MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Cannot kill jobs that communicate with device

DaltonST · 02-21-2015, 02:55 PM

Unfortunately, there is a Catch-22 situation. Calibre does not allow you to set a device to "IGNORE" before it has ever been plugged in while Calibre is running. Further, you cannot configure the directories to search before it is plugged in the first time. If the job never finishes, you cannot do anything, ever.

The Device Job that Calibre automatically starts the first time a device is connected never finished for an old NookColor that I have that has 14,000+ epubs on the external SD Card in the Books folder. Because the job never finished before it errored out, Calibre never could offer it in the Preferences to IGNORE it. I could not even configure it to search a bogus, empty directory to keep it from ever searching the real Books folder.

What I wanted to do is to have Calibre ignore the NookColor, and then use "Save To Single Directory" to save just the .epub files from Calibre into the Books folder of the device.

What I ended up doing was to insert a blank SD card with just a fake directory, let the job finish, set the device to IGNORE in Calibre, then replaced the blank SD card with the real SD card that also as the same fake directory that never has anything in it.

Of course, if your SD card is internal, not external, the Catch-22 forces you to this workaround: You "Save to a Single Directory" on the PC, and then manually move the books from the special PC directory to the internal SD card on the device. You can never plug the device in to the PC while Calibre is running, of course.

Obviously, 14,000+ books on a device is bit extreme, but at the time the books were loaded onto the NookColor, it was practical and desirable, and well worth it given the geographical location and situation in which the device was being used to read.

Amazingly, FBReader for Android does not blink at the large number of books, although the Rescans of the books to update its metadata indexes do take a little while to run, but they are background tasks that do not interfere with reading.

Anyway, it would be nice to be able to "pre-ignore" a device. I wouldn't hold my breath, though.

DaltonST

02-21-2015, 02:55 PM	#3
DaltonST Deviser Posts: 2,265 Karma: 2090983 Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Texas Device: none	Unfortunately, there is a Catch-22 situation. Calibre does not allow you to set a device to "IGNORE" before it has ever been plugged in while Calibre is running. Further, you cannot configure the directories to search before it is plugged in the first time. If the job never finishes, you cannot do anything, ever. The Device Job that Calibre automatically starts the first time a device is connected never finished for an old NookColor that I have that has 14,000+ epubs on the external SD Card in the Books folder. Because the job never finished before it errored out, Calibre never could offer it in the Preferences to IGNORE it. I could not even configure it to search a bogus, empty directory to keep it from ever searching the real Books folder. What I wanted to do is to have Calibre ignore the NookColor, and then use "Save To Single Directory" to save just the .epub files from Calibre into the Books folder of the device. What I ended up doing was to insert a blank SD card with just a fake directory, let the job finish, set the device to IGNORE in Calibre, then replaced the blank SD card with the real SD card that also as the same fake directory that never has anything in it. Of course, if your SD card is internal, not external, the Catch-22 forces you to this workaround: You "Save to a Single Directory" on the PC, and then manually move the books from the special PC directory to the internal SD card on the device. You can never plug the device in to the PC while Calibre is running, of course. Obviously, 14,000+ books on a device is bit extreme, but at the time the books were loaded onto the NookColor, it was practical and desirable, and well worth it given the geographical location and situation in which the device was being used to read. Amazingly, FBReader for Android does not blink at the large number of books, although the Rescans of the books to update its metadata indexes do take a little while to run, but they are background tasks that do not interfere with reading. Anyway, it would be nice to be able to "pre-ignore" a device. I wouldn't hold my breath, though. DaltonST