Book covers for side loaded books on Kindle Scribe

HarryT · 07-30-2025, 03:14 PM

Just bought a Kindle Scribe. I prefer to keep WiFi turned off on all my Kindles and sideload all my content from Calibre. I've side loaded an initial batch of books onto my Scribe. All worked fine except that no book cover images appear in the library with the exception of one book that was in KFX format rather than the AZW3 format I usually use. I'm guessing that this is a consequence of the MTP connect of the scribe and Calibre's inability to access the system folder, which is where cover image thumbnails are stored.

Is the workaround for this to convert all my books to KFX format and send KFX to the Scribe rather than AZW3?

Sirtel · 07-30-2025, 03:36 PM

The books must be marked as personal documents (PDOC), not as ebooks (EBOK). If you convert to KFX, there's an option to mark the results as PDOC. If you want to use AZW3, you need to reconvert them and check "Enable sharing of book content...".

Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this for existing files.

HarryT · 07-30-2025, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The books must be marked as personal documents (PDOC), not as ebooks (EBOK). If you convert to KFX, there's an option to mark the results as PDOC. If you want to use AZW3, you need to reconvert them and check "Enable sharing of book content...".

Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this for existing files.

Thank you. That's very helpful.

HarryT · 07-30-2025, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The books must be marked as personal documents (PDOC), not as ebooks (EBOK). If you convert to KFX, there's an option to mark the results as PDOC. If you want to use AZW3, you need to reconvert them and check "Enable sharing of book content...".

Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this for existing files.

I've tried doing an AZW3 to AZW3 conversion and selecting the "Allow content sharing" option (the last option on the AZW3 output page, yes?), but when I remove the book from the Scribe and resend it, I still get no cover image in the library. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

Sirtel · 07-30-2025, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've tried doing an AZW3 to AZW3 conversion and selecting the "Allow content sharing" option (the last option on the AZW3 output page, yes?), but when I remove the book from the Scribe and resend it, I still get no cover image in the library. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

Sorry, no. I no longer have a modern Kindle to test. Someone else must advise what to do.

Just in case, I'd delete all the files from the Scribe and restart it, before sending the books again.

jackm8 · 07-30-2025, 04:30 PM

Convert them to KFX as personal document. Covers then work in fixed page KFX and in reflowable KFX. Btw, I think that you still need to download a plugin in Calibre to do that, but batch converting should work.

Quoth · 07-31-2025, 04:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackm8

Convert them to KFX as personal document. Covers then work in fixed page KFX and in reflowable KFX. Btw, I think that you still need to download a plugin in Calibre to do that, but batch converting should work.

Won't work on Linux. KFX plug-in on Calibre invokes an Amazon program.

AZw3/KF8 is a result closer to epub and in spending 4 hours reading a book how long do you look at the cover?

Attractive covers are nice, but invented to sell books. I'd like a UI option with no cover thumbnails. My Kindles have "sleep" covers too.

HarryT · 07-31-2025, 07:38 AM

Converting to KFX format works absolutely fine - thanks for the help.

HarryT · 07-31-2025, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

AZw3/KF8 is a result closer to epub and in spending 4 hours reading a book how long do you look at the cover?

In my case it's because I'm using the Scribe for my reference library, so the books will be on the device for (hopefully) many years. It's useful for me to see the covers I'm familiar with.

xyzzy_foo · Yesterday, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this for existing files.

Is this the solution you were looking for?

GitHub - krwow/ebook_cdetype_to_pdoc: A tiny script written in Python 3 for changing cdetype value to "PDOC" in selected e-book formats.

Sirtel · Yesterday, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xyzzy_foo

Is this the solution you were looking for?

GitHub - krwow/ebook_cdetype_to_pdoc: A tiny script written in Python 3 for changing cdetype value to "PDOC" in selected e-book formats.

Yes, thank you.

07-30-2025, 03:14 PM	#1
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,556 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Book covers for side loaded books on Kindle Scribe Just bought a Kindle Scribe. I prefer to keep WiFi turned off on all my Kindles and sideload all my content from Calibre. I've side loaded an initial batch of books onto my Scribe. All worked fine except that no book cover images appear in the library with the exception of one book that was in KFX format rather than the AZW3 format I usually use. I'm guessing that this is a consequence of the MTP connect of the scribe and Calibre's inability to access the system folder, which is where cover image thumbnails are stored. Is the workaround for this to convert all my books to KFX format and send KFX to the Scribe rather than AZW3?

07-30-2025, 04:30 PM	#6
jackm8 Addict Posts: 335 Karma: 3000000 Join Date: Nov 2015 Device: none	Convert them to KFX as personal document. Covers then work in fixed page KFX and in reflowable KFX. Btw, I think that you still need to download a plugin in Calibre to do that, but batch converting should work. Last edited by jackm8; 07-30-2025 at 04:38 PM.

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07-30-2025, 03:36 PM	#2
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,545 Karma: 240526511 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	The books must be marked as personal documents (PDOC), not as ebooks (EBOK). If you convert to KFX, there's an option to mark the results as PDOC. If you want to use AZW3, you need to reconvert them and check "Enable sharing of book content...". Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this for existing files.

07-31-2025, 07:38 AM	#8
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,556 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Converting to KFX format works absolutely fine - thanks for the help.