Forma Uh-oh, here we go again...

[gtriever]

Suddenly, overnight, my Forma is not retaining either the 'Reading Now' settings or any books loaded from Calibre since November 2. Hints, tips, suggestions, or am I looking at the dreaded 'Sign out of your account' option again?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[Barbara1955]

Sounds like a Bad Device... Return it!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by gtriever

Suddenly, overnight, my Forma is not retaining either the 'Reading Now' settings or any books loaded from Calibre since November 2. Hints, tips, suggestions, or am I looking at the dreaded 'Sign out of your account' option again?

That is usually a sign of a corrupt database. Unless you have a recent backup of the database, the signout will be what is needed.

[gtriever]

Yep, corrupt database. I've managed to reload all my books, and now I get the fun of rebuilding all of my Collections... yippee.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by gtriever

Yep, corrupt database. I've managed to reload all my books, and now I get the fun of rebuilding all of my Collections... yippee.

I do my collection management with Calibre.

[gtriever]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I do my collection management with Calibre.

Maybe "collections" is the wrong terminology for what I do. Under my Collections tab, I have some books arranged according to Series Name (example: Dragonriders of Pern), some books by Author (example: John Grisham), and some books by Category (example: Nonfiction - History, World Wars I and II).

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by gtriever

Maybe "collections" is the wrong terminology for what I do. Under my Collections tab, I have some books arranged according to Series Name (example: Dragonriders of Pern), some books by Author (example: John Grisham), and some books by Category (example: Nonfiction - History, World Wars I and II).

Well, you can do that in calibre as well. Any column in calibre can be used to create collections, and you can use multiple column. My current configuration uses "#kobobookshelves,#status,#book_source" where, in reverse order, the columns represent where the book came from, the status of the book (reading plus some other things) and a column that I set manually for other collections.

And, of course, the Series tab in the current firmware can be set via the driver. Just have it set the series info and the data needed for the Series tab is also set.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by gtriever

Maybe "collections" is the wrong terminology for what I do. Under my Collections tab, I have some books arranged according to Series Name (example: Dragonriders of Pern), some books by Author (example: John Grisham), and some books by Category (example: Nonfiction - History, World Wars I and II).

Since Kobo already has tabs in My Books for Authors and Series, what is the benefit of duplicating that info in Collections? Seems like a lot of clutter to me.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Since Kobo already has tabs in My Books for Authors and Series, what is the benefit of duplicating that info in Collections? Seems like a lot of clutter to me.

On my Glo HDs, the only thing that shows in the lower right side of the home screen is Collections. I've never been able to trigger a Series or Author in that spot. So that's the only reason I went back to the old reliable Calibre method of sorting by tags and series into Collections. I want to be able to quickly grab the next book in the series I'm currently reading, and using Calibre is the only way.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

On my Glo HDs, the only thing that shows in the lower right side of the home screen is Collections. I've never been able to trigger a Series or Author in that spot. So that's the only reason I went back to the old reliable Calibre method of sorting by tags and series into Collections. I want to be able to quickly grab the next book in the series I'm currently reading, and using Calibre is the only way.

On my Forma the Series "tab" is at the top when I'm in My Books. Along the top are Books, Authors, Series, and Collections. At the bottom of the screen are Home, My Books, Discover, and More.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

On my Glo HDs, the only thing that shows in the lower right side of the home screen is Collections. I've never been able to trigger a Series or Author in that spot. So that's the only reason I went back to the old reliable Calibre method of sorting by tags and series into Collections. I want to be able to quickly grab the next book in the series I'm currently reading, and using Calibre is the only way.

You won't see Series in that spot. You should see an author or a collection. But, the rules for what goes there do not make it particularly reliable. I suppose reading one book after another in a collection would keep it there. But, it wouldn't surprise me if it swapped to the auther.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by hobnail

On my Forma the Series "tab" is at the top when I'm in My Books. Along the top are Books, Authors, Series, and Collections. At the bottom of the screen are Home, My Books, Discover, and More.

I patch so the third row is eliminated. So the top row is the 4 most recent books, 2nd row is My Books, and the current Collection. When I'm reading a series, it's much more convenient to grab the next book from the home screen Collection tile and not have to go into My Books, Series, and then find the one you want.

Originally Posted by davidfor

You won't see Series in that spot. You should see an author or a collection. But, the rules for what goes there do not make it particularly reliable. I suppose reading one book after another in a collection would keep it there. But, it wouldn't surprise me if it swapped to the auther.

It always stays on whatever is the most recent Collection I opened a book from. It never switches to author or anything else. When the new tabs were added in My Books, I changed Calibre to not bother sorting by series. But I quickly discovered that Series isn't what shows in that location, only Collections, so I put Calibre back the way I had it. I really wish that tile did show Series or Collections, whichever you opened a book from.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by davidfor

You won't see Series in that spot. You should see an author or a collection. But, the rules for what goes there do not make it particularly reliable. I suppose reading one book after another in a collection would keep it there. But, it wouldn't surprise me if it swapped to the auther.

It would be nice if you could pin any series/author/collection to the bottom-right (and for users without anything pinned, it would stick with the defaults).

And one rule I've noticed (I haven't confirmed it in the code, though, so it might be a coincidence) is that it won't show a category there if it has <3 items unique to the homescreen.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by geek1011

It would be nice if you could pin any series/author/collection to the bottom-right (and for users without anything pinned, it would stick with the defaults).

That would definitely be the best option. But I'm not holding my breath.