Color CM7 NC ~ Calibre ~ Aldiko: Can They Play Well?

[RainIntoRainbows]

I finally gave in & caved so that I could really get my money's worth from my NC. I am now using a dual boot SD CM7. The Android platform looks great. I'm into the Market & having a great time playing around with all of the apps I could previously only get on my D2G.

Now, though, I'm coming up short, because as much as I love having this as a tablet, I can't seem to get back the functionality of an ereader! Hopefully this is something relatively simple to fix. I just haven't been able to.

1) I've loaded the Nook app so I can read all of my B&N books.

2) I've loaded the Kindle app so I can read all of my Amazon books.

3) I've authorized my ADE account so I can read all of my Adobe DRMed books.

However, I still have a very large number of books that I cannot access; that is, all of my previously sideloaded epub books.

I've gone round & round, searching, etc., but I'm pretty sure I just don't know what I'm looking for. I've loaded Aldiko and it can see my SD card, but can't find any books on it, even though Calibre says they're on there. Exploring the drive from my PC doesn't show them either. I'm guessing they're on a partition that can't be read somehow?

And I won't even get into the whole catalog thing. I've tried creating my catalogs, but I'm stuck!

My current Calibre library comprises almost 1300 books. This doesn't include many, many more that are in ADE, B&N & Amazon. Ideally I'd love to get them all in the same place, but for now, I'd just settle to have them there, period.

I've created a Dropbox area for them and they're all uploaded. I don't see any way of downloading, though, short of selecting one book at a time, which is way too tedious.

I guess what I'm asking is, is there a "dummies" method for those of us who are very good at following directions but for whom all of the technical language isn't necessarily intuitive?

TIA!

[goldberry]

Not sure if this will help you but this is how I put my books on SD card to use.

Hook up NC by USB to PC and press on circle with down arrow then enable USB

You can then transfer to the card. I have a folder on my SD called Books and I simply transfer full folders of books from my PC. as sub folders of Books. I use Coolreader and I just go to the folder and open a book.

[Eskarina]

Both Aldiko and nook can read side loaded books. The only catch is that the books need to be in a specific folder. When you connect your nc and open calibre, instead of send to device, use send to folder and then navigate to the appropriate folder.

Try Mantano reader which doesn't require for your ebooks to be in a specific folder and can scan your entire device for books. Like aldiko, there's a free and paid version in the market.

Also, both aldiko and mantano work with adobe and Barnes and Nobel drm. You have lots of options. Play around and see what suits you best.

[nabour]

I think my set up is exactly like yours, and I finally figured out how to get things working. It's a bit tedius (perhaps someone else has a better method) - but basically I download from either B&N or Amazon to my PC. Use Calibre on PC to open the book, convert it and then upload it to the Nookcolor. Then I need to go into the SD card (using PC and file explorer) and move the book from wherever Calibre uploaded it to a file called e-books. That is where Aldiko recognizes the books. My e-book file contains a file for each author, with the books contained therein.

THEN I go to Aldiko, cruize to the SD card, look for e-book folder, and import from there. Whew!

Come to think of it, surely there is a better way! It works, but it takes a bit of time. But I like the Akdido reader, and I like how it sorts my books.

[Eskarina]

Originally Posted by nabour

I think my set up is exactly like yours, and I finally figured out how to get things working. It's a bit tedius (perhaps someone else has a better method) - but basically I download from either B&N or Amazon to my PC. Use Calibre on PC to open the book, convert it and then upload it to the Nookcolor. Then I need to go into the SD card (using PC and file explorer) and move the book from wherever Calibre uploaded it to a file called e-books. That is where Aldiko recognizes the books. My e-book file contains a file for each author, with the books contained therein.

THEN I go to Aldiko, cruize to the SD card, look for e-book folder, and import from there. Whew!

Come to think of it, surely there is a better way! It works, but it takes a bit of time. But I like the Akdido reader, and I like how it sorts my books.

Have you tried using calibre's content server with aldiko? You can use aldiko (or many other ereading apps) to browse through your calibre catalog via your wifi connection.

I'm no expert by any means but here's a link to a post with more detailed instructions.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...96#post1694896

[RainIntoRainbows]

Thanks, everyone. Late to respond but I'm digging through now to see what will work. Will report back!

[RainIntoRainbows]

Originally Posted by Eskarina

Have you tried using calibre's content server with aldiko? You can use aldiko (or many other ereading apps) to browse through your calibre catalog via your wifi connection.

I'm no expert by any means but here's a link to a post with more detailed instructions.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...96#post1694896

Okay, I *thought* this was gonna work for me, but it's saying "authentication required" so I'm still up the creek without the proverbial paddle.

I'm thinking that this and this may perhaps provide clues to what I need to do, but, um, it might as well be Greek for all the good it's doing me.

A little help, anyone? Pretty please??

[Eskarina]

Originally Posted by RainIntoRainbows

Okay, I *thought* this was gonna work for me, but it's saying "authentication required" so I'm still up the creek without the proverbial paddle.

