PRS-T3 all notes: application has stopped unexpectedly - force close

[cybmole]

any suggestions for repairing thsi - I have already tried complete shutdown + restart.

I cannot access "all notes", when I try I get the error shown in thread header.

Is there a way to repair e.g by deleting the notes database via windows, rather then have do do some kind of factory reset on the device ( which I don't know how to do )

I can access the notes for an individual book ok.

its when I go : home - applications- all notes that I get the crash

[cybmole]

update: soft reset does not fix it either.

I did have ( yesterday ) a problem book that was crashing the reader. I traced the problem to one very complicated line, full of spans, breaks etc, & when I broke that into several smaller lines the book was OK. ( the complex line also crashed ADE2 on PC , even though it appeared to be valid Code, sigil book view was OK with it ) )
Anyway, I had been trying to create a bookmark just before the crash page, to help with debugging/testing & I guess that is what has damaged the notes database.

I cant seem to find hard reset instructions; sony site has broken links.

I'd prefer to try deleting the notes.db file first, if that is what it's called - assuming that is safe.

[cybmole]

update 2:
welll this is morphing into an issue with that 1 book. if I don't have that book on the reader, then "all notes" works.

If I put the book on, choose a chapter, create a bookmark, then go to "all notes" or even to "notes" for that book only, then I get the crash.. I am not sure how to debug the book code, or even if I really want to .... it passes flight crew validation in sigil OK

[cybmole]

update 3 - well for anyone waiting with bated breath for the final outcome...
i had to delete notes.db. luckily I ony had a few books iwith notes, not a few hundred, as they all share that one file.

it was in a state where if I added any other book by same author as the original problem book, then any attempt to create a note in that book would crash the reader.
could not live with that so I zapped the books.db file from windows.

I guess the only other fix would have been restore to factory default ( assuming that i Could find instructions for that somewhere [aka hard reset])

poor systems design to use a single database file if it is easily corruptible

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by cybmole

update 3 - well for anyone waiting with bated breath for the final outcome...
i had to delete notes.db. luckily I ony had a few books iwith notes, not a few hundred, as they all share that one file.

Just to make sure: did the notes.db file regenerate itself? Can you now make and retrieve notes in other ebooks?

[cybmole]

the file is actually called books.db. I typed notes.db by mistake.
yes it is there & fully working now. it seems to be there to hold notes, highlights, bookmark, which are stored as pointers to locations within books.

I have no idea how /if that syncs to reader software.

I can make notes in all books now, including the original problem book, after editing out the problem code from that

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by cybmole

the file is actually called books.db. I typed notes.db by mistake.
yes it is there & fully working now. it seems to be there to hold notes, highlights, bookmark, which are stored as pointers to locations within books.

I have no idea how /if that syncs to reader software.

I can make notes in all books now, including the original problem book, after editing out the problem code from that

Thanks for your help. I have the same problem with my T2 and T3, so I'll remove the books.db file from the T2 first and see if that works.

[cybmole]

NB your books will be intact but you will lose the "last page read" memory - they will all appear as new books on the reader, so go to each book and make a note of page/chapter before zapping the books.db file

[AlexBell]

Thanks again. I used your technique on my T2 and T3 last night, and it worked - I could make notes and book marks and retrieve them.

But on the T3 the old problem came back after just a few notes. I now get the same problem again: when I tried to retrieve a note I made for proofreading I got
Sorry!

The application Reader has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.
Force close.

Is this the same message you got? Can you still retrieve notes and bookmarks that you've made?

When I get round to it I'll try, more in hope than expectation, deleting the books.db file several times.

[cybmole]

That must be frustrating -
you will have to isolate the specific books that is causing the issue to return. i may case it was easy because reading beyond a certain page was crashing the reader.

also, I found that the "all notes" application was crashing but I could go into a book, then into notes for that book only & thus rule out that book if the latter setup worked OK.

I also found, prior to deleting the .db, that trying to create new note in a different book by same author as the problem book was causing a crash at the "create note" stage.

I have had no further problems after deleting the corrupt .db. At first I did carefully create noes - 1 per book, 1 at a time & kept going back to "all notes" to check everything as still ok. but recently I've begun trusting it again.

Try this:
if you load each suspect book into ADE v2 on PC then scroll quickly thru the entire book, that tests whether there's anything in that book that would crash the T3. you can scroll an entire book on PC in a few seconds, much quicker than turning every page on the T3

I suspect that because of how the /db works, using pointers into the books, if there is any issue with , say, calculating total length of a book, then the pointers don't get properly created.

but also I'd not expect the .db to corrupt unless a crash occured wile that file was in use

[AlexBell]

Thanks, cybmole, it is indeed intensely frustrating even though I can still proofread with my T1.

I'll try your suggestion, or try deleting every ebook but one to see if I can find one on which I can take and retrieve notes, and build up from there. The T2 has crashed also.

[cybmole]

please post the cause if you discover it.

& you probably should investigate rather than risk your T1 meeting the same fate!

I think all Sony readers use the same books.db design, but the T1 may use an older version of ADE

[cybmole]

UPDATE: after more thought & more googling. I am pretty sure that sony reader for PC software also keeps a copy of books.db - see the link below for location.

so if you are using this software it may be synching with your T2. T3 and keeping a corrupt version of books.db in circulation

I don't "read" within that software, I only use it to authorise library book loads, so others may know more about how it syncs than I do. Logically it needs to do some sort of merge/update to preserve notes etc on both PC & device.
( I don't have the software active when my T3 is connected, I move books from reader folder into calibre & sideload from there to my device. )

if you don't use the PC software then ignore this hypothesis>
http://www.sonyreaderboards.com/foru...&t=52&start=10

[AlexBell]

Thanks again, cybmole

That's an interesting possibility, the the books.db file would be different on each Sony since I have different ebooks on each reader - there is some overlap.

I think the only way to test the hypothesis would be to delete the books.db file on each reader, then start up the T1 before the others. I'm not that desperate yet.

I don't think the T1 uses the same firmware (or whatever it's called) as the T2 and T3. On my T1 left quotes point upward to the left, but on the T2 and T2 left quotes point upward to the right. And of course the T3 hyphenates, but the others don't.

PS Thanks for the link. I'll explore the forum in detail later tonight.

[cybmole]

you can prove the snycing by creating a note on the reader, then connecting to Pc + sony software, disconnect reader, examine that same books's notes on PC... then do the reveres process - create note on PC - transfer it to reader.

I would guess that the PC software compares books in it's library to books on reader and syncs all the relevant notes - that creates the possibility of transferring a corrupt entry...