Slow sync

[haino]

Can anyone advise please.

I received a new Sony PRS-300 this morning.

I have tried to sync a couple of books but it is taking such a long time, is this normal

Thanks

[recce101]

I've had the same problem — sometimes sync would work fine, and other times it would hang forever and I'd have to exit the Reader Library program. So I cleared all the sync checkboxes and don't depend on it at all, just drag new books onto the "Reader" line in Reader Library. When I'm ready to delete a book (such as an expired public library book), they can be deleted from the Reader either through the Reader Library program or directly from the Reader after it's disconnected. This means I don't transfer any "collections" onto the Reader, but I don't find that's a major loss. Most of what I read is from the public library anyway.

Ned

[haino]

Thanks Ned
Will give it a try

[Mike_73]

Instead of the library program you can also drag and drop the book-files directly in windows explorer (or finder on Mac). It doesn't matter in which location you drop the files. The reader will check all available memory (Memory card slots and internal reader memory) for books and then show them according to their file properties (not the file names).

Once you have the files on the reader, you can open the library program again and sort your books on the reader into collections. No sync necessary. Once a book is dragged to a collection and you disconnect the reader, the book will show up in the collection.

You can also check out calibre as a replacement for the Sony program. I cannot give you more on that though as I prefer arranging my files in folders. And any Database will sort and store the files according to its internal settings. So this way you could also end up with the same book in different folder locations if you use any of the databases.

Maybe this helps a little.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by haino

Can anyone advise please.

I received a new Sony PRS-300 this morning.

I have tried to sync a couple of books but it is taking such a long time, is this normal

If you can't get the Sony software working to your liking you can always give Calibre a try. There is a good forum here where the creator and other developers support the user base by answering questions.

The following is from Calibre's about page.

Calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features divided into the following main categories:

• Library Management calibre manages your e-book collection for you. It is designed around the concept of the logical book, i.e., a single entry in your library that may correspond to actual e-book files in several formats.
  calibre can sort the books in your library by: Title, Author, Date added, Date published, Size, Rating, Series, etc.
  In addition, it supports extra searchable metadata:
  • Tags: A flexible system for categorizing your collection however you like
  • Comments: A long form entry that you can use for book description, notes, reviews, etc.
  You can easily search your book collection for a particular book. calibre supports searching any and all of the fields mentioned above. You can construct advanced search queries by clicking the helpful "Advanced search" button to the left of the search bar.
  You can export arbitrary subsets of your collection to your hard disk arranged in a fully customizable folder structure.
  Finally, calibre will even go out onto the internet to find book metadata based on existing title/author or ISBN information. It can download various types of metadata and covers for your books, automatically. The metadata system is written using plugins so that different types of metadata sources can be supported in the future.
• E-book conversion calibre can convert from a huge number of formats to a huge number of formats. It supports all the major e-book formats. The full list of formats can be found here.
  The conversion engine has lots of powerful features. It can rescale all font sizes, ensuring the output e-book is readable no matter what font sizes the input document uses. It can automatically detect/create book structure, like chapters and Table of Contents. It can insert the book metadata into a "Book Jacket" at the start of the book.
• Syncing to e-book reader devices calibre has a modular device driver design that makes adding support for different e-reader devices easy. At the moment, it has support for a large number of devices, the complete list of which is here. Syncing supports updating metadata on the device from metadata in the library and creation of collections on the device based on the tags defined in the library. If a book has more than one format available, calibre automatically chooses the best format when uploading to the device. If none of the formats is suitable, calibre will automatically convert the e-book to a format suitable for the device before sending it.
• Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form calibre can automatically fetch news from websites or RSS feeds, format the news into a ebook and upload to a connected device. The ebooks include the full versions of the articles, not just the summaries. Examples of supported news sites include:
  • The New York Times
  • The Wall Street Journal
  • The Economist
  • Time
  • Newsweek
  • The Guardian
  • ESPN
  • and many, many more…
  calibre has over three hundred news sources and the news system is plugin based, allowing users to easily create and contribute new sources to calibre. As a result the collection of news sources keeps on growing!
  If you are interested in adding support for a news site, read the User Manual. Once you have successfully created a new recipe, you can share it with other users by posting it in the calibre forum or sending it to the calibre developers for inclusion in calibre.
• Comprehensive e-book viewer calibre has a built-in ebook viewer that can display all the major ebook formats. It has full support for Table of Contents, bookmarks, CSS, a reference mode, printing, searching, copying, customizing the rendering via a user style sheet, embedded fonts, etc.
• Content server for online access to your book collection calibre has a built-in web server that allows you to access your ebook collection using a simple browser from any computer anywhere in the world. It can also email your books and downloaded news to you automatically. It has support for mobile devices, so you can browse your collection and download books from your smartphone, Kindle, etc.

