Connecting Calibre and Forma

[pwalker8]

I went ahead and purchased the 32 GB Forma on the 19th and I'm sure it will show up one of these days. Got the confirmation email when I purchased it, but haven't gotten the shipped email yet.

I do have an Aura One eReader, so I have no problem with connecting to Calibre and side loading books. What I want to do is avoid the little gotchas that I ran into with the Aura, such as downloading all my ebooks from the Kobo store _before_ I connect to Calibre to avoid duplicates (though there are some formatting advantages to using the deDRM version). Also the issue of series where I have some books in the series from Kobo (actually originally the Sony store) and some from Amazon. How to make sure they all show up in the same series grouping. Is there a way, or does the series info get tagged in a different way than Calibre use? Also, any little things like reading list and the like would be helpful.

Thanks

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I went ahead and purchased the 32 GB Forma on the 19th and I'm sure it will show up one of these days. Got the confirmation email when I purchased it, but haven't gotten the shipped email yet.

I do have an Aura One eReader, so I have no problem with connecting to Calibre and side loading books. What I want to do is avoid the little gotchas that I ran into with the Aura, such as downloading all my ebooks from the Kobo store _before_ I connect to Calibre to avoid duplicates (though there are some formatting advantages to using the deDRM version). Also the issue of series where I have some books in the series from Kobo (actually originally the Sony store) and some from Amazon. How to make sure they all show up in the same series grouping. Is there a way, or does the series info get tagged in a different way than Calibre use? Also, any little things like reading list and the like would be helpful.

Thanks

If you are sideloading the books from calibre, everything should remain the same. For books synced from Kobo's site, you'll find the same issues. Since I prefer to sideload my books, for the most part, I buy the book, download it and then archive it.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I went ahead and purchased the 32 GB Forma on the 19th and I'm sure it will show up one of these days. Got the confirmation email when I purchased it, but haven't gotten the shipped email yet.

I do have an Aura One eReader, so I have no problem with connecting to Calibre and side loading books. What I want to do is avoid the little gotchas that I ran into with the Aura, such as downloading all my ebooks from the Kobo store _before_ I connect to Calibre to avoid duplicates (though there are some formatting advantages to using the deDRM version).

Having multiple copies of the books on the device doesn't worry my much. But, my habit is to start reading the downloaded version, and if I hit formatting issues, to sideload and read that version. With any fixing that I need.

Also the issue of series where I have some books in the series from Kobo (actually originally the Sony store) and some from Amazon. How to make sure they all show up in the same series grouping. Is there a way, or does the series info get tagged in a different way than Calibre use?

Consistency is the thing. If the series name you have in calibre matches the series name the purchased book has, then it will all be OK. If they don't match, they will be treated as different series. And this can be a problem with the purchased book as well. The series name can be different between the books. That is usually the publishers fault (I found a 10+ book series that changed publisher halfway through. They used slightly different series names and appeared as two different series) but Kobo can fix this.

Also, any little things like reading list and the like would be helpful.

I'm not sure what to suggest. When I get new books, I make sure the metadata is correct (at least in my opinion, but, part of that is consistency with other books), and add them to a reading list for the devices I want them on. With a new device, I decide which books I want on the device and send them when connected. Or use the reading list to automatically send them. And then update the reading status if I an sending a book I am reading or finished (mainly if I want the finished books in a series available).

I always have a play with the device before doing much to check the differences in the options and behaviour. Then I'll copy some blocks from an old config file to the new one. This is includes the browser favourites and the hidden options.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Having multiple copies of the books on the device doesn't worry my much. But, my habit is to start reading the downloaded version, and if I hit formatting issues, to sideload and read that version. With any fixing that I need.

Consistency is the thing. If the series name you have in calibre matches the series name the purchased book has, then it will all be OK. If they don't match, they will be treated as different series. And this can be a problem with the purchased book as well. The series name can be different between the books. That is usually the publishers fault (I found a 10+ book series that changed publisher halfway through. They used slightly different series names and appeared as two different series) but Kobo can fix this.


I'm not sure what to suggest. When I get new books, I make sure the metadata is correct (at least in my opinion, but, part of that is consistency with other books), and add them to a reading list for the devices I want them on. With a new device, I decide which books I want on the device and send them when connected. Or use the reading list to automatically send them. And then update the reading status if I an sending a book I am reading or finished (mainly if I want the finished books in a series available).

