sideloading versus synchronizing

[franklekens]

Up till now I always sideloaded my books via Calibre. I have an extension (I think it's the Kobo Utilities extension?) that uploads epubs as kepub, so I could benefit from the extra features like the per book statistics (how many minutes this chapter & the next will take, &c). Untill this week I had FW 2.8. On an Aura HD.

Now I've upgraded to 3.3. And once more the per book statistics seem to be available only for books that I download by synchronizing with the Kobo store. I.e. not for sideloaded books bought there or elsewhere. Even if they'd already been sideloaded as kepubs. Annoying.

Two questions:
1) Is there something to remedy this? Was there maybe a cfg file I had to edit for this? I forgot and it's not easy to find back in some of the lengthy threads here.

2) I'm willing to live with synchronizing too. As long as I can choose *which* books from my Kobo library I synchronize to my device.
Is there really no way to do that? I managed to synchronize only a single book now because it happened to be the first in line.
But is there no way to get a list of the books in the Kobo library and select which of those you want to download to the device?

[murg]

These are guesses/fuzzy memory:

1) wait a day or two and davidfor will have the Calibre plugin handling this. Maybe.

2) I seem to remember that you can control this through the Kobo Desktop, but now that I think about it, I haven't been able to keep books from synchronising to my device. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough.

[timberwraith]

I'm using 3.3.0. I'm able to get book stats if I click on Extras>Reading stats but that only shows statistics for the book I'm currently reading. Is this the feature that is broken for you?

I don't know that it matters, but I'm using the default drivers that came with Calibre 1.44. I found that the extended Kobo drivers and the Kobo utilities plugin were corrupting my SQLITE database. Not sure why, but the behavior of the driver and utilities were consistently bad.

I have both default drivers (Kobo Reader Device Interface & Kobo Touch 2.1.7) set to only accept KEPUB rather than EPUB, so that Calibre automatically converts all of my EPUB files to KEPUB when sending it to my ereader.

As far as synchronizing only the books you wish, try logging onto your web account, go to the "I'm Reading" part of your library, select the books you don't wish to synchronize, and click on the fuchsia "DELETE" button. I know that sounds scary, but your books will be stored in the trash until you permanently delete them. Then, only the books remaining in the "I'm Reading" part of you library should synchronize.

One VERY important disclaimer: I'm not sure if there is a time or space limit on the books Kobo allows you to store in the trash. I tried this for a week or two, and all of my books remained there, safe and sound. You might only want to try this with a few books you don't care about to see how long they stick around (keep backup copies, of course).

Maybe a chat with their staff would clarify this?

I now use a dummy user profile and I sideload all of my firmware updates and dictionaries. So, I can now rely solely upon Calibre without using Kobo's servers. Consequently, I've moved all of my books back into the main part of their web library. I like not having to depend on Kobo's servers to sync my books, dictionaries, and firmware updates. As you know, it takes forever.

But, that involves doing a bunch of technical acrobatics. Some folks enjoy that sort of thing and some don't.

Hope that helps?

[robko]

Originally Posted by franklekens

2) I'm willing to live with synchronizing too. As long as I can choose *which* books from my Kobo library I synchronize to my device.
Is there really no way to do that? I managed to synchronize only a single book now because it happened to be the first in line.
But is there no way to get a list of the books in the Kobo library and select which of those you want to download to the device?

With "newer" versions (going back at least a few version) of the firmware it should only automatically download the last 5 most recent books (this is after doing a factory reset). After that you have to select the books in the library (can't remember if you can do it on the desktop or not) to get them to download. May not perfectly meet your needs, but it's better than the original behaviour of downloading everything right off.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by franklekens

Up till now I always sideloaded my books via Calibre. I have an extension (I think it's the Kobo Utilities extension?) that uploads epubs as kepub, so I could benefit from the extra features like the per book statistics (how many minutes this chapter & the next will take, &c). Untill this week I had FW 2.8. On an Aura HD.

No, it is the KoboTouchExtended driver. That will convert to kepub as you send to the device. Or you are converting using the Kepub output driver and then sending with the standard KoboTouch driver.

Now I've upgraded to 3.3. And once more the per book statistics seem to be available only for books that I download by synchronizing with the Kobo store. I.e. not for sideloaded books bought there or elsewhere. Even if they'd already been sideloaded as kepubs. Annoying.

Two questions:
1) Is there something to remedy this? Was there maybe a cfg file I had to edit for this? I forgot and it's not easy to find back in some of the lengthy threads here.

I assume you mean get the in-book statistics for sideloaded kepubs. If I can't help. Kobo turned them off saying they were prone to errors. Unless they change this, there isn't anything practical we can do. Experiments were made by several people, including myself and the developer of the KoboTouchExtended driver, but we concluded it wasn't safe or practical to do. There is a version of the KoboTouchExtended driver that does it, but it is not maintained. A search of this forum will find it.

2) I'm willing to live with synchronizing too. As long as I can choose *which* books from my Kobo library I synchronize to my device.
Is there really no way to do that? I managed to synchronize only a single book now because it happened to be the first in line.
But is there no way to get a list of the books in the Kobo library and select which of those you want to download to the device?

