Calibre transfers between Win10 and Andriod tablet failure

[DMcCunney]

I have a low end Android tablet running Android 4.4 KitKat. It has a 32GB microSD card installed, and my tablet eBook library lives there. I use Calibre to transfer eBooks to the tablet via a USB cable to my desktop.

The desktop was recently upgraded from Win7 Pro to Win10 Pro. That was problematic, but I was able to get most issues resolved. However, Win10 has been presenting me with new and different Blue Screens of Death.

One sure way to produce one is connect the tablet via USB. Connect the tablet to the desktop, and turn on USB Storage in the tablet. Android dismounts the microSD card and the internal SD card carved out of device flash, and both show up as drives in Windows. In my case, M: is the internal SD card, and N: is the external 32GB microSD card.

I can select N: in Windows and use Explorer to navigate it and transfer files to it. When I turn off USB storage on the tablet, the drives should be remounted by the table (they are) and disappear from Windows (they don't.) Any subsequent drive operations are likely to hang the desktop and require a restart.

I dual boot Windows and Ubuntu Linux. A restart from Windows into Ubuntu should take about a minute total, with about 15 seconds required to exit Windows and get to the BIOS for the next step. In the weird state, I can't restart. An attempt to do so will appear to hang the desktop. If I wait long enough, I get a BSOD screen talking about DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE, and Windows collects data and restarts. If I boot into Ubuntu, it can't mount the Windows file systems, thinking they are dirty. If I reboot back into Windows, that gets cleared up, and I can restart into Ubuntu and access the Windows file systems from it in a normal manner.

In the most recent test, I connected the tablet, turned on USB Storage, and ran Calibre to do eBook maintenance. Calibre saw drive N:, but attempting to select the eBook directory there seemed to do nothing. I normally expect Calibre to read the tablet metadata to see what books are already there, but that process never started.

I exited Calibre, and immediately tried to restart the PC. I got the hang and then the DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE BSOD again.

I have Calibre installed under Linux as well, and everything works fine there. Worst case, I can simply boot into Ubuntu to do eBook maintenance on the tablet. And it worked reliably under Win7 Pro. Connecting the tablet to the PC also appears to work reliably on my SO's upgraded from Win7 Win 10 Home laptop, and on an older travel laptop upgraded from Win7 Home to Win10 Home. Whatever it is is specific to my desktop.

What I'm curious about at this point is Calibre's failure to initiate a metadata read on the tablet to see what books are already installed. I don't see any error indications - it just doesn't occur.

Suggestions for debugging within Calibre to see why not are welcomed.
______
Dennis

[theducks]

I recently updated my W7HP laptop to W10 (I did the desktop quite a bit ago)

I attached My TAB2, Calibre asked if I wanted to Manage

It appeared to work.... (the job whee spun)

Spoiler:

calibre, version 2.57.1
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device

Cannot delete object: hr=2150236162 facility=42 error_code=2 description: Shutdown was already called on this object or the object that owns it.


Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 87, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 504, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\driver.py", line 283, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\driver.py", line 309, in write_metadata_cache
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\driver.py", line 149, in put_calibre_file
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\driver.py", line 35, in check_thread
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\driver.py", line 437, in put_file
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\driver.py", line 35, in check_thread
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\driver.py", line 422, in delete_file_or_folder
WPDError: Cannot delete object: hr=2150236162 facility=42 error_code=2 description: Shutdown was already called on this object or the object that owns it.

The TAB went to sleep (and I do not know how to stop that when connected to USB)

Calibre Companion works

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by theducks

I recently updated my W7HP laptop to W10 (I did the desktop quite a bit ago)

I attached My TAB2, Calibre asked if I wanted to Manage

It appeared to work.... (the job whee spun)

Spoiler:

calibre, version 2.57.1
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device

Cannot delete object: hr=2150236162 facility=42 error_code=2 description: Shutdown was already called on this object or the object that owns it.


Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 87, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 504, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\driver.py", line 283, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\driver.py", line 309, in write_metadata_cache
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\driver.py", line 149, in put_calibre_file
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\driver.py", line 35, in check_thread
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\driver.py", line 437, in put_file
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\driver.py", line 35, in check_thread
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\driver.py", line 422, in delete_file_or_folder
WPDError: Cannot delete object: hr=2150236162 facility=42 error_code=2 description: Shutdown was already called on this object or the object that owns it.

