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Old 05-01-2021, 06:19 AM   #1
bli
Junior Member
bli began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 6
Karma: 10
Join Date: May 2021
Device: Nova2, Nova3
Exclamation Boox epub files and Cadillacs

I have a serious complaint about boox devices, and a question for a solution too. Everyone knows that you can annotate epub files. My Nova2 device had all the tools for it built in to read and annotate epub files. Epub files are a 'streaming text' format (unlike pdf which is static) but nothing in the Onyx guide was warning against serious problems - so I trusted making annotations in my ebup boox, and I mean hundreds and hundreds of annotations, because it was about studying stuff. Hundreds of underlinings, too. Now I knew that 'scribbles' and any manual signs in the margins would perhaps be moving around when I changed the font size - that is a bad thing, but it is not my current problem at all. I encountered a much more fundamental problem.

I migrated to a new device - the Nova 3 color (mental note: made by the same manufacturer, right?) I used they Boox Assistent app (but I tried any means). For Epub files, the notes are stored in a separate file (I knew this from the guide). Syncing from Nova2 to Nova3 however is really supposed to mean syncing. If the notes are in a separate file, that file should be synced too. If it is stored in some database file, it should be synced with the new database file on Nova3. I suppose, so far, every decent developer would fully agree with that. But... this clearly does not happen. And their helpdesk could not find an answer either (the person there is nice enough to try finding a solution, but so far, it seems like they consider a "possible solution in the future".

So this means that at this time, Boox devices are not compatible with themselves... Not even when the other device runs exactly the same OS. In other words: I cannot even sell or give my Nova2 to a friend, as I planned, because if I do not want to lose all the study work annotations, underlinings etc. I HAVE to keep Nova 2 to read those books on that device and nowhere else.

To me, this is a broken promise. I am even considering legal actions.

Imagine having a Cadillac with, say, a great CD player and a great audio quality installation. You love Cadillacs because it is a fantastic experience listening to music when you sweetly drive your Cadillac - they advertise exactly that in their fliers. Then you buy a new, better Cadillac with their fantastic CD player. Then you discover that your whole collection of CDs can no longer be played in your new car. You can buy new CDs but the old ones.... Well, you may perhaps just keep your old Cadillac to listen to the old ones, right?

That's how I currently feel about my upgrade from Nova2 to Nova3.

Anyone out there who has a possible solution to this deadlock? Anyone knows perhaps a way to convert epub to pdf INCLUDING the notes that are stored somewhere on a Boox device? (You can export notes, but I did not find a way to export a pdf with the notes). Please, if you know anything, let me know.
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