Kobo updated and now has 189 "books" from fonts/system files

[sekazi]

The battery was dead in my Kobo and I charged it. Once I unlocked it there was a message about an update that could not install due to the battery percentage and once I dismissed the update started.

When the Kobo came back up I had 259 books instead of 70. I tried to open the library and the Kobo crashed. It took about 2 minutes or so to get back to the home screen. I was then able to open the library which still said it had 259 books.

Here is a picture.
https://i.imgur.com/S5mRMoe.jpg

I have tried to do a repair and that did not get rid of the books. Connecting the Kobo to the PC does not show any of the files listed. Rebuilding in Calibre does not fix it either.

Right now it looks like my only solution is to factory reset the Kobo to fix this issue. I cannot find any other similar cases online like this.

[patrik]

I'm guessing it's because Kobo now searches for books in directories starting with a '.'.

To make it not do that, follow the instructions here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=70

[sekazi]

That solved the issue. It is strange that I could not find any of the listed books when plugged in USB. Not even the hidden files.

[pickyaxe]

Originally Posted by patrik

To make it not do that, follow the instructions here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=70

Warning: I did this, and while it worked well... after ejecting the USB cable, while Nickel was re-processing the database, it deleted all of my Kobo-readable files (kepub, epub, pdf, cbz) that were stored in a folder that starts with a dot.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by pickyaxe

Warning: I did this, and while it worked well... after ejecting the USB cable, while Nickel was re-processing the database, it deleted all of my Kobo-readable files (kepub, epub, pdf, cbz) that were stored in a folder that starts with a dot.

Hmmm... were you able to read those files with Kobo's firmware prior to the update given that Kobo's firmware would not scan for content in a hidden directory? Or were you using an alternate renderer (KOReader, CoolReader, Plato, etc.)?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Hmmm... were you able to read those files with Kobo's firmware prior to the update given that Kobo's firmware would not scan for content in a hidden directory? Or were you using an alternate renderer (KOReader, CoolReader, Plato, etc.)?

Those eBooks got removed from Nickel because Nickel originally saw them and added them to the database and then Nickel was unable to see them even though they were in the database.

Were these eBooks actually deleted?

[pickyaxe]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Hmmm... were you able to read those files with Kobo's firmware prior to the update given that Kobo's firmware would not scan for content in a hidden directory? Or were you using an alternate renderer (KOReader, CoolReader, Plato, etc.)?

I was reading them with KOReader. I intentionally put them into a directory with a name that starts with a dot, so that Nickel won't index them. At some point a couple months ago, Nickel started indexing them. I couldn't be bothered to fix it (since I don't use Nickel for much these days except Pocket) so I left it alone, until now.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Were these eBooks actually deleted?

Yes, the files themselves were deleted from storage. It didn't touch file formats that Nickel doesn't index or the directory structure. Interestingly, this made KOReader repeatedly panic on launch, since it was set to "open last file" and the entire history was pointing at files that didn't exist.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by pickyaxe

I was reading them with KOReader. I intentionally put them into a directory with a name that starts with a dot, so that Nickel won't index them. At some point a couple months ago, Nickel started indexing them. I couldn't be bothered to fix it (since I don't use Nickel for much these days except Pocket) so I left it alone, until now.

Which was a change in firmware version 4.17.13651. And a few days later Kobo released 4.17.13694 which uses a config file option to exclude folders from the import process. Plus it has some that it ignores.

Yes, the files themselves were deleted from storage. It didn't touch file formats that Nickel doesn't index or the directory structure. Interestingly, this made KOReader repeatedly panic on launch, since it was set to "open last file" and the entire history was pointing at files that didn't exist.

From my understanding, deleting the files is was what nickel always did in these circumstances. But, we probably rarely saw it triggered before these firmware versions. And it would only affect files that nickel can import.

[NiLuJe]

@pickyaxe: On which KOReader version was that? (I had a vague memory of someone fixing the "oh noes!, last file read is gone" thing a long while back, so I'm intrigued by the crash on startup. I'm guessing the actual root cause was that bits of KOReader *itself* were deleted (specifically, UI icons), because it lives in a hidden folder. And, that, indeed, will cause a crash on startup ).

In any case, as @davidfor said, that was indeed the expected behavior .

[pickyaxe]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@pickyaxe: On which KOReader version was that? (I had a vague memory of someone fixing the "oh noes!, last file read is gone" thing a long while back, so I'm intrigued by the crash on startup.

Most recent nightly as of two days ago. Also, I think your intuition about KOReader's images being deleted is spot on, that's probably what happened.


Also, thanks davidfor for that explanation. Not sure why Kobo thinks deleting files it decided not to index is reasonable behavior, but it's good to know

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pickyaxe

Most recent nightly as of two days ago. Also, I think your intuition about KOReader's images being deleted is spot on, that's probably what happened.


Also, thanks davidfor for that explanation. Not sure why Kobo thinks deleting files it decided not to index is reasonable behavior, but it's good to know

The files were deleted because they can no longer been seen by Nickel. It's just the way it is. Before making any soft of major change or any change that can maybe cause a problem, backup the user partition to your computer so you can restore anything you might need to.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by pickyaxe

Also, thanks davidfor for that explanation. Not sure why Kobo thinks deleting files it decided not to index is reasonable behavior, but it's good to know

I don't know either. It wasn't really what I expected, but, I was told by Kobo that that was what the expected behaviour was and hadn't changed.

But, there is an important thing that everyone forgets. These are not general purpose computers that run an ereader application. They are an ereader that just happens to run a Linux distribution under the covers. The behaviour of nickel and the rest of the Kobo software defines the operation of the device.

[sladflob]

So I finally updated my KA1 to 14123 and then used NiLuJe's powershell script to reinstall KOReader and KFMon (after cocking it up so badly the last time when trying to do it manually). Everything seems to have gone well but I'm once again seeing all KOReader's icons in Nickel's My Books list. Looking in the Kobo eReader.conf file I see that the ExcludeFolders section is there but not at the end of the file for some reason. Is this likely to be what's causing the problem?

edit: I tried moving that block to the end of the file and ejecting the device and it's still showing me the KOReader icons. Looking at the file I see the block has been moved back into the middle again! Tried this a couple of times and every time the [FeatureSettings] block gets moved. But I'm guessing this is not the problem.

edit part 2: I got it sorted. For some reason the powershell script unpacked KOReader into the top level folder instead of .adds. I removed the spurious koreader folder and it's no longer showing me the extra icons, which is good. BUT KOReader is not working when I tap on the KOReader image.

[NiLuJe]

@sladflob: You wouldn't happen to have fed it a classic KOReader package, instead of the OCP ones? Because those *are* designed to be unpacked at the top-level (unlike original KOReader packages).

If the "Exclude" option moved, then it's because everything worked as expected . So that was okay, at least. You were just seeing KOReader icons because of the top-level snafu.

[sladflob]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@sladflob: You wouldn't happen to have fed it a classic KOReader package, instead of the OCP ones?

I suspect I did. I used the link in the release email to koreader-kobo-v2019.12.zip. I should have been suspicious when I had to remove the "-kobo" to get the script to recognise it. Buyer beware I guess.

After deleting the spurious koreader directory, KOReader kept throwing an exception when I launched it. I uninstalled and reinstalled KFMon, and unpacked KOReader in the right place, and now I'm back in business.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have tried to reinstall KOReader anyway, just KFMon. Maybe next firmware update I'll get it right