Why can I only read the cover page of my epub file

[EatNSleep]

I have a Kobo Aura. I downloaded a few ebooks from the web but I can only see the cover page. When I tried to flip the page i was returned to the library and the book status was "completed". I can open the epub file and read the content on my pc. Just not sure why I can't read it on my Kobo. Please help

[DNSB]

I would suspect that your epubs are error ridden, very often an gorched ToC can cause the issue you saw. Have you used either calibre's editor or Sigil with their respective epubcheck plugins to check for errors? There are also online epubcheck sites such as the one supported by ebookit.com (the IDPF validator seems to be offline) though I am always a bit nervous about uploading epubs for validation.

Another question is what site you downloaded those epubs from? Quite a few pirate sites have little concern for the quality of their ebooks and you did not mention any legitimate site such as Kobo, Google, Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, etc. you downloaded the epubs from.

[patrik]

I had this happen with a book just the other day. I bought it from Amazon maybe 7-8 years ago, had Calibre convert it and read it om my Aura HD.

But now, just the cover.

epubcheck gave some errors (a "style" used in html-header). I fixed all those. No change.
But when I had Sigil recreate the toc, it worked.

Something must have changed in Kobo firmware since it used to work.

(kepub, as an epub it worked)

[Joliet Jake]

I have had this happen to a few very badly converted books. One was a PDF of a comic book! Unfortunately I deleted this so I can't check to see if I could read it on a PC.

Originally Posted by EatNSleep

I have a Kobo Aura. I downloaded a few ebooks from the web but I can only see the cover page. When I tried to flip the page i was returned to the library and the book status was "completed". I can open the epub file and read the content on my pc. Just not sure why I can't read it on my Kobo. Please help

Where did you get them from? There are some websites that let you download ebooks (for free!) and will tell you the "file health". Totally legal sites, such as Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, etc, should also give you proper ebooks.

Are you able to select text on the PC?

[graycyn]

The trouble is, even if you purchase and download from legit sites, you are not guaranteed to get an epub that passes epubCheck.

I purchased, from Kobo, and downloaded a straight epub of a Harper Collins book by Anne Hillerman. I did remove DRM for my own library, as I also read on a Kindle sometimes. And because I was puzzling over something in an ebook I was making, I decided to have a look at their code, so I exported the epub out of Calibre and opened it in Sigil. I ran epubCheck on it for fun and ugh, THREE ERRORS!

Seems sad that you can't get a validated epub for your money even out of a big publisher on a legit site in 2021! The good news I suppose is that the errors didn't prevent it from working on my Kobo, but still ... YEEESH!

And of course, I have also had the experience of purchasing a book trilogy on Amazon, that, when I got around to reading it a year later, long past the point of being able to return, turned out to be a horribly proofread pirated books, rather than the legit books I was expecting.

So though it's possible the OP obtained his book from a sketchy source, it's also possible he got a lemon from a legit source. They are out there. I still remember buying direct from an author's site in my early e-reading days and getting an epub on which the font size was tiny and could not be adjusted!