Likebook Mars and SD Card

[homeceo43]

Hello,

I would like to put my books on the external SD card in my Likebook Mars.

The Display Mode I use is "Detailed list with cover images and metadata" for the File Manager and History.

But in the File Manager and History, the number of pages and the percent read doesn't show, neither does the status, such as "Finished". It just shows the date and time.
for example this does not show:
17% of 179 pages
Finished - 179 pages

Because this is not showing, Progress Sync does not work.

On my phone (Samsung Galaxy Note 10+), in File Manager, I just noticed that on the "+" menu (top right of screen) there is the option "Switch to SDCard". If I put books on the SD card on my phone, the percent read, number of pages and the status do show properly. Progress Sync also works (tested this with my KOA3).

I don't see "Switch to SDCard" option on the "+" menu on the Likebook Mars.

I'm using koreader-android-arm-v2021.06.apk release on both the Likebook Mars and my phone.

Is there some setting I'm missing with KOReader on the Likebook Mars to allow the progress, number of pages and status of the book to show, or is this not possible with this device when using the SD card?

Thank you.

[pazos]

Is a bit difficult to explain. Let me try

"Switch to Sdcard" requires and sdcard formated as an external storage. Most roms, when you insert an sdcard, ask you if you want to use it as portable storage or as your device main storage.

Also, since there's no API to retrieve the path of the external sdcard directly, the program uses a common trick of figuring the path based on app external storage path. This should work on most devices, but it might be the case where this doesn't happen as some e-ink manufacturers are not good implementing compatible devices.

AFAIK Likebook devices are pretty OK with android compatibility, so please check that you didn't format the sdcard as internal storage.

[homeceo43]

The SD card is showing as "Portable storage".

For books that have been opened from the SD card I noticed that there is not a .sdr directory created for the book file.

[pazos]

Originally Posted by homeceo43

The SD card is showing as "Portable storage".

Then I'm afraid this is a platform limitation. No idea if this changed between Boyue FW versions. While I played a bit with a couple on Likebooks in the past the "switch to sdcard" menu entry was added after that so I can't recall if it ever worked on these devices. Other Boyue owners might give you some tips. I dunno.

Originally Posted by homeceo43

For books that have been opened from the SD card I noticed that there is not a .sdr directory created for the book file.

That's normal. Android crippled filesystem permissions on external SDCard. They force apps to use the very android specific (and almost unusable) "Storage Access Framework"

Since KOReader relies heavily on the filesystem api that effectively means any "portable storage" is read only. The metadata that usually goes on the sidecar folder is placed inside /sdcard/koreader for RO filesystems.

[pazos]

FWIW, Likebooks seem to work fine with KOReader. My suggestion would be:

a) Format the sdcard as the internal partition and have read&write access from KOReader
b) Get another app that was specifically built for Android and deals with the SAF nonsense. There're thousands of them

Read-only mode on external storage could be a PITA if you're the kind of person that moves files often or want to store highlights directly inside a PDF. For casual reading it is absolutely OK and the missing metadata you experience cannot be explained by the lack of write permissions.

[homeceo43]

Thanks pazos, you are so helpful. I formatted the sd card as internal storage. Looks like it was successful, but, I cannot figure out how to access that area now with my computer, Calibre, KOReader, or a file manager on that tablet.

In the Likebook Mars Android settings, under Storage, it now shows:

Storage
7% used - 134 GB free

And when I tap that it shows:
7.65GB
Total used of 144GB

Internal shared storage
6.98 used of 16.00GB

SanDisk SD Card
661MB used of 128GB

(so sd card is not showing "Portable Storage" now)

When I connect via USB to my computer and Calibre, it only displays "Internal shared storage, 7.49GB free of 10.6GB".

The file manager on the tablet I use is "File Manager +" and it shows
Main Storage
7.5GB / 16GB


I do use MoonReader+ Pro on the Mars, and it's a great app, but I really like KOReader better. Especially when reading PDFs for the fact I can set the contrast darker on light PDFs. Can't do that with Moon.

[pazos]

Originally Posted by homeceo43

Thanks pazos, you are so helpful. I formatted the sd card as internal storage. Looks like it was successful, but, I cannot figure out how to access that area now with my computer, Calibre, KOReader, or a file manager on that tablet.

In the Likebook Mars Android settings, under Storage, it now shows:

Storage
7% used - 134 GB free

And when I tap that it shows:
7.65GB
Total used of 144GB

Internal shared storage
6.98 used of 16.00GB

SanDisk SD Card
661MB used of 128GB

(so sd card is not showing "Portable Storage" now)

When I connect via USB to my computer and Calibre, it only displays "Internal shared storage, 7.49GB free of 10.6GB".

The file manager on the tablet I use is "File Manager +" and it shows
Main Storage
7.5GB / 16GB


I do use MoonReader+ Pro on the Mars, and it's a great app, but I really like KOReader better. Especially when reading PDFs for the fact I can set the contrast darker on light PDFs. Can't do that with Moon.

Apps running on the device should be able to detect the primary storage without problems. There's an api call for that and should be used on 100% of apps. Maybe your FM still remembers the old config and needs a restart/reboot. I don't know.

