Can someone help me please?!

Techmoron · 03-18-2025, 05:25 AM

When Amazon announced that it was stopping downloading of books I followed a link to download Calibre on to my laptop (operating on Windows 10) after watching a YouTube video, which recommended doing so and downloaded all my kindle books.

Everything seemed to be fine, it opened and it took all my ebooks which I sat and downloaded and everything seemed to be good... for a couple of days. Then for some unknown reason, after about 3 days when I clicked on Calibre, it just would not open and nothing happened. I went back to the Calibre site and followed all the troubleshooting instructions - uninstalling Calibre and re installing it, but it still won't open at all. I even followed the instructions in the troubleshooting section which bring up the coding to see what came up as an issue, but it meant nothing to me, and I had no idea what I was looking at but I will say that there was a lot of information on the screen when I did that, but unfortunately I have no idea how to add all that information to this message.

I left it alone for a few weeks and I've returned to it again, and it still doesn't work then noticed the site gave a link to this forum, so here I am. (Please bear in mind I am an older person, who on the whole finds tech bewildering and has no idea how things work, I just follow instructions on the screen so if anyone can help me by offering any information which will get Calibre working again I would be very grateful).

Thank you for reading this.

miss_p1nky · 03-18-2025, 10:48 AM

Hello, do you know how to make a screenshot and upload it to an image filehost? You can use postimage or Imgur. The message displayed is quite important to figure out what happened. Also what OS are you using? Are you using Windows? Mac?

ownedbycats · 03-18-2025, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miss_p1nky

Hello, do you know how to make a screenshot and upload it to an image filehost? You can use postimage or Imgur.

Don't upload to third-party. MobileRead provides its own image hosting on the post.

Quoth · 03-18-2025, 11:15 AM

No, not Imgur!

Actually mostly only attaching an image to a post via "Go Advanced" works.

Martinoptic · 03-18-2025, 04:16 PM

Which version of calibre?
Some graphics cards dont play well with the latest version of qt which calibre uses.
Did you ever have two screens - it may be that calibre is lurking in the second screen space. Can you see it if you press tab and windows key?
A screenshot would be helpful.

Click the advanced tab in the reply thread and attach the file using the paperclip icon.

JSWolf · 03-18-2025, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

No, not Imgur!

Actually mostly only attaching an image to a post via "Go Advanced" works.

But the OP doesn't have enough posts to be able to attach.

JSWolf · 03-18-2025, 04:26 PM

@Techmoron did you recently update your graphics driver? If so, you'll want to go back to an earlier version and then try calibre.

Techmoron · 03-19-2025, 05:50 AM

Ok, thank you for your replies.

My laptop runs on Windows 10, I downloaded Calibre at the end of last month and according to the download page it says: calibre 64bit
Version: 7.26.0.

I haven't updated or downloaded anything else.

As I said previously, I followed the instructions on the FAQ page of Calibre it said - start a command prompt (press the Windows key and R; then type cmd.exe in the Run dialog that appears). At the command prompt type the following command and press Enter:

calibre-debug -g

A lot of things came up but nothing meant anything to me. I took a photograph of it as I wasn't sure what else to do and I am hoping that I can add that to this message.

Martinoptic · 03-19-2025, 06:05 AM

Thank you. Do you have an antivirus package running that may be blocking calibre?

Techmoron · 03-19-2025, 06:05 AM

I tried to update my message, but it wouldn't let me.

I said I hadn't uploaded anything else - the only thing I did was uninstall Calibre and then download that again, but I have not downloaded anything else.

Techmoron · 03-19-2025, 06:10 AM

I have McAffee on my laptop, but that didn't flag up any issues when I initially downloaded Calibre, and as I said Calibre worked perfectly well for 3 days before it just didn't.

ownedbycats · 03-19-2025, 06:29 AM

Yeah, don't use McAFee Antivirus. It causes lots of false positives and is pretty impossible to uninstall.

Even the guy who originally wrote it later called it bloatware (he was... a bit nutty though).

Martinoptic · 03-19-2025, 06:47 AM

When you run calibre-debug -g was the text in the photo all you got? If not, could you highlight the whole output then copy it and paste it into a text document and attach it to this thread please?
I hope someone with more calibre troubleshooting experience shows up soon to give more advice than I can.

BetterRed · 03-19-2025, 07:39 AM

There's a hint on the screen shot that it is an access control problem, maybe with the configuration folder, which is normally located at %appdata%\calibre.

BR

Techmoron · 03-21-2025, 08:26 AM

In reply to the messages I've received, first of all thank you all for responding.

1. I have used McAffee for quite a while now and never had any problems with it - in fact I found it better than Norton antivirus which I originally had as that really slowed down my old laptop and I had a lot of issues with it. Also, as I said in my opening message - Calibre worked absolutely fine for 3 days before it didn't so I don't think in this instance McAffee has anything to do with it.

