Sigil Nuisance Message "Files exist ...."

[jtweeks]

I have noticed that often when I open a Sigil file I created that I first have to get beyond an initial message from Sigil that reads: "Files exist in epub that are not listed in the manifest, they will be ignored". In this case when I look at the message detail it tells me that the file mentioned is iTunesMetadata.plist. I cannot find this file anywhere within the epub file, including the manifest section in the content.opf file. I have also searched my computer for this file and I cannot locate it.
Any help to resolve this issue would be appreciated.
I am currently on a Windows 11 PC with Sigil version 1.9.10

[Turtle91]

That file is only for the Apple products (Books). Sigil is telling you that it is not listed in the manifest - so it will ignore it - completely.

To remove it, close Sigil. Rename the file from ".epub" to ".zip". Open with your favorite zip file editor. find that file and delete it. Rename back to ".epub"

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

To remove it, close Sigil. Rename the file from ".epub" to ".zip". Open with your favorite zip file editor. find that file and delete it. Rename back to ".epub"

Or you could simply add and remove a space somewhere and save the file. (Sigil will remove all unmanifested files when you save an .epub.)

[un_pogaz]

The Sigil behavior is to delete unmanifested files because they are invalid according to the standard and normally unusable.
In the vast majority of cases, it doesn't matter because they are usually, like here, useless artifacts left by other software... but sometimes not. Sometimes, the ePub was badly constructed and some of the unmanifested files ae important.
This window was added to warn you and check that you won't delete anything important in this ePub by continuing to use Sigil. It is better to be overly cautious rather than silently deleting this files, as Sigil's old behavior did, which could be disastrous.

Otherwise, for this iTunesMetadata.plist, as the others said, if you want to see it, you had to rename the .epub extension of your file to .zip and open it as any compressed folder... but it's a lot of things for not much.
iTunesMetadata.plist contains redundant metadata with the OPF (and again, just the basic one), nothing useful, you could abandon them without fear.

Here an example I found:

Spoiler:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>artistName</key>
    <string>Jacqueline Wilson</string>
    <key>book-info</key>
    <dict>
        <key>cover-image-hash</key>
        <string>01F90BD402AED4591CDAC2854E60FA40</string>
        <key>cover-image-path</key>
        <string>OEBPS/image/Cover.jpg</string>
        <key>mime-type</key>
        <string>application/epub+zip</string>
        <key>package-file-hash</key>
        <string>39E4963F8FA4E1ABAD18FB41A6FD1050</string>
        <key>publisher-unique-id</key>
        <string>978-2-07-502603-1</string>
        <key>unique-id</key>
        <integer>-5295544573930177608</integer>
        <key>update-level</key>
        <integer>2</integer>
    </dict>
    <key>itemName</key>
    <string>Une nouvelle vie pour Millie Plume</string>
    <key>playlistName</key>
    <string>Une nouvelle vie pour Millie Plume</string>
    <key>releaseDate</key>
    <string>2014-03-02</string>
    <key>sort-artist</key>
    <string>Wilson Jacqueline</string>
    <key>sort-artist-status</key>
    <integer>3</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

[philja]

Quite a coincidence. I was just sent an epub which I decided to look at in Sigil. Sigil complained with an error message: "Files exist in epub that are not listed in the manifest, they will be ignored." I clicked on the Details button and read simply: OEBPS/cover.xhtml. The first time I've ever seen this message.

I renamed the epub as a zip and opened it in an archive manager. I found the cover.xhtml file in the OEBPS folder but it had failed to be referenced in the manifest although it was in the guide section. I typed in a reference, saved it and renamed to epub. Sigil opened it without complaining.

The epub had been created with Vellum for a "Generic" target. The CSS in the styles sheet seems terribly complex. Every chapter heading is wrapped in 6 <div> tags. Every paragraph has multiple class attributes and when I check what some of them do, they appear to have no effect at all.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by philja

The epub had been created with Vellum for a "Generic" target. The CSS in the styles sheet seems terribly complex. Every chapter heading is wrapped in 6 <div> tags. Every paragraph has multiple class attributes and when I check what some of them do, they appear to have no effect at all.

You've just found the items that generates the most complaints about Vellum's CSS. If you then add in the number of classes used that are not in the CSS files, you begin to understand @JSWolf's complaints about Vellum.

[st_albert]

Just a thought for those who may want to go the route of unzip - edit - re-zip their epubs.

I'm so old I remember doing this routinely, in the era Before Sigil.

If I recall correctly, the re-zipping has to be done in a particular way such that the "mimetype" file ends up as the first file in the root of the zip/epub directory, and it must be exactly 20 bytes in size, and it must have no compression. The content of the mimetype file is simply "application/epub+zip" (without quotes).

Again, IIRC, I did it by first zipping the mymetype file alone into a fresh zip file, then add the META-INF and OEBPS subdirectories in another step(s). (did that have to be done separately, in that order? I don't recall.)

