Problem with eLibrary Software and USB

[thorswitch]

Before hitting you with yet another Newbie question, I just wanted to thank y'all for being so very helpful! I appreciate it a great deal - this is a nice community and I'm finding stuff I learn here is helping me enjoy my Reader even more.

So, ok, this (to me, anyway) is kinda of a weird one. I'm having trouble with getting the Sony eLibrary software and my Reader to play nice with each other. Currently:

• if the Reader is not connected via the USB cable, eLibrary Book Store functions exactly as it normally does, but none of the features that are used to maintain the library (transferring books to the Reader, updating categories, etc.) work at all (since the Reader isn't connected.)
• if I open the eLibrary software first and then plug in the Reader's USB connection, in the sidebar that shows all of your collection folders, your Reader and any other drives you have available, it will display the Reader icon with the spinning "activity arrows" next to it and the word "Scanning...." In a couple cases, it resulted in the word "Error" showing up next to the Reader icon, but generally, it just keep spinning until I close the software.
• If the Reader IS connected via the USB cable, the eLibrary software initially appears as just a task bar button, as if the program were in "minimized" mode, but if I try to click the button as I would to open a minimized program, for at least the first 30 to 45 seconds nothing will happen at all. After that initial wait, if I hit the button to open it, I get a blank white panel with no text or images to be found, and the title bar is blank. When I go to close the program down, I get a "Not Responding" error and have to shut the program down using that.
• When the Reader is plugged in via the USB cable, my computer will recognize it in my Windows Explorer panel, and I can manually transfer even DRM's files purchased via the eLibrary to the Reader without any trouble.
• Once I've manually transferred the files to the Reader itself, I can use Calibre to add tags to them so that I can get them in my collections, so if I can't get the eLibrary software working right again, I can still do what I need to with Calibre - but I'd like to see if I can at least figure out what's going on and get it straightened out, just to make sure things don't get any weirder

While I do not know if either of these have any bearing on the problem, just in case, I should mention that between the last time I was able to successfully use eLibrary to transfer books and update collections to the Reader and the first time I found eLibrary wouldn't recognize the Reader, I upgraded Firefox from 2.x to 3 (which has caused problems with using Google Mail and the Google Reader RSS Feed service, but I don't think that would be related to eLibrary, would it?), and I hooked up the replacement for a new monitor I'd gotten just before I got the Reader. Everything worked fine when I had the first monitor (until *it* broke,) and everything was fine when I changed back to my older monitor. When I installed the replacement, I didn't need to install any drivers or anything because I had already done so during the first installation, so the change there was purely hardware - the system even correctly read the new resolution and dimensions and switched back to the new ones without my having to do anything.

Any thoughts?

[pilotbob]

Did you use to have a PRS-500? If so, remove the sony driver... you don't need it for the 505.

Do you have clibre installed? IF so, the calibre drivers? If so I would remove that driver too.

Basically with the 505 you shouldn't have any drivers installed. Perhaps the drivers are interfering. Calibre can't use the Sony driver and vice-versa.

BOb

[thorswitch]

I didn't have the 500, but I do have Calibre installed. Is there a guide or something where I can read up on how to find the driver and remove it? Also, if I do remove it, will I still be able to use Calibre at all, or do I have to choose between using eLibrary and Calibre?

Thanks!!

[kovidgoyal]

just uninstall calibre, it will remove the drivers and re-install it (this time dont install the drivers when it asks during the installation)

[thorswitch]

Ok, I've tried the things that have been suggested here, but so far its not working yet. Here's the current situation:

I uninstalled both Calibre and Connect, then used a drive cleaner, a registry cleaner and did a search for any remaining files or folders related to either program and removed these. I also deleted all of the books I've purchased from Connect. Finally, I restarted the computer to try and make sure everything was nice and fresh.

Once I was as certain as I could be that *everything* was gone (and, remember, I'm pretty much a novice at this kind of stuff, so who knows how certain my "certain" is ) I:

• reinstalled Connect
• redownloaded the books I'd bought
• loaded Connect with the Reader plugged in to the USB port. The program had the same long delay, initially displaying only the task bar button before opening an entirely blank panel after about 45 seconds. When I tried to click on the panel to make sure it was in focus, I got the "Not Responding" message.
• disconnected Reader from Connect and rebooted the computer
• opened Connect, made sure I could use the client, then plugged the Reader back in to the USB. On a couple of these tries, in the sidebar, it showed the Reader icon with "Error" next to it, which to me indicates that Connect knew it was there, but couldn't do anything with it. On the other attempts, the Windows Explorer panel would open, showing me the contents of the Reader as if it were a normal external drive. When I would click that panel closed, the part of the Connect panel it had appeared over was blanked out, and there was no way to refresh it, so I could no longer use Connect and would have to shut it down.

