[Cootey]

WiFi syncing with Kobo's cloud across devices and apps has been broken for some time.

I ran a syncing test the other night. The only stat that consistently and quickly syncs across Kobo devices and apps is the percentage read stat. It updates almost immediately for the Kobo apps, and within moments for the Kobo devices after waking from sleep or manual sync.

Unfortunately, the stat is a lie. Although each book showed, for example, 26% complete, the last page read was different for each device or app. This is beyond variances in typesetting. They would be within the same chapter, but be completely different by several pages. Often, I would be prompted while reading to sync to the last read page. Doing so would bring me to a page from the other day, thus showing that Kobo's servers aren't propagating the changes or updating correctly.

Highlights and notes usually require a manual sync to show up for each device or app, but sometimes can take hours to have parity. And there are discrepancies. Even a day later, the iOS apps would not be fully synced with all highlights or notes. My iPad had issues with one book, and my iPhone another. Removing the book and redownloading it was the only way to fix this issue, though sometimes it wouldn't. In those cases, I would have to delete the note and highlight, then do it again to make it stick across all Kobo instances.

Syncing between Kobo devices works fine, though. Usually within ten minutes. Sometimes faster.

If like me you want to utilize the easier and quicker keyboard on the iOS apps to input notes, then return to reading on the Kobo eReader with its comfort light and super dim screen for late night reading, you'll end up frustrated as sync parity is a finicky business. It wasn't always this way, but has been for over a year now.