MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - How I Got All My Book Covers to Show on My Kindle Paperwhite

KeithDickens · 08-09-2015, 01:34 AM

I love my new Kindle Paperwhite but the fact that most of my side-loaded books would not show up with their covers irritated the hell out of me. So I went on a quest to figure out why.

I now have every single side-loaded ebook in .mobi format showing covers. I have no idea if this uber simple solution will work for you but it is now standard procedure for me and works 100% of the time so far.

First, and this is a matter of trial and error and I don't think it ultimately matters but since I like to have all my covers the same size from the beginning, I set each book's cover size to 277x416 pixels.

I use Calibre to associate the new cover in the step below.

Next, I edit the individual book metadata with Calibre. Right click on the title in the list and select Edit Metadata > Edit Metadata Individually. I now associate the new sized cover, I delete any special characters out of the title (anything non-alphabetical including :,;()), I clear the ID property AND the published date property. As crazy as this sounds, wiping the published date seems key. Properly wiped fields will say "Undefined".

Click OK.

REMOVE THE BOOK FROM THE DEVICE. Make sure that if you have a version already on the device that doesn't have the cover that you delete all versions of it.

Right click the ebook in the Calibre Library list and select Send to Device > Send to Main Memory. Wait for it.

Disconnect your Kindle and check to see if the cover is there.

I've done this for over 30 books so far that had no covers (well, they had that silly Amazon default cover I should say) and ever one of them now shows covers on my device.

08-09-2015, 01:34 AM	#1
KeithDickens Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2015 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	How I Got All My Book Covers to Show on My Kindle Paperwhite I love my new Kindle Paperwhite but the fact that most of my side-loaded books would not show up with their covers irritated the hell out of me. So I went on a quest to figure out why. I now have every single side-loaded ebook in .mobi format showing covers. I have no idea if this uber simple solution will work for you but it is now standard procedure for me and works 100% of the time so far. First, and this is a matter of trial and error and I don't think it ultimately matters but since I like to have all my covers the same size from the beginning, I set each book's cover size to 277x416 pixels. I use Calibre to associate the new cover in the step below. Next, I edit the individual book metadata with Calibre. Right click on the title in the list and select Edit Metadata > Edit Metadata Individually. I now associate the new sized cover, I delete any special characters out of the title (anything non-alphabetical including :,;()), I clear the ID property AND the published date property. As crazy as this sounds, wiping the published date seems key. Properly wiped fields will say "Undefined". Click OK. REMOVE THE BOOK FROM THE DEVICE. Make sure that if you have a version already on the device that doesn't have the cover that you delete all versions of it. Right click the ebook in the Calibre Library list and select Send to Device > Send to Main Memory. Wait for it. Disconnect your Kindle and check to see if the cover is there. I've done this for over 30 books so far that had no covers (well, they had that silly Amazon default cover I should say) and ever one of them now shows covers on my device.