How to delete sideloaded PDFs

[Grant Jacobs]

I am trying to clear some space on the main memory of my Kobo book reader but the book reader instead seems to be taking more space, not less. How does Kobo want users to remove side-loaded files?


Besides my books from Kobo I have a large number of PDF files (scientific research papers) and previews of books. The former are sideloaded; the latter downloaded from Kobo.

I'm trying to delete some of the sideloaded PDF files for now; I can come back to the previews later.

From within a collection (or within My Books) you can long click on a title, then click Remove. You're then offered options on what to remove: I select to remove from My Books, not from the collection. (The message Kobo gives is unclear on what these options do. Reading the manual it seems to me that the Kobo software ought not to be showing me the second option at all as these PDFs files are sideloaded and have nothing to do with Kobo. But what gives…)

I was expecting this to remove the actual PDF file and whatever the Kobo software removes from their database of books on the reader and hence free up space.

However when I check under Settings > Device Information I find that I now have less free space, not more. It's not freeing up space, it's using up more space.

I'm now loathe to try further explorations lest I run out of space entirely.

So. What is the process to actually remove a side-loaded file? There are no instructions for this in the help manual on the book reader that I can see. Similarly a quick look at Kobo.com doesn't seem offer any help.

Or am I supposed to manually delete the files by connecting the book reader to the macBook, viewing the files in Finder, then deleting them, then hope that the book reader does some sort of re-indexing process to update it's database to reflect the new situation?* If that's how Kobo wants it to work, in my humble opinion they'd be best to tell people! (*One concern is if this would leave the Kobo database entries dangling, hence I haven't tried this yet.)

I haven't yet manually inspected the files from Finder to riddle out what is going on as I suspect that'll take a fair bit of time; I'm writing here on the off-hand chance someone might know what happens in this situation.

Suggestions welcome.

(I have an older H20 Aura; I suspect the model doesn't matter for my question.)

[davidfor]

I'm not sure what is unclear about the options when removing a book, but, that is what you should do. Selecting the "Remove from My Books" should remove any sideloaded book from both the collection and the device. I haven't seen this not work except when the database on the device was already corrupted. And I can't think of a reason for the space not being freed. Or more space being used. Have you checked if the file was actually removed when connected to the PC?

You can also safely remove a book when connected to the PC. When the device is disconnected, it will check for any missing books and remove the details from the database before importing any new books.

If you are a calibre used, you can also use it to delete the books. This will remove the file and the database entries. This is the way I usually do any deletes as it is the easiest way to remove a group of files.

[4691mls]

I recently bought a Clara and was confused about what the different "remove" options did. i found this thread from a few months ago where davidfor went into detail about it.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=314968

[Grant Jacobs]

davidfor, Thanks.

Is there a way to test if the database is corrupted? (Not fix it, just test first.) The only advice I've seen online (so far) to just re-build it, but that seems to involve thrashing all the books on the device then reloading them. I can't see an option to "test database consistency" or equivalent in the software either.

Seems to me that to delete side-loaded files I'd be best to simply remove the books via Finder and let the Kobo software catch up with the change.

I have Calibre and could try it again, but I have to admit I found the messages about firmware, etc., off-putting.

As for reseting things, what I don't want to happen at this point is for Kobo's software to try install some books I've purchased but haven't yet loaded. Now that it's reporting very little free memory, I'm a bit leery of connecting the book reader online as from memory Kobo's update software tries kick in automatically.



4691mls, thanks - I read that actually. What I'm seeing is contrary to,

"For sideloaded books, "Remove" only has the one option and removes the book and nearly all evidence of it from the database."

These PDF files are side-loaded. I would have expected one option doing what this says—not just because of davidfor's explanation but from my own reasoning too—but I'm being presented with two options. In case it's not clear my reference to two options earlier isn't repeating from help notes, but is what I'm seeing.

I missed the penultimate paragraph of his reply unfortunately!


I may be a bit slow to reply over the next day or two as I won't have a lot of free time.

[DNSB]

If you use davidfor's KoboUtilities plugin with calibre, it has options to check, compress and backup the database.

As for removing a sideloaded book, when I do that, the popup says "Remove from My Books" with a choice between Cancel and Remove.

I would tend to suspect that your database is inconsistent.

[Grant Jacobs]

DNSB - thanks I'll give that a whirl next week.

As you say there might be an issue with the DB. (I've wondered myself. There's a long-standing - IME - that might be trouble; at least in my hands, the Kobo Desktop app doesn't know how to eject the device properly when it's got an SD card added. I alerted Kobo a couple of years ago, but the issue is still there (AFAIK - not keen to keep trying!). I had hoped this might only affect the added SD card rather than the main memory where I presume where the DB, etc. lives, but perhaps it's affecting more than that. I learnt to eject by selecting the two drives by lassoing them in Finder's desktop, right-clicking and selecting Eject. This isn't completely foolproof but it does better than the Kobo app.)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Grant Jacobs

davidfor, Thanks.

Is there a way to test if the database is corrupted? (Not fix it, just test first.) The only advice I've seen online (so far) to just re-build it, but that seems to involve thrashing all the books on the device then reloading them. I can't see an option to "test database consistency" or equivalent in the software either.

As @DNSN, my Kobo Utilities plugin for calibre has a database test function. Just letting calibre connect will show some problems. The plugin does a more complete test. Otherwise it is an SQLite database. And SQLite database manager will have a way to check it.

For rebuilding the database, you should sign-out of the Kobo account on the device. It will reimport the sideloaded books as part of that, but you will lose the reading status. And my Kobo Utilities plugin has as solution to that.

Seems to me that to delete side-loaded files I'd be best to simply remove the books via Finder and let the Kobo software catch up with the change.

If you are removing a lot of books, or do it while adding books, that's probably the simplest.

I have Calibre and could try it again, but I have to admit I found the messages about firmware, etc., off-putting.

That message is really just a warning in case Kobo does change things. But, if you keep calibre up-to-date, you won't see it as much.

As for reseting things, what I don't want to happen at this point is for Kobo's software to try install some books I've purchased but haven't yet loaded. Now that it's reporting very little free memory, I'm a bit leery of connecting the book reader online as from memory Kobo's update software tries kick in automatically.

For a firmware updated to happen, there has to be somewhere between 100 and 200MB of storage available. And at about 100MB free, it will start using the SD card to store purchased books.

4691mls, thanks - I read that actually. What I'm seeing is contrary to,

"For sideloaded books, "Remove" only has the one option and removes the book and nearly all evidence of it from the database."

These PDF files are side-loaded. I would have expected one option doing what this says—not just because of davidfor's explanation but from my own reasoning too—but I'm being presented with two options. In case it's not clear my reference to two options earlier isn't repeating from help notes, but is what I'm seeing.

What you see when you remove a book depends one where you are and what type of book. For a sideloaded book in the main library list or an authors list, there are no options, just a warning that you will need to reimport it. In a collection, there will be an option to remove it from the collection or from the device. On the home screen, the options will be to remove it from the home screen or the device. For purchased books, the remove from device is different (removes the book but leaves details) and there will be an extra option to put it in the archive.

If the book is on the SD card, everything should be the same. But, I don't remember if the options mention that the book is on the card.