[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That is an error communicating with the device.

That much I knew. The error message said so. I was hoping for more insight into the cause. Just what kind of error did Calibre encounter?

Usually, this kind of error can be fixed by following the steps below in sequence. First:

1) Try rebooting both the device and your computer

Did both of those.

2) If that does not work, find the files driveinfo.calibre and metadata.calibre on the device and delete them (you can use Windows Explorer or a file manager on the device itself to do this)

I'll try that next. I've had to to it on other devices.

EDIT: And I did that, Calibre rebuilt the metadata, and I still got the mentioned error.

3) Reset the device

I really hope I don't have to do that.

If none of those work, you can use one of the wireless communication methods described here:
https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...kindle-fire-hd

I've considered that. We'll see.

EDIT: And I did that. Wireless device setup was done, and Calibre Content Server was started.

I could access the Content Server from device in Chrome and download a sample book.

I installed Calibre Companion on device, which I bought a while back but never used because I normally use a USB connection, and it only sees stuff transferred via Wifi. I was able to select and add more books.

This is more of a PITA than I'd like, but that's not Calibre's fault. It's behaving fine.

The annoyance now is that I created a custom column in Calibre called Sync, where I marked books I wanted to transfer. What's on any of my devices is a small subset of the full Calibre library on my desktop. For instance, I normally don't try to read PDFs on small screens, so I have a Virtual Library with only ePub files I pick from to transfer. Sync applies to books I'll transfer to any device, so toggling it after transfer is not useful.

Calibre Companion doesn't see that column, and Calibre communicating by Wifi doesn't enumerate what's on device and fill in that column. Tracking what is marked in Sync that has been transferred is requires jumping through extra hoops, like connecting via USB to populate the On Device column, but actually sending books to device via Wifi. <grumble>


Thanks for responding.
______
Dennis