[Nook] Covers vanish

tas03 · 04-24-2017, 09:12 PM

I wasn't sure which one of the forums to put this in. All of the covers except for the 5 most recent books added to my Nook Tablet have disappeared from the My Files part of the Library in the Nook app. In their place is a grey box with the name.
The only thing I did today was to archive the books that are in the Books part of the Nook app to have more room. I tried unarchiving one of the books but it too had a grey cover.
If I go to the library where the archived books are located, they all have their correct colorful covers.
Even the non-B&N books - the ones from Amazon and current library books I have, have the grey covers in the My Files.
I just had to readd all 800 books back onto the tablet through Calibre on Saturday night because of something stupid I did. I sure hope I have not messed up things again.

kovidgoyal · 04-24-2017, 10:59 PM

calibre has no control over what happens on the Nook -- all it does is copy the ebook files to the Nook. It's likely whatever internal database the Nook uses got corrupted.

tas03 · 04-25-2017, 06:35 AM

Thanks for the quick answer.
I think it might be a problem with the software on the Nook itself. Someone else on another forum had the exact same sort of problem with covers, and I have read of other people who also had the same sort of problem with the Glowlight Plus.
After I went to be last night I realized I should have posted this on the Nook forum.
I have never tried B&N support with the Tablet. They were more than useless with the Glowlight Plus, telling me that the only books that could be sideloaded were library books, a contradiction of their own site.

Calenorn · 04-25-2017, 07:43 AM

Hello tas,

My experience is with older NOOKs (the Simple Touch and the Glowlight - the white one). What I learned about them is that they store cover images in a file called .docThumbs. The NST makes a copy of the cover image of each book loaded onto it. It uses these images for thumbnails displayed on the library shelves, and stores those images in .docThumbs. So if that file has accidentally been deleted, you will get the generic blank cover thumbnails.

Also, those older NOOKs look for a file called "cover.jpg" (or cover.something, anyway) to use for the thumbnail image. If your book uses a cover image with a different name, you won't get a thumbnail picture on your library shelves, just the blank white rectangle with the title and author.

Hopefully these clues can give you some leads to investigate!

tas03 · 04-28-2017, 07:00 PM

Calenorn - thanks for the reply.
The weird thing is the covers will be there one day, gone the next, and back the third. It is not always the same books that go missing covers. When I add the books, I watch the GLP and Tablet to see if they transferred - something you can't always count on with the GLP. The covers always show up when book first transfers. Sometimes when I open the tablet or the GLP, covers of books stream past in the just added section and then when I open the library some of these same covers that had just showed up are now a grey box.
Inside the Nook file on the tablet I had a folder entitled My Files, which B&N said to do. When I added those 800 books back, I put them in the Nook folder, remembered they should have been in the other folder and moved them there. That's when so many covers seemed to disappear. They showed up when I moved them back, at least for a while.

Calenorn · 04-28-2017, 08:44 PM

Hello tas,

I haven't gotten to play with the newer model (Glowlight Plus) yet. But moving the books around may well confuse the issue. On my older NOOKs I think the cover thumbnail is created when the book is first added. If you can find the .docThumbs folder, delete any thumbnails from the affected books, then delete the epub files for the books involved. Power the reader off and back on, then add the books back to the folder you want them to be in.

Those thumbnail images in the .docThumbs folder must be linked (somehow) to the epub. When you moved the epub it might have broken that link, that is, the reader is looking for a thumbnail with a different name, but it was never created because they only get made when the book is initially added to the device. This is all guesswork on my part, of course.

tas03 · 04-29-2017, 08:02 PM

The covers were disappearing before I ever moved them on the tablet.
I found a folder called .docThumbsImages in a folder called com.nook.app. The files are strings of numbers and letters that end in _thumb_png. When I copied one of the files to the desktop and changed it to _thumb.png, and image appeared. I tried to look on the tablet to see if that was one of the books without a cover, and none of the apps will open on the tablet now!