[Chaplain]

I have the same problem. I dragged and dropped. Looked like on the PC screen everything was great. Now on he bottom of the screen of the Reader it says "Do not disconnect". I have been waiting for at least 15 minutes. In the middle of the screen thee is a symbol indicating to not disconnect. Other than that I do not see anything happening. Anyone have any advice? I guess I could leave it overnight and see what happens.

[recce101]

I saw that too, but noticed that the message changed to "USB connected" (with no warning about disconnecting) if the Reader Library program was closed. My guess is that there's a chance of corrupting something if you disconnect from the USB with Reader Library still running — although I'd done that before noticing the message with no apparent ill effects.

Ned

[Mike_73]

Disconnecting the reader can only damage files if there is a write process going on. But right beside the "Reader" lable in Sonys library, there's an eject button. Press on that and it should be safe to disconnect the reader. If you go with the "safely remove usb device" in windows, you'll have to eject 2 drives as the installer for the library is located on an additional partition of the readers memory (so it shows up as an additional hdd in explorer).

[GraceKrispy]

I also had trouble with sync in Reader Library, and it messed me up quite a bit. On MR, I read about turning sync off, turned it off and no more problems. I drag and drop where I want the books to be and it works out really well that way. I also am always sure to hit the eject button in the reader library before unplugging it.

[dreams]

Here are the steps I use.
1- USB to computer
2- Turn on my Reader
3- Connect the USB to my Reader
4- Open Sony Reader Library
5- Import and drop books to the Reader
6- drag and drop books to my Collections

7- click on the little triangle thing to the right of the word "Reader" that is in the left pane of the Reader Library. This disconnects the Reader from the Computer.

8- Close out the Sony Reader Library
9- Pull out the USB cable from the computer.
10- take off the USB from my Reader.
The Reader will take a minute or so loading (depending on the amount of books being loaded) then it will show the page it was on when you connected it.

I don't use sync.

[Redfox]

I foolishly assumed that the Sony software would be better than a generic program, but it just hangs until I eject the reader, then complains that the device is registered to another user. WTF??? It only arrived today! I registered on the Sony site, but there doesn't seem to be any way to tell the library software about my id. I guess I should have expected the Mac version of the program to be inadequate *sigh*

Calibre did it in minutes, and even did a fantastic job of converting my handful of unlocked MobiPocket books to ePub on the fly. I shall be making a donation as soon as I get paid...

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Redfox

I foolishly assumed that the Sony software would be better than a generic program, but it just hangs until I eject the reader, then complains that the device is registered to another user. WTF??? It only arrived today! I registered on the Sony site, but there doesn't seem to be any way to tell the library software about my id. I guess I should have expected the Mac version of the program to be inadequate *sigh*

Calibre is a great program and the only one I use to manage/transfer my books to my Sony 505, but you have to get the "device is registered to another user" problem corrected if you plan on purchasing books that have DRM or borrowing books from the library. You can get help with this in the Sony forum and you can use Adobe Digital Editions to register your device.

Update: What do you know we are in the sony forum. Someone should be able to chime in and help you with this problem.

[Redfox]

Thanks, but I tried deleting the device from my Sony account and re-registering, and it now appears to work fine.

I think the problem was that there are two numbers on the sticker on the back, and the registration form rejected the first one so I put both in and it seemed OK - but it was only when I registered using the second number only that it was recognised by the device.

*sigh* Don't people do any user testing on their websites?

[Mikeroe]

A newbie question - my Library Reader doesn't even have the Reader option on the left side, so I can't get at either the Sync or Eject options. What am I doing wrong?! Have I unwittingly not registered the PRS-600? I've been able to get books to the reader and read them OK and delete them, but sync never completes...

Many thankls,
Mike

[recce101]

The sync function in Reader Library is notoriously unreliable. I suggest you read through the other messages in this thread and find a solution that works for you. Many people avoid using Reader Library altogether.

Ned