No available formats

[ScalyFreak]

I'm worried that something very bad has happened to nearly three quarters of the books on my laptop. Calibre can't send them to my Kobo H2O and states they are not in a format the device supports.

When I try to view them in Calibre, I get the error "<book title> has no available formats"

I'm looking at a couple of thousand books so far. All of them purchased from very legitimate online bookstores, two of which have since gone out of business.

These books worked on the Kobo H2O that died from hardware problems and had to be replaced, but for some reason I just can't load them on the replacement reader. I haven't made any changes to Calbire (that I know of!). so I am both confused and very worried.

Um. Help, please?

EDIT to add:
I'm running Calibre 2.85.1.The Kobo H2O is running firmware 4.4.9344. When I navigate to the Calibre library on my computer and look for the books I can see the ePub files there and can open them. Much less worried now!

[theducks]

Assuming the details (comments) section of Calibre shows valid formats.

Probably, your device driver settings got corrupted.
With the device connected, click the arrow on the Device icon.
Make sure there are ticks next to the formats your device can handle (EPUB, KEPUB...)
Save.

If the ticks were there that match the formats that Calibre shows in the DETAILS pane. Run Library Maintenance , you might find that they are no longer present,because someone.something went into the Library folder and changed, moved, deleted them.

Rogue A/V or leaving Cloud sync while changing metadata, can clash. Pleas read the FAQ at the Calibre help site.

[dbareis]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

and very worried

It sounds like you need to start backing up important data, hopefully, that has recently occurred to you.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by theducks

Assuming the details (comments) section of Calibre shows valid formats.

It actually doesn't. This is one of the reasons this worries me. The other is that when I look in the filters in the field on the left, it shows that Calibre has books in multiple formats. Adding up the numbers from each format gives me a number considerably lower than the number next to the Calibre version number in the lower left.

Originally Posted by dbareis

It sounds like you need to start backing up important data, hopefully, that has recently occurred to you.

I have a back-up. I don't want to go through the hassle of restoring from it only to have this happen again.

[chaley]

My guess is that you have your library on a network drive or somewhere under "cloud control", and formats are being lost. See the FAQ entry I am getting errors with my calibre library on a networked drive/NAS?.

Run calibre's Library Maintenance / Check Library function to see what damage has been done.

EDIT: Just saw that you aren't actually missing the books. Good.

[ScalyFreak]

It's not on a network drive.They are all on the drive inside the laptop.

Clarifcation: I have successfully located the books in the My Books folder, and should be able to restore my library from there. For obvious reasons, this makes me very happy. However, I am worried that until I find out what happened this may happen again at any given time. I'd like to prevent that.

When I run Library Maintenance it tells me there is nothing wrong with my library.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

It's not on a network drive.They are all on the drive inside the laptop.



When I run Library Maintenance it tells me there is nothing wrong with my library.

That message implies that Calibre was somehow used to delete the formats, because the DB WAS in sync with the Library contents.
You have a real mystery AFAIK "news" is the only feature with auto-delete as an option

[ScalyFreak]

Calibre deleted the formats...?

Yes, I am completely confused now!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

Calibre deleted the formats...?

Yes, I am completely confused now!

If there were no errors, then Calibre knew about the deletions.
As Chaley pointed out. NAS or Clouds delay/block timly changes in the File system that Calibre asked for (a Transaction) and the Library thinks one thing, and reality (the files) are in different path/name(id).. The latter, generates missing/extra errors

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by theducks

If there were no errors, then Calibre knew about the deletions.
As Chaley pointed out. NAS or Clouds delay/block timly changes in the File system that Calibre asked for (a Transaction) and the Library thinks one thing, and reality (the files) are in different path/name(id).. The latter, generates missing/extra errors

Read what the OP wrote in response to chaleys post!

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

It's not on a network drive.They are all on the drive inside the laptop.

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

Calibre deleted the formats...?

Yes, I am completely confused now!

So am I

Can you tell us what the current situation is.

Do you have a library that reports no errors in the last phase of Check Library? That's where it checks for consistency between the database and the actual folders and files within the library.

If you don't have any errors then what is problem?

Can you send books to your Kobo H2O replacement?

BR

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

So am I

Can you tell us what the current situation is.

Do you have a library that reports no errors in the last phase of Check Library? That's where it checks for consistency between the database and the actual folders and files within the library.

If you don't have any errors then what is problem?

Can you send books to your Kobo H2O replacement?

BR

1. Yes.

2.The problem is, Calibre sees the cover image and the metadata of the book, but not actually the ePub content itself. When I try to open and read the book in the Calibre Viewer, the error message implies the book is not there.

3.Yes. Both the unaffected half of my Calibre library, and the books in my Kobo desktop app.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

1. Yes.

2.The problem is, Calibre sees the cover image and the metadata of the book, but not actually the ePub content itself. When I try to open and read the book in the Calibre Viewer, the error message implies the book is not there.

3.Yes. Both the unaffected half of my Calibre library, and the books in my Kobo desktop app.

Press 'O' on a book you can't open in the viewer, this will open its folder - what files do you see ?

What do you mean by 'the unaffected half of my Calibre library' ?

Let's put the Kobo desktop app to one side for the moment, and get the calibre library issues resolved

BR

[ScalyFreak]

1. Cover image and metadata. No ePub file.

2. I have 3,390 books in Calibre. 1,657 work fine and can be transferred to the Kobo H2O. The rest can't.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

1. Cover image and metadata. No ePub file.

2. I have 3,390 books in Calibre. 1,657 work fine and can be transferred to the Kobo H2O. The rest can't.

Calibre does not just lose books. It's either something you've done with Calibre or something you've done without Calibre.

Either way, the best thing is to restore from the backup and be careful of what you do with the library.

[ScalyFreak]

That's what I thought, which is why I'm trying to figure out what happened. I do not want this to happen again.