tas03 · 04-29-2017, 08:22 PM

OK I rebooted the tablet and the Nook app opened. I checked the book whose image showed up on the desktop file when I changed it to a .png, and it is one of the books whose cover shows up on the Nook.
There are 166 items in that .docThumbsImages folder and I have 0ver 800 books on the tablet. I search the SD card and the only png items are in this folder. The only items with thumb in the title are in this folder.
The Glowlight Plus does the same type of thing: When you open it, covers flash by across the recent items field, and then some of those books you saw flash by are only grey boxes when you find the book in your files in the library.
On the tablet, I can scan down the books and it will have a cover picture as I go by, and then just be a grey box when I scan back up.
Sometimes I wish I had never bought these things. The Simple Touch worked so well.

tas03 · 04-29-2017, 08:33 PM

Calehorn - Thanks for the advice. There are three difficulties in deleting the thumbnails and then the epubs: The books that are only grey boxes change - there will be the regular cover when I add the book and then it will be a box the next day; I would have to copy all of those thumbnail files to another folder, then change the _png to .png to see what the book is; and finally, where are the other 600 books' thumbnails.
At least most of the books now have correct covers that when I first posted the problem.

04-24-2017, 09:12 PM	#1
tas03 Zealot Posts: 129 Karma: 129368 Join Date: Feb 2017 Device: Nook Glowlight +, Nook Tab. , Nook Simple Touch, iPad Air, iPhone 6Se	[Nook] Covers vanish I wasn't sure which one of the forums to put this in. All of the covers except for the 5 most recent books added to my Nook Tablet have disappeared from the My Files part of the Library in the Nook app. In their place is a grey box with the name. The only thing I did today was to archive the books that are in the Books part of the Nook app to have more room. I tried unarchiving one of the books but it too had a grey cover. If I go to the library where the archived books are located, they all have their correct colorful covers. Even the non-B&N books - the ones from Amazon and current library books I have, have the grey covers in the My Files. I just had to readd all 800 books back onto the tablet through Calibre on Saturday night because of something stupid I did. I sure hope I have not messed up things again.

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04-24-2017, 10:59 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,320 Karma: 27111242 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	calibre has no control over what happens on the Nook -- all it does is copy the ebook files to the Nook. It's likely whatever internal database the Nook uses got corrupted.

04-25-2017, 06:35 AM	#3
tas03 Zealot Posts: 129 Karma: 129368 Join Date: Feb 2017 Device: Nook Glowlight +, Nook Tab. , Nook Simple Touch, iPad Air, iPhone 6Se	Thanks for the quick answer. I think it might be a problem with the software on the Nook itself. Someone else on another forum had the exact same sort of problem with covers, and I have read of other people who also had the same sort of problem with the Glowlight Plus. After I went to be last night I realized I should have posted this on the Nook forum. I have never tried B&N support with the Tablet. They were more than useless with the Glowlight Plus, telling me that the only books that could be sideloaded were library books, a contradiction of their own site.

04-25-2017, 07:43 AM	#4
Calenorn Brash Fumbler Posts: 1,203 Karma: 9224939 Join Date: May 2013 Device: NST, Kobo Mini	Hello tas, My experience is with older NOOKs (the Simple Touch and the Glowlight - the white one). What I learned about them is that they store cover images in a file called .docThumbs. The NST makes a copy of the cover image of each book loaded onto it. It uses these images for thumbnails displayed on the library shelves, and stores those images in .docThumbs. So if that file has accidentally been deleted, you will get the generic blank cover thumbnails. Also, those older NOOKs look for a file called "cover.jpg" (or cover.something, anyway) to use for the thumbnail image. If your book uses a cover image with a different name, you won't get a thumbnail picture on your library shelves, just the blank white rectangle with the title and author. Hopefully these clues can give you some leads to investigate!

