Aura HD How to delete old Collections stored in Kobo account?

[MacEachaidh]

Hmm. I use the Collections feature, even though I don't have that many books on my device at one time. A while ago I completely revised them, deleting all the existing Collections and setting up a new structure with new names.

But today I synced and upgraded to 3.12.0, and bang, all the old unwanted Collections were restored to my system. So they appear to be stored in my Kobo account.

Have just spoken with Kobo "Help", to be told there was no way to alter or delete the Collections stored in my account, that they will just keep being restored to my system every time I sync, and there is no way to update my account with the new Collections I've created.

Does that seem insane to anyone else, or is it just me? Why doesn't the Kobo Desktop give an option to a) Restore Collections etc. to my device, or b) Update my account with the device's current configuration? How hard would that be? That would give options both to people restoring after a factory reset, and to those who want to change their configuration and have that become their default.

Kobo tells me that's not possible, but oh, they're "hoping to implement it".

Also: somewhere in the upgrade to 3.12.0, my Collections went squizzy and I now have the dreaded duplicates -- same names, same contents -- that won't allow me to delete them. I'm told the only solution to this is to start from scratch with a factory reset.

Anyone got any tips or hints for this, please? Any way to update my Collections configuration to my account, or to remove duplicate Collections without having to blow the entire thing away?

[PeterT]

Just use calibre and the Kobo utilities function to clean up the duplicate shelves (don't select the purge option) and after doing three cleanup do a sync with Kobo, either by WiFi or Desktop.

[MacEachaidh]

Thanks for the reply, Peter. Unfortunately, I don't use Calibre, and really don't want to get into it.

The problem with the Collections is that my Kobo account remembers the old, outmoded ones, and keeps reinstating them. Can Calibre modify my online Kobo account?

[PeterT]

What happens is that calibre will ensure the records are marked as deleted in the database on your device, then, when the next sync is done with Kobo the records will be dropped from your device AND marked on the server side as being deleted.

If you're at all comfortable with using SQL tools then it is also possible to modify the database yourself and have similar effects to using calibre.

PS: It has been suggested to Kobo dev's that adding a function to clean up these duplicated shelves to Kobo Desktop would be a very sensible idea.

[PeterT]

The gist of the SQL you want to use is:

  UPDATE Shelf SET _IsDeleted = 'true', 
               LastModified = <timestamp> 
  WHERE _IsSynced = 'true'

You might want to try using a tool like DBeaver or the SQLite Manager for FireFox

[MacEachaidh]

Hmmm. The problem seems to be in my Kobo account, though, on the servers at kobo.com. (At least, it's *also* on the server ...) Because no matter what I do on my local device, as soon as I log into the Kobo Desktop, the unwanted Collections are reinstated on my local device from the online account.

Kobo Customer Care convinced me to do a factory reset and reconfigure all my collection settings (so tedious!!), then log back in and that -- they claimed -- would update the online settings with my new configuration. Of course, that's not what happened; the old collections were updated to my device all over again. So they're still there.

I have two Kobo readers, and was hoping that if I went through all this configuration on one, I could use the Desktop synch feature to copy it to the other, rather than having to set it up there as well. And of course, if I have to do another factory reset, to have my account as a backup.

I'm amazed no-one else has this issue Have I done something wrong with it all?

[PeterT]

The best approach here is to use calibre and the Kobo Utiltiies plugin. In the Utilities select Database Fix Duplicate shelves. Make sure that the option to "Purge duplicate shelves" is not selected.

Once the unwanted shelves are gone, do a WiFi sync to the calibre cloud and let the purges flow upwards to the cloud.

I know you don't want to use calibre but trust me, try it for just this one case.

If you really want to make sure that nothing inadvertent happens, grab a copy of the KoboReader.sqlite file before doing the cleanup; in worse case you can put that file back afterwards.

