Any way to make scanning for new books quicker?

[LivresInOz]

I have the Forma and even if you add no books at all, it takes AGES to scan for new books. I admit its almost full.

Is there any way to speed up this process?

[PeterT]

Not sure but what type of folder structure are you using? All books in one folder or one per author or ...

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[LivresInOz]

Thanks!
(The following refers only to books I myself have put on: not folders created by Kobo for dropbox...Adobe Digital Editions etc)

It's basically organised into topic folders and subtopic folders, because that's helpful when Im using Koreader and Plato.

There's one folder on the device that contains all the ebooks that I myself have put on.
That is organised into top-level topics like History, Law and so on.
Underneath those are often subtopic folders like World History, History of Countries, Events and so on.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by LivresInOz

Thanks!
(The following refers only to books I myself have put on: not folders created by Kobo for dropbox...Adobe Digital Editions etc)

It's basically organised into topic folders and subtopic folders, because that's helpful when Im using Koreader and Plato.

There's one folder on the device that contains all the ebooks that I myself have put on.
That is organised into top-level topics like History, Law and so on.
Underneath those are often subtopic folders like World History, History of Countries, Events and so on.

If you are using ePub or KePub in Nickel, then you really don't need directories as Nickel does not support them. The directories only matter if you are using KOReader or Plato.

You could try compressing the database using Kobo Utilities.

[LivresInOz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you are using ePub or KePub in Nickel, then you really don't need directories as Nickel does not support them. The directories only matter if you are using KOReader or Plato.

You could try compressing the database using Kobo Utilities.

Well I definitely like to have folders because I do indeed use Koreader. I like the way Plato shows directories even more.

I will try compressing the db - are there any risks? I do sideload books fairly often.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by LivresInOz

Well I definitely like to have folders because I do indeed use Koreader. I like the way Plato shows directories even more.

I will try compressing the db - are there any risks? I do sideload books fairly often.

You can configure Kobo Utilities to backup the database when you connect to Calibre. That way if anything was to happen, you'd have a backup to restore.

Once you have a backup of the database, there is no risk at all.

[frostschutz]

I believe you can connect USB from koreader (?) and then nickel does not do any scanning at all (until you manually trigger it).

If you mostly don't read with nickel anyway you can also put your books in a folder that's hidden from nickel (requires setup as hidden dirs are no longer ignored by default).

That way nickel will only track the books you don't use koreader/plato for...

[LivresInOz]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

I believe you can connect USB from koreader (?) and then nickel does not do any scanning at all (until you manually trigger it).

Thanks alot! That might be a big relief. Because compressing did very little - it only compressed a few MB anyway.

The only thing is: will Calibre still update the books?
For example, right now Im trying to fix the problem of Calibre constantly not showing books that are actualy on the device, AS on the device. If I stay in Koreader and just connect via USB, will it show the books?



______________________________

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You can configure Kobo Utilities to backup the database when you connect to Calibre. That way if anything was to happen, you'd have a backup to restore.

Once you have a backup of the database, there is no risk at all.

Thanks - I do backup now...tho it took me a while to realise it doesnt choose a default location for your backups. It doesnt back up at all until you do that yourself.

[PeterT]

Remember the Kobo device driver retrieves info from the Nickle maintained database on the device, and that is the database updated during the scanning process.



Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[LivresInOz]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Remember the Kobo device driver retrieves info from the Nickle maintained database on the device, and that is the database updated during the scanning process.

So does that mean that I CANT test whether my various changes to the same ebook will make it show up in the "on device" list with a tick, while it is running on Koreader? Instead I must do it in the manufacturer-provided interface?

[PeterT]

I'm not sure I follow

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by LivresInOz

The only thing is: will Calibre still update the books?

I rarely use Calibre anymore, and I never let it sync to my ebook readers at all... so I don't really know. Try it yourself?

I guess if you expect Kobo (nickel) specific features you can not avoid the "full experience" but other than that, Calibre is still a general purpose application, it supports all sorts of formats and readers not just the Kobo, so it's not like it would stop working altogether...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by LivresInOz

So does that mean that I CANT test whether my various changes to the same ebook will make it show up in the "on device" list with a tick, while it is running on Koreader? Instead I must do it in the manufacturer-provided interface?

If you are not using nickel, then use either the Folder Device Interface or the User Defined USB driver to connect to the device. Both of these scan the device for books rather than use the database. You don't get collection management or metadata updating or use of the Kobo Utilities, but, if you are connecting from KOReader and not using nickel, those things are useful.

[LivresInOz]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you are not using nickel, then use either the Folder Device Interface or the User Defined USB driver to connect to the device. Both of these scan the device for books rather than use the database. You don't get collection management or metadata updating or use of the Kobo Utilities, but, if you are connecting from KOReader and not using nickel, those things are useful.

Thanks David - I was actually trying to do the task we were talking about on the other thread: to see if the books that were ON the device would show up in Calibre as "on device"

It was taking ages to do this because of the slow 'scanning for new books' that the Forma was doing every time.

So I was hoping I could use the method suggested above: to 'save to disk' books from Calibre while KOREADER was running on the device, not the standard (nickelmenu?) interface. I was hoping this would skip the whole scanning part but still enable me to test.

Would it?

(PS dont really understand what 'folder Device Interface' or the 'User Defined USB driver' are. I know the standard interface, Plato and Koreader)

[LivresInOz]

Overall the problem remains unsolved. Even if I add a SINGLE BOOK, it still takes AGES to scan for new books ("importing content").