Switching from Kindle to Kobo: Things I Should Do Regarding Calibre?

[enuddleyarbl]

OP: Hopefully, in a few days, we'll be getting a couple of Kobo Formas to replace our aging Kindles. Is there anything particular I'll need to do to get my Calibre library over to those Formas? I assume I'll need to install the Kobo Utilities plugin, change the Page Setup Input/Output Profiles from the current Kindle ones to the Default Profiles, convert all my books over to epub and save those epubs to the Formas. Is there anything else I should be aware of? Is there a thread somewhere that's packed with current goodness about this?

EDIT: For future generations [g], I'll just put a final list of the things I did in Calibre when I switched from Kindles to Kobos (specifically, the Forma).

• This isn't unique to Kobos, but since I'm doing a lot more with metadata here than I did with my Kindles, I went to Preferences > Import/Export > Sending Books to Devices > Metadata Management and set that to Automatic Management. That way, Calibre keeps the metadata in sync on every device connect.
  
• Under Preferences > Get Plugins to Enhance Calibre, I installed the Kobo Utilities, KoboTouchExtended and Quality Check plugins (I already had Quality Check, but it's a must-have for the steps below).
  
• Under Preferences > Change Calibre Behavior > Conversion > Common Options > Page Setup, I changed the Input Profile from Kindle to Default and the Output Profile from the Kindle one to Tablet.
  
• Kobos are, apparently, persnickety regarding author name formats and the Author "shelf" on the device. In Calibre, I had set both my author and author_sort formats to LN, FN. That resulted in all kinds of weird things under the Author shelf (basically, any time the Kobo saw punctuation in the author field, it made what followed another author). The first step in fixing this is using the Quality Check plugin to get rid of all periods in author names:
  1. Quality Check > Customize Plugin > Other Options > Author Initials Format = AB,
  2. Quality Check > Check Metadata > Check Authors Initials,
  3. select all the results and then,
  4. Quality Check > Fix > Reformat Author Initials
  Next, use Quality Check to swap author from LN, FN to FN LN (note, I left my author_sort value as LN, FN - that leaves my Authors sorted correctly by last name in Calibre (though it looks a bit odd since they're displayed FN LN):
  1. Quality Check > Check Metadata > Check Authors with Commas
  2. select all the results and then,
  3. Quality Check > Fix > Swap Author FN LN <-> LN,FN.
  And, finally, set up a metadata plugboard rule to send the author name information over to the Kobo correctly.
  1. Preferences > Import/Export > Metadata Plugboards,
  2. Add a new rule for any format, any device, source template is "program: raw_list('authors', ', ')", and destination field is authors. That should result in a line that looks like "any format:any device = ([program: raw_list('authors', ', ')] -> authors)". I have no idea what that "program..." bit does. I took it from davidfor's posts.
  With all of the above, once I connected and my metadata synced, the Author shelf correctly populated.
  
• The Kobos also have a Series shelf. Initially, I was worried since that area remained blank even though I'd gone to Preferences > Advanced > Plugins > Device Interface > KoboTouchExtended > Customize Plugin > Metadata, on Device and Advanced and confirmed Set Series Information was checked. It turns out that it can only add series information after the Kobo processes the book. After connecting the device to Calibre again, that shelf populated correctly.
  
• Initially, I hadn't planned to use the Kobo's Collections ability. But, after thinking about it, I decided to send my Calibre Tags (genres) over as Collections. So, one tab to the left of where I was above (Collections, Covers & Uploads), I checked the Collections box, added "tags" to the Collections Column field, checked Create Collections and Delete Empty Bookshelves. Once I connected the device, my tags (genres) came over as Collections.
  
• While I was doing the above, I also checked all the boxes in the Upload Covers section that followed the Collections section. From what I've read, it looks like that's supposed to display better covers on the device.
  
• Since I have two Formas, I went into Kobo Utilities > Devices, added them while they were connected, and edited their names to be unique. Similarly, on the Kobo Utilities > Profiles tab, I created unique Profiles pointing to those individual devices and followed the instructions under its Help link to set up all four of its Custom Columns (Current Reading Location, Percent Read, Rating and Last Read) for each device.

I've barely used the Formas yet, but the above seems to have handled what I initially needed to do.

[theducks]

Not really anything else.
IMHO Get both versions of the Kobo Utilities, though I mostly run the Extended edition.
Calibre will take care of the rest On The Fly as needed. It just adds a small amount of time for the conversion. The only KEPUBS IN My Library ar those I bought from Kobo. The rest are AZW3 and EPUB. The Utilities make them KEPUB at the device

[enuddleyarbl]

I had seen the plain old Kobo Utilities:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=215339

But hadn't seen the "Extended edition" you mentioned. Are you referring to Kobo Touch Extended?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=211135

Looks like that also suggests the two KePub Metadata Reader and Writer plugins. I'll have to read through those threads.

As to formats, the vast majority of my books are from Amazon (so, mostly AZW3 with a few MOBI). Is there an easy way to remove all my converted versions (currently all AZW3) and leave just the original files? Once the Formas get here, I won't need the converted Kindle formats any more and will just need files converted to EPUB.

[retiredbiker]

To adjust your formats, go to the tag browser and select Formats. Then select some format or combination of formats to get a list. Click on the top of the Format column to sort, if you have various combinations. Then select what you want, possibly epub + azw3. Then right-click on Remove Books and use the choice "Remove files of a specific format from selected books".

