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alison87 · 02-08-2011, 11:34 PM

I just did some testing and i have confirmed that the USB sync is sending some additional metadata to the Kindle that the transfer by email is not. I'm including some output that might help in figuring out what is going on here:

This is from the mobi that is generated by Calibre and saved in the Calibre Library directory:

Code:

$ ebook-meta Seth\'s\ Blog\ -\ calibre.mobi 
Title               : Seth's Blog
Author(s)           : calibre
Publisher           : calibre
Comments            : Seth Godin's riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.
Language            : en
Published           : 2011-02-09T04:07:33.098608+00:00

Note that the published date here is in GMT. If i run ebook-meta against the metadata.opf file in the same directory it also shows the timestamp and published date in GMT.

This is from the azw that is received by the Kindle via Calibre sending to my @kindle.net email address:

Code:

$ ebook-meta Seth\ s\ Blog\ calibre\ azw-asin_37cbe674befbf88966412ed98abf292d73da35f8-0-azw-type_PDOC-v_0.azw 
Title               : Seth's Blog
Author(s)           : calibre
Publisher           : calibre
Comments            : Seth Godin's riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.
Tags                : News, Seth's Blog
Language            : und
Published           : 2011-02-09T04:07:33.098608+00:00

Note that almost all the metadata is retained from the original mobi file - including the GMT published date. Only the language is now undefined.

This is from the azw that appears on the Kindle after doing a USB transfer from Calibre:

Code:

$ ebook-meta Seth\ s\ Blog\ azw-asin_e95a6168f94c984e9375ae214f62e0d7b9d6614f-0-azw-type_PDOC-v_0.azw 
Title               : Seth's Blog
Author(s)           : calibre
Publisher           : calibre
Comments            : Seth Godin's riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.
Language            : en
Published           : 2011-02-08T23:03:47.132918+00:00

Note that here (unlike the email transfer) the language has been retained, but the published date has somehow been changed to my local date. Interestingly, the timezone offset is now incorrect (it wasn't published at 11pm GMT, it was 11pm GMT-5), but this does at least allow the ebook to display with the correct date in the Kindle UI.

Is it possible the process of mobi to azw conversion being done to copy the book to the Kindle via USB is updating metadata that is not being updated when sending the same mobi to an @kindle.net email address?

Also: is it normal for mobis to not store the timezone information in their published date field? It seems like this problem might go away if the full timezone was stored in the original mobi.

02-08-2011, 11:34 PM	#9
alison87 Member Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Kindle 3G	I just did some testing and i have confirmed that the USB sync is sending some additional metadata to the Kindle that the transfer by email is not. I'm including some output that might help in figuring out what is going on here: This is from the mobi that is generated by Calibre and saved in the Calibre Library directory: Code: $ ebook-meta Seth\'s\ Blog\ -\ calibre.mobi Title : Seth's Blog Author(s) : calibre Publisher : calibre Comments : Seth Godin's riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread. Language : en Published : 2011-02-09T04:07:33.098608+00:00 Note that the published date here is in GMT. If i run ebook-meta against the metadata.opf file in the same directory it also shows the timestamp and published date in GMT. This is from the azw that is received by the Kindle via Calibre sending to my @kindle.net email address: Code: $ ebook-meta Seth\ s\ Blog\ calibre\ azw-asin_37cbe674befbf88966412ed98abf292d73da35f8-0-azw-type_PDOC-v_0.azw Title : Seth's Blog Author(s) : calibre Publisher : calibre Comments : Seth Godin's riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread. Tags : News, Seth's Blog Language : und Published : 2011-02-09T04:07:33.098608+00:00 Note that almost all the metadata is retained from the original mobi file - including the GMT published date. Only the language is now undefined. This is from the azw that appears on the Kindle after doing a USB transfer from Calibre: Code: $ ebook-meta Seth\ s\ Blog\ azw-asin_e95a6168f94c984e9375ae214f62e0d7b9d6614f-0-azw-type_PDOC-v_0.azw Title : Seth's Blog Author(s) : calibre Publisher : calibre Comments : Seth Godin's riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread. Language : en Published : 2011-02-08T23:03:47.132918+00:00 Note that here (unlike the email transfer) the language has been retained, but the published date has somehow been changed to my local date. Interestingly, the timezone offset is now incorrect (it wasn't published at 11pm GMT, it was 11pm GMT-5), but this does at least allow the ebook to display with the correct date in the Kindle UI. Is it possible the process of mobi to azw conversion being done to copy the book to the Kindle via USB is updating metadata that is not being updated when sending the same mobi to an @kindle.net email address? Also: is it normal for mobis to not store the timezone information in their published date field? It seems like this problem might go away if the full timezone was stored in the original mobi. Last edited by alison87; 02-08-2011 at 11:36 PM.