Collections on Paperwhite using Calibre

[duska3419]

Hey everyone.

I got my mom a paperwhite for X-mas and I've been trying to organize the books on it for her. She reads a lot of series books so I'm trying to have everything in order for her. I've used calibre on my own Kindle (keyboard) for ages so I'm pretty comfortable with the basic functions. I have all my stuff in collections, just added numbers to the titles to know the order. Mom's paperwhite isn't playing nice. First off the mobi's I transferred wouldn't open at all. I converted them into AZW3 and they open though there's no covers. I'm going to mess around with the New vs. Old mobi format and see what works but the issue I can't seem to solve is the collections. I can't see how to create collections on the device, I created collections in calibre and transferred it to the device, restarted it, but it doesn't show up in the device.

Anyone have any tips on this? I really wanted to have this done by Mother's Day but it looks like I'm going to be spending hours trying to sort this out.

Thanks in advance.

[westofpecos]

collections
I am a calibre novice, but I have some info that might be useful. More experienced members will, I am sure, correct my errors.

My understanding is that it is not possible to use calibre for Kindle PW2 collections (I assume that's what you gave her?). In fact, you can't even share the PW2 collections with a Kindle 4 PC.

In order to organize collections on the Kindle PW2, this is what you need to do:
Kindle PW2 collections instructions
As you can see, the collections on your PW2 will be shared (through the cloud) with Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Fire HD (2nd Generation), Kindle Fire HDX, Kindle for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and Kindle for Android.

I recently tried to reorganize about 1,000 books on a PW2. I created all the collections I needed, then populated all the books into the collections. It took me about 3 hours altogether. The PW2 interface for collections sorting is actually quite decent compared to the Kindle for Android (as a comparison only of course - on its own I feel it's awful). Of course, it would be much better if we could use calibre for that.

You can have a quick look at this thread on mobileread, which, I think, confirms what I am writing about calibre and Kindle collections.

mobi vs azw3
My understanding is that mobi won't work on the PWs, you need AZW3.

covers
I can't help there...

[duska3419]

Thanks for your response. I really hope there is a way around the cloud thing. How can I tell if it's a PW2? I looked at my order history and at the kindle itself but it doesn't say anywhere. It's got firmware 5.4.2 but that probably isn't relevant.

[kristalana]

Originally Posted by westofpecos

collections

mobi vs azw3
My understanding is that mobi won't work on the PWs, you need AZW3.

No that's not true, I convert to mobi (old format) for use on my PW2 and have no problems.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by westofpecos

You can have a quick look at this thread on mobileread, which, I think, confirms what I am writing about calibre and Kindle collections.

mobi vs azw3
My understanding is that mobi won't work on the PWs, you need AZW3.

MOBI does indeed work on PW, since many Amazon ebooks have not been updated to AZW3 it would be disastrous not to support them.

Here was my post on that thread regarding collections :

Originally Posted by eschwartz

But, if you wish to use calibre to manage your collections, here is how:

1. Jailbreak your Kindle
2. Install MKK to authorize non-Amazon kindlets
3. Add the Collections Manager kindlet to your Kindle
4. Use the (Touch/PW1/PW2-friendly) Kindle Collections plugin for calibre found here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...postcount=1760

It only works on firmware =<5.4.2.1, see this thread to downgrade (if necessary): https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=235413

[duska3419]

Guys I found the solution. It was the stupidest thing EVER.

I guess because of this cloud sync feature, for whatever reason mom's pw had the 'collections' features not enabled because it wasn't registered. As soon as I made her an Amazon account and registered it via the device boom! Right there in the main menu 'Create Collection'

My Kindle Keyboard is so much easier!

Anyway maybe this will be of some use to someone in the future. Cheers!

[eschwartz]

I was unaware that any Kindle firmware allows you to make collections before registering.

[duska3419]

Sorry guys I spoke too soon. Scratch what I said above I found no solution. I mean the collections did show up after I made an Amazon account but there's new problems now.

