Sony PRS-500 -- Collections

[Thanlis]

I'm running caliber 0.4.143 and a Sony PRS-500 under Mac OS X 10.5.6 and having some issues with collections. I have a small library of around 80 books, some of which have series metadata; none of the metadata is being converted to collections at all when I transfer the files to the PRS-500. I've tried deleting every book on the PRS-500 and transferring the whole collection over; no luck.

I'm having the same problem with tags; two of the books are tagged and those aren't converting to collections either.

Most of the series begin with book 1. One or two begin with later books; I don't know if that could be a problem but I thought I'd mention it anyhow. I've tried erasing the PRS-500 and transferring just a series containing books beginning with book 1, and that fails too.

I can successfully create collections by editing tags from the Reader screen, and if that's the way I need to go I'll happily do that; I just wanted to make sure I wasn't grappling with a known fixable problem first.

Edit: OK, here's the workaround:

After I created a collection by editing tags from the Reader screen, I was able to copy a series over properly. I suspect what happened was that the collection metadata on the Reader got corrupted somehow, and needed to be recreated, and something about editing tags from the Reader screen did that for me.

Or I could be completely wrong, since I don't know the internals. But that's the workaround; make one collection by force and then you're good to copy again.

[itimpi]

Another point is that with the PRS-500 collections are only supported if copied to the internal memory - not if it is copied to a plug-in SD card or memory stick. This is a limitation of the PRS-500 firmware - not of calibre.

[Thanlis]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Another point is that with the PRS-500 collections are only supported if copied to the internal memory - not if it is copied to a plug-in SD card or memory stick. This is a limitation of the PRS-500 firmware - not of calibre.

Very true! I was in fact copying to internal memory, but it's a good point. And it's been mentioned that you have to copy the whole collection at once to get the ordering right, too.

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Another point is that with the PRS-500 collections are only supported if copied to the internal memory - not if it is copied to a plug-in SD card or memory stick. This is a limitation of the PRS-500 firmware - not of calibre.

With the new EPUB firmware, this limitation is addressed. You can now create collections on your memory stick and they will be detected by the PRS-500.