Touch Kobo Touch not seeing SD card

[AshKapow]

I have the Kobo eReader Touch, fully up to date, but when I try and install SC cards, the screen flashes but its not able to see any of the EPUBs, MOBI, or PDF files that are on it, but if I move them to the device then they read fine.

I've tried reformatting the SD cards, and I've done a full factory reset. Any thoughts?

[PeterT]

What format is the SD card?

[Atilla]

If you have a regular 2gig SD card (non HC) try that one first. Some users including me have issues with SDHC.

[Francois_C]

Maybe try to reformat with a special SD card formatter?
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/
Maybe upgrade the firmware?
But, as my own first Kobo (bought by my daughter in "La Fnac" in France) was totally out of order, I don't trust Kobos very much, and I'm inclined to think it is another hardware defect.

[Francois_C]

[Some minutes later] ...But I may have another (more optimistic) track for your investigations: I noticed that when the SD card was formatted through the Kobo link (for instance when it is connected on my PC, the Kobo is J:, the card is M:, and I format M: ), the Kobo would NEVER recognize it. The card should be formatted directly (through a SD/SDHC adapter) on the PC.

[WS64]

I had a lot pf problems with my 8GB SD card.
I tried all the tips I could find of how to format it (including the above mentioned sdcard.org program).
None worked.
The Kobo never saw the card.

What finally worked is to format the SD card in my Blackberry. From that moment on I had no problems any more with the SD card.
I am pretty sure it should work with other phones too, as long as they are unix-based. Of course you can format the card directly under unix, I had no success though with formatting it through a VM unix (WIndows host).

But its for sure worth a try to format the card first on your phone and then try if Kobo recognizes it.

[filmo]

I have formatted SD Cards with program link in post 4. Only way it works is full over write format. I use mainly 4 gb micro SD with Kobo Touch and 2 gb SD cards with wifi with no problems.

Give your SD card exclusive goofy name while formating and never wonder again which drive letter is your SD card.

[geormes]

Originally Posted by filmo

Give your SD card exclusive goofy name while formating and never wonder again which drive letter is your SD card.

Or just use Calibre and remain blissfully ignorant of drive letters.

[Francois_C]

Sometimes only the filesystem is damaged, and a quick format would be enough but of course a full format is always better, since some sectors may have been damaged by the Kobo. Though I'm also a longtime Linux user, I never needed formatting on Linux, but this could be a good idea.
I make regular backups of my Kobo and card contents (in tar.bz2, which is good for archives with many small files: my last saves are two ~250 Mb archives. 7zip is good also for such a storage), and if something goes wrong I overwrite the Kobo content with the save, I reformat the card and refill it with the save (both saves must be exactly contemporary). I noticed that reading and writing with the Kobo is significantly slower than with the card (which I think is not a high-end one), but I suppose that the Kobo components are rather outdated ant partially explain its hilarious slowness which remind us of the first computers with floppy disks
I also use a 4 Gb card, and I think that even a 2 Gb one would be enough, as I experienced that Calibre was not able to manage (slowly and hazardously) more than 700 ebooks (though it has been told to be able to manage 30,000, which is a typical commercial lie: you can write nearly 300,000 ebooks on a 32 Gb card, but Kobo will never parse them correctly).

[filmo]

I use 4 Gb cards because smallest that is easy to buy at local store. 2 Gb is really ok.

256 Meg easy to fill with books but do you really need to carry that many epub books.

[PeterT]

The other issue which we've seen is the Kobo "bogging" down when there are more than a certain nu,ber of image files in the .kobo/images directory.

[Francois_C]

Originally Posted by PeterT

The other issue which we've seen is the Kobo "bogging" down when there are more than a certain nu,ber of image files in the .kobo/images directory.

This directory contains monochrome copies of the covers (a large one for the cover and a small one for thumbnails), in JPEG files withe a .parsed extension.
Did someone ever tried to delete them?

PS: How did you convince your wife to use an ereader, Peter? Mine remains stuck to her paper books

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

PS: How did you convince your wife to use an ereader, Peter? Mine remains stuck to her paper books

She has always loved technology (but at times its more an issue of having a new shiny toy). Years ago (when we first met) she had a Palm so over the years that got upgraded to newer models; she has various other hand-held devices. Also she has always ALWAYS loved to read and even used to read some books on the old Palm's.

So when the Kobo came to Canada it was obvious that she would love one.

[freightcar]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

Maybe try to reformat with a special SD card formatter?
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/

formatting with this tool did the trick for me.

[Francois_C]

Originally Posted by freightcar

formatting with this tool did the trick for me.

Glad to know it
This sort of formatting utility also spares your card.

BTW, I noticed that SDHC can live longer than I thought: a 8 GB Dane-Elec (normal size, not micro) SDHC which I have used for more than three years for DVB recordings and has been written more than 1000 (maybe 2000) times is still alive and error-free.