Troubleshooting Ebook Covers Won't Show on Kindle

[Siavahda]

Before you say it, I know lots of people have had a problem with their ebook covers disappearing off their kindles! But I think whatever's going wrong for me is different - at least, the solution given for the problem isn't working for me.

I'm using Calibre 5.34. My Kindle is a Paperwhite, 10th gen, running 5.14.1. It's permanently on airplane mode.

When I send a book (.MOBI or .AZW3, no difference) from Calibre to my Kindle, and disconnect my Kindle, the book has no cover. Just the little default thumbnail thing.

I found a lot of posts from 2020 talking about a similar problem, but there, the books briefly showed the covers, and then the covers would disappear. The solution for that seemed to be

1) Update to Calibre 4.17. Connect your Kindle to Calibre as usual and send your books to the device.

2) Eject your Kindle, then wait for the covers to disappear.

3) Then, re-connect your Kindle to Calibre.

4) Then eject your Kindle again.

5) The covers will appear on your books.

That hasn't worked for me, and I've tried it dozens of times. I now think my problem isn't the same as the 2020 issue, because of that 'wait for the covers to disappear' step. As I've said, on my Kindle, the covers aren't there-and-then-disappear - they never have a cover at all, from the moment they're on the device.

There is a folder called amazon-cover-bug on my Kindle - I saw that folder discussed on the 2020 posts a lot - and the covers seem to be there. The covers of the books I put on my Kindle today are in the amazon-cover-bug folder, for example. But they're not visible on my Kindle.

Does anyone have a clue what's going on, and better yet, how to fix it? I can live without covers if I have to, but I'd rather not!

[jhowell]

If a book is stuck indexing that might lead to this situation.

Another possibility is book metadata that indicates that it is a personal document (CDETYPE=PDOC or missing) instead of an Amazon book (CDETYPE=EBOK).

Also try restarting your Kindle if you have not already done so.

[Siavahda]

Originally Posted by jhowell

If a book is stuck indexing that might lead to this situation.

Another possibility is book metadata that indicates that it is a personal document (CDETYPE=PDOC or missing) instead of an Amazon book (CDETYPE=EBOK).

Also try restarting your Kindle if you have not already done so.

I did the usual test to see if it was indexing - ask it to search for nonsense text, see if there were any books it didn't/couldn't search - but it seems to be all clear. I don't think it's stuck indexing.

Where would I see that metadata? Usually files my Kindle recognises as personal documents have a very clear little DOC next to the title, and that's not the case here.

I wish restarting would have fixed it, but alas, I've tried that. (And just tried it again, just in case! No dice.)

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Siavahda

Where would I see that metadata?

The KindleUnpack plugin will place the metadata in the OPF file it creates from an AZW3 file.

Originally Posted by Siavahda

Usually files my Kindle recognises as personal documents have a very clear little DOC next to the title, and that's not the case here.

Are you talking about the library list view? That does not show covers on Kindle devices.

[Siavahda]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The KindleUnpack plugin will place the metadata in the OPF file it creates from an AZW3 file.



Are you talking about the library list view? That does not show covers on Kindle devices.

I'll go find that plugin then and install it, see if that affects anything.

I know covers don't show in list view. But switching back and forth between list and grid view, the files that don't show covers in grid view also aren't marked DOC (or whatever it is) in list view.

I wasn't trying to ask someone to teach me how to see covers in list view! 😂 (But given some of the idiotic mistakes I've made in the past, I understand the need to confirm.)

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Siavahda

I'll go find that plugin then and install it, see if that affects anything.

That plugin provides one way to see what metadata is present in your MOBI and AZW3 files. You could copy a file back from your Kindle and then use KindleUnpack to verify that the metadata is as expected with CDETYPE=EBOK.

I have also attached a public domain AZW3 file that I created using calibre. It shows the cover thumbnail properly on my Kindle when sent using calibre. You can see if it works for you.

Originally Posted by Siavahda

I wasn't trying to ask someone to teach me how to see covers in list view! 😂 (But given some of the idiotic mistakes I've made in the past, I understand the need to confirm.)

Just making sure. I didn't intend to insult you.

[Siavahda]

Sorry for taking a bit to respond, I've been ill.

I'm not sure what happened, but now ebooks I side-load are showing their covers. I did delete the amazon-cover-bug folder, wondering if that would help, but I don't know if that was what fixed it. Books I side-loaded earlier, before posting here - some have their covers, some don't, but if I re-upload them they appear with their covers just fine.

Thank you for your help!

[Valen Tine]

There’s two issues I’ve noticed.

The first is where the book cover is immediately replaced with a generic upon sideloading due to a bug. This one can be fixed in Calibre by disconnecting and reconnecting.

The second is where the Kindle is phoning home and asking for a cover on sideloaded books, presumably not caring that the book already has one, but maybe only if the book has an amazon: or mobi-asin: identifier in metadata. If the identifier matches with a book on the Kindle Store, it replaces your cover with that one. If it has one, but it’s incorrect, it just removes your cover altogether and replaces it with a generic. I’m thinking Kindle wouldn’t phone home about books with no identifier, but haven’t tested it. (Sorry this is vague, it’s something I realized today when I was trying to figure out why a cover was randomly disappearing but -not- due to the bug that Calibre fixes, sometimes happening hours later.)