Calibre not sideloading to my kobo properly

missjane · 04-30-2018, 06:23 PM

Following a recent update calibre doesn't talk to my kobo properly any more: I get the following message in Calibre
**************************************
calibre, version 3.22.1
WARNING: Failed: Kobo database version unsupported - See details

Your Kobo is running an updated firmware/database version. As calibre does not know about this updated firmware, database editing is disabled, to prevent corruption. You can still send books to your Kobo with calibre, but deleting books and managing collections is disabled. If you are willing to experiment and know how to reset your Kobo to Factory defaults, you can override this check by right clicking the device icon in calibre and selecting "Configure this device" and then the "Attempt to support newer firmware" option. Doing so may require you to perform a factory reset of your Kobo.
Device database version: 146.
Device firmware version: (4, 8, 10956)
****************************************

Despite what the message says, I can't successfully send books to my kobo. I just tried to send seven library books (a readathon TBR for May), and only two of them are readable on kobo. The other five have placeholders in 'My Books', with cover art, but are not actually accessible. I am confused about this... if all five failed it would make more sense.

So... does anyone understand what's going on? Do I need to configure my device as suggested? Any other possible fixes?

PeterT · 04-30-2018, 08:03 PM

Yes. Just tick the driver option to support unsupported databases.

Trust me if ever a Kobo update breaks that option there will be multiple warning posts on these forums to warn you.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

davidfor · 04-30-2018, 08:09 PM

As the message said, your Kobo device has been updated to a firmware version beyond what Kobo supports. Some of the more basic function will work, such as sending a book, but functions such as collection management and setting the series information won't happen.

It has been a while since there was a change on the Kobo device where it wasn't safe to follow the instructions in the message to support later firmware is safe. But, the check is there as just in case. In this case, it definitely is safe to do so. And the change to bump the supported firmware version has been made and will be in the next update to calibre.

Also, when there is a firmware update, I recommend looking in the Kobo forum here. There will be a thread to discuss the the new firmware. As soon as possible after the firmware is detected, I will make a post as to when calibre will be updated and if there are expected to be any problems.

missjane · 05-01-2018, 05:44 AM

Thank you for the replies. I did as suggested, and now I can delete books on the device from within Calibre. So thanks.

HOWEVER my main problem remains. These new library books, seemingly perfectly well formatted within calibre, and easily readable through the native ebook reader in calibre, do not open when I sideload them and then try to read them on my kobo. The first 'page' (cover, or what ever) appears, but when I try to advance the book closes, and ends up marked as 'finished' as if it was a single page document rather than, say, a 218 p novel. Any guesses what's going on?

DNSB · 05-01-2018, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by missjane

HOWEVER my main problem remains. These new library books, seemingly perfectly well formatted within calibre, and easily readable through the native ebook reader in calibre, do not open when I sideload them and then try to read them on my kobo. The first 'page' (cover, or what ever) appears, but when I try to advance the book closes, and ends up marked as 'finished' as if it was a single page document rather than, say, a 218 p novel. Any guesses what's going on?

Could you try bringing up the table of contents and see if you can select a chapter and the text displays? If you have davidfor's KoboUtilities plugin installed, try running the Check the device database option under Database. If it returns "Result of running 'PRAGMA integrity_check' on database on the Kobo device: ok", your database is okay. Otherwise, a logout of your Kobo account which will preserve sideloaded ebooks, fonts, etc. or a complete factory reset will remove the corrupted database.

missjane · 05-04-2018, 07:39 AM

Hi David,

I installed the plugin you mention and have run the database check, which came back OK. I have also, incidentally, updated to the newly available version of calibre. To no avail. The library books (which I have now loaded onto my phone using calibre companion and am reading w/o problem) are still not readable on my kobo. I tried a new library book, and the same thing happens. I can summon up the table of contents, but where ever I try and link to within the book I land on a blank page and then the book closes. The same thing happens with moving inside the book using the 'slider' navigation aid.

The most confusing thing about this is it doesn't hold true for every library book. None of my previously loaded books have become inaccessible, to the best of my knowledge, and even some new ones I loaded in at the same time as the trouble began have transferred just fine.

Is it worth trying a factory reset anyway?

davidfor · 05-04-2018, 08:33 AM

If you visit the thread in the Kobo forum here for firmware 4.8.10956, you will discover this is a problem with the firmware. Kobo changed the font used when you select the "Publisher default" option. This is causing the problems you describe. It particularly affects the Kobo devices with only 256MB of RAM. This includes the Touch and Glo and probably the Aura Edition 2. It will also happen if you choose on of the two Kobo fonts near the bottom of the font list.

For this reason, Kobo have stopped sending the update out to devices. They are working on a fix and I hope they will have this out next week. This fix will probably change the default font use for epubs back to Georgia.