I always have a play with the device before doing much to check the differences in the options and behaviour. Then I'll copy some blocks from an old config file to the new one. This is includes the browser favourites and the hidden options.

The purpose of this particular device is to have all my books on it, that's why I got the 32 GB version.

I think I will download all my books from the Kobo store first, Make sure that everything (author names, titles, series names) matches in Calibre, then side load everything else. There is one particular series where the series name changes for the books in Kobo. I'm not sure if I can fix that via Calibre or not.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

There is one particular series where the series name changes for the books in Kobo. I'm not sure if I can fix that via Calibre or not.

It's a long time since I needed to do this and I can't remember all the details. It's something like ...

Connect your Kobo to calibre and go to calibre's Device View. For each book which is not checked in the 'In Library' column, but which you know does have a calibre match, right-click book and select 'Match book to library' and follow all the on-screen instructions.

It's a bit tedious but you should only need to do the exercise once. After you disconnect from calibre, every subsequent reconnect should remember these new book matches along with all your other sideloaded book matches and let calibre do it's thing keeping your Kobo metadata inline with the calibre library metadata.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

It's a long time since I needed to do this and I can't remember all the details. It's something like ...

Connect your Kobo to calibre and go to calibre's Device View. For each book which is not checked in the 'In Library' column, but which you know does have a calibre match, right-click book and select 'Match book to library' and follow all the on-screen instructions.

It's a bit tedious but you should only need to do the exercise once. After you disconnect from calibre, every subsequent reconnect should remember these new book matches along with all your other sideloaded book matches and let calibre do it's thing keeping your Kobo metadata inline with the calibre library metadata.

Every Kobo book is also in Calibre, so every book should have a match. Thanks for the info.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Every Kobo book is also in Calibre, so every book should have a match.

Except, that the title and authors aren't always a close enough match. And there are issues with multiple authors. These tend to not match automatically.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Except, that the title and authors aren't always a close enough match. And there are issues with multiple authors. These tend to not match automatically.

Yes, that's why the information of how to force a match is good. I was just saying that all the books in my Kobo library is also in Calibre, so any book that doesn't automatically match will need to be updated.

The reader is suppose to arrive today.

[pwalker8]

Got the new Forma yesterday afternoon and spent most the evening getting everything loaded. It turned out that there were about 10 Kobo books that I had issues with, either they were not in Calibre or they were in under a different name. I noticed that there was a big battery drain over night. That could just have been the device trying to digest all the books. I'll make sure it gets a full charge today and then keep an eye on it.

Most of the series look ok, but I'm sure that I'll be fixing things for a month or two.

[pwalker8]

I think the battery drain is because the Forma is constantly trying to sync. Perhaps that's because of the some 4000 books I side loaded on it. Odd, but I'll leave it charging and see if it can sort itself out. Syncing really seems to use a lot of battery power.

I do like the buttons on the side for page turning.

[Elektron]

You could turn off the WiFi.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Elektron

You could turn off the WiFi.

Yes, but it's going to keep trying to finish the sync. I figure I'm better off letting it go ahead and finish up and then see what the battery life is like.

[davidfor]

Firstly, sideloaded books are not synced. They shouldn't affect the sync (except in whatever affect a larger database size has on reading and updates).

I get an occasional sync that doesn't end and runs the battery down. I usually blame it on network issues, but, there are probably other reasons as well. Sometimes stopping and starting it again is enough. Did you notice what step it got up to? For me, it is most likely to get stuck in the updating content or the annotations step.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Firstly, sideloaded books are not synced. They shouldn't affect the sync (except in whatever affect a larger database size has on reading and updates).

I get an occasional sync that doesn't end and runs the battery down. I usually blame it on network issues, but, there are probably other reasons as well. Sometimes stopping and starting it again is enough. Did you notice what step it got up to? For me, it is most likely to get stuck in the updating content or the annotations step.

It never got past the first step. I've stopped it and restarted it a couple of times. It synced fine when I first started it and downloaded the 200+ books that are in my Kobo library. Hum.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

It never got past the first step. I've stopped it and restarted it a couple of times. It synced fine when I first started it and downloaded the 200+ books that are in my Kobo library. Hum.

Ended up doing a hard reset and reloading everything. I broke it into smaller chucks. Everything seems to be working correctly now.