"Failed to read book"

[jgawne]

What am I doing wrong?

Three times I have almost finished polishing off an ebook (first time doing all of it in calibre instead of sigil and calibre). I save copies every so often, but at some point when I try and open the file I get a failed to read book message.

All I can think of is that in using a find and replace command I'm killing some code I needed?

I get one of two messages- the first is when trying to open a file in Adobe Digital editions:

calibre, version 3.2.1
ERROR: Could not open e-book: Failed to read book, C:\Users\Jon\Documents\Calibre Library\Unknown\PEN EPUB D (162)\PEN EPUB D - Unknown.epub click "Show Details" for more information

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\ipc\simple_worker.py", line 286, in main
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\iterator\book.py", line 64, in extract_book
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\conversion.py", line 245, in __call__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plugins\epub_in put.py", line 259, in convert
ValueError: C:\Users\Jon\Documents\Calibre Library\Unknown\PEN EPUB D (162)\PEN EPUB D - Unknown.epub is not a valid EPUB file (could not find opf)



I get this when trying to open in Calibre (from which it was saved).

calibre, version 3.2.1
ERROR: Could not open e-book: Failed to read book, C:\Users\Jon\Documents\Calibre Library\Timothy J. Gawne\OLD GUY AND THE PLANET OF ETERNAL N (159)\OLD GUY AND THE PLANET OF ETERN - Timothy J. Gawne.epub click "Show Details" for more information

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\ipc\simple_worker.py", line 286, in main
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\iterator\book.py", line 64, in extract_book
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\conversion.py", line 245, in __call__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plugins\epub_in put.py", line 259, in convert
ValueError: C:\Users\Jon\Documents\Calibre Library\Timothy J. Gawne\OLD GUY AND THE PLANET OF ETERNAL N (159)\OLD GUY AND THE PLANET OF ETERN - Timothy J. Gawne.epub is not a valid EPUB file (could not find opf)

[gbm]

Originally Posted by jgawne

What am I doing wrong?

Three times I have almost finished polishing off an ebook (first time doing all of it in calibre instead of sigil and calibre). I save copies every so often, but at some point when I try and open the file I get a failed to read book message.

All I can think of is that in using a find and replace command I'm killing some code I needed?

I get one of two messages- the first is when trying to open a file in Adobe Digital editions:

calibre, version 3.2.1
ERROR: Could not open e-book: Failed to read book, C:\Users\Jon\Documents\Calibre Library\Unknown\PEN EPUB D (162)\PEN EPUB D - Unknown.epub click "Show Details" for more information

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\ipc\simple_worker.py", line 286, in main
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\iterator\book.py", line 64, in extract_book
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\conversion.py", line 245, in __call__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plugins\epub_in put.py", line 259, in convert
ValueError: C:\Users\Jon\Documents\Calibre Library\Unknown\PEN EPUB D (162)\PEN EPUB D - Unknown.epub is not a valid EPUB file (could not find opf)



I get this when trying to open in Calibre (from which it was saved).

calibre, version 3.2.1
ERROR: Could not open e-book: Failed to read book, C:\Users\Jon\Documents\Calibre Library\Timothy J. Gawne\OLD GUY AND THE PLANET OF ETERNAL N (159)\OLD GUY AND THE PLANET OF ETERN - Timothy J. Gawne.epub click "Show Details" for more information

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\ipc\simple_worker.py", line 286, in main
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\iterator\book.py", line 64, in extract_book
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\conversion.py", line 245, in __call__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plugins\epub_in put.py", line 259, in convert
ValueError: C:\Users\Jon\Documents\Calibre Library\Timothy J. Gawne\OLD GUY AND THE PLANET OF ETERNAL N (159)\OLD GUY AND THE PLANET OF ETERN - Timothy J. Gawne.epub is not a valid EPUB file (could not find opf)

(could not find opf)

You must have deleted your opf file export your ebook using calibre's save to disk fuction, then unzip it, then import the html toc file--not the toc.ncx--into calibre--you do have a html toc--, then do a zip to epub conversion.

bernie

[jgawne]

Thanks, but I am confused as to how I could have done that. I had done some find and replace (in text files) changing some css blocks into another. And some of the times I saved it as a copy to another file as a backup it worked fine. Then suddenly, even though calibre was able to keep working on it, it was unrecoverable.

I'm trying to figure out not just how to fix it (if possible) but how I might have done that, as this is basically the third time through the book that it has happened, and I just do not want to do any more work on it until I can make sure I do not repeat it again.

[gbm]

Originally Posted by jgawne

Thanks, but I am confused as to how I could have done that. I had done some find and replace (in text files) changing some css blocks into another. And some of the times I saved it as a copy to another file as a backup it worked fine. Then suddenly, even though calibre was able to keep working on it, it was unrecoverable.

I'm trying to figure out not just how to fix it (if possible) but how I might have done that, as this is basically the third time through the book that it has happened, and I just do not want to do any more work on it until I can make sure I do not repeat it again.

Adjust your work flow, When I have a book open in the editor I also have it open in the ebook viewer.

After doing some edits, save and make a checkpoint, then reload the book in the viewer. to check your edits. If you have messed up then it is simple to go back to your last checkpoint and undo the edits that caused the problem.

Never close the editor until you have checked your work in the viewer.

bernie

[jgawne]

by viewer so you mean the file preview?

right now I am saving a new file copy pretty often, and checking the size, as it seems when I get a bad file it shrinks to 1K.

So far today I have been very careful about edits, and it still seems to be good, but it is a pain A. worrying, and B. taking extra steps to make sure a saved file is readible.

[gbm]

Originally Posted by jgawne

by viewer so you mean the file preview?

NO.

I mean the calibre ebook viewer.

bernie

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gbm

NO.

I mean the calibre ebook viewer.

bernie

Better using ADE to preview your ePub.