRM, you mean?

Anyway, I am sure Apprentice Alf will take care of whatever DRM support is needed, independent of calibre's own codebase.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Just as useless as the EPUBs and AZW3s with DRM, you mean?

Anyway, I am sure Apprentice Alf will take care of whatever DRM support is needed, independent of calibre's own codebase.

Correct to both. But kepub de-DRMing works in a way that doesn't integrate as nicely as for the others.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Correct to both. But kepub de-DRMing works in a way that doesn't integrate as nicely as for the others.

Maybe, but my point was that calibre's job is to store an ebook. It shouldn't matter if the KEPUB is DRMed or not, if calibre supports KEPUB to whatever extent and you are considering allowing calibre to add them, then "But, the DRM will still prevent these from being useful" should not be part of the consideration.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Maybe, but my point was that calibre's job is to store an ebook. It shouldn't matter if the KEPUB is DRMed or not, if calibre supports KEPUB to whatever extent and you are considering allowing calibre to add them, then "But, the DRM will still prevent these from being useful" should not be part of the consideration.

When this was first put into the KoboTouch driver (inheriting from code in the base driver), calibre couldn't even extract any metadata from a kepub, so adding the book from the device didn't help much. And all the rest of the problems meant that it wasn't worthwhile spending any time on it. It was a lot better to tell people how to obtain the epub version of the book from Kobo.

[crustacean]

Originally Posted by davidfor

"Virtual book" is probably not a good term. I think it carries over from some other error message in calibre.

For Kobo ereaders it is referring to kepubs that have been downloaded from the Kobo server. The KoboTouch driver does not allow these books to be copied from the device to the library. This was done because calibre does not have much support for kepubs, so adding them to the library is pointless. And if the kepub has DRM, it is even less useful. Plus, nearly all the kepubs books can be downloaded as epubs from you library in the Kobo store. I think this is a better source for the books than the kepubs on the device.

Having said that, I might have to revisit this. There are plugins to do most of the support for kepubs, so copying them from the device isn't as pointless as it used to be. But, the DRM will still prevent these from being useful.

Thanks for digging into this, compadres. Trouble is, I still don't understand what any of it means. I will hazard a wild guess.

The way these books are, in my Calibre > Device list, is in a form that Calibre doesn't deal with. So I should forget them, leave them on my Kobo and go off and do something else, like try to buy, import and de-DRM some Kindle books. This last is the reason I'm here at all.

Is this what you mean?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by crustacean

Thanks for digging into this, compadres. Trouble is, I still don't understand what any of it means. I will hazard a wild guess.

The way these books are, in my Calibre > Device list, is in a form that Calibre doesn't deal with. So I should forget them, leave them on my Kobo and go off and do something else, like try to buy, import and de-DRM some Kindle books. This last is the reason I'm here at all.

Is this what you mean?

Yes, but as the books have been bought from Kobo, you can login to your account in the Kobo store and download them from there..

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by crustacean

Thanks for digging into this, compadres. Trouble is, I still don't understand what any of it means. I will hazard a wild guess.

The way these books are, in my Calibre > Device list, is in a form that Calibre doesn't deal with. So I should forget them, leave them on my Kobo and go off and do something else, like try to buy, import and de-DRM some Kindle books. This last is the reason I'm here at all.

Is this what you mean?

Kind of.

What it really means is, that the book was downloaded in a form that calibre doesn't deal with, so you should go to the ebookstore you bought it from and download it directly.

In your case, KEPUBs can usually be downloaded directly from the website as EPUBs which calibre can deal with.
In the case of Amazon KFX, they can also be downloaded directly from the website, as AZW3 (if you have an E-Ink Kindle). Or downloaded as AZW3 through the Kindle for PC application.


No need to re-buy the book from another store.

[crustacean]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Kind of.

What it really means is, that the book was downloaded in a form that calibre doesn't deal with, so you should go to the ebookstore you bought it from and download it directly.

In your case, KEPUBs can usually be downloaded directly from the website as EPUBs which calibre can deal with.
In the case of Amazon KFX, they can also be downloaded directly from the website, as AZW3 (if you have an E-Ink Kindle). Or downloaded as AZW3 through the Kindle for PC application.


No need to re-buy the book from another store.

I was all set to do the belt n braces thing - get a Kindle as well. But Calibre is here to help avoid lashing out £79.99 on another gizmo with yet more charge leads - my suitcase for my 6 week trip to Spain looks like a snake pit of cables.

If I delete the stuff on my Kobo that I have obtained from Kobo, are you guys saying that I can get it all back from Kobo - again? Won't I still be up the same creek?

Sorry to be so clueless with this but not yet quite brain-dead - I did get 100% in my Morse Code and Astro-Navigation and 'Lights/Shapes/Flag Signals [best flag signal I ever heard of was "What have you done with the Admiral?"] for the D of Trade Offshore/Yacht Master ticket.

If we were in daylight at sea I'd be showing either two balls or three on a mast in line veritically. Two = 'Not under command' [ie clueless] or three [aground]

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by crustacean

I was all set to do the belt n braces thing - get a Kindle as well. But Calibre is here to help avoid lashing out £79.99 on another gizmo with yet more charge leads - my suitcase for my 6 week trip to Spain looks like a snake pit of cables.

If I delete the stuff on my Kobo that I have obtained from Kobo, are you guys saying that I can get it all back from Kobo - again? Won't I still be up the same creek?

The short answer is, you shoud be fine.

The longer answer...

When you buy a book from Kobo, it is added to your account. That account can be accessed in various ways: from a Kobo device, Kobo app on a tablet, the Kobo desktop application under Windows or Mac or through the Kobo site. All of your books can be listed in all these places. And even if Kobo stops selling a book, it will still be listed.

If you delete a book from Kobo on your ereader, there are two options. The prompt says "Remove from..." with the choices "eReader" and "Kobo account". Selecting the first will remove it from the ereader, but there will still be a record of it that you can see and tap to download later. If you choose the second, it is moved to the "Trash" in your account. This will remove it from the other devices and app, but you can recover it from the trash on the Kobo web site. Or delete it permanently.

Kobo also have other formats for nearly all their books. These can be access from you account on the store. In the list of your books, there will be a button for either "Download epub" or "Adobe EPUB". The former are DRM free epubs and will download directly via the browser. The latter have Adobe DRM and will be downloaded via ADE (Adobe Digital Editions). Either of these can be read on non-Kobo devices or applications. Or converted to other formats such as those suitable for Kindles (with removal of DRM as needed).

[eschwartz]

Yup. As davidfor said.

As a general rule of thumb, once you buy an ebook you can always re-download it from the store where you got it from originally.

[crustacean]

Well, the fog is slowly clearing. Thanks to Davidfor and others for going back to basics. In this sort of biz C.W.K. (clear when known) is very prevalent.

I may, like Arnie, be back ... but maybe not

Esperamos mejor.