2. Yes, everything that came up when I did that debug thing is in that photograph.

03-18-2025, 05:25 AM	#1
Techmoron Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2025 Device: Kindle	Can someone help me please?! When Amazon announced that it was stopping downloading of books I followed a link to download Calibre on to my laptop (operating on Windows 10) after watching a YouTube video, which recommended doing so and downloaded all my kindle books. Everything seemed to be fine, it opened and it took all my ebooks which I sat and downloaded and everything seemed to be good... for a couple of days. Then for some unknown reason, after about 3 days when I clicked on Calibre, it just would not open and nothing happened. I went back to the Calibre site and followed all the troubleshooting instructions - uninstalling Calibre and re installing it, but it still won't open at all. I even followed the instructions in the troubleshooting section which bring up the coding to see what came up as an issue, but it meant nothing to me, and I had no idea what I was looking at but I will say that there was a lot of information on the screen when I did that, but unfortunately I have no idea how to add all that information to this message. I left it alone for a few weeks and I've returned to it again, and it still doesn't work then noticed the site gave a link to this forum, so here I am. (Please bear in mind I am an older person, who on the whole finds tech bewildering and has no idea how things work, I just follow instructions on the screen so if anyone can help me by offering any information which will get Calibre working again I would be very grateful). Thank you for reading this.

03-19-2025, 05:50 AM	#8
Techmoron Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2025 Device: Kindle	Ok, thank you for your replies. My laptop runs on Windows 10, I downloaded Calibre at the end of last month and according to the download page it says: calibre 64bit Version: 7.26.0. I haven't updated or downloaded anything else. As I said previously, I followed the instructions on the FAQ page of Calibre it said - start a command prompt (press the Windows key and R; then type cmd.exe in the Run dialog that appears). At the command prompt type the following command and press Enter: calibre-debug -g A lot of things came up but nothing meant anything to me. I took a photograph of it as I wasn't sure what else to do and I am hoping that I can add that to this message. Attached Thumbnails

03-19-2025, 06:29 AM	#12
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 10,587 Karma: 74166147 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	Yeah, don't use McAFee Antivirus. It causes lots of false positives and is pretty impossible to uninstall. Even the guy who originally wrote it later called it bloatware (he was... a bit nutty though). Last edited by ownedbycats; 03-19-2025 at 06:42 AM.

03-18-2025, 10:48 AM	#2
miss_p1nky Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 636 Join Date: Aug 2022 Location: Indonesia Device: Moon+ Reader Pro	Hello, do you know how to make a screenshot and upload it to an image filehost? You can use postimage or Imgur. The message displayed is quite important to figure out what happened. Also what OS are you using? Are you using Windows? Mac?

03-18-2025, 11:15 AM	#4
Quoth Still reading Posts: 13,637 Karma: 103503445 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	No, not Imgur! Actually mostly only attaching an image to a post via "Go Advanced" works.

03-18-2025, 04:16 PM	#5
Martinoptic Bibliolater Posts: 6,574 Karma: 6000000 Join Date: Dec 2021 Location: England Device: none	Which version of calibre? Some graphics cards dont play well with the latest version of qt which calibre uses. Did you ever have two screens - it may be that calibre is lurking in the second screen space. Can you see it if you press tab and windows key? A screenshot would be helpful. Click the advanced tab in the reply thread and attach the file using the paperclip icon.

03-18-2025, 04:26 PM	#7
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 78,936 Karma: 144284074 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	@Techmoron did you recently update your graphics driver? If so, you'll want to go back to an earlier version and then try calibre.

03-19-2025, 06:05 AM	#9
Martinoptic Bibliolater Posts: 6,574 Karma: 6000000 Join Date: Dec 2021 Location: England Device: none	Thank you. Do you have an antivirus package running that may be blocking calibre?

03-19-2025, 06:10 AM	#11
Techmoron Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2025 Device: Kindle	I have McAffee on my laptop, but that didn't flag up any issues when I initially downloaded Calibre, and as I said Calibre worked perfectly well for 3 days before it just didn't.

03-19-2025, 06:47 AM	#13
Martinoptic Bibliolater Posts: 6,574 Karma: 6000000 Join Date: Dec 2021 Location: England Device: none	When you run calibre-debug -g was the text in the photo all you got? If not, could you highlight the whole output then copy it and paste it into a text document and attach it to this thread please? I hope someone with more calibre troubleshooting experience shows up soon to give more advice than I can.

03-19-2025, 07:39 AM	#14
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 21,599 Karma: 29709834 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	There's a hint on the screen shot that it is an access control problem, maybe with the configuration folder, which is normally located at %appdata%\calibre. BR

03-21-2025, 08:26 AM	#15
Techmoron Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2025 Device: Kindle	In reply to the messages I've received, first of all thank you all for responding. 1. I have used McAffee for quite a while now and never had any problems with it - in fact I found it better than Norton antivirus which I originally had as that really slowed down my old laptop and I had a lot of issues with it. Also, as I said in my opening message - Calibre worked absolutely fine for 3 days before it didn't so I don't think in this instance McAffee has anything to do with it. 2. Yes, everything that came up when I did that debug thing is in that photograph.

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