Help with series links not transferring from Calibre to Kindle please

[Anso]

I like to add the book series infomation in the metadata on Calibre (series name + number). However I'm having issues getting it across to my Kindle when the book has already been added originally without this metadata. Like these examples:

Sometimes I come across older books in my Calibre library (books which are already on my Kindle) where I have not added the series information. So I add the series metadata on Calibre, connect my Kindle and choose "device" and "update cached metadata on device". But the series information does not appear on the Kindle no matter what I do.

Or if I have accidentally already sent a new book across to my Kindle using Calibre and then noticed that I have forgotten to add the series information in the metadata. I go to Calibre, add the info in the metadata fields and choose "device" and "update cached metadata on device". But the series information does not come across.

I have even tried removing the existing book from the Kindle (with the series info missing) BEFORE sending the updated book (with the series metadata added) across to the Kindle and it still does not come across. So even though the book is gone from the Kindle, it's like it still knows it was there without series metadata orginally and therefore comes across without it again.

I don't know what I'm missing but surely you can somehow get across the series metadata added in Calibre to the books (already) on your Kindle which are missing it? Hoping someone can help me please?

Thanks in advance.

[Quoth]

Amazon controls series data on Kindles unless jail broken and often has it missing or wrong. Collections also are a problem.
The best that can be done is to add it to the title, either directly or via a template when sending.

[Anso]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Amazon controls series data on Kindles unless jail broken and often has it missing or wrong. Collections also are a problem.
The best that can be done is to add it to the title, either directly or via a template when sending.

Okay, I did not know this, thanks.

Though none of my Kindles are jailbroken and if I remember to add the series metadata to Calibre BEFORE ever adding the books to the Kindle, the series information in the metadata ALWAYS works and show up correctly on on the Kindle. So this makes me a little confused based on what you said.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Anso

Okay, I did not know this, thanks.

Though none of my Kindles are jailbroken and if I remember to add the series metadata to Calibre BEFORE ever adding the books to the Kindle, the series information in the metadata ALWAYS works and show up correctly on on the Kindle. So this makes me a little confused based on what you said.

how/ where did series info show up?

i just tested with my PW3, sending books in a series, all set up correctly in calibre. even did the connect, xfer books, disconnect, connect again.. dance so that calibre could try to update metadata, but all i see is the series info in thtitle , put there by my calibre template.

there's nowhere else where it could show up on a kindle ? kindle does not have the concept of series, only of collection. . amazon manage what appears in collections. calibre can't. and there is no series or collection info in book details. all sideloaded books seem to go into a "collection" called uncollected.

[Anso]

Originally Posted by stumped

how/ where did series info show up?

i just tested with my PW3, sending books in a series, all set up correctly in calibre. even did the connect, xfer books, disconnect, connect again.. dance so that calibre could try to update metadata, but all i see is the series info in thtitle , put there by my calibre template.

there's nowhere else where it could show up on a kindle ? kindle does not have the concept of series, only of collection. . amazon manage what appears in collections. calibre can't. and there is no series or collection info in book details. all sideloaded books seem to go into a "collection" called uncollected.

Please see screen shot of my Kindle attached. If you look from the second book and down this information coming from the metadata. The “Harry Potter 01”, “Harry Potter 02” etc. “Harry Potter” comes from the series name in the metadata and the number from the series number in the metadata added on Calibre. I have no series/number information added in the title field. I should add that these are non-Amazon bought books, not emailed to my Kindle but transferred to it via Calibre.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Anso

Please see screen shot of my Kindle attached. If you look from the second book and down this information coming from the metadata. The “Harry Potter 01”, “Harry Potter 02” etc. “Harry Potter” comes from the series name in the metadata and the number from the series number in the metadata added on Calibre. I have no series/number information added in the title field. I should add that these are non-Amazon bought books, not emailed to my Kindle but transferred to it via Calibre.

strange. i can't make this happen.
I do get series stuff added but that's a setting in:

calibre -> preferences -> metadata plugboards. what do you have there ?

i have this, for azw3: {series:} {series_index:0>2s| #| – }{title}

that gives me e.g. witcher saga #01 - Blood of Elves
the book titles in calibre is simply Blood of elves
which puts the series stuff in front of the book title on the kindle. I could probably tweak it and get the square brackets also.

