Viewer modifies EPUB files

[joycelow100]

Hi,
I napologise in advance if I am the wrong thread but I cant work out how to start a new one being new to Mobileread.
I have also noticed Vs 3.0 changes. If I open a epub book with the e-viewer programme, it modifies the epub file and changes the modification date in the folder. It also caused Trend Max Security to come up with an alert when the book was closed (in short Ransomware - which was trying to change my file but Trend could not stop the file being changed) and indeed the date of modification would change to the current date/time. It gave me the choice of deleting the program (calibre e-viewer.exe) which I did but then I could not open any epub books with the viewer. Using the e-repair feature, (which replaced the calibre e-viewer.exe) did not help. Nor did uninstalling Calibre 3.0 and re-installing Calibre 2.83 except with the latter there was no message from Trend but the file date was still being modified. It does not happen with mobi and pdf files only epub. Trend Micro technical help assure me there is no Ransomeware but cant tell me why its is happening.

[kovidgoyal]

calibre has always modified epub files when viewing them. You can turn that off by accessing the viewer preferences and turning off the option to "Keep a copy of bookmarks in the current file" under Miscellaneous.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by joycelow100

Hi,
I apologise in advance if I am the wrong thread but I cant work out how to start a new one being new to Mobileread.

Moderator Notice
No worries, for future reference:



BR

[joycelow100]

Thanks for the reply.
Calibre is just simply amazing!
Unfortunately, when I go to user Preferences, Miscellaneous I don't option of to "Keep a copy of bookmarks in the current file" Is that in the paid version. I must have had that option selected in version 2.88
In any case, now that you have explained it, my worries are over.
It seems incredible that Trend flagged it as Ransomware

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by joycelow100

Thanks for the reply.
Calibre is just simply amazing!
Unfortunately, when I go to user Preferences, Miscellaneous I don't option of to "Keep a copy of bookmarks in the current file" Is that in the paid version. I must have had that option selected in version 2.88
In any case, now that you have explained it, my worries are over.
It seems incredible that Trend flagged it as Ransomware

There is no paid for version of calibre. And there was never a 2.88 either, so I'm not sure what you were using. As to Trend flagging it as ransomware, if you didn't download calibre from the links on the download page, it is possible someone else added the ransomware.

The option is in the viewer preferences, not the main calibre preferences. Open a book in the viewer and access the preferences from there.

[joycelow100]

Thanks for pointing out that I should be looking at the preferences for the e-viewer and not the main Calibre program preferences. Yes, I download from the links on the download page. I need new glasses - previous version I had loaded was 2.83 not 2.88.
Apparently Trend recognised that the epub file had been modified (as it turns out due to the automatic bookmark being saved in the EPUB file) but Trend got it wrong by calling it "Ransomware".

[13xforever]

it's 2022, and Calibre still modifies the files without asking or any warning. Why was it deemed to be ok to do this by default? And especially to always write empty bookmarks? I never questioned why it always said to wait when you open the book for the first time, and only noticed extra file by accident. Now I have to re-check and re-download all modified backups again.

[gbm]

[If you open the epub in the editor it will and run Check Book then click "Try to correct all fixable errors automatically". Then run Check Book it will remove the bookmarks file that offends you.

bernie

Originally Posted by 13xforever

it's 2022, and Calibre still modifies the files without asking or any warning. Why was it deemed to be ok to do this by default? And especially to always write empty bookmarks? I never questioned why it always said to wait when you open the book for the first time, and only noticed extra file by accident. Now I have to re-check and re-download all modified backups again.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by 13xforever

it's 2022, and Calibre still modifies the files without asking or any warning. Why was it deemed to be ok to do this by default? And especially to always write empty bookmarks? I never questioned why it always said to wait when you open the book for the first time, and only noticed extra file by accident. Now I have to re-check and re-download all modified backups again.

Just load the eBooks into the editor and delete the bookmark files. It's that easy.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Just load the eBooks into the editor and delete the bookmark files. It's that easy.

Quality Check can be used to find bookmarks, and Modify ePub to batch-delete them.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Quality Check can be used to find bookmarks, and Modify ePub to batch-delete them.

True that. Well said.

[13xforever]

I don't think you understand the fundamental issue with this. It's a viewer, the expectation of a viewer is that it reads the file, not modifies the content. That's unexpected behavior that undermines the trust in software.

Besides, I have 5k book files in archive, plus 3-4k works in calibre combining multiple formats for files in archive. Over the years I checked maybe tens to hundreds random books when doing quality check or looking for issues on various devices. Some of them are not managed by calibre, and I don't even know what filles I touched, I need to write my own tool (and it can remove files while I'm at it).

The issue still stands. Unexpected behavior is not a desirable trait of any software.
Writing empty bookmark on first access makes no sense to anyone, considering 99% of the time you will never even use the feature.

[ownedbycats]

Perhaps open a ticket requesting the change and stating your reasoning for it.

Having it default to off makes more sense to me too. I first discovered the bookmark thing when setting up incremental backups of my Calibre library folder a few years ago. The bookmarks and constantly-changing files were making a big mess of it.