Yes and no. If you buy a book from Kobo, it will be downloaded the next time you sync. The only way to stop this is to go to your library on the web site and delete the book from the "I'm Reading" list. If you don't do that, once the book is downloaded, you can delete it from the device. This will leave a record of the book in the library list and it can be downloaded later but it won't be synced to the device until you do. There is an option in the library settings to hide the non-downloaded books in the library lists.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Yes and no. If you buy a book from Kobo, it will be downloaded the next time you sync. The only way to stop this is to go to your library on the web site and delete the book from the "I'm Reading" list. If you don't do that, once the book is downloaded, you can delete it from the device. This will leave a record of the book in the library list and it can be downloaded later but it won't be synced to the device until you do. There is an option in the library settings to hide the non-downloaded books in the library lists.

This is one of the things that makes me crazy about Kobo, and is one of the reasons I don't buy books from them, or bother to connect to the Kobo store ever. Why can't I just go pick and choose from the list of books that I have bought from them directly from my reader? If I'm not at a computer and I want to choose a book that isn't on my device, I should be able to connect to my account and choose from any of the books that I have bought.

I love my Aura HD, and I use it to read on all the time. I absolutely LOATHE everything about the Kobo ecosystem, however. Sometimes I feel as if I've gone backwards 5 or 6 years to the bad old days where the only way to get books onto my reader was to connect to my computer...and that shouldn't be.

Shari

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by shalym

This is one of the things that makes me crazy about Kobo, and is one of the reasons I don't buy books from them, or bother to connect to the Kobo store ever. Why can't I just go pick and choose from the list of books that I have bought from them directly from my reader?

You can.

If the book is already on your reader and you don't want it to be, just remove it using the long-press menu.

If the book is not on your device and you want it to be, just locate the book in the device's bookstore and download it.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

You can.

If the book is already on your reader and you don't want it to be, just remove it using the long-press menu.

If the book is not on your device and you want it to be, just locate the book in the device's bookstore and download it.

So I can see a list of my books from my device, and pick the ones that I want to download? How do I get to that?

Shari

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by shalym

So I can see a list of my books from my device, and pick the ones that I want to download? How do I get to that?

Go to library settings and untick the "Only show downloaded items" box. pick the ones you want to download. Then go back and tick the box again.

Edit: To separate downloaded from undownloaded books sort the device's library by file size: The downloaded books will appear first, followed by the undownloaded ones. (If your library is large, you can quickly get to the end of the list by paging backward once from the first page).

[shalym]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Go to library settings and untick the "Only show downloaded items" box. pick the ones you want to download. Then go back and tick the box again.

Edit: To separate downloaded from undownloaded books sort the device's library by file size: The downloaded books will appear first, followed by the undownloaded ones. (If your library is large, you can quickly get to the end of the list by paging backward once from the first page).

Thank you!! That works, kind of--I which books aren't downloaded, because they have the word "Download" next to them in the list. Sorting by size doesn't work, however, as I still see the actual size of the book to be downloaded in the list, not the size that is actually on the device. I also couldn't see the two previews that I added to my library recently--will new additions to the library only show during a sync? Is there no way to tell Kobo that I don't want an item to go to my device when I purchase it? Do I really have to go in to my account from my pc and "delete" it in order to keep it from being sent to my device when I sync?

Shari

[GeoffR]

I don't know anything about previews, sorry-- I never bother with them.

If you select "Remove from device" when you remove a book, it will not sync to your device during a sync, but you can still download it when you want to from the device itself. Only if you select "Remove from account" would you have to visit the website to get the book back, so if you don't ever want to visit the website then just don't select "Remove from account".

There are lots of different ways to do these things, and perhaps some ways give different results. If I buy from Kobo I always use the device to make the purchase, but I think it works the same way if you purchase from the website and then sync.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I don't know anything about previews, sorry-- I never bother with them.

If you select "Remove from device" when you remove a book, it will not sync to your device during a sync, but you can still download it when you want to from the device itself. Only if you select "Remove from account" would you have to visit the website to get the book back, so if you don't ever want to visit the website then just don't select "Remove from account".

There are lots of different ways to do these things, and perhaps some ways give different results. If I buy from Kobo I always use the device to make the purchase, but I think it works the same way if you purchase from the website and then sync.

What about the sorting by size thing? That doesn't work for me--am I doing something wrong? The actual size of the file shows whether it's on my device or not. Is there another way to find only the books that are in my library but not on my device?

Shari

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by shalym

What about the sorting by size thing? That doesn't work for me--am I doing something wrong? The actual size of the file shows whether it's on my device or not. Is there another way to find only the books that are in my library but not on my device?

I don't know why that is different, but on my Glo the books that have not been downloaded all have no file size shown, just a download button.

Edit: Something may have changed in recent firmware, last time I looked at this the size of the undownloaded files was very small, a few KB which was probably just the metadata size in the database. But now they have no file size shown at all in the library listing.

[eschwartz]

Sounds complicated. I think I prefer my Kindle with its "cloud" (used to be archive") button.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I don't know why that is different, but on my Glo the books that have not been downloaded all have no file size shown, just a download button.

Edit: Something may have changed in recent firmware, last time I looked at this the size of the undownloaded files was very small, a few KB which was probably just the metadata size in the database. But now they have no file size shown at all in the library listing.

Maybe mine is showing the full file size next to the download button because they used to be on my device? If that's the case, then there's no practical way to sort, as all purchased books MUST show on the device at least once, if I'm not mistaken. You can't see new purchases or previews in your library without doing a sync, and when you do a sync, all new purchases and previews are downloaded to the device. (am I wrong about this? It seems like that's how it's worked for me, at least.)

Shari