Just be careful - if your only copy is azw3, don't blow it away. You can convert and keep epubs in the library, or just let calibre convert to kepub as you send a book to the Kobo via the Kobo utility or Extended Touch utility.

[meeera]

If you want to use Collections (shelves), set those up in Calibre as per the pinned post in the Kobo forum.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DaveLessnau

I had seen the plain old Kobo Utilities:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=215339

But hadn't seen the "Extended edition" you mentioned. Are you referring to Kobo Touch Extended?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=211135

Different concepts are being mixed up here. The Kobo Utilities plugin is a user plugin to do extra things with Kobo devices. It is not needed unless you want to use it.

The KoboTouchExtended driver is an extension of the built-in KoboTouch driver. If it is installed and active, it will automatically transform epubs to kepubs when they are sent to a Kobo device. This doesn't add the kepub to the calibre library.

Looks like that also suggests the two KePub Metadata Reader and Writer plugins. I'll have to read through those threads.

These are only needed if you are going to store kepubs in your calibre library. If you convert to them or get them from one of the very few sources that produced kepubs, you should do this. But, you should also have the Kepub conversion plugins as well to allow you to convert to or from kepub.


But, honestly, nothing is needed. All the plugins mentioned are extras. The built-in KoboTouch driver communicates fully with the Kobo devices. All you really need to do is plug the device in, select the books that you want on the device and press the send-to-device button. Calibre will do any conversions that are need and send the books to the device. Then you can read.

Once you have some books on the device, you can use it and decide what you like and don't. Then you can decide what other functions you want to use. For collections, the configuration is in the driver. If you want to try kepubs, you can try the extended driver. You can also decide if the default conversion to epub works for you, or if you need to tweak it somehow. The Kobo Utilities plugin is useful if you want to do things like store the reading status of the books and backup the devices database. It has lots of other function, but, those are probably the most common.

Changing the output profile is pretty much the only other thing to do. Choose "Tablet" or one of the others that do not resize the images during a conversion.

[enuddleyarbl]

- Regarding old, soon-to-be-unused Kindle formats: I guess I'll just leave them. Any space they're taking on my computer is probably insignificant.

- Collections: I'm pretty sure I won't bother with those. But, thanks for the suggestion.

- Kobo Utilities: Yep, I took a closer look at what it does and I'm not sure I need any of those. I've already installed it and, assuming it won't do any harm, I'll probably just leave it.

- KoboTouchExtended: I think that's the one I want. I've installed it and have glanced over the configuration options. I'll have to experiment with those once I actually get the Forma ereaders.

- KePub Metadata Reader/Writer: I had looked more closely at those and also came to the conclusion I didn't need them.

- As davidfor noted, I'll have to explore the epub/kepub differences once I get the devices. And, amazingly, I've been using Calibre for almost a decade and didn't realize "Send to Device" would automatically convert. I'd been manually converting and then sending. Thanks. Also, thanks for the hint of using "Tablet" for the Output Profile. It looks like the Default Profile converts to 1600x1200 and, since the Forma runs at 1920x1440, the non-scaled Tablet option will probably be better.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DaveLessnau

Hopefullyj, in a few days, we'll be getting a couple of Kobo Formas to replace our aging Kindles. Is there anything particular I'll need to do to get my Calibre library over to those Formas? I assume I'll need to install the Kobo Utilities plugin, change the Page Setup Input/Output Profiles from the current Kindle ones to the Default Profiles, convert all my books over to epub and save those epubs to the Formas. Is there anything else I should be aware of? Is there a thread somewhere that's packed with current goodness about this?

You can start off reading the following threads on what plugins to use.

Which Kobo plugins/mods are worth using in 2020?
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=330405

[enuddleyarbl]

I've updated my OP with the things I ended up doing based on the comments in this thread (and elsewhere). Thanks, again.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DaveLessnau

- Collections: I'm pretty sure I won't bother with those. But, thanks for the suggestion.

- Kobo Utilities: Yep, I took a closer look at what it does and I'm not sure I need any of those. I've already installed it and, assuming it won't do any harm, I'll probably just leave it.

- KoboTouchExtended: I think that's the one I want. I've installed it and have glanced over the configuration options. I'll have to experiment with those once I actually get the Forma ereaders.

- Collections and Series both work FAR better on the Kobo than Kindle. You setup a column for each and set which column to use for collections in Device Properties. I wouldn't be without either.

- Kobo Utilities: Invaluable to backup database, check for updates without install, and read annotations/highlights/bookmarks from a selected book to clipboard for 3rd party programs. The separate Annotations plug-in which also works for Kindle can be much slower and imports into Calibre. Also does other useful stuff. David does a good job maintaining and updating this.

- KoboTouchExtended. Some people prefer epub over kepub, you can turn off kepub in KoboTouchExtended, though then there is marginal advantage over the regular kobotouch driver. David does a good job maintaining and updating this.

I certainly use all three of those. I do use the Kobo to proof/annotate MSS in LibreOffice Writer, via an extra Save As in docx and convert to epub. I also test on Kindle and find epub2 -> dual-mobi or azw3 works better than direct docx to Kindle. Also native Writer odt is best for edits, but doesn't work as well as docx export.