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franklekens · 07-13-2021, 11:23 AM

Okay, here's something that seems to go wrong more than once when I sideload books with Calibre. I remember it went wrong once or twice before on my Forma, more or less exactly the way I describe below, and I've just encountered it again. I'll try and describe it as clearly as possible.

I had a free copy of Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad that I downloaded from Munseys.com (a now defunct website with copyright free ebooks). This was in my Calibre library on my desktop (Windows 10), and it was on my Forma.

I don't know whether this also matters, but I'll mention it just in case: I had opened this e-book on the device, and it was the last opened book, it was the first on the home screen.

Now I happened to download the Gutenberg version of the same book today, it seems better formatted and it has illustrations. It's a huge file, however (8 Mb). I added this to Calibre, I got the warning about duplicate books and I clicked okay. I now had two separate copies of this book in Calibre.

I connected the device to the computer. In Calibre it showed that the Munseys copy of the book was on the device (check mark), and the Gutenberg one was not as yet (no check mark). I uploaded the latter to the device, without removing the former. (I know: why keep two copies? But never mind. My point is: I should be *able* to, surely? If I wanted?)

Okay, so I disconnect the device. The Forma shows me the home screen. I already sense something is wrong: as the last opened book it does show Innocents Abroad, but the image I see is that book cover that comes with the Gutenberg version (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3176). And in the book list it showed the size as 8Mb, not the appr. 500 Kb that is the Munsey version's size.

So Calibre may have added the second book to Kobo, but either it hasn't made it clear to the Forma that this is a second copy of the book that just happens to have the same title or (more likely) the Forma's firmware or database structure just can't handle it and gets confused. Because when I tap this book and try to open it, it says "oops, the book can't be found".

It's quickly solved, that's not my problem now. That is to say, I delete the book through the device interface, rebooted it just to be sure, reconnected it to the computer, Calibre now showing no copies of this book on the device, uploaded the Gutenberg version -- and now it's on there and there are no problems.

But surely this is a glitch in the way the Kobo devices (sometimes! -- it doesn't seem to go wrong all of the time) handle duplicate titles when sideloaded via Calibre? Maybe something can be done to remedy this?

(What I didn't do, is reconnect before deleting the book and see what actual files were on the device. Nor did I check whether I could reproduce it by going through the same steps, first uploading the Munseys copy &c. If someone really wants to I could try and see if it's consistent. Though I hope it's not necessary, I'd just like to get reading. Just thougth I'd describe what went wrong in case anybody else encounters it or wants to investige this to see if it can be remedied.)

07-13-2021, 11:23 AM	#1
franklekens Addict Posts: 398 Karma: 3421956 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: various Kobo's, Onyx Note2, Pocketbook 360, Kindle Keyboard	Kobo confused by duplicate book Okay, here's something that seems to go wrong more than once when I sideload books with Calibre. I remember it went wrong once or twice before on my Forma, more or less exactly the way I describe below, and I've just encountered it again. I'll try and describe it as clearly as possible. I had a free copy of Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad that I downloaded from Munseys.com (a now defunct website with copyright free ebooks). This was in my Calibre library on my desktop (Windows 10), and it was on my Forma. I don't know whether this also matters, but I'll mention it just in case: I had opened this e-book on the device, and it was the last opened book, it was the first on the home screen. Now I happened to download the Gutenberg version of the same book today, it seems better formatted and it has illustrations. It's a huge file, however (8 Mb). I added this to Calibre, I got the warning about duplicate books and I clicked okay. I now had two separate copies of this book in Calibre. I connected the device to the computer. In Calibre it showed that the Munseys copy of the book was on the device (check mark), and the Gutenberg one was not as yet (no check mark). I uploaded the latter to the device, without removing the former. (I know: why keep two copies? But never mind. My point is: I should be able to, surely? If I wanted?) Okay, so I disconnect the device. The Forma shows me the home screen. I already sense something is wrong: as the last opened book it does show Innocents Abroad, but the image I see is that book cover that comes with the Gutenberg version (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3176). And in the book list it showed the size as 8Mb, not the appr. 500 Kb that is the Munsey version's size. So Calibre may have added the second book to Kobo, but either it hasn't made it clear to the Forma that this is a second copy of the book that just happens to have the same title or (more likely) the Forma's firmware or database structure just can't handle it and gets confused. Because when I tap this book and try to open it, it says "oops, the book can't be found". It's quickly solved, that's not my problem now. That is to say, I delete the book through the device interface, rebooted it just to be sure, reconnected it to the computer, Calibre now showing no copies of this book on the device, uploaded the Gutenberg version -- and now it's on there and there are no problems. But surely this is a glitch in the way the Kobo devices (sometimes! -- it doesn't seem to go wrong all of the time) handle duplicate titles when sideloaded via Calibre? Maybe something can be done to remedy this? (What I didn't do, is reconnect before deleting the book and see what actual files were on the device. Nor did I check whether I could reproduce it by going through the same steps, first uploading the Munseys copy &c. If someone really wants to I could try and see if it's consistent. Though I hope it's not necessary, I'd just like to get reading. Just thougth I'd describe what went wrong in case anybody else encounters it or wants to investige this to see if it can be remedied.)