Can't launch Calibre without killing it first

[simonzed]

I'm using Win7 and it's scheduler to run Calibre in the morning so that even if Calibre isn't left running my newspapers are sent to my Kindle every morning. It is set to kill the stop the Calibre process after 1/2 hour once the papers are all sent. This mostly works, but sometimes doesn't. Still, at least most of the time I can be sure my papers are on my kindle when I wake up.

Biggest problem is that when I come to try and run Calibre, nothing happens. If I look in the task manager there is a Calibre process already running, and unless I kill that process, I cannot restart Calibre. What am I doing wrong?

[Manichean]

That sound somewhat like the Calibre process is left running. Do you still have access to the interface in those situations? By what method do you kill the process via the task scheduler?

[simonzed]

Originally Posted by Manichean

That sound somewhat like the Calibre process is left running. Do you still have access to the interface in those situations? By what method do you kill the process via the task scheduler?

No, can't see the interface anywhere and can't reopen it via task scheduler. And no, I kill it in task manager.

BTW, if I close the app normally then there's nothing left running, so it seems that the Win task scheduler that doesn't close the process properly.

Should I be using task scheduler to do what I'm trying to do (i.e. deliver news to my kindle at the same time each day even if I don't have Calibre running) or is there a smarter way to do this that avoids these issues altogether?

Thanks for your help!

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by simonzed

No, can't see the interface anywhere and can't reopen it via task scheduler. And no, I kill it in task manager.

BTW, if I close the app normally then there's nothing left running, so it seems that the Win task scheduler that doesn't close the process properly.

Should I be using task scheduler to do what I'm trying to do (i.e. deliver news to my kindle at the same time each day even if I don't have Calibre running) or is there a smarter way to do this that avoids these issues altogether?

Thanks for your help!

The most common cause for this is that you have Calibre set to notify you if there are updates. This causes a window to pop up, to tell you that there's a new update. But Task Scheduler doesn't have an interface to the console, so it's stuck in never-never land.
Disable any automatic notifications in Calibre and it should go away.
Or schedule a task to run some time AFTER the Calibre task is done, and use this command as the task:

powershell.exe -noexit -noprofile -windowstyle hidden -command Stop-Process -name calibre

That should kill off the Calibre process for you. And since you said this was on Windows 7, you already have PowerShell there and enabled, so that shouldn't be an issue.

[simonzed]

Originally Posted by CRussel

The most common cause for this is that you have Calibre set to notify you if there are updates. This causes a window to pop up, to tell you that there's a new update. But Task Scheduler doesn't have an interface to the console, so it's stuck in never-never land.
Disable any automatic notifications in Calibre and it should go away.
Or schedule a task to run some time AFTER the Calibre task is done, and use this command as the task:

powershell.exe -noexit -noprofile -windowstyle hidden -command Stop-Process -name calibre

That should kill off the Calibre process for you. And since you said this was on Windows 7, you already have PowerShell there and enabled, so that shouldn't be an issue.

OK, I've gone the Powershell route and scheduled a daily run of the powershell ap with arguments listed above to run 30 mins after Calibre...let's see if that works. Will report back in a couple of days....meanwhile thanks!

(Am surprised there is no simpler way to do this in calibre...how does everyone else get their news delivered regularly?)

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by simonzed

(Am surprised there is no simpler way to do this in calibre...how does everyone else get their news delivered regularly?)

I think many people leave their PC switched on with Calibre running, so this is then a none-issue for them. The alternative is that they are prepared to wait for their news until they next power up the PC.

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by simonzed

OK, I've gone the Powershell route and scheduled a daily run of the powershell ap with arguments listed above to run 30 mins after Calibre...let's see if that works. Will report back in a couple of days....meanwhile thanks!

You should try disabling the update notification first. If that doesn't work, try the Powershell thing.

(Am surprised there is no simpler way to do this in calibre...how does everyone else get their news delivered regularly?)

Judging from the threads here, many people opt to write a batch file and download their news via the command line tools.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Manichean

You should try disabling the update notification first. If that doesn't work, try the Powershell thing.

Agreed. A much cleaner solution. Killing processes is never my first choice.

[simonzed]

...but writing a suitable batch file sounds a little beyond me...

The killing route isn't working anyway so will do more investigating and report back