After verifying that, even though I had completely removed Calibre from my computer and had reinstalled Connect fresh, I still have all the same problems I had with Connect initially, I went ahead and reinstalled Calibre, once again leaving off the drivers.

Of course, Connect STILL isn't working right, but I have found a workaround. It's a bit more time consuming than I'd like, so if I could get Connect up and running again, it'd be nice, but at least I can do pretty much everything I want to by using Calibre.

With Calibre, I've found that I can manually move the books I buy from the directory where Connects puts them to the Reader itself via the Windows Folders panel, and then use the "Add Books" button on Calibre to select the books I've moved to the device. From there, I switch to the Reader view (instead of the Library view) and I can enter tags from there and they'll show up on the Reader as collections. So, thanks kovidgoyal - that's a really nifty tool you've got there!!

The ONLY problem I've having with it is that I thought I'd read around here somewhere that it should be possible to convert the Sony .lrx to .lrf, so that you could use the library functions Calibre has rather than needing to use the Reader view to make any modifications. Again, this isn't a big inconvenience, but I'd been looking forward to being able to use the Series sorting function it has, since I have a few series I'm in the midst of. Unfortunately, that's not something that I can figure out how to edit from the Reader view.

When I tried to do the .lrx to .lrf conversion, here's the error message I got:

UnknownFormatError: Coverting from lrx to LRF is not supported.
Failed to perform job: Convert book:Cradle and All
Detailed traceback:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "parallel.py", line 679, in worker
File "parallel.py", line 652, in work
File "D:\Program Files\Sony\Calibre\library.zip\calibre\ebooks\lrf\ any\convert_from.py", line 164, in main
File "D:\Program Files\Sony\Calibre\library.zip\calibre\ebooks\lrf\ any\convert_from.py", line 133, in process_file
UnknownFormatError: Coverting from lrx to LRF is not supported.

Anyway, anyone have ideas on what's going on with Connect? And am I missing something on how to either convert the .lrx to .lrf or use Calibre directly with the .lrx files?

Thanks again!!
Kriselda

[kovidgoyal]

.lrx is a DRM protected format. Calibre doesn't handle DRMed files.

[JSWolf]

The only way to handle .lrx which are chock full of yummy DRM is to either copy the .lrx directly to the 505 or use eBook Library to copy to the 505. if you copy directly, you cannot use Collections with any .lrx.

[thorswitch]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

.lrx is a DRM protected format. Calibre doesn't handle DRMed files.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The only way to handle .lrx which are chock full of yummy DRM is to either copy the .lrx directly to the 505 or use eBook Library to copy to the 505. if you copy directly, you cannot use Collections with any .lrx.

Ok - I've been copying them directly to the 505, but I've found that once it's on the 505, I actually can use Calibre to assign it tags and the books wind up in the appropriate collections, so I'll just keep doing that.

Thanks!

[curtw]

Originally Posted by thorswitch

<snip>

• if I open the eLibrary software first and then plug in the Reader's USB connection, in the sidebar that shows all of your collection folders, your Reader and any other drives you have available, it will display the Reader icon with the spinning "activity arrows" next to it and the word "Scanning...." In a couple cases, it resulted in the word "Error" showing up next to the Reader icon, but generally, it just keep spinning until I close the software.
• If the Reader IS connected via the USB cable, the eLibrary software initially appears as just a task bar button, as if the program were in "minimized" mode, but if I try to click the button as I would to open a minimized program, for at least the first 30 to 45 seconds nothing will happen at all. After that initial wait, if I hit the button to open it, I get a blank white panel with no text or images to be found, and the title bar is blank. When I go to close the program down, I get a "Not Responding" error and have to shut the program down using that.
  

Any thoughts?

Have you tried the steps outlined in this Sticky?

[thorswitch]

Originally Posted by curtw

Have you tried the steps outlined in this Sticky?

Thanks - I'd seen the sticky, but for some reason, I wasn't thinking of what my Reader was doing as being "locked up," so I didn't think the thread would be of any use. D'oh!

[Ordinaryuser]

I spent about 2 months (frustrating months) fooling with the Sony Connect software. It would sync when I didn't want it to and sometime it wouldn't sync at all. Not to mention the lockups.

My solution was to just to use my 505 as another drive and just ignore the Connect software. Transferring file is a lot simpler for me and it is very easy to do. Maybe the software will be more user friendly someday and I'll try it again but it's not worth the aggregation for me!

Maybe not the "best" solution but works for me!

[thorswitch]

I've thought about that... and I may end up going that route. Good to know that it is working for you, though - at least I know it's an option