Content Expert question: Mobi or KF8 download

[johnnyb]

Dear Kindle experts,

I've been wrecking my brain over this for hours now:
Is there a way to make absolutely sure, that a Paperwhite 3 or equivalent Kindle will definitely download a personal document in AZW3 from a Mobi that has been converted as a “dual-mobi” in Calibre.
I have been experimenting with the same book and all sorts of different configurations (PDOC EBOK tag, embedded fonts) and so far have found no reliable procedure to make sure that only azw3 downloads. The only thing I have noticed: Once the PW3 has “chosen” a particular format, there is no way to change that.
I want this format for a number of reasons and do not mind that book covers are missing. However, I have found not set of settings that makes sure that azw3 files are reliably downloaded.

[JSWolf]

Since emailing eBooks doesn't work well, just convert to KF8 and side load via Calibre. That will work for sure.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Since emailing eBooks doesn't work well, just convert to KF8 and side load via Calibre. That will work for sure.

Thanks for your reply. I have considered that option, however, I want to be able to read my books on my phone and iPad as well. The latter is especially important since I want to be able to email annotation excerpts to myself and others, a feature that only works on sideloaded books with iOS/Android.

[jhowell]

I have found the files to be produced by calibre to sometimes have problems when e-mailed to Amazon. I suspect that there is some subtle aspect of the dual-MOBI format that it does not produce correctly.

I recommend using Amazon's kindlegen instead. If you prefer a GUI interface it is included as part of the Kindle Previewer.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Thanks for your reply. I have considered that option, however, I want to be able to read my books on my phone and iPad as well. The latter is especially important since I want to be able to email annotation excerpts to myself and others, a feature that only works on sideloaded books with iOS/Android.

What I do is send the books I want available for my iPhone or iPad to Dropbox and grab them from there. It works well.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I do is send the books I want available for my iPhone or iPad to Dropbox and grab them from there. It works well.

You cannot synchronize annotations between devices, as the OP wants to do, unless you send the book via e-mail.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I have found the files to be produced by calibre to sometimes have problems when e-mailed to Amazon. I suspect that there is some subtle aspect of the dual-MOBI format that it does not produce correctly.

I recommend using Amazon's kindlegen instead. If you prefer a GUI interface it is included as part of the Kindle Previewer.

Thanks, I will give that a try! Are those files certain to be downloaded as AZW3? Another thing: Will Kindlegen keep the soft hyphens embedded in the epub? Or is there then another way to hyphenate?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Are those files certain to be downloaded as AZW3?

It has always worked for me so far, but there is no guarantee.

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Will Kindlegen keep the soft hyphens embedded in the epub? Or is there then another way to hyphenate?

I use the Hyphenate This! plugin to add soft hyphens and they are retained.

[shamanNS]

@johnnyb: Nothing in life in certain, especially software behavior.

The only thing that is known concerning the whole "system" is that what will get stored on Amazon servers and what will get delivered is dependent on whole set of Kindle devices and Kindle apps that are associated with that particular account.

If you only have couple of Kindle eInk devices that both support KF8 then Amazon will PROBABLY store on its servers just the KF8 portion of the dual mobi file you've sent. If you also have say Kindle 2 registered to that same Amazon account.. it has to store "dual mobi" to be able to deliver correct format to all your devices.

I admit that I don't really use Amazon's Personal Documents Archive service BUT those time I've tested it with dual mobi files (I wanted to check the same thing, will delivered KF8 portion of the book have soft hyphens) it always deliver azw3 file to my Kindle.
When I was testing the hyphens thing I happened to also test embedded fonts and choose Calibre's option to subset used font, and ended-up with azw3 book which had squares in place of soft hyphens if I enable "Publisher font" (it was obviously missing that font character.. so I concluded that Calibre probably did font subsetting based on "old mobi" portion which did't have soft hyphens).

So yes, hyphenated epub> convert to mobi "both">e-mail it works. You get hyphenated azw3. And if it was possible to then (post download) USB-sideload .apnx files (for page numbers) and cover thumbnails maybe I would give more serious consideration to email instead of USB-sideload my books, especially now that newer Kindle firmware doesn't use that ugly "personal" banner on bottom of cover thumbnails.

[johnnyb]

Ok, the Previewer conversion actually worked once! Thank you for that suggestion!
However, now it seems that my Kindle Previewer is stuck trying to load another book (stuck “checking compatibility”). I had to do an update, is it possible to revert to an older version, and where would I find it?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

I had to do an update, is it possible to revert to an older version, and where would I find it?

The old Kindle Previewer, prior to version 3, should meet your needs. On the page I linked above for the Kindle Previewer see the answer to:

Q14. Can I continue using Kindle Previewer 2.94?

[johnnyb]

Thank you so much for your help! Everything worked out and of the four books I sent so far, all have arrived in azw3, with soft hyphens from the epub intact.
(all are without covers and extractcoverthumbs app doesn’t do anything to them unfortunately)
(Now, let's continue hoping that Amazon will offer conversion into kfx for cloud based pdocs at some point )

[JSWolf]

You should not use Kindle Previewer. You should use Kindlegen. It just works better for what you want. Yes Kindle Previewer has a GUI, but for what you want, it's not good enough.

[jhowell]

The Kindle Previewer is a GUI interface that invokes kindlegen (and also kfxgen in version 3) along with an ebook viewer.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The Kindle Previewer is a GUI interface that invokes kindlegen (and also kfxgen in version 3) along with an ebook viewer.

It's actually easier to use Kindlegen.