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Corby · 03-18-2011, 06:16 PM

Hi ltr,

I'm an employee at Kobo and trying to get to the bottom of these issues you are describing.

The way bookmarking works is when you read on a device, it updates the database with the time that book was last read. When we do a sync, we compare the local date last read with the date last read on the server. If the local time is newer than the server time, then we update the server time and the bookmark location on the server with your local bookmark and time. If the server time is newer than the local time, then we update the local bookmark and time with what the server had.

There are a few times this can get a bit out of whack. If you had a device with a date and time set to the future, and bookmarked a book, it would show up as the newest bookmark until something newer is bookmarked on that book. If your date and time on a device are in the past, then you will often see the book you just read doesn't become the newest item in your library, because you're reading "in the past" and there are items with bookmarks in the present.

Additionally, there is a "finished" and a "closed" status on books, which is stored locally, but that status is not synced. When you finish a book on a device, it will reset the bookmark to the first page. So if you sync to a new device, that book will end up being new and unread. This is something we are working on.

When a new book downloads which wasnt there before, it will get a "new" status. Once newer books download, the "new" status on the older content goes away since its not the newest anymore.

I'm hoping that by explaining how it works, it will give some insight into what you are seeing, and help identify where the problem is happening. We need more details as to what exactly is not showing up as it should.

There is another problem you described, though, about books redownloading which already downloaded. The only time a book should download is if its a new book which you hadnt downloaded before, or if a newer edition has been published (we compare the file size of what you have with the file size of the current file). Can you describe the behavior you are seeing? Is it redownloading all of the books each time? Some of the books some of the time? Is it always the same books which redownload?

The information you provide will help us a lot to troubleshoot this, and we thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Thanks,
Corby

03-18-2011, 06:16 PM	#9
Corby Junior Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo	Hi ltr, I'm an employee at Kobo and trying to get to the bottom of these issues you are describing. The way bookmarking works is when you read on a device, it updates the database with the time that book was last read. When we do a sync, we compare the local date last read with the date last read on the server. If the local time is newer than the server time, then we update the server time and the bookmark location on the server with your local bookmark and time. If the server time is newer than the local time, then we update the local bookmark and time with what the server had. There are a few times this can get a bit out of whack. If you had a device with a date and time set to the future, and bookmarked a book, it would show up as the newest bookmark until something newer is bookmarked on that book. If your date and time on a device are in the past, then you will often see the book you just read doesn't become the newest item in your library, because you're reading "in the past" and there are items with bookmarks in the present. Additionally, there is a "finished" and a "closed" status on books, which is stored locally, but that status is not synced. When you finish a book on a device, it will reset the bookmark to the first page. So if you sync to a new device, that book will end up being new and unread. This is something we are working on. When a new book downloads which wasnt there before, it will get a "new" status. Once newer books download, the "new" status on the older content goes away since its not the newest anymore. I'm hoping that by explaining how it works, it will give some insight into what you are seeing, and help identify where the problem is happening. We need more details as to what exactly is not showing up as it should. There is another problem you described, though, about books redownloading which already downloaded. The only time a book should download is if its a new book which you hadnt downloaded before, or if a newer edition has been published (we compare the file size of what you have with the file size of the current file). Can you describe the behavior you are seeing? Is it redownloading all of the books each time? Some of the books some of the time? Is it always the same books which redownload? The information you provide will help us a lot to troubleshoot this, and we thank you for bringing this to our attention. Thanks, Corby