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I think Kobo's major problem, with newest version or previous ones, is inability to do quality checks and either accept a new ebook or reject it nicely. I suppose this means inadequate error checking and messaging to the user. Below I suggest the Kobo team consider putting a virtual device in the desktop app so that titles can be vetted before loading into one's device.
No matter how many times I have done a reset (either with a pin in the back of the KT, or via Settings), and no matter how carefully I sideload books in small batches (via drag and drop or Calibre), and no matter how small the SD card (only a 2GB now), eventually the KT (1) refuses to recognize added ebooks, even as Calibre and Windows Explorer shows them; or (2) goes into the endless processing loop that can't be cured except with a reset.
I suspect that the KT database gets corrupted too easily. It will add the data on new titles badly or not at all, thus effectively ceasing to add books, and essentially becomes an ereader with a limited number of titles.
Now, for example, KT says I have 92 books, Calibre says it's 88 (but shows titles that KT doesn't), and Windows says I have fully 125. (These totals account for multiple titles in some authors' folders.) KT isn't showing anything on the SD card, Calibre likewise shows 0, but Windows says there are actually 5 ebooks there.
When Kobo stops accepting books, it's frustrating. It is galling when I want to quickly add some relevant titles even as I'm reading a book. Daniel Kehlmann's novel Measuring the World prompted me to try sideloading the public domain epub of Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Years 1799-1804, so I could sample it and perhaps use the maps. But KT won't let me. It might have added it once upon a time, but not after a database blockage occurs.
Here's an idea for the Kobo development folks: put a virtual Kobo device in the software for the Kobo desktop app, with a function to vet selected ebooks. I would ask it to take a look at the Humboldt volume before I try to sideload it to the Kobo device; it would say, OK, looks good to Kobo; and soon it would be on my ereader. The user who has used, say, Calibre to view 100 books can get Kobo's OK for all of them (or put aside any malformed epub) before sideloading begins
Right now, the only way I can check 100 books would be to load one, eject, let KT process, see what happens. Inefficient!
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