maybe you had something like that but lost it when shifting up from calibre v5 to calibre v6

[Anso]

Originally Posted by stumped

strange. i can't make this happen.
I do get series stuff added but that's a setting in:

calibre -> preferences -> metadata plugboards. what do you have there ?

i have this, for azw3: {series:} {series_index:0>2s| #| – }{title}

that gives me e.g. witcher saga #01 - Blood of Elves
the book titles in calibre is simply Blood of elves
which puts the series stuff in front of the book title on the kindle. I could probably tweak it and get the square brackets also.

maybe you had something like that but lost it when shifting up from calibre v5 to calibre v6

I have this:

{series:|| }{series_index:0>2s|[|] }{title}

(As I said in my first message it works 100% fine if I have not previously sent the book to my Kindle by mistake without the series metadata added in Calibre).

[stumped]

its not to do with cached metatdata, its a plugboard function.
which works, as you say, for newly added books.
it shoudl also work if you first delete a book from kindle then resend. delete using the kindle menus should completely remove a sideload. or delete using windows file explorer should also be enough. disconnect kindle from pc after delete, let its sort itself out, then re connect and re add book with correct series info. If that fails, I'm stuck -someone else will need to step up.

the plugboard template is used whenever calibre sends a book, whcih shoudl be whenver there is not already a book with same title etc on the device. multiple sends of books with same details will confuse a poor kindle's tiny brain

[Anso]

Originally Posted by stumped

it shoudl also work if you first delete a book from kindle then resend. delete using the kindle menus should completely remove a sideload. or delete using windows file explorer should also be enough. disconnect kindle from pc after delete, let its sort itself out, then re connect and re add book with correct series info. If that fails, I'm stuck -someone else will need to step up.

Exactly! I feel like it should work but it doesn’t. I always delete my books from the Kindle (ie not attached to the computer/Calibre at all).

Thanks for trying to help. I really appreciate it. Hopefully someone else might be able to help more…

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Anso

Exactly! I feel like it should work but it doesn’t. I always delete my books from the Kindle (ie not attached to the computer/Calibre at all).

Thanks for trying to help. I really appreciate it. Hopefully someone else might be able to help more…

What happens when you delete the book from your Kindle with the Calibre "Remove book" function and then resend it?

Or, restart your Kindle after deleting the book and before adding it again.

[Anso]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

What happens when you delete the book from your Kindle with the Calibre "Remove book" function and then resend it?

I had never tried this before (always delete my books straight from the Kindle) but I have been experimenting with this a bit back and forth now. And it seems to work! So thank you very much

[PennyWise24]

I've searched and I can't seem to find the right program language. I have hundreds of books that are stand-alone (no series), and I have thousands that are in series. I'm wanting the upload format to be as such:

Series #01: Title 1
Series #02: Title 2
Series #03: Title 3
Series #04: Title 4
Series #05: Title 5 ......

Series #10: Title 10

And the standalone to just be the Title.

This is what I currently have and it's not working:

{series}' '{series_index:0>2s| #:| }{title}

I'm also trying to get the author's name to sort in my library list Last Name, First Name and show up that way in the Kindle Library. I'm hoping someone with more knowledge can help me. Thanks!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by PennyWise24

And the standalone to just be the Title.

This is what I currently have and it's not working:

{series}' '{series_index:0>2s| #:| }{title}

I use {series:| |} {series_index:||} - {title} - {authors:sublist(0,1,&)} as the filename template in Save to Disk. You might try that shortened to {series:| |} {series_index:||} - {title} since you would not need the author name. Not sure how well it will work on a Kindle depending on where the title is extracted from.

[theducks]

Leave Author where it belongs (but tick use author sort in the driver config when connected.

Why ?
Shared universes for one. you just want series, series index, title into title
(using the plugboard)
If it was a Kobo, just the index and title as Kobo has a native Series field

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by theducks

Leave Author where it belongs (but tick use author sort in the driver config when connected.

Why ?
Shared universes for one. you just want series, series index, title into title
(using the plugboard)
If it was a Kobo, just the index and title as Kobo has a native Series field

For a Kobo, I would not even bother adding the index since Kobo ereaders can sort on the series field.