04-28-2017, 07:00 PM	#5
tas03 Zealot Posts: 129 Karma: 129368 Join Date: Feb 2017 Device: Nook Glowlight +, Nook Tab. , Nook Simple Touch, iPad Air, iPhone 6Se	Calenorn - thanks for the reply. The weird thing is the covers will be there one day, gone the next, and back the third. It is not always the same books that go missing covers. When I add the books, I watch the GLP and Tablet to see if they transferred - something you can't always count on with the GLP. The covers always show up when book first transfers. Sometimes when I open the tablet or the GLP, covers of books stream past in the just added section and then when I open the library some of these same covers that had just showed up are now a grey box. Inside the Nook file on the tablet I had a folder entitled My Files, which B&N said to do. When I added those 800 books back, I put them in the Nook folder, remembered they should have been in the other folder and moved them there. That's when so many covers seemed to disappear. They showed up when I moved them back, at least for a while.

04-28-2017, 08:44 PM	#6
Calenorn Brash Fumbler Posts: 1,203 Karma: 9224939 Join Date: May 2013 Device: NST, Kobo Mini	Hello tas, I haven't gotten to play with the newer model (Glowlight Plus) yet. But moving the books around may well confuse the issue. On my older NOOKs I think the cover thumbnail is created when the book is first added. If you can find the .docThumbs folder, delete any thumbnails from the affected books, then delete the epub files for the books involved. Power the reader off and back on, then add the books back to the folder you want them to be in. Those thumbnail images in the .docThumbs folder must be linked (somehow) to the epub. When you moved the epub it might have broken that link, that is, the reader is looking for a thumbnail with a different name, but it was never created because they only get made when the book is initially added to the device. This is all guesswork on my part, of course.

04-29-2017, 08:02 PM	#7
tas03 Zealot Posts: 129 Karma: 129368 Join Date: Feb 2017 Device: Nook Glowlight +, Nook Tab. , Nook Simple Touch, iPad Air, iPhone 6Se	The covers were disappearing before I ever moved them on the tablet. I found a folder called .docThumbsImages in a folder called com.nook.app. The files are strings of numbers and letters that end in _thumb_png. When I copied one of the files to the desktop and changed it to _thumb.png, and image appeared. I tried to look on the tablet to see if that was one of the books without a cover, and none of the apps will open on the tablet now!

04-29-2017, 08:22 PM	#8
tas03 Zealot Posts: 129 Karma: 129368 Join Date: Feb 2017 Device: Nook Glowlight +, Nook Tab. , Nook Simple Touch, iPad Air, iPhone 6Se	OK I rebooted the tablet and the Nook app opened. I checked the book whose image showed up on the desktop file when I changed it to a .png, and it is one of the books whose cover shows up on the Nook. There are 166 items in that .docThumbsImages folder and I have 0ver 800 books on the tablet. I search the SD card and the only png items are in this folder. The only items with thumb in the title are in this folder. The Glowlight Plus does the same type of thing: When you open it, covers flash by across the recent items field, and then some of those books you saw flash by are only grey boxes when you find the book in your files in the library. On the tablet, I can scan down the books and it will have a cover picture as I go by, and then just be a grey box when I scan back up. Sometimes I wish I had never bought these things. The Simple Touch worked so well.

04-29-2017, 08:33 PM	#9
tas03 Zealot Posts: 129 Karma: 129368 Join Date: Feb 2017 Device: Nook Glowlight +, Nook Tab. , Nook Simple Touch, iPad Air, iPhone 6Se	Calehorn - Thanks for the advice. There are three difficulties in deleting the thumbnails and then the epubs: The books that are only grey boxes change - there will be the regular cover when I add the book and then it will be a box the next day; I would have to copy all of those thumbnail files to another folder, then change the _png to .png to see what the book is; and finally, where are the other 600 books' thumbnails. At least most of the books now have correct covers that when I first posted the problem.

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