Send To Kindle Combined MOBI Problem

[Paul1977]

I use Cailbre for book management and conversion on my PC, and use the Send To Kindle function to deliver books to my device (I do it this way so I can make use of WhisperSync for non-Amazon purchased books).

I convert my ebooks into the combined MOBI format (or the "Both" format as Calibre calls it).

My understanding is that by emailing this format that my Kindle Oasis should get the ebook delivered in the AZW3 format.

However, what I am finding is that most get delivered as AZW, and only some get delivered as AZW3.

I prefer how the AZW3 format displays on my device, so ideally I would like them all to be delivered in the AZW3 format; but can't see where I am going wrong.

[jhowell]

What you are doing should work. I do something similar, but instead of using calibre for conversion I use KindleGen. This produces the same type of combined MOBI file, which Amazon calls a Master MOBI. I use the -dont_append_source option to reduce the file size, otherwise the output file will contain a copy of the source.

kindlegen book.epub -dont_append_source

You might try doing the same thing for a book that isn't working properly for you and if it is delivered as azw3 then you will know the issue lies in the calibre conversion. (If using kindlegen doesn't work perhaps someone else will have another idea.)

[Paul1977]

Originally Posted by jhowell

What you are doing should work. I do something similar, but instead of using calibre for conversion I use KindleGen. This produces the same type of combined MOBI file, which Amazon calls a Master MOBI. I use the -dont_append_source option to reduce the file size, otherwise the output file will contain a copy of the source.

kindlegen book.epub -dont_append_source

You might try doing the same thing for a book that isn't working properly for you and if it is delivered as azw3 then you will know the issue lies in the calibre conversion. (If using kindlegen doesn't work perhaps someone else will have another idea.)

Thanks for that. As it happens I've just been trying KindleGen and it seems to do the trick.

Had some issues with a couple of ePubs, but if I reconvert the ePub in Calibre first and force it to recreate the table of contents it will then go through KindleGen no problem.

Thanks

[odamizu]

I've had the same experience where Calibre dual-mobis don't always deliver AZW3 to my Kindles, but KindleGen so far does. I'm toying with switching to KindleGen as my primary conversion tool.

Paul1977, can you elaborate on the table of contents issue you've run into? Is it a problematic NCX file? Missing HTML Table of Contents? Something else?

Put another way, I always make sure my epubs validate before I run them through KindleGen, and I'm wondering if that's enough, or if KindleGen can still have problems with a valid epub. Thanks!

[Paul1977]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Paul1977, can you elaborate on the table of contents issue you've run into? Is it a problematic NCX file? Missing HTML Table of Contents? Something else?

I'm not sure what it was sorry, the output just said something about an error to do with the ToC, so it made sense to just tell Calibre to force a new ToC. I had a few more that KindleGen didn't like that weren't related to the ToC as well though. Couldn't figure those ones out and it was easier to just source some alternate EPUBs of the same titles which worked.

My collection is relatively small, only about 120 and most were fine with KindleGen.

I'm not really very knowledgeable about how the eBook formats work, so don't even know what an NCX file is!

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Paul1977

I'm not sure what it was sorry, the output just said something about an error to do with the ToC ... I'm not really very knowledgeable about how the eBook formats work, so don't even know what an NCX file is!

Okay, thanks anyway An NCX file contains TOC information that can be accessed via the "Go To" menu. To me, this is handier than the TOC page traditionally found at the beginning of a book.

Does anyone know if KindleGen requires anything more than a valid NCX file (i.e., EPUB with NCX file that validates) to work as far as TOC navigation goes?

The first time I looked into KindleGen a few years ago, it seemed more persnickety about TOCs. My impression from the current Kindle Publishing Guidelines is that as long as it has a valid NCX file, KindleGen will work. But I don't have a lot of experience with KindleGen, so I'm not sure. Help?

[shamanNS]

KindleGen will always "work" you'll just get mobi file that will not have working "Go To" option on older Kindle models (Kindle 2, Kindle 3...) that use HTML ToC for that (Kindlegen will show a warning that it can't find HTML ToC). Those models use NCX ToC only for showing those chapter markings on progress bar at the bottom of screen, and for skiping chapter forward/backward using D-Pad, but Go To option just goes to HTML ToC.
Newer models (Paperwhite...) use NCX ToC for Go To menu, just like any epub reader device.

No idea if newer versions of KindleGen & Kindle Previewer have maybe added functionality of automatically creating HTML ToC from NCX ToC and set semantics... I haven't used Kindlegen for at least 2-3 years.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

KindleGen will always "work" ...

Thanks for the details. Mostly, I'm wondering if I can avoid the TOC error messages Paul1977 ran into if all my epubs validate and have an NCX file.

[Paul1977]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

KindleGen will always "work"...

No... I have found several more ePubs that will not work with KindleGen. So KindleGen most certainly doesn't "always work" (at least not the latest version).

Some I've been able to fix with my very limited knowledge, and some I haven't been able to.

These problem EPUBs will all convert happily with no errors in Calibre, and if I sideload onto Kindle in either AWZ3 or combined Mobi they work fine. But when emailing the combined MOBI to Kindle, Amazon still almost always delivers an AZW instead of AZW3.