Check that you're using the latest version of Aldiko. I think there may have been problems with Calibre in earlier versions. Beyond that, the only thing I can recommend is to turn off your firewall (if you have one) and test the content server. To test the content server, go to "sharing over the net" in the preferences menu. Turn on the content server then click on "test server". This should pull up a browser window showing your calibre library.

Also try opening a browser window on your nook color and putting in the content server url you used and see if that opens your catalog.

This is unfortunately the extent of my knowledge in re Aldiko/Calibre content server. The information on the links you provided are well beyond me...

Hopefully someone else can chime in.

[RainIntoRainbows]

Thanks, Eskarina.

Here's the deal, at least what I'm it is anyway.

I boot from an SD card running Cyanogen.

I can't access the NOOK's internal memory when booted as Android (or at least I don't think I can, someone correct me if I'm wrong please).

The SD card appears to be full, but I'm not sure if it is or not. I'm wondering if perhaps partitioning would help? But then again, I don't want to mess anything up.

[Eskarina]

Originally Posted by RainIntoRainbows

I boot from an SD card running Cyanogen.

I'm also running CM7 on an SD card.

Originally Posted by RainIntoRainbows

I can't access the NOOK's internal memory when booted as Android (or at least I don't think I can, someone correct me if I'm wrong please).

Really? You can't see it at all? Even under the settings where it tells you how much space you have in there? You should be able to access the internal memory both from the Nook Color itself AND from your computer. On my nook color, it's labeled emmc. Use a file explorer like ES File explorer or Astro that will allow you to get to the root drive.

In addition, if you do have epubs in your internal memory, you can access them directly through Aldiko. Just click on "files" and click the up arrow until you see the different directories and select emmc. Then, you can choose to either open the book or import it into Aldiko. You can also click on the checkbox on the right to import books in batches.

Originally Posted by RainIntoRainbows

The SD card appears to be full, but I'm not sure if it is or not. I'm wondering if perhaps partitioning would help? But then again, I don't want to mess anything up.

What size SD card are you using? As a reference, I use an 8g SD card. I have ~ 100 books and 50 apps in my nook color. I have approximately 4g left on the SD and 4g left on the internal memory.

If you have an issue with space in your SD card, keep in mind that Aldiko stores books in a particular folder so "importing" a book into Aldiko means creating a second copy of that book.

An alternative is to use Mantano (there is a free and a paid version) which scans your entire device (or user specified folders) for epubs/pdfs and imports them into its library without creating a secondary copy of the book. Mantano has the same functionality as Aldiko but has more annotation and library management tools.

[RainIntoRainbows]

Originally Posted by Eskarina

I'm also running CM7 on an SD card.



Really? You can't see it at all? Even under the settings where it tells you how much space you have in there? You should be able to access the internal memory both from the Nook Color itself AND from your computer. On my nook color, it's labeled emmc. Use a file explorer like ES File explorer or Astro that will allow you to get to the root drive.

In addition, if you do have epubs in your internal memory, you can access them directly through Aldiko. Just click on "files" and click the up arrow until you see the different directories and select emmc. Then, you can choose to either open the book or import it into Aldiko. You can also click on the checkbox on the right to import books in batches.


What size SD card are you using? As a reference, I use an 8g SD card. I have ~ 100 books and 50 apps in my nook color. I have approximately 4g left on the SD and 4g left on the internal memory.

If you have an issue with space in your SD card, keep in mind that Aldiko stores books in a particular folder so "importing" a book into Aldiko means creating a second copy of that book.

An alternative is to use Mantano (there is a free and a paid version) which scans your entire device (or user specified folders) for epubs/pdfs and imports them into its library without creating a secondary copy of the book. Mantano has the same functionality as Aldiko but has more annotation and library management tools.

You are the BEST! Thank you so much for going to the trouble to share all of this.

And it would appear that Mantano was the key. I've added the free version and if it works like it appears to be doing right now, I'll go ahead & upgrade to the paid. Not sure why I couldn't get Aldiko how I wanted it, but I really just wanted a basic reader. I can add NOOK & Kindle apps to read those books, but quite a few of mine are .pdf and .epub books (I review galleys). This makes life so much easier!

[Eskarina]

Originally Posted by RainIntoRainbows

You are the BEST! Thank you so much for going to the trouble to share all of this.

And it would appear that Mantano was the key. I've added the free version and if it works like it appears to be doing right now, I'll go ahead & upgrade to the paid. Not sure why I couldn't get Aldiko how I wanted it, but I really just wanted a basic reader. I can add NOOK & Kindle apps to read those books, but quite a few of mine are .pdf and .epub books (I review galleys). This makes life so much easier!

I'm glad I could help.

Quick tip: If you decide on Mantano, you can use Mantano (and Aldiko btw) to open and read books from Barnes and Noble without removing the drm. You just need to put in a username and password the first time you try opening a B&N book.

Username: The name on the credit card you registered with B&N
Password: The credit card number

You only need to do this once and it will open all the B&N books in your internal memory.

Take a look at the Mantano thread in the Android readers forum. The developer visits quite often.