All the metadata I edited in Calibre does not transfer to the PW. I change the Author names and add numbers to the titles for sorting purposes but none of what I did in Calibre transferred to the PW. I really don't understand what happened.

Just as an example:
The book Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro I change to be 1. Private by Private, James Patterson
because since I don't know this guy's work I need something to help me along as I'm throwing them into Collections on the device - so it will be the Private collection, and then the numbers I add to the title because there's no other way of knowing the order of the books.
I changed about 67 books to follow this format but on the PW it's all back the way it was before I changed it.

[duska3419]

Solved. Converted everything from Mobi to AZW3 deleted all the mobis off the pw and resent the AZW3s - the metadata transferred fine and I did the collections on the device. SUPER annoying because as soon as you create a collection you get a warning that it's not gonna sync cuz the wifi is off then every single book you tick to add to the new collection you get an error message about it not syncing. EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK.

But whatever I got it done - though the covers did disappear once in collections I changed it to list view and forgot about it

Hope this helps someone else so they don't have to waste all those hours like i did!

[kristalana]

Originally Posted by duska3419

SUPER annoying because as soon as you create a collection you get a warning that it's not gonna sync cuz the wifi is off then every single book you tick to add to the new collection you get an error message about it not syncing. EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK.

I keep waiting for this to stop being irritating and it just won't. It drives me crazy. I only use one collection ('Unread') and even that I might give up soon because those messages annoy me so much.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by duska3419

All the metadata I edited in Calibre does not transfer to the PW. I change the Author names and add numbers to the titles for sorting purposes but none of what I did in Calibre transferred to the PW. I really don't understand what happened.

I'm glad you got it sorted out.

FYI, adding numbers to the title field is a very sloppy way to accomplish what you seek. In the long run it is much easier to keep your Title, Author, and Series columns clean and use the Metadata Plugboards feature to modify the metadata in the Title field as it is sent to your device. Learn more by reading this sticky post.

[duska3419]

I don't consider it sloppy. I don't know anything about code. Adding numbers to the title is the best solution I saw to that problem and frankly while I was looking for answers to the issues I was having I came across more than one thread on here where people do the same thing. I'm guess it's cuz they don't know about code either.

I took at look at it and I'm messing around with it a little bit. I can see the benefit of it and maybe if I can get it to take out the series title I'll use it but really it's the same exact thing as adding numbers to the title except this thing does it automatically if you filled out the series order. But even still there's no option for the Kindle Paperwhite. So I mean it would work fine for mine but if I chose to replace mine with a new version of the kindle I'd be stuck in the same position of having to go back and change it all back again unless this gets updated to include a format for the new kindles.

[PeterT]

Huh... a) there is NO code involved in a plugboard

b) You are defining RULES that apply to either a specific format or ALL formats, and to either a device or ALL devices

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by duska3419

So I mean it would work fine for mine but if I chose to replace mine with a new version of the kindle I'd be stuck in the same position of having to go back and change it all back again unless this gets updated to include a format for the new kindles.

Using Metadata Plugboards is a way of future proofing your library. It allows you to maintain a clean library and customize the output to suit your needs. There would never be any reason to go back to a system that clutters up the title field.

However it is your library and if you are content with your system and don't mind the extra work that comes with maintaining this system then don't look back and simply enjoy reading. After-all reading is why we're here.

[duska3419]

This is the part I'm calling code: template: {series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}

Whatever it is called, I don't know how to do it. Like I said I messed around with it a little bit and got it kind of nice, by changing it to this: {series_index:0>2s|| }{title} so now it's just 01 A Game of Thrones instead of A Song of Ice & Fire - 01 - A Game of Thrones. But like I said I don't really know what I'm doing with it so I don't wanna mess around with it and end up screwing something up.

I do wanna talk about future proofing though because if this could future proof it so I can use it in a Paperwhite I definitely want to find out how. Because right now there's no option in the device drop down box for Kindle Paperwhite. See Look: