Aura H2O Sort by series?

[Cluey]

This has become more complicated than I expected it to be.

I've got a second Aura H20 for a friend and I'm trying to make it easy for them to read a series of books in the correct order without having to look them up elsewhere when choosing the next book.

This is what I'm doing:
On the device select Books > Sort: Series
The result is a list of books not in series but alphabetical order, ignoring any books starting with the.

When I look at the metadata in Calibre the series and book number is set correctly, so I'm a bit baffled.
I read [url=https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=226541]in another thread[/i] that it isn't set on transfer but is updated when reconnected, so I've done that and it's still not showing.
I've also looked at the linked wiki page but all that is info from 2013.

Am I doing something wrong or do I still have to jump through those hoops?
I'm not technically terrible but the Source Template code in the post, or on the wiki, is quite complicated. I can't imagine a regular user doing that, the person I'm trying to help has no PC and extremely basic PC skills so pointing her to that is not going to end well.

I've been using mine for a while but I find myself reading the web more than books these days, when I do read a book I've just been using winblows explorer to copy what I want to read to the H20 and when I'm done I delete it. Very simple and works fine for me but isn't an option for my friend.

Given the age of the instruction post and wiki I thought that Calibre would have got that part sorted out automagically in the intervening four years.
Please tell me I've missed something.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Cluey

This has become more complicated than I expected it to be.

I've got a second Aura H20 for a friend and I'm trying to make it easy for them to read a series of books in the correct order without having to look them up elsewhere when choosing the next book.

This is what I'm doing:
On the device select Books > Sort: Series
The result is a list of books not in series but alphabetical order, ignoring any books starting with the.

When I look at the metadata in Calibre the series and book number is set correctly, so I'm a bit baffled.
I read [url=https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=226541]in another thread[/i] that it isn't set on transfer but is updated when reconnected, so I've done that and it's still not showing.
I've also looked at the linked wiki page but all that is info from 2013.

Am I doing something wrong or do I still have to jump through those hoops?
I'm not technically terrible but the Source Template code in the post, or on the wiki, is quite complicated. I can't imagine a regular user doing that, the person I'm trying to help has no PC and extremely basic PC skills so pointing her to that is not going to end well.

I've been using mine for a while but I find myself reading the web more than books these days, when I do read a book I've just been using winblows explorer to copy what I want to read to the H20 and when I'm done I delete it. Very simple and works fine for me but isn't an option for my friend.

Given the age of the instruction post and wiki I thought that Calibre would have got that part sorted out automagically in the intervening four years.
Please tell me I've missed something.

Are you seeing the series information below the title when you look at your books on the Kobo ereader? If not the series metadata has not been sent to the ereader.

I use DavidFor's KoboUtilities for this purpose. One caveat, as you noted, is that you have to send the metadata for the series info after the book has been processed by your Kobo and added to the database. So send the books, disconnect, let them be processed, reconnect and send the series and other metadata. I think that updating the metadata after the reconnect will also work but haven't tested that in quite a while.

I've attached a screenshot of a sort by series to this message. The screenshot is from my KA1 but looks the same on my H2O.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I use DavidFor's KoboUtilities for this purpose. One caveat, as you noted, is that you have to send the metadata for the series info after the book has been processed by your Kobo and added to the database. So send the books, disconnect, let them be processed, reconnect and send the series and other metadata. I think that updating the metadata after the reconnect will also work but haven't tested that in quite a while.

You don't need to use the Kobo Utilities plugin to do this. If you have the option set in the driver, the series info will be updated when you connect the device.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by davidfor

You don't need to use the Kobo Utilities plugin to do this. If you have the option set in the driver, the series info will be updated when you connect the device.

I disabled the auto-metadata update a while back while trying to track down some odd issues and never re-enabled it. AFAIR, around the same time I was being introduced to the issues when connecting my ereaders to a USB 3.0 port on my laptop.

[Cluey]

Originally Posted by davidfor

You don't need to use the Kobo Utilities plugin to do this. If you have the option set in the driver, the series info will be updated when you connect the device.

I'm trying to sort this out, I think I've got that set correctly but it isn't doing what I thought it would.

I've reset the device and let it upgrade so I'm starting from a blank slate.
I've made a new user account on my PC so I've got a minimal Calibre setup too, I added all the plugins marked Kobo. Perhaps I only need the KoboUtilities one?

I've attached the settings tab I think you're referring to, also what the device shows and Calibre.

[davidfor]

That looks correct. That probably means that the "Metadata Management" setting is wrong. This is on the "Sending books to devices" page of the preferences. It should be set to "Automatic management" for the series info and collections to be updated automatically.

[Cluey]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That looks correct. That probably means that the "Metadata Management" setting is wrong. This is on the "Sending books to devices" page of the preferences. It should be set to "Automatic management" for the series info and collections to be updated automatically.

Oh yeah!
You're a star David.
Perhaps you should change your name to davidone?

Spoiler:

Yeah I know it's the wrong speeling.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Cluey

Oh yeah!
You're a star David.
Perhaps you should change your name to davidone?

If I followed Kobo's standard, it would be davidONE.