Aura HD What happened to my shelves?

[AnemicOak]

Sorry if this is answered somewhere already, if so I didn't find it.


For right now my shelves are very simple, I have three. TBR, Nonfiction TBR and Read. These have worked fine since I set them up a week or so after I received my Aura. I just sync'd my Aura to see if the update to 2.8.1 was available to me (I have 2.6.1b right now) yet and after that I had it connected to my laptop for about a minute while I moved some new books over via Calibre using the extended driver. I had also used the search feature briefly to check my Kobo library for a book.

After I disconnected from the PC the device processed things as it normally does and I went to put my added books on the proper TBR shelves. To my surprise my Nonfiction TBR shelf now only contains five books when it had many more and my Read shelf now contains one book when it contained forty. A shelf I had made when I first got the device, called test, has also reappeared. I'm not sure if my TBR shelf has changed or not, it has approximately the correct number of books on it.

I've sync'd and used Calibre many times and nothing like this has ever happened in the past. Can anyone tell me what happened? Is this a common occurrence?

[TechniSol]

I dunno, maybe davidfor will come up with something. Have you tried syncing again with Calibre, and do you have the most recent version? I believe I read he said it was compatible with 2.8.1, but would throw an error message unless you had clicked future compatibility or the like.

[davidfor]

I was hoping PeterT would get here first, but my name has been invoked

The first thing to check is that the driver configuration is still correct. There isn't any reason to think it will have changed, but it is a good idea to check.

Then check that the books in the calibre library do have the shelves set as you expect. Is the column you are using one you edit, or are you using a column based on a template?

Then connect the ereader again, but, could you do it in a debug session? This will grab the log and I can have a look at it if the shelves aren't fixed. Do this by starting calibre without the device connected. Then right click on the preferences button and select "Restart in debug mode". Calibre will close and reopen and display a message about the log file. Dismiss the message and connect the device. When calibre has finished its initial sync, eject the device and close calibre. When it closes, it will display the debug log. If the shelves haven't been fixed, post the log or PM it to me.

[kevenv]

I had the same sort of thing happen when I side loaded 2.8.1. I hooked up my Glo to my computer again, opened Calibre, let the metadata update, then ejected the device and it had been fixed.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I was hoping PeterT would get here first, but my name has been invoked

The first thing to check is that the driver configuration is still correct. There isn't any reason to think it will have changed, but it is a good idea to check.

Then check that the books in the calibre library do have the shelves set as you expect. Is the column you are using one you edit, or are you using a column based on a template?

Then connect the ereader again, but, could you do it in a debug session? This will grab the log and I can have a look at it if the shelves aren't fixed. Do this by starting calibre without the device connected. Then right click on the preferences button and select "Restart in debug mode". Calibre will close and reopen and display a message about the log file. Dismiss the message and connect the device. When calibre has finished its initial sync, eject the device and close calibre. When it closes, it will display the debug log. If the shelves haven't been fixed, post the log or PM it to me.

I'll have to go through this post later, when I'm home, and try stuff you're mentioning. I don't (didn't even think to mention it) however use Calibre (0.9.40) to manage my shelves I do that on the Aura manually, I'm just using Calibre to transfer my books using the extended driver (so I get a kePub), which is configured like it always has been. Also, I've already manually fixed the shelves (fingers crossed) since I didn't know what else to do. The only other thing I did Kobo related yesterday was poke around in the iPhone app for a few minutes.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by kevenv

I had the same sort of thing happen when I side loaded 2.8.1. I hooked up my Glo to my computer again, opened Calibre, let the metadata update, then ejected the device and it had been fixed.

Its funny. I also had the exact same thing happen to me with a beta version of 2.8.something (I can't recall the exact version).

I posted about it on the beta discussion list, but since I manage all my shelves via calibre, it was the work of minutes to recover.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I'll have to go through this post later, when I'm home, and try stuff you're mentioning. I don't (didn't even think to mention it) however use Calibre (0.9.40) to manage my shelves I do that on the Aura manually, I'm just using Calibre to transfer my books using the extended driver (so I get a kePub), which is configured like it always has been. Also, I've already manually fixed the shelves (fingers crossed) since I didn't know what else to do. The only other thing I did Kobo related yesterday was poke around in the iPhone app for a few minutes.

If you do your shelves manually and don't use calibre, but they aren't kepubs, then it's the sync with kobo that's messed you up. I used to have that happen all the time before I changed to only manage the shelves of my kepubs and library books manually and epubs with calibre.

I think what happens is the kobo server doesn't actually keep track of anything but kepubs. So sometimes it thinks it's "updating" and what it's really doing is kicking things off shelves.

