Glo Kobo and Calibre/(ADE?) interface

[Geenween]

Hello!
I'm posting because of an issue that keeps popping up from two days, when my laptop (Windows Vista) decided to have a system shut-down when I was transferring some books from Calibre to my Kobo SD (while connected to the Kobo device)

At the time, I had Calibre 2.21 and I had just downladed version 2.22 to install. When my laptop started running again, I did the update of Calibre and connected to the Kobo. The device had troubles connecting so I checked for system errors via laptop and did a hard reset.

The Kobo started to work correctly at first, connected to Calibre and I transferred some books. Later when I conntected it again I got this message:

database disk image is malformed

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 87, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 503, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 1685, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 2590, in get_bookshelflist
DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed

I also could not transfer books to collection in the device apart (worked with the first four books, then stopped working). I did another hard reset. I read it could be a Calibre issue with the newer version, so I downgraded it to v. 2.19.

Kobo worked fine until this morning, I could connect it to Calibre correctly and transfer books until I tried again a couple of minutes ago. Same message as above. In this range of time, I have only created a few new collections and added some books to them.

My laptop recognizes the device (both Kobo and connected SD) correctly. No issues are found by checking for system errors and I can open the devices and see all Folders.

Adobe Digital Edition 3.0 sees the device and authorizes it, but I have not been able to open a DRM book in the device.

Seems to be something off with Kobo Desktop as well, some books are correctly recognized as being in the device, a few others aren't. On the 'Ereader' page of the program it reads "Last added: n/a" the field "On" is left blank, but below the Model, Version etc. field are filled correctly (Kobo Glo 3.12 etc.).

At this point I don't think an hard reset is going to fix anything, especially since right after those the Kobo always worked correctly. The issue always appears later so I'd like to hear any opinions of what could happen in between. The Calibre error is always the same:

database disk image is malformed

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 87, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 503, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 1685, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 2590, in get_bookshelflist
DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed

[JSWolf]

You need to log out of your Kobo account on your device and log back in so the database can be rebuilt. You have a corrupted database on your device.

After the database is rebuilt, you will have to download any books you had previously downloaded from Kobo.

[davidfor]

The problem is a corrupt database on the device. The reason is almost definitely the PC crash while the device was connected and you were transferring files with calibre. It can happen at other times, such as not safely ejecting the ereader.

There isn't much you can do to fix this except, as Jon has said, sign out of the device. This will removed the database, take you through the basic setup and then reload the books that are on the device. Unfortunately, you will lose the reading status of the sideloaded books and any change for downloaded books since the last sync.

[Geenween]

Thank all of you for the helpful replies.

Disconnecting does solve the issue, the problem is that it keeps happening.

The reader worked correctly until today. I installed Koreader and it worked like a charm.

Today I connected the reader to ADE 3.0 to remove a borrowed ebook and added a new one (my town has a nice virtual library). I used the occasion to sync the reader with Kobo Desktop and it asked me if wanted to sync SD as well.

When I disconnected the reader, the library was gone. Rebooting fixed the issue, but the device didn't connect with Calibre anymore. Kobo desktop saw the device but couldn't sync it.

Apart this, all books worked correctly both with nickel and ADE except the one I transferred over with ADE (the authorization was still active and ADE detected the Kobo correctly). Opening that ebook caused the Kobo to freeze both with nickel and koreader.

At this point I'm not sure if the issue is caused by:
- ADE
- Syncing the Kobo with the SD
- Koreader conflicting with any of the above (which would be a problem, since I need the pdf manager)

Is there any known bug about this?

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Geenween

Thank all of you for the helpful replies.

Disconnecting does solve the issue, the problem is that it keeps happening.

Can you clarify what you mean by "disconnecting"? Have you taken the advice above and properly logged out of the Kobo account on your device?

[Geenween]

Originally Posted by meeera

Can you clarify what you mean by "disconnecting"? Have you taken the advice above and properly logged out of the Kobo account on your device?

Absolutely. I do it everytime.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Geenween

Thank all of you for the helpful replies.

Disconnecting does solve the issue, the problem is that it keeps happening.

The reader worked correctly until today. I installed Koreader and it worked like a charm.

Today I connected the reader to ADE 3.0 to remove a borrowed ebook and added a new one (my town has a nice virtual library).

ADE is just puts the book in a particular place on the device. It might update it's manifest file as well, but I don't know. But, from memory, there was a bug with a release of ADE 3 that caused problems. An update was released that solved this. I don't know exactly what it was, but I remembered it was discussed here.

I used the occasion to sync the reader with Kobo Desktop and it asked me if wanted to sync SD as well.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't asking but telling you that if it ran out of space on the main memory that it would then use the SD card as well. The device displays a similar message. I think it gets displayed the first time you do a sync when there is a card in the device. And the device and desktop app start putting purchased kepubs on the SD card when the free space on the main memory is less than 100MB.

When I disconnected the reader, the library was gone. Rebooting fixed the issue, but the device didn't connect with Calibre anymore. Kobo desktop saw the device but couldn't sync it.

Did either display an error? Or did they just not see the device? And if they didn't see it, did the OS see it?

When connected above, you said you ran the Kobo desktop and ADE. Did you also run calibre? It is not safe to run calibre and the Kobo desktop at the same time. And I recommend against running them in the same connection session. It should be OK, but it's one of those things I think is safer to avoid.

Apart this, all books worked correctly both with nickel and ADE except the one I transferred over with ADE (the authorization was still active and ADE detected the Kobo correctly). Opening that ebook caused the Kobo to freeze both with nickel and koreader.

The freeze in nickel might be because of the ADE bug I mentioned. I don't use KOreader so can't comment other than I wouldn't expect it to be able to open the book as a library book would have DRM.

At this point I'm not sure if the issue is caused by:
- ADE
- Syncing the Kobo with the SD
- Koreader conflicting with any of the above (which would be a problem, since I need the pdf manager)

Is there any known bug about this?

Other than the ADE one I mentioned, I can't think of one. Syncing to the SD card should be OK. I haven't seen any bad reports, but I haven't seen many comments about the SD card being used for purchased kepubs.

A thought about space. If you have actually filled the main memory, then ADE putting the library book there might have taken some of the reserved space and caused the rest of the problems. I don't know what would happen in this circumstance, but I suspect it could be "strange things".