Speaking about KOReader: it should detect the new partition and fallback to it. (You can check that going to about -> report a bug and look in the "crash.log" that the storage reported is something like /storage/ABCD-EFGH).

About how your computer programs or your computer see the storage: It is via MTP. According to AOSP the MediaProvider should still expose both partitions (the one in the internal storage and the sdcard formatted as internal - AOSP call that "adoptable storage"). Please check that with your computer (Linux/Windows). You should see an MTP icon on your computer FM. Double-clicking it should show you two partitions inside.

If you see both partitions then it is a matter of sending books to the second partition. I'm aware that calibre has that option for devices with more than one drive (like Kobos with internal and sd parts). Not sure if that applicable to Android/MTP devices.

If you only see the partition with 10GB free, I'm afraid that's another limitation on the FW. I'm sure it worked on Android 6 so, before reformatting the sdcard as external, please try to reboot to discard "unknown state" shenanigans.

[homeceo43]

Thanks again for your help. I did reboot before I posted earlier. I did the reboot again and it's still not showing the partitions.

I guess I'm connecting to my computer correctly, because I can transfer files to the device. I'm attaching a screenshot of my computer (Windows 10) when I connect the Mars and my phone and samsung galaxy tab a. The icons for the phone and tab a are different than the icon that shows for the Mars. I'm not sure why when it's android. The 3rd screenshot is after I double click likebook mars icon and it only shows the internal shared storage 10gb.

I'm going to format the sd card back to external and go from there.

I do appreciate all your explanations. I learn new things here all the time. Thank you so much for your help!

[pazos]

Originally Posted by homeceo43

Thanks again for your help. I did reboot before I posted earlier. I did the reboot again and it's still not showing the partitions.

I guess I'm connecting to my computer correctly, because I can transfer files to the device. I'm attaching a screenshot of my computer (Windows 10) when I connect the Mars and my phone and samsung galaxy tab a. The icons for the phone and tab a are different than the icon that shows for the Mars. I'm not sure why when it's android. The 3rd screenshot is after I double click likebook mars icon and it only shows the internal shared storage 10gb.

I'm going to format the sd card back to external and go from there.

I do appreciate all your explanations. I learn new things here all the time. Thank you so much for your help!

You're welcome!

The icons I would expect for MTP devices match your Samsung devices. Probably the Likebook is also an MTP device with a generic icon. Did the icon change since you formatted your sdcard as internal/main storage?

You can right-click and see device properties. Not directly on the "Likebook-T80D" icon but on the icon "Internal shared storage" inside. You can compare that info with device properties for any partition (internal or external) on your samsung devices.

AFAICT MTP devices are reported as "generic hierarchical" in device properties. See https://superuser.com/questions/1443...it-behave-diff

In case all these partitions are reported as the same kind of thing I'm afraid I have no clue why this happen. Sounds like a firmware bug.

You can report it to Boyue with subject: "MTP: sdcard not available when formatted as internal storage" They should be able to fix it easily if they will.

The expected behaviour would be both partitions are exported or only the sdcard is exported as the "internal shared storage"

[homeceo43]

Originally Posted by pazos

The icons I would expect for MTP devices match your Samsung devices. Probably the Likebook is also an MTP device with a generic icon. Did the icon change since you formatted your sdcard as internal/main storage?

The Likebook Mars icon was the same either way.

Just wanted to let you know what I experienced after formatting the the sd card back to portable storage.....

I formatted the SD card back to external storage, now shows as "Portable Storage" on the Android settings.

Just experimenting, I set "Home" folder in KOReader to be the Books folder on the external sd card. Then I decided to switch the "Home" folder back to the Books folder in internal storage. For some reason I could not navigate back to internal storage folder in KOReader. It kept showing "Current folder not readable. Some content may not be shown." So, I uninstalled KOReader completely and removed the /koreader folder to install fresh copy of KOReader. I installed the nightly koreader-android-arm-v2021.06-40-g16ab5aa1_2021-07-15.apk (instead of the June release).

I set "Home" to the Books folder in internal storage and I put a few books on the device. I use Calibre to transfer books. When I tapped the "+" sign in the top right of the screen to use the "Extract and cache book information" menu item (I always use this after I put new books on the device), I noticed *now* there is in that same menu the "Switch to SDCard" menu item! That menu item was not there before! I proceeded to put a few books on the Books folder on the external SD card. I used the menu item "Switch to SDCard", and selected a book to open. KOReader works perfectly fine with books on external SD card. Progress Sync works as well; I do have the Document Matching Method set to use Filename rather than Binary. But, the page number, percent read, or status (such as "Finished") are still not displaying.

I'm pretty sure that on my phone and tablet, the sd cards are formatted as external, and not internal.

On the phone and tablet, I have the June 2021 KOReader release installed, and on the Mars, the July 15 nightly.

All 3 devices show the "Switch to SDcard" menu item in KOReader.

For books on the external sd card on both the phone and tablet, the page number, percent read, or status (such as "Finished") displays. For books on the external sd card on the Mars, these do not display.

For now, I'm just going to use internal storage for books in KOReader instead of the sd card.

I appreciate your help this week! Thanks so much pazos!