Connect a device as an external drive

[myki]

Hello,
I have a kobo H2O that I want to use in 2 ways :
- first in the normal way, as a Kobo H2O device (to use with nickel)
- second in a particular way, as an external drive (to use with koreader).

Is it possible to switch between these two ways easyly, without uninstalling anything ?

Thanks in advance for your help

[davidfor]

You can, but you need to disable the KoboTouch driver when you want to treat it as an external drive. Then when you have the device connected, you can either use save to disk or connect to the device as a folder device. Doing the latter means you can select a folder on the device to store the books in and calibre will scan for books and use the device list to show the books on the device.

If all you intend to do put the books for use with KOReader in different directory, you can use save to disk to copy them there when the KoboTouch driver is enabled. If you do this, name the directory with a "." so that nickel doesn't attempt to process them.

[eschwartz]

Err....

You can use save to disk.

calibre identifies devices based on the usb vendor ids, good luck changing that.

[myki]

Thank you both for your answers...

I missed the "Send to disc" button... Don't know why
And I can use a different template than when I use the Kobo driver, it is perfect
I love Calibre (and its comunity)

[chaley]

You can also use "Connect to folder" (Connect/share - Connect to folder) to treat the folder on the external drive as a device.

[myki]

Originally Posted by chaley

You can also use "Connect to folder" (Connect/share - Connect to folder) to treat the folder on the external drive as a device.

Much better for me, thank you Chaley ! I will be able to connect to my folder starting with the "." to be invisible by nickel but not by Koreader

[eschwartz]

You can only "connect to folder" if you aren't already connected through another device driver -- which means you have to go to settings and disable the Kobo driver each time.

[myki]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

You can only "connect to folder" if you aren't already connected through another device driver -- which means you have to go to settings and disable the Kobo driver each time.

You are right... Then I will use "Send to disc" and include the first folder in my template...

Can you tell me if the "Send to disc" options work for all devices or just the device of my choice ?

[eschwartz]

Save to disk allows you to choose an arbitrary folder and send whatever you want to it. It is device independent, although you might wish to change the save template depending on what you need it for.

It should even be possible to set different templates depending on what format you send, which might help choosing between devices.

[theducks]

IIRC (Been a long time since I used this mode) STD is on-device UNAWARE, whereas Connect to folder behaves like a device and has status of which books are there

[eschwartz]

Correct.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by theducks

IIRC (Been a long time since I used this mode) STD is on-device UNAWARE, whereas Connect to folder behaves like a device and has status of which books are there

You can use the "device awareness" of connect-to-folder and avoid disabling the Kobo plugins by creating a proxy folder on the machine running calibre. Use that folder for connect to folder, treating it as if it were on your Kobo, When done, use a file sync program to mirror the proxy folder to wherever you want on your Kobo.

[myki]

Thanks for your answers, especially chaley
With your solution, I can get the butter and the money of the butter (french expression)
Do you have a tutorial or a link to make the proxy folder possible ?
I have more faith in you than google to help me find a simple solution especially suited

[chaley]

Originally Posted by myki

Thanks for your answers, especially chaley
With your solution, I can get the butter and the money of the butter (french expression)

Doux ou demi-sel?

Do you have a tutorial or a link to make the proxy folder possible ?
I have more faith in you than google to help me find a simple solution especially suited

Calling it a proxy folder makes it sound much more complicated than it is. All you need to do is create a folder somewhere (I use my desktop) that will eventually contain an identical copy of what you want on your device. I called it a "proxy" because from calibre's point of view it is the device, but from your point of view it is a stand-in (proxy) for the device.

Quick instructions:

1. Create the folder on the computer running calibre wherever you want it. This is the "proxy" folder. You do this only once.
2. In calibre, use "connect to folder" to use the folder you created as a device.
3. Send books etc to this folder using a naming template that results in the names you want on the device.
4. When you are finished, in calibre disconnect from the folder.
5. Use a file sync tool like Free File Sync to "mirror" the connected-to folder onto your device in the appropriate place. The choice of "mirror" means that the copy program will make the destination (your device) look exactly like the source (the connected-to folder), deleting, adding, and replacing files as necessary.

The wikipedia article Comparison of file synchronization software might help you find sync software that you like.

[myki]

Perfect chaley, thank you very much !
As soon as I read "proxy", I was thinking about creating a new connection with a proxy, pointing to a folder with a kind of miracle
And to sync with my folder, I will use my beloved Directory Opus

PS : demi-sel bien sûr

EDIT : I have all in place now and it works very well, I have the best of both worlds : The device world and the folder world Thanks again !

Originally Posted by chaley

Doux ou demi-sel? Calling it a proxy folder makes it sound much more complicated than it is. All you need to do is create a folder somewhere (I use my desktop) that will eventually contain an identical copy of what you want on your device. I called it a "proxy" because from calibre's point of view it is the device, but from your point of view it is a stand-in (proxy) for the device.

Quick instructions:

1. Create the folder on the computer running calibre wherever you want it. This is the "proxy" folder. You do this only once.
2. In calibre, use "connect to folder" to use the folder you created as a device.
3. Send books etc to this folder using a naming template that results in the names you want on the device.
4. When you are finished, in calibre disconnect from the folder.
5. Use a file sync tool like Free File Sync to "mirror" the connected-to folder onto your device in the appropriate place. The choice of "mirror" means that the copy program will make the destination (your device) look exactly like the source (the connected-to folder), deleting, adding, and replacing files as necessary.

The wikipedia article Comparison of file synchronization software might help you find sync software that you like.