Should I jump ship to a Clara BW ?

Jack Knight · 02-27-2025, 08:52 AM

The title is pretty self-explanatory. As Amazon is making downloading your book purchases harder via USB, I'm in mood to buy a new non Kindle eReader.
I made peace with the screen quality of color reader being not optimal and will have to live with B&W covers, ugh.

That being said, I'm a little scared by people talking about database corruption and what it entails. Is it a simple matter of factory reset ?

I'm also absolutely lost on the matter of Calibre plug-ins for Kobo use. People pointed me to Kobo Utilities and KoboTouchExtended, but I have no idea what they do. What I would really appreciate if possible is being able to access my Calibre metadata on Kobo, I'm tired of the absence of any metadata on Kindle for books not purchased through them.

All this rambling to ask for advices, should I buy a Clara BW, is there a possibility I regret it, and on the Metadata side of things.

Sirtel · 02-27-2025, 09:27 AM

Database corruptions don't happen as often as it may seem reading various posts about them here. I've never had a database corruption on 3 different Kobo devices in more than 5 years of use. They mostly happen for two reasons - disconnecting the Kobo from the computer without safely ejecting it first or without letting calibre finish a job, and bugs in the firmware. If latter, it's easy to go back to a previous firmware version until Kobo has released a fix.

If the corruption has already happened, it's usually enough to sign out of your Kobo account on the device and back in. This leaves your sideloaded books on the device, but you'll lose your reading positions and annotations. However, it's possible to save and restore the reading positions with the Kobo Utilities plugin.

Neither Kobo Utilities or KoboTouch Extended is strictly necessary, but they may be useful. You can find out about them in their respective threads in the calibre plugins subforum.

As to metadata, it's best to set it to automatic in the calibre preferences (sending to device settings). For series information to transfer over, connect your Kobo again after the books have been imported and processed. For tags or custom metadata, you can create collections based on them in the Kobo driver settings in calibre.

SamLoki · 03-31-2025, 01:20 PM

I have the Kobo Clara BW and really love it. It has helped me to get back into reading again even though I have an iPhone and tablets. It is a little work horse and so convenient to carry around. I think you would be happy with the Clara BW.

DrChiper · 03-31-2025, 02:48 PM

Whether you "should" buy a Clara BW or not is entirely up to yourself.
But when you decide to buy one, and take into account that everything which can fail might eventual fail, you will hardly regret your purchase in the mean time until that moment eventually comes.

I just installed a Clara BW for a non-technical user and was pleasantly supprised about the sharpness of the display and the quick response-times of screen updates.

BTW: the calibre plug-in Kobo Touch Extended is not needed anymore, as its functionality is now standard included in calibre itself.

Graham44 · 03-31-2025, 04:44 PM

I have the Kobo Clara BW, only had it a month or so. I had the Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition bought in September 2024 before that.

I personally absolutely hands down love the Kobo more for reading, to me it's the far better device in this respect, it's a readers ereader.

I did a little post comparing the two a week or so back and I did note the Clara felt a little bit more 'plasticky than the Paperwhite, well I've got the clear back cover in the mean time and that makes it feel much more soft and pleasant to hold and makes it nice and grippy. The Clara was more comfortable out of the box anyway as the corners are more rounded so don't dig into the palm of your hand.

As for Calibre and Kobo, I haven't added any plugins to Calibre apart from de-drm and acsm plugin but I still get the basic info of the book under view details on the Kobo (synopsis, details incl ISBN Language File size etc)

RobbieRobski · 04-07-2025, 10:43 PM

I posted a reply but it's deleted (or maybe moderated cause I posted a yt link). So I"ll just say I switched to kobo in 2018 and I've been very happy. But there's a yt from a guy named dammit jeff and he shows how to jail break your kindle if that's something you might be interested in doing so you're not out any extra money.