The TAB went to sleep (and I do not know how to stop that when connected to USB)

I don't either. I don't believe you can.

Calibre Companion works

My issue with Calibre Companion is that appears to be no way to get it to read existing metadata for stuff Calibre transferred via USB. It's only aware of transfers over Wifi. I have a lot of eBooks on the tablet , but unless I'm missing something, it appears I would need to essentially start over from scratch to get everything visible to Calibre Companion, and I would have to set up a Calibre server process on the desktop for the tablet to connect to over Wifi. I'm in the early stages of investigating that.

But starting over from scratch on the collection on the tablet is not something I'm thrilled with doing. It's easier all told to simply boot into Ubuntu and run Calibre from there to do collection maintenance on the tablet.

I'm more interested in figuring out why connecting the tablet as USB Storage at all gives Win10 heartburn, and how I might fix it.

I still have Win7 available. It was on the HD when I bought the machine. I installed an SSD as boot drive, cloned Win7 to it, then partitioned the drive to create an ext4 slice for Ubuntu, and installed it. I left the Win7 installation on the HD. The end result was a multi-boot menu through grub2 offering Ubuntu, Win10, and Win7. I may try booting into Win7 to see what results I get there.

I'm not quite at the point of bailing on Win10 and reverting to Win7, but it's an increasingly attractive option.

There are quirks on the tablet side: it currently thinks there isn't sufficient storage space to update things like the Google app, when the tablet claims there is over a GB of free application storage. This is apparently a known problem on the device I have, and the ultimate cure seems to be reset to factory default state and start over on configuration from scratch.

If I do that, I might just look at connecting through Wifi instead of USB and redoing my Calibre collection from scratch as well. It's also possible the connection issues I see connecting the tablet via USB to the desktop have roots in something on the tablet end, and redoing it might fix the USB connection issues with the desktop. IIRC, this all worked correctly in the early days after moving to Win10, and the new and different BSODs are a recent issue.

(I am also seeing DCP_WATCHGOG_EXCEPTION BSODs that seem to bite when I am browsing in a 64 bit beta version of Firefox, but do not occur in the 32 bit release version. Tablet woes are unrelated there.)
______
Dennis

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

and I would have to set up a Calibre server process on the desktop for the tablet to connect to over Wifi. I'm in the early stages of investigating that.

@DMcCunney - you can run calibre server from the GUI.

Go to Preferences->Sharing over the 'net. Click the Start server button, wait for the Stop server and Test server buttons to activate (few seconds), click Test server

Your default web browser will show the web interface to the calibre server, the URL bar will contain the IP Address of your desktop and the default port number e.g. 127.0.0.5:8080.

Don't forget to Stop the server

That should adequate for your Calibre Companion investigation.

BR

[theducks]

CC is pretty dog gone fast.

Just do (send if you use Wireles device connection) them in small batches (~100)

I have not tried the download all, (content server) button

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@DMcCunney - you can run calibre server from the GUI.

Go to Preferences->Sharing over the 'net. Click the Start server button, wait for the Stop server and Test server buttons to activate (few seconds), click Test server

Your default web browser will show the web interface to the calibre server, the URL bar will contain the IP Address of your desktop and the default port number e.g. 127.0.0.5:8080.

Don't forget to Stop the server

That should adequate for your Calibre Companion investigation.

BR

Already done, but there are a few other pieces to the puzzle. I also tested the tablet could connect to the Calibre server instance, and downloaded and opened a test volume in my eBook viewer (FBReader for Android).

I still have the issue of many books on the tablet deposited by USB that CC doesn't see because they didn't come in via Wifi, and I'm reluctant to redo my setup from scratch to accommodate CC. (If I am missing something, and can get CC to read and use the existing metadata Calibre creates on the tablet when I do USB transfers, I'll be delighted to be wrong.)

For my current issues, the simplest solution is just to boot to Ubuntu and use the Calibre instance installed there to to maintain the tablet library via USB. Ubuntu doesn't have the issues Win10 has demonstrated.
______
Dennis

[kovidgoyal]

You can always run calibre in debug mode to get more detailed output on what is happening.