ePub to azw3, mobi: varying 'locations' in kindle

[ianky]

When exporting epub to azw3 and mobi (old) using calibre, the azw3 and mobi files report a different number of locations.

This problem is a variation of the pages vs locations problem, but it's a little more nuanced, I think.

1. I start with an epub that has 215 html files, a single image referenced in each page. iBooks and Calibre recognize this as a 215 page epub.

2. When converting the epub to mobi (old version), the locations match the this page count 214--this is not a typo; recall mobi doesn't support 'cover.html' and these are stripped out so 215 - 1 (cover) = 214. I've tested this on a gen 1 kindle and a kindle fire hd.

3. If I convert the epub to azw3, then the number of locations for the book jumps to 846 on the kindle fire hd. Interestingly, if I convert the epub with kindlegen (kindle previewer), then the mobi that is produced shows 147 locations, less than the 214 and much much less than the 835.

Does anyone have an explanation for this? Is there a fix? I'd love to create a kindle format 8 (new mobi or azw3) book that has accurate locations as described in point 2. Please halp!

And thanks!
ianky