[cathermac]

Unfortunately I am having the same issue with my shelves and the only answer I have received from kobo is that they're working on it.
I use calibre so with kobo utilities I managed my shelves. I don't sincronice my device because I have some patches installed. And I don't use to buy in kobo. Amazon is cheaper and with a bigger catalogue.
I don't think that tell "We are working on it " is a great answer. Because they told me two new firmwares ago...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by cathermac

Unfortunately I am having the same issue with my shelves and the only answer I have received from kobo is that they're working on it.
I use calibre so with kobo utilities I managed my shelves. I don't sincronice my device because I have some patches installed. And I don't use to buy in kobo. Amazon is cheaper and with a bigger catalogue.
I don't think that tell "We are working on it " is a great answer. Because they told me two new firmwares ago...

So, what do you want them to say? If they haven't fixed it and haven't found the cause, then "We are working on it" is the best response they can give. And the problem is on the server, not the firmware. Newer firmware will not have an affect on it.

Kobo did make a change to the server in the middle of December that should fix this. It won't remove the duplicate shelves, but it should prevent it happening again. If you had no duplicates and a sync produced duplicate shelves since then, it should be reported so they can look into it.

To remove the duplicates, the simplest method is the fix duplicates function of the utilities plugin. Don't use the "purge" option. Then do a sync. That will tell the server that the duplicates are to be deleted. After that, there should be no problem with a sync.

[PeterT]

David this is where we run into the challenge; cathermac does not want to sync, since a sync will upgrade the device.

[freekobo]

I had this same problem, duplicate collections and was unable to remove them.

The solution that worked for me was to grab my sons iPad mini, install the kobo app and login with the same account. Delete the collections from within the iPad app, and then re-sync on the Kobo. I dunno why it worked, it just did.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by PeterT

David this is where we run into the challenge; cathermac does not want to sync, since a sync will upgrade the device.

True, but in that case, how did the duplicates get there? No sync, then no duplicates. I suppose it happened after a factory reset or sign out/in. As long as running the fix duplicates cleans up what is displayed on the device, it doesn't really matter if the sync doesn't take place for a while. In that case, using the purge option might make sense and then fix it properly after a factory reset and they get brought down again.

[cathermac]

Originally Posted by davidfor

So, what do you want them to say? If they haven't fixed it and haven't found the cause, then "We are working on it" is the best response they can give. And the problem is on the server, not the firmware. Newer firmware will not have an affect on it.

Kobo did make a change to the server in the middle of December that should fix this. It won't remove the duplicate shelves, but it should prevent it happening again. If you had no duplicates and a sync produced duplicate shelves since then, it should be reported so they can look into it.

To remove the duplicates, the simplest method is the fix duplicates function of the utilities plugin. Don't use the "purge" option. Then do a sync. That will tell the server that the duplicates are to be deleted. After that, there should be no problem with a sync.

This answer came after two weeks of messages, several times telling me that I have to turn on and off, some fabrics reset and top of the hit that maybe was my fault because my ebooks maybe wasn't legal... Athough I told them in my first mail that I had done fabric reset.
And after two weeks of that, when I started to loose my patience and when I told that I have heard that was a bug then answer " oh, a bug, well, then we are working on it ".
Maybe tell me this the first time and don't make me waist my time is could be an acceptable answer...

[cathermac]

I sync last night before I buy a book. Duplicate collection are here again. Deleted with calibre.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by cathermac

This answer came after two weeks of messages, several times telling me that I have to turn on and off, some fabrics reset and top of the hit that maybe was my fault because my ebooks maybe wasn't legal... Athough I told them in my first mail that I had done fabric reset.
And after two weeks of that, when I started to loose my patience and when I told that I have heard that was a bug then answer " oh, a bug, well, then we are working on it ".
Maybe tell me this the first time and don't make me waist my time is could be an acceptable answer...

OK, that I understand and I agree with your annoyance. Kobo should have known about the problem as it has come up several times in the last couple of years.

Originally Posted by cathermac

I sync last night before I buy a book. Duplicate collection are here again. Deleted with calibre.

Did you select the "purge" option? If so, that won't get them deleted from the Kobo server when you next sync. And they will be downloaded again. If you didn't use the purge option, do another sync now to clean it up.