When KindleGen successfully creates a MOBI, and I email that Amazon always delivers an AZW3. The problem is that KindleGen only seems to work on about 90% of my eBooks.

The error received when KindleGen fails is almost always related to the TOC.

EDIT: If the EPUBs are all validating it might be a different story, many of mine show errors upon validation, but of those most of them work with KindleGen anyway. Perhaps KindleGen is more tolerant of some problems, and less tolerant of others?

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Paul1977

No... I have found several more ePubs that will not work with KindleGen. So KindleGen most certainly doesn't "always work" (at least not the latest version).

...

The error received when KindleGen fails is almost always related to the TOC.

It would help if you could tell us what the error messages say. Thanks!

[Paul1977]

Originally Posted by odamizu

It would help if you could tell us what the error messages say. Thanks!

Here is an example, I bolded the error lines (as opposed to just warnings):

Spoiler:

Info(prcgen):I1047: Added metadata dc:Publisher "HarperCollins Publishers"

Info(prcgen):I1047: Added metadata dc:Contributor "calibre (2.63.0) [https://calibre-ebook.com]"

Info(prcgen):I1047: Added metadata dc:Rights "All rights reserved"

Info(cssparser):I10004: @rules other than @import, @charset and @font-face are not supported.

Info(prcgen):I1052: Kindle support cover images but does not support cover HTML. Hence using the cover image specified and suppressing cover HTML in content. URL: C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\Temp\mbp_7E0_8_1_C_28_ 26_30_444C_483C_1\titlepage.xhtml

Info(prcgen):I1002: Parsing files 0000080

Info(prcgen):I1015: Building PRC file

Info(prcgen):I1006: Resolving hyperlinks

Warning(prcgen):W14001: Hyperlink not resolved: C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\Temp\mbp_7E0_8_1_C_28_ 26_30_444C_483C_1\text\part0002.html#1T140-59f2e802953240c68dea0388aeee032c

Warning(prcgen):W14001: Hyperlink not resolved: C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\Temp\mbp_7E0_8_1_C_28_ 26_30_444C_483C_1\text\part0000.html#0-59f2e802953240c68dea0388aeee032c

Warning(prcgen):W14002: Some hyperlinks could not be resolved.

Info(prcgen):I1008: Resolving start reading location

Warning(prcgen):W14003: The start reading location could not be resolved.

Info(prcgen):I1049: Building table of content URL: C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\Temp\mbp_7E0_8_1_C_28_ 26_30_444C_483C_1\toc.ncx

Error(prcgen):E24010: Hyperlink not resolved in toc (One possible reason can be that the link points to a tag with style display:none):C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\Temp\mbp _7E0_8_1_C_28_26_30_444C_483C_1\text\part0001.html #UGI0-59f2e802953240c68dea0388aeee032c

Error(prcgen):E24001: The table of content could not be built.

Info(prcgen):I1016: Building enhanced PRC file

Info(prcgen):I1007: Resolving mediaidlinks

Info(prcgen):I1011: Writing mediaidlinks

Info(prcgen):I1009: Resolving guide items

Info(pagemap):I8000: No Page map found in the book

Info(prcgen):I1045: Computing UNICODE ranges used in the book

Info(prcgen):I1046: Found UNICODE range: Basic Latin [20..7E]

Info(prcgen):I1046: Found UNICODE range: General Punctuation - Windows 1252 [2018..201A]

Info(prcgen):I1046: Found UNICODE range: Latin-1 Supplement [A0..FF]

Info(prcgen):I1046: Found UNICODE range: Latin Extended-A [100..17F]

Info(prcgen):I1017: Building PRC file, record count: 0000215

Info(prcgen):I1039: Final stats - text compressed to (in % of original size): 53.33%

Info(prcgen):I1040: The document identifier is: "The_Heist"

Info(prcgen):I1041: The file format version is V8

Info(prcgen):I1031: Saving PRC file

Info(prcgen):I1032: PRC built successfully

Info(prcgen):I1038: MOBI file could not be generated because of errors!

[shamanNS]

That epub needs fixing in an editor... Log states in plain english that you have missing CSS IDs in HTML files, that TOC is referencing (so hyperlinks in ToC are invalid). It also doesn't have "text" semantics set for "start reading location".
If you open it with Calibre's ToC editor you'll probably see bunch of read circles in front if ToC elements, indicating invalid links.

[Paul1977]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

That epub needs fixing in an editor... Log states in plain english that you have missing CSS IDs in HTML files, that TOC is referencing (so hyperlinks in ToC are invalid). It also doesn't have "text" semantics set for "start reading location".
If you open it with Calibre's ToC editor you'll probably see bunch of read circles in front if ToC elements, indicating invalid links.

Not plain English to me. I can see it says it has invalid references but I am to much of a novice to know how to fix them.

ToC editor in Calibre just shows green ticks next to everything.

[EbokJunkie]

This error is fixable in a very direct way:
1. Open problem ePub in Calibre editor.
2. Go to Tools/Table of Contents/Edit Table of Contents). Press Ctrl/A to highlight entire TOC at the left pane and press Del to clear the left pane.
3. Select Generate ToC from file, press OK and Save (or Save As) the file.

This will provide kindlegen with needed functionality and the final ToC in resulting mobi will be correct.