Thread: Kobo future firmware feature request thread
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Old 02-27-2013, 04:26 PM   #466
Rev. Bob
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Posts: 1,760
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Join Date: Feb 2013
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Device: Kobo H2O, iPad mini 3, Kindle Touch
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor View Post
I don't know what you mean here. When I insert the SD card, the black processing screen is shown while it process any new books. If there aren't any, then the home screen updates if any of the books on the card should be there.
When you have the card inserted and turn on the Kobo, the following things happen in sequence:

1. Light beside power switch flashes to show that the unit is powering up.
2. Screen clears and shows boot animation.
3. 5 most recent books on the Kobo device show in the carousel.
4. Screen refreshes to show 5 most recent books on the device and card in the carousel.

Currently, there is no visible indication after step 3 that step 4 is coming, and the delay can take a while...long enough to make one wonder if the device is going to read the card at all. Sometimes it doesn't.

Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor
As there is no way to get a book onto the card except in a way that will cause a scan, this isn't needed.
In theory, this is true. In reality, try removing the card while the device is on and you're at the home screen, loading a book or two on the card, then inserting the card. Sometimes the device will detect the insertion and trigger a scan, and sometimes it won't. Couple that with the above issue - that there's no way to tell whether the device is scanning the card unless it does so and finds new content to process, thus triggering the "processing" screen - and this is a problem.

Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor
You mean when you connect the device to the PC and delete via the PC? They do get removed, but I think you have to restart the device. I haven't done this for a while.

You will have to explain this. I know what happens when you change a book and I believe I know why it works that way. But, that doesn't agree with "treating it as a brand-new book" and shelves. That makes me think you are seeing something different than what I see. Is this only an issue on the SD card?
I almost never connect my device to my PC; that's why I have a card. Consider this sequence:

1. Book X exists on the card, and I've put it on a couple of shelves.
2. I edit the copy of X that's on my hard drive - say, to fix a cover or tweak the title.
3. With the device off, I pop the card from the device, insert it into the PC, and replace the old copy with the revised one - keeping the same filename and everything.
4. I eject the card, replace it in the device, and power the device on.

In every case so far, the updated X gets detected as a new book. Any reading progress goes away, all shelving data is erased, it shows up in the Most Recent carousel - it's a new book. The old X doesn't show up in the library or on any shelves, having been replaced.

Furthermore, over time, it takes the device longer and longer to scan the card. (It's taken my device over 20 minutes before, with maybe 150 books on the card and only a few of those having been changed.) Doing a factory reset (or just wiping the database) and scanning the card from scratch takes a fraction of the scan time, but naturally that has the drawback of losing all the shelf/progress information the database had.

My theory is that instead of old-X getting either updated in or properly removed from the database, it's getting hidden (supplanted by new-X) and is still taking up space...thus adding to processing time, as observed. There needs to be some way of streamlining the database and/or speeding up scan time.

As for whether this only happens on the SD card - no, it also happens if I connect the device to the PC and manually replace standard EPUBs (not kepubs) stored in the internal memory. (Again, manually - as in, not through sync software but through Windows Explorer file copying.)
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