Non Amazon Books - Calibre vs. Send to Kindle

[mfsav2]

Maybe is clear to everyone but I tried to use SendToKindle with several document formats.
PDF and DOC (docx too) get the nice icon, also the mobi ones.
But AZW3 does not have the icon and even the drag & drop app refuses to send the AZW3.

Weirdly enough the mobi files got converted in azw on the Kindle.

I'm quite puzzled as I understood PW and all the latest firmware prefer to work with AZW3 and that's why I converted my library (using calibre) from mobi to azw3.

M

[nynaevelan]

You cannot send zaw3, it will be converted to azw but it will not accept azw3 which is why you do not see it when trying to send that format.

[eschwartz]

The Kindle Personal Documents Service has not kept up with the times, and will convert all non-MOBI books to MOBI. Even .azw3, although the storefront prefers .azw3, the store does get more developer attention.

.azw is an alternative file extension for MOBI indicating it comes from Amazon.

[victorhooi]

Hi,

I have a Kindle Voyage. I'm using Calibre to convert my books into MOBI, with filetype "Both". I then use the OSX Send-to-Kindle app, to send it to the Kindle Voyage.

However, I've noticed that the cover images seem to be gone.

I know there's this:

https://github.com/quiris11/ExtractCoverThumbs

which apparently you can use to restore the images. However, I assume I'll need to re-run this each time I download a new book onto the Kindle Voyage?

However, I'm curious if anybody knows what exactly is going on, and why the cover images are stripped? And is there a workaround or way to avoid this happening?

Also, is there a way to get the downloaded books to appear in Books, rather than Docs?

(I tried setting the Personal Tag in Calibre to "[EBOK]", but it still shows up in Docs).

Thanks,
Victor

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by victorhooi

However, I'm curious if anybody knows what exactly is going on, and why the cover images are stripped? And is there a workaround or way to avoid this happening?

One workaround is to use Calibre to send your books to the Kindle via USB rather than "SendToKindle". Calibre will then also place the cover thumbnail in the correct folder on the Kindle so the cover will show on the home page.

[NiLuJe]

@victorhooi: TL;DR: Because reasons ;p. You can read Calibre's code for more details, or try to pull your hair out by digging up contradictory would-be explanations on this very forum (;p), although that will only shed light on the how, not the why, which can probably be summed up by my initial answer ;p.

But no matter the reason, it basically boils down to the fact that, no, you really can't work it around without changing your workflow, as @HarryT pointed out. On the plus side, you're not doing anything wrong per se .

There are also a few different CLI tools that handle basic Kindle library maintenance if for some reason you can't stand Calibre. Check the Kindle Dev subforum and/or GH. The most recent one that comes to mind is Librarian, but I seem to remember one of the KCC guys doing something of the style, maybe?

[gwynevans]

I'm new to the Kindle/Amazon side of things, as upto now have been using ePubs everywhere. I've now got a Voyage, which I've side-loaded via USB with a selection of books that I've converted to AZW3, and use a plugboard to tweak the title & author values.

Given that I've no particular commitment to AZW3 but feel it would be useful to be able to make notes while reading on the KV but see them on the desktop (OSX it it matters), does anyone have any suggestions for any workflow changes? I was considering trying "Send to Kindle" (eMail) after setting up the ASID in the metadata but wondered if anyone know this would work(*) for AZW3 or if I should used MOBI or anything else?

(*) i.e. (a) Get there, (b) Have the title/author show up as set by the plugboard, (c) show up as a Book, (d) have notes synced across platforms.

[eschwartz]

send-to-Kindle only works with MOBI, not AZW3. That being said, Amazon doesn't make a note of it... but you can send dual-MOBI (contains mobi7 as well as KF8 content for graceful fallback on older devices) and Amazon will split it and serve you KF8 on supported devices.

If plugboards are defined in calibre, they will be applied on emailing as well... but unfortunately plugboards do not support dual-MOBI.

emailed books will have their notes synced.

Don't bother setting the ASIN or cdetype. All books that pass through Amazon's Personal Documents service automatically have certain post-process filters applied to force the book to appear as a PDOC.

[GoSharks]

I have an observation and then a question-

In Calibre:

1) Import EPUB>Convert to AZW3 (strip original font and embed preferred font)>Hyphenate.
If I convert this AZW3 to DUAL MOBI and then email to my PW2, I get a cover but no embedded font or hyphenations.

2) Import EPUB>Hyphenate>Convert to DUAL MOBI (strip original font and embed preferred font).
If I email this MOBI to my PW2, I get no cover but hyphenations and embedded font works.

If a DUAL MOBI is just a MOBI with a KF8 included inside, why do I get a different result between creating a DUAL MOBI from a hyphenated EPUB vs a DUAL MOBI created by an AZW3 (hyphenated and embedded) that was created from that same EPUB??
All ideas or explanations gratefully appreciated!

[eschwartz]

Not sure, but most likely something to do with calibre's conversion pipeline.

[Zilov]

I use freeLib app for Mac for converting off-line library books fb2->AZW3 with embedded favorite fonts.