Someone correct me if I've remembered it wrong. At the time, I just wrote a script file to handle it so I wouldn't have to think about it. Now, I've lost the script file.

Moral of the story: a very big to the Sigil developers and maintainers.

Albert

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by st_albert

Someone correct me if I've remembered it wrong. At the time, I just wrote a script file to handle it so I wouldn't have to think about it. Now, I've lost the script file.

BTW, each release of Sigil comes with a Python script that contains routines for packing and unpacking .epub files: epub_utils.py

[KevinH]

And for macOS, there is Paul's wonderful drag and drop app (available from Mobileread someplace) that handles things properly. At one point there was something similar for Windows.

Found the macOS epub zip tool app thread with links here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=55681

And something similar for Windows here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=84675

[Turtle91]

Yes, Sigil is awesome for handling all those details automagically.

I haven’t had any issues doing the rename/edit/rename process on an existing ePub. I don’t touch the mimetype file I just edit the opf to change a version 3 to a version 2 ePub. Creating a new ePub without Sigil would be “fun”.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jtweeks

I have noticed that often when I open a Sigil file I created that I first have to get beyond an initial message from Sigil that reads: "Files exist in epub that are not listed in the manifest, they will be ignored". In this case when I look at the message detail it tells me that the file mentioned is iTunesMetadata.plist. I cannot find this file anywhere within the epub file, including the manifest section in the content.opf file. I have also searched my computer for this file and I cannot locate it.
Any help to resolve this issue would be appreciated.
I am currently on a Windows 11 PC with Sigil version 1.9.10

That file means you've added that eBook to iTunes. You don't need it. It should be deleted.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by philja

Quite a coincidence. I was just sent an epub which I decided to look at in Sigil. Sigil complained with an error message: "Files exist in epub that are not listed in the manifest, they will be ignored." I clicked on the Details button and read simply: OEBPS/cover.xhtml. The first time I've ever seen this message.

I renamed the epub as a zip and opened it in an archive manager. I found the cover.xhtml file in the OEBPS folder but it had failed to be referenced in the manifest although it was in the guide section. I typed in a reference, saved it and renamed to epub. Sigil opened it without complaining.

The epub had been created with Vellum for a "Generic" target. The CSS in the styles sheet seems terribly complex. Every chapter heading is wrapped in 6 <div> tags. Every paragraph has multiple class attributes and when I check what some of them do, they appear to have no effect at all.

First thing I do with this sort of mess is drop the HTML files I don't need. Then I remove all unused CSS in the CSS and HTML. I'll use Diap's Editing Toolbag to remove more garbage. I'll again remove the unused CSS. When I am done enough, I'll add in my code to the CSS and delete any duplicates. Then I'll proceed from there to fix the code (HTML/CSS). And yes, I'll simplify the CSS.

Vellum is a terrible program and should go away forever. All the eBooks I've seen made with Vellum have terrible code.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by st_albert

Just a thought for those who may want to go the route of unzip - edit - re-zip their epubs.

I'm so old I remember doing this routinely, in the era Before Sigil.

If I recall correctly, the re-zipping has to be done in a particular way such that the "mimetype" file ends up as the first file in the root of the zip/epub directory, and it must be exactly 20 bytes in size, and it must have no compression. The content of the mimetype file is simply "application/epub+zip" (without quotes).

Again, IIRC, I did it by first zipping the mymetype file alone into a fresh zip file, then add the META-INF and OEBPS subdirectories in another step(s). (did that have to be done separately, in that order? I don't recall.)

Someone correct me if I've remembered it wrong. At the time, I just wrote a script file to handle it so I wouldn't have to think about it. Now, I've lost the script file.

Moral of the story: a very big to the Sigil developers and maintainers.

Albert

I used to edit the code that way. But I'd not extract META-INF and OEBPS. I would leave them be. Now I can use an editor to do my edits. Editing eBooks to fix the formatting helped me learn a lot of CSS/HTML and how eBooks are mostly poorly made.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

... and how eBooks are mostly poorly made.

To be fair, it's not just ebooks. Anywhere (x)HTML and CSS is used, many are using it poorly. I tend to focus on how the book renders. I hardly ever "pop the hood" on my ebook purchases any more. I don't really care if it it's all higgledy-piggledy under there so long as it renders reasonably.

So much like the websites I frequent, commercial ebooks are either "clean" enough for me to read without me needing to root around in their code first, or I don't read them. *shrug*

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

To be fair, it's not just ebooks. Anywhere (x)HTML and CSS is used, many are using it poorly. I tend to focus on how the book renders. I hardly ever "pop the hood" on my ebook purchases any more. I don't really care if it it's all higgledy-piggledy under there so long as it renders reasonably.

So much like the websites I frequent, commercial ebooks are either "clean" enough for me to read without me needing to root around in their code first, or I don't read them. *shrug*

My problem is that a lot of the books I do want to read need fixing. So I go in to fix them. Most are not too bad under the hood. But any made with Vellum are terrible under the hood.