Issues with covers

[hheartstrongg]

Hello,

I get most of my books via download, but I've noticed that putting them on my Kobo results in a few issues.
The biggest one is that when I put the Kobo into sleep, it doesn't show the book I'm currently reading. In fact it shows a completely random one. I tried going to the book that it is showing and closing it, but it shows a new random book instead. How can I get this to display the correct cover?

I do have calibre and I do use it sometimes, but I'm not too sure how to work out certain things in the program, so if that's what I need to use that would be great. I have confirmed that the books I have added -have- a cover and it is the correct cover, it's just not showing when I put it into sleep.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by hheartstrongg

I get most of my books via download, but I've noticed that putting them on my Kobo results in a few issues.

I'm a little confused by that statement. The first part seems to be saying you are downloading to the device, the second that you are sideloading. I Don't think it matters for the problem you are seeing, but it is unclear.

The biggest one is that when I put the Kobo into sleep, it doesn't show the book I'm currently reading. In fact it shows a completely random one. I tried going to the book that it is showing and closing it, but it shows a new random book instead. How can I get this to display the correct cover?

The cover used during sleep is the cover for the open book that has most recently been read. This should mean that if you are reading a book and put the device to sleep, the cover for that book is displayed. It should also mean that if you open a book and return to the home screen without finishing it, the cover for the book will be used. The only time this should get confusing is when you finish a book. When that happens, the device looks for the most recently opened and not finished book. If you opened a book, decided not to read it and the read ten other books and finished them, that book that you didn't finish will suddenly appear as the cover.

I haven't seen anything like you are reporting in recent firmware. But, there was a problem like this in a couple of different firmware versions. What firmware version are you running?

The other possibility for this is a corrupt database. But, if that was the cause, you would be losing the reading status and position as well.

I do have calibre and I do use it sometimes, but I'm not too sure how to work out certain things in the program, so if that's what I need to use that would be great. I have confirmed that the books I have added -have- a cover and it is the correct cover, it's just not showing when I put it into sleep.

There isn't anything in calibre that would help this. It will attempt to make sure the book has a cover when sending it. And the KoboTouch driver has options to send the covers with the book rather than letting the device generate them. But, the only reason these would have an affect is if the wrong cover was being sent. And that would mean the cover that calibre showed was not the first page of the book (for an ePub or PDF).

[hheartstrongg]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'm a little confused by that statement. The first part seems to be saying you are downloading to the device, the second that you are sideloading. I Don't think it matters for the problem you are seeing, but it is unclear.

I do apologize, I am sideloading. I download them on my computer and load them onto the Kobo from there.

Originally Posted by davidfor

The cover used during sleep is the cover for the open book that has most recently been read. This should mean that if you are reading a book and put the device to sleep, the cover for that book is displayed. It should also mean that if you open a book and return to the home screen without finishing it, the cover for the book will be used. The only time this should get confusing is when you finish a book. When that happens, the device looks for the most recently opened and not finished book. If you opened a book, decided not to read it and the read ten other books and finished them, that book that you didn't finish will suddenly appear as the cover.

Correct, and this is usually the case. However, my problem is that, I'll be reading a book, say I'm at 33%, and I'll put the Kobo to sleep and it will show a random book cover (for example, currently it's Enclave, and I'm reading The Little Old Lady Who Broke all the Rules) and I haven't read Enclave yet. So to try and fix it, I went to Enclave, scrolled through the book and "closed" it, and then opened back up Little Old Lady, put it to sleep, and now it's showing me the cover for Life as We Knew it. Repeat process over and over.


Do you think this issue is caused because I might have opened those books in the past? I can't remember doing so, but it's not out of the realm of possibilty.

[PeterT]

Any chance that the time and/or date might be incorrect on your Kobo?

[hheartstrongg]

I did actually check and for some reason it was set to 1970. No idea how that happened, but the correct book cover is displaying now. I'm not sure if this fixed it or if I did something else, but either way I am happy for now. When I am finished reading this book I will try another and see if the issue comes back.

[davidfor]

The only covers that should be used for sleep or power-off are for books that have been opened. A complication of this that I forgot earlier was other devices. If you have other Kobo devices or use the Kobo apps, the book opened on these and then synced will get marked as being read and might show the cover when you don't expect it. I see this as my sons use devices logged into my account and I also have an iPad. But opening the book I am reading on my Glo solves this.

A book that has been opened will show the percent read in the library. There is a bug in the current firmware for the Touch that means sometimes it will show 0% or 1% no matter how far into the book you are.

Some questions:

- Does the home screen get updated with the book as you read it? Your current books should show in the first place. Are the books that the covers are being used also on the home screen?

- What version of the firmware are you running?

- Is the date and time on the device correct? As the screen saver is chosen based on the timestamp of the last opened book, if this was set back, it could choose the wrong book.

[hheartstrongg]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The only covers that should be used for sleep or power-off are for books that have been opened. A complication of this that I forgot earlier was other devices. If you have other Kobo devices or use the Kobo apps, the book opened on these and then synced will get marked as being read and might show the cover when you don't expect it. I see this as my sons use devices logged into my account and I also have an iPad. But opening the book I am reading on my Glo solves this.

But it is also showing the cover for books I am not currently reading, I don't remember opening them. Again, I might have in the past, it's a possibility.

Originally Posted by davidfor

A book that has been opened will show the percent read in the library. There is a bug in the current firmware for the Touch that means sometimes it will show 0% or 1% no matter how far into the book you are.

This is not actually an issue for me, the % is always correct.

Some questions:

Originally Posted by davidfor

Does the home screen get updated with the book as you read it? Your current books should show in the first place. Are the books that the covers are being used also on the home screen?

Yes, on the home screen it shows the current book I am reading, and actually doesn't show the book that is being shown when the Kobo is asleep.

Originally Posted by davidfor

What version of the firmware are you running?

3.3.0

Originally Posted by davidfor

Is the date and time on the device correct? As the screen saver is chosen based on the timestamp of the last opened book, if this was set back, it could choose the wrong book.

It is now, as mentioned above it was set to 1970 somehow.

[syber]

Haven't used my kobo touch in a couple of months, after charging I found the covers were wrong as well... the suggestion from PeterT to make sure the date was correct fixed my issue.

thanks