It still occasionally happens that the kobo server does this to me, BUT since calibre now knows which shelves all my epubs are on, the only ones I have to manually fix are the library books I've loaded through ADE. As soon as I realise books have been kicked off shelves, I just connect to calibre and it throws them back onto their shelves for me. Then if I have library books out, I add them back manually and since I usually have 3 or less out at once, it's not too bad.

I realise your system might make using calibre for shelves annoying (since you want to move books from TBR to Read without having to connect to your computer) and based on your system, it might be annoying all in itself trying to get a system that isn't time consuming, but I'm pretty sure it's the Kobo server that is causing your issue. I've watched it happen so many times.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

I realise your system might make using calibre for shelves annoying (since you want to move books from TBR to Read without having to connect to your computer) and based on your system, it might be annoying all in itself trying to get a system that isn't time consuming, but I'm pretty sure it's the Kobo server that is causing your issue. I've watched it happen so many times.

Thanks for the info. It's certainly possible, just odd that it happened yesterday and hadn't happened before. I've been using the same setup since April & I've sync'd dozens of times during that period.

EDIT: Did a sync just now and the shelves stayed the way they should.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Thanks for the info. It's certainly possible, just odd that it happened yesterday and hadn't happened before. I've been using the same setup since April & I've sync'd dozens of times during that period.

EDIT: Did a sync just now and the shelves stayed the way they should.

Oh it's definitely not always. It seems very random. I had it happen *a lot* when I first got my glo last fall. But then I go ages without it happening. Can't explain it more than that.

[Ripplinger]

I've had this happen a few times, but I just assumed the reader needed to be turned fully off and then back on to show the shelves. They would just mysteriously reappear after that. It's also when I was transferring from my WinXP PC, so that could have been causing another glitch as well.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Thanks for the info. It's certainly possible, just odd that it happened yesterday and hadn't happened before. I've been using the same setup since April & I've sync'd dozens of times during that period.

EDIT: Did a sync just now and the shelves stayed the way they should.

It sounds like it was a hiccup in the sync. Glad it was fixed the next time.

[TechniSol]

I was hoping PeterT would get here first, but my name has been invoked.

WHOOPS! I've accidentally invoked "He Whose Handle Should Not Be Typed, here to forth referred to as "HWHSNBT!" Make a note fellow posters...

[AnemicOak]

Well, I'd sync'd a few times checking for the 2.8.1 update and everything's been fine with no shelf problems and I got the new update a few days ago. Then today I figured I'd sync to clear out the download cue for the books I bought during the last code contest. Everything downloaded fine, but when I went to put the new books on my TBR shelf both the Nonfiction TBR and Read shelves were showing up twice and the old 'test' shelf re-appeared again. I can't delete or rename the "new" duplicate shelves. Going through the proper actions works, but the shelves stay put and their names don't change either. The test shelf deleted again just fine.

The other thing odd that happened is that the book I was currently reading stopped working. I was at the start of chapter six, but when I tapped the book to start reading where I'd left off the header & footer would show, but the rest of the screen stayed blank and the device was completely unresponsive. Putting the device to sleep brought up a blank screen (no cover or Sleeping text) and I'd have to activate the wake switch twice to get the device to do anything where it would then act as if it was re-starting (little square loading boxes). So I re-loaded the book (Calibre kePub) and it seems to be working fine. Of course a subsequent sync went just fine.


Posting it here in case any of this sounds familiar to anyone. Haven't contacted Kobo support as of yet.

[AnemicOak]

I spoke too soon. The book I reloaded was working until I did the subsequent sync and now it's doing the same as before (header w/book title, footer w/loading chapter 6 page 1). All other kePub's ePub's and Calibre kePub's work just fine, it's just the book I was last reading when the sync occurred.

Any ideas on this other the collections I can't delete?


Thanks

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

The other thing odd that happened is that the book I was currently reading stopped working. I was at the start of chapter six, but when I tapped the book to start reading where I'd left off the header & footer would show, but the rest of the screen stayed blank and the device was completely unresponsive. Putting the device to sleep brought up a blank screen (no cover or Sleeping text) and I'd have to activate the wake switch twice to get the device to do anything where it would then act as if it was re-starting (little square loading boxes). So I re-loaded the book (Calibre kePub) and it seems to be working fine. Of course a subsequent sync went just fine.

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I spoke too soon. The book I reloaded was working until I did the subsequent sync and now it's doing the same as before (header w/book title, footer w/loading chapter 6 page 1). All other kePub's ePub's and Calibre kePub's work just fine, it's just the book I was last reading when the sync occurred.

Update: Not sure this is a sync issue after all. I just used Calibre to sideload a book (after getting the current book working and reading it for awhile) and after ejecting the device I'm getting the same issue.