Mod: The other post was in moderation. Here's the Youtube link from it:

02-27-2025, 08:52 AM	#1
Jack Knight Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2015 Device: Kobo Clara BW	Should I jump ship to a Clara BW ? The title is pretty self-explanatory. As Amazon is making downloading your book purchases harder via USB, I'm in mood to buy a new non Kindle eReader. I made peace with the screen quality of color reader being not optimal and will have to live with B&W covers, ugh. That being said, I'm a little scared by people talking about database corruption and what it entails. Is it a simple matter of factory reset ? I'm also absolutely lost on the matter of Calibre plug-ins for Kobo use. People pointed me to Kobo Utilities and KoboTouchExtended, but I have no idea what they do. What I would really appreciate if possible is being able to access my Calibre metadata on Kobo, I'm tired of the absence of any metadata on Kindle for books not purchased through them. All this rambling to ask for advices, should I buy a Clara BW, is there a possibility I regret it, and on the Metadata side of things.

04-07-2025, 10:43 PM	#6
RobbieRobski Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2025 Device: Kobo Clara HD	I posted a reply but it's deleted (or maybe moderated cause I posted a yt link). So I"ll just say I switched to kobo in 2018 and I've been very happy. But there's a yt from a guy named dammit jeff and he shows how to jail break your kindle if that's something you might be interested in doing so you're not out any extra money. Mod: The other post was in moderation. Here's the Youtube link from it: Last edited by pdurrant; 04-08-2025 at 06:52 AM.

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02-27-2025, 09:27 AM	#2
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,146 Karma: 237627567 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	Database corruptions don't happen as often as it may seem reading various posts about them here. I've never had a database corruption on 3 different Kobo devices in more than 5 years of use. They mostly happen for two reasons - disconnecting the Kobo from the computer without safely ejecting it first or without letting calibre finish a job, and bugs in the firmware. If latter, it's easy to go back to a previous firmware version until Kobo has released a fix. If the corruption has already happened, it's usually enough to sign out of your Kobo account on the device and back in. This leaves your sideloaded books on the device, but you'll lose your reading positions and annotations. However, it's possible to save and restore the reading positions with the Kobo Utilities plugin. Neither Kobo Utilities or KoboTouch Extended is strictly necessary, but they may be useful. You can find out about them in their respective threads in the calibre plugins subforum. As to metadata, it's best to set it to automatic in the calibre preferences (sending to device settings). For series information to transfer over, connect your Kobo again after the books have been imported and processed. For tags or custom metadata, you can create collections based on them in the Kobo driver settings in calibre.

03-31-2025, 01:20 PM	#3
SamLoki Retired-Ham Op-Audiophile Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2025 Location: Bronx New York Device: Kobo Clara BW, Boox Page	I have the Kobo Clara BW and really love it. It has helped me to get back into reading again even though I have an iPhone and tablets. It is a little work horse and so convenient to carry around. I think you would be happy with the Clara BW.

03-31-2025, 02:48 PM	#4
DrChiper Bookish Posts: 1,006 Karma: 2003162 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: PC, t1, t2, t3, Clara BW, Clara HD, Libra 2, Libra Color, Nxtpaper 11	Whether you "should" buy a Clara BW or not is entirely up to yourself. But when you decide to buy one, and take into account that everything which can fail might eventual fail, you will hardly regret your purchase in the mean time until that moment eventually comes. I just installed a Clara BW for a non-technical user and was pleasantly supprised about the sharpness of the display and the quick response-times of screen updates. BTW: the calibre plug-in Kobo Touch Extended is not needed anymore, as its functionality is now standard included in calibre itself.

03-31-2025, 04:44 PM	#5
Graham44 Addict Posts: 219 Karma: 5115190 Join Date: Sep 2024 Device: Kobo Clara BW	I have the Kobo Clara BW, only had it a month or so. I had the Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition bought in September 2024 before that. I personally absolutely hands down love the Kobo more for reading, to me it's the far better device in this respect, it's a readers ereader. I did a little post comparing the two a week or so back and I did note the Clara felt a little bit more 'plasticky than the Paperwhite, well I've got the clear back cover in the mean time and that makes it feel much more soft and pleasant to hold and makes it nice and grippy. The Clara was more comfortable out of the box anyway as the corners are more rounded so don't dig into the palm of your hand. As for Calibre and Kobo, I haven't added any plugins to Calibre apart from de-drm and acsm plugin but I still get the basic info of the book under view details on the Kobo (synopsis, details incl ISBN Language File size etc)

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