Thread: Updating the format of books already on device
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Old 01-30-2019, 07:47 PM   #3
davidfor
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alexasaenz View Post
So, whenever I get a new e-book, I always check the formatting before transferring it to my Kobo. I like particular format so I make sure all my e-books have it. However, I have older books that I didn't know how to format when I originally put them on my device.

My problem is that when I change the format in the Calibre library of a book that I have already uploaded, the new format isn't transferred to it. The only way I have at the moment to transfer the new format is to delete the book from my Kobo altogether and then reupload it.

Would there be a way to bypass having to delete the e-book from my device?
Are you actually sending the updated versions of the books to the device? Calibre doesn't automatically send changed books to the devices. You need to do this yourself. I'm not sure from what you state whether you are doing this. If you are, then when you open the book on the device, it will open the new version. I do this frequently with only one issue.

The issue relates to how the device handles sideloaded books and what the KoboTouch driver does when sending replacement books to the device.

On the device, new sideloaded books are imported into an internal database. This is just reading the metadata from the book to be used in the UI. But, it also loads the table of contents in to the database. And this is used when reading the book for navigation (the ToC list, next and previous chapter).

If a book is changed, the device will see this, remove the book from the database (including reading status, what collections it is in and annotations) and then add the book as a new book. But, the driver can cheat. When sending a book to the device, if it is replacing an existing one, it can update the database on the device so that the updated book doesn't get treated a new book. This means that if your change is something like fixing a typo, or the stylesheet, the reading status isn't lost.

This works with no problems if the changes are things like fixing typos or changing the stylesheet (what I thought of when you said "format"). But, if the internal file structure changes, or the ToC changes in other ways, the database doesn't get updated. In that case, the book needs to be deleted and added again. You can turn off the cheat option. This is what @theducks was referring to. I prefer to leave it on because most of my changes don't affect the ToC, so don't need that updated.

If you are sending the updated books to the device and they are not being seen, then there is something else going on. I'd probably need to see a debug log from calibre to be sure of what is happening. But, would also need to clarify what you are actually doing.
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