Nook + Calibre problems?

[Craig_P]

I just tried converting several different books last night and none of them are working on my device. I get an error message when I try to open the books, and my Nook isn't recognizing the metadata changes that I make, instead sorting everything under 'Unknown Author'.

I was able to successfully convert several books from PDF to EPUB a few months ago, so I know that I'm doing it right. I'm using a different, updated version of Calibre than when I was able to successfully convert books a few months ago, and the Nook firmware has also been updated since then, so I'm thinking maybe one of those could be the problem?

edit:

I just installed an older version of Calibre, and it's not working either.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Craig_P

I was able to successfully convert several books from PDF to EPUB a few months ago, so I know that I'm doing it right. I'm using a different, updated version of Calibre than when I was able to successfully convert books a few months ago, and the Nook firmware has also been updated since then, so I'm thinking maybe one of those could be the problem?

Do the books work in calibre's viewer? How are you transferring the book to your nook? Are you sure you're transferring the ePub book and not the pdf file?

[Craig_P]

One of the books is a PDF, the other is a LIT. I can open both with Calibre's viewer and they're fine, both the original and converted versions. So I'm guessing it must be a Nook problem and not a Calibre problem.

I'm transferring by simply plugging my Nook in with the USB drive, then dragging and dropping the files directly into the My Documents folder which is in the Nook's root directory. This is how I've always transferred files in the past, and have had no problems with it before. I transferred an epub that didn't need converting this morning, just to test if there was some kind of problem with the transfer process, but the Nook opens that file without any problems.

I'm definitely transferring the epub and not the pdf. Though, interestingly, I did try to copy the original, unconverted pdf over as well. Nook supports pdf, I just prefer epub because it offers more font options. The Nook refuses to open the original pdf as well, though.

This leads me to believe that maybe the problem might be with the pdf itself, but it opens just fine in Acrobat and in Calibre's viewer. Plus there's the matter of the converted lit file that gives the same error.


edit:

I tried using Calibre to load the files onto the Nook instead of dragging and dropping them manually, and that seemed to do the trick. Problem solved!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Craig_P

I tried using Calibre to load the files onto the Nook instead of dragging and dropping them manually, and that seemed to do the trick. Problem solved!

I'm glad it is solved. Here is a little info for you.

There are three ways to embed the metadata changes you make in calibre to your ePub.

Save to Disk
Send to Device
Conversion to ePub

When you converted your books the metadata (author, title, isbn etc) should have been embedded in the book. If you converted the book first then changed the Author name in calibre the author name wouldn't be embedded unless you used calibre to send the file to the device.

So dragging and dropping the files directly into the My Documents folder would by-pass adding any changes you made in calibre after you had converted the book.