Until then, you can revert to the previous firmware version if you want. But, choosing a different font on the device for the book, closing it and reopening it should fix it.

missjane · 05-04-2018, 09:46 AM

David,

Thanks so much for answering! I am so glad I'm not going mad! I will try the font switch, and if all else fails I can read on my phone for a week (at least I'm set up to do this now, so it wasn't all bad) and wait for the firmware fix.

cheers,
Jane

04-30-2018, 06:23 PM	#1
missjane Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: (kobo touch) (kobo glo) kobo aura 2nd ed	Calibre not sideloading to my kobo properly Following a recent update calibre doesn't talk to my kobo properly any more: I get the following message in Calibre ************************************ calibre, version 3.22.1 WARNING: Failed: Kobo database version unsupported - See details Your Kobo is running an updated firmware/database version. As calibre does not know about this updated firmware, database editing is disabled, to prevent corruption. You can still send books to your Kobo with calibre, but deleting books and managing collections is disabled. If you are willing to experiment and know how to reset your Kobo to Factory defaults, you can override this check by right clicking the device icon in calibre and selecting "Configure this device" and then the "Attempt to support newer firmware" option. Doing so may require you to perform a factory reset of your Kobo. Device database version: 146. Device firmware version: (4, 8, 10956) ************************************** Despite what the message says, I can't successfully send books to my kobo. I just tried to send seven library books (a readathon TBR for May), and only two of them are readable on kobo. The other five have placeholders in 'My Books', with cover art, but are not actually accessible. I am confused about this... if all five failed it would make more sense. So... does anyone understand what's going on? Do I need to configure my device as suggested? Any other possible fixes?

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04-30-2018, 08:03 PM	#2
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,296 Karma: 78876004 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour	Yes. Just tick the driver option to support unsupported databases. Trust me if ever a Kobo update breaks that option there will be multiple warning posts on these forums to warn you. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

04-30-2018, 08:09 PM	#3
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,905 Karma: 47303824 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	As the message said, your Kobo device has been updated to a firmware version beyond what Kobo supports. Some of the more basic function will work, such as sending a book, but functions such as collection management and setting the series information won't happen. It has been a while since there was a change on the Kobo device where it wasn't safe to follow the instructions in the message to support later firmware is safe. But, the check is there as just in case. In this case, it definitely is safe to do so. And the change to bump the supported firmware version has been made and will be in the next update to calibre. Also, when there is a firmware update, I recommend looking in the Kobo forum here. There will be a thread to discuss the the new firmware. As soon as possible after the firmware is detected, I will make a post as to when calibre will be updated and if there are expected to be any problems.

05-01-2018, 05:44 AM	#4
missjane Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: (kobo touch) (kobo glo) kobo aura 2nd ed	Thank you for the replies. I did as suggested, and now I can delete books on the device from within Calibre. So thanks. HOWEVER my main problem remains. These new library books, seemingly perfectly well formatted within calibre, and easily readable through the native ebook reader in calibre, do not open when I sideload them and then try to read them on my kobo. The first 'page' (cover, or what ever) appears, but when I try to advance the book closes, and ends up marked as 'finished' as if it was a single page document rather than, say, a 218 p novel. Any guesses what's going on?

05-04-2018, 07:39 AM	#6
missjane Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: (kobo touch) (kobo glo) kobo aura 2nd ed	Hi David, I installed the plugin you mention and have run the database check, which came back OK. I have also, incidentally, updated to the newly available version of calibre. To no avail. The library books (which I have now loaded onto my phone using calibre companion and am reading w/o problem) are still not readable on my kobo. I tried a new library book, and the same thing happens. I can summon up the table of contents, but where ever I try and link to within the book I land on a blank page and then the book closes. The same thing happens with moving inside the book using the 'slider' navigation aid. The most confusing thing about this is it doesn't hold true for every library book. None of my previously loaded books have become inaccessible, to the best of my knowledge, and even some new ones I loaded in at the same time as the trouble began have transferred just fine. Is it worth trying a factory reset anyway?

05-04-2018, 08:33 AM	#7
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,905 Karma: 47303824 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	If you visit the thread in the Kobo forum here for firmware 4.8.10956, you will discover this is a problem with the firmware. Kobo changed the font used when you select the "Publisher default" option. This is causing the problems you describe. It particularly affects the Kobo devices with only 256MB of RAM. This includes the Touch and Glo and probably the Aura Edition 2. It will also happen if you choose on of the two Kobo fonts near the bottom of the font list. For this reason, Kobo have stopped sending the update out to devices. They are working on a fix and I hope they will have this out next week. This fix will probably change the default font use for epubs back to Georgia. Until then, you can revert to the previous firmware version if you want. But, choosing a different font on the device for the book, closing it and reopening it should fix it.

05-04-2018, 09:46 AM	#8
missjane Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: (kobo touch) (kobo glo) kobo aura 2nd ed	David, Thanks so much for answering! I am so glad I'm not going mad! I will try the font switch, and if all else fails I can read on my phone for a week (at least I'm set up to do this now, so it wasn't all bad) and wait for the firmware fix. cheers, Jane

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