Formatting to Send to Kindle

Rellwood · 03-29-2024, 03:55 PM

I was able to send to kindle via the app on my desktop but when it stopped taking .mobi files I attempted to send the .epubs but I keep getting a message saying that the file is incompatable and it won't send.

I have been sending the .epubs that are "incompatible" through my email directly to my kindles, and they have shown up, but I noticed that I got a bunch of emails from AMazon saying that although I can read the books on my devices

"Dear Customer,

Thank you for using the Send to Kindle service. We are reaching out to let you know that a document, sent to your Kindle at 09:13 AM on Wed, Nov 13, 2019 GMT, contains incompatible elements for Kindle format conversion. We’ve still delivered the document so that you can read it with Kindle, but in its current format it won’t support the latest Kindle features for documents, including Kindle Scribe handwriting features.

To make document(s) compatible with Kindle format conversion:

Split large tables into several smaller tables, align the direction of text in the tables, and remove drop-caps in the tables.
Remove multi-media content such as audio, video, and SVG images.
Remove mathematical equations.
Remove images that contain linear gradients.
Remove password protection or any other security settings.
Remove any footnotes inside footnotes.
Check the document can be opened on a computer.
Make sure the document doesn’t have more than 8,000 pages.
Try sending the document again via Send to Kindle for Web.

To learn more about converting documents to a Kindle format, please visit our help page. By downloading or using Send to Kindle, you agree to the terms here.

Regards,
Amazon Kindle Support "

I a ton of these emails last night because I sent to my Kindle Scribe, which I haven't opened up because it's misplaced at the moment, so I can't see what it is that is giving me problems.

Is it possible that the Cover Jacket is causing the problems? It has a box with text in it.

Also, why aren't my .epubs being able to directly be sent to kindle using the app? They are the "old" epubs.

tomsem · 03-29-2024, 05:55 PM

A few ideas:

Run epubcheck on it
Check for errors using Calibre Edit
Install Kindle Previewer 3 and see what it complains about - it seems to complain about the same things as STK service for the most part.

Rellwood · 03-29-2024, 07:00 PM

What is the Kindle Previewer 3? Is it a plugin? - and I read somewhere on reddit that if you convert from epub to mobi and back to epub it works, which is a pain. I ended up resending them and they went through, it's just that NO epubs at ALL are ever able to send to kindle unless it's by email.

jmurphy · 03-29-2024, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rellwood

NO epubs at ALL are ever able to send to kindle unless it's by email.

Kindles do not support epubs in any way. It is not possible to read an epub on a Kindle.

What actually happens when you send by email is that Amazon takes the epub and converts it to something a Kindle can read and then sends it to your Kindle, you aren't actually sending an epub directly to a Kindle even if it seems that way.

--
jmurphy

Rellwood · 04-26-2024, 07:55 PM

Yes, but sending to Kindle via email can support Epubs, but they convert them. The send to kindle desktop app refuses to use .mobi anymore and it won't take epubs either. It's only useful for dox, html, and pdf.

Rellwood · 04-26-2024, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

A few ideas:

Run epubcheck on it
Check for errors using Calibre Edit
Install Kindle Previewer 3 and see what it complains about - it seems to complain about the same things as STK service for the most part.

Got the previewer and it's great at finding books that won't convert! THanks!

DNSB · 04-26-2024, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Yes, but sending to Kindle via email can support Epubs, but they convert them. The send to kindle desktop app refuses to use .mobi anymore and it won't take epubs either. It's only useful for dox, html, and pdf.

Odd. I've been sending ePubs to Send to Kindle for quite a while with no issues. Admittedly, all my ePubs that are sent are run through epubcheck and any errors are corrected. Same workflow as I use for working on ebooks to be sent to KDP.

odamizu · 04-26-2024, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rellwood

... The send to kindle desktop app refuses to use .mobi anymore and it won't take epubs either. It's only useful for dox, html, and pdf.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

Odd. I've been sending ePubs to Send to Kindle for quite a while with no issues. Admittedly, all my ePubs that are sent are run through epubcheck and any errors are corrected. Same workflow as I use for working on ebooks to be sent to KDP.

Ditto DNSB. I send epubs via the Send-to-Kindle desktop app (for Mac) all the time with no issues. Have been doing so since this feature became available (early 2023??). Also like DNSB, I run my epubs through epubcheck and correct errors before using Send to Kindle.

sricochet · 12-12-2024, 12:19 AM

Send to Kindle has a timeout of 45 minutes. So if the book is large, has many images, or has many pages, it might timeout if it takes longer than 45 minutes to transfer to the library. I think that internet connection has nothing to do with it because the books are already uploaded to Amazon, it's a matter of the speed at which the book is transferred from the Amazon server to the Amazon content library

I have uploaded files from Delphi Classics that are quite large, and have much text but fewer pages and many images using techniques discussed above and elsewhere (convert EPUB to AZW3 to EPUB, reconstructing or completely deleting the Table of Contents), so I think the Delphi Classics formatting is pretty good.

I have tried to upload some texts from Digitale Bibliothek, with many images or pages, and they have failed, no matter what I did.

Then I tried splitting the files into smaller chunks with EpubSplit calibre plugin, and the split epubs uploaded after EpubCheck, checking for errors in calibre Edit Book option, and converting EPUB to AZW3 to EPUB in calibre and limiting TOC entries to less than 500, after deleting the Table Of Contents and creating table of contents with the Create TOC From Files.

It is very frustrating that Amazon promises a 200 MB upload limit on Send to Kindle Web and has such limitations that they are not advising on. It would be helpful if they publish the limitations somewhere and wouldn't waste people's time discovering these limitations.

However the 200 MB limit is very convenient and is a great feature for large epubs and I hope that Amazon keeps this limit or perhaps even expands it in the future, as there are many authors who are prolific and will perhaps publish large collections in the future.

Just a few observations for anyone who has run into this issue before or currently or in the future.

sricochet · 12-12-2024, 07:19 PM

edit: it seems as if 500 TOC links is too much. Reducing it to 300 or so works better.

03-29-2024, 03:55 PM	#1
Rellwood Library Breeder (She/Her) Posts: 1,265 Karma: 1937891 Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Fullerton, California Device: Paperwhite 2015 (2), PW 2024 (12 GEN), PW 2023 (11 GEN), Scribe (1st)	Formatting to Send to Kindle I was able to send to kindle via the app on my desktop but when it stopped taking .mobi files I attempted to send the .epubs but I keep getting a message saying that the file is incompatable and it won't send. I have been sending the .epubs that are "incompatible" through my email directly to my kindles, and they have shown up, but I noticed that I got a bunch of emails from AMazon saying that although I can read the books on my devices "Dear Customer, Thank you for using the Send to Kindle service. We are reaching out to let you know that a document, sent to your Kindle at 09:13 AM on Wed, Nov 13, 2019 GMT, contains incompatible elements for Kindle format conversion. We’ve still delivered the document so that you can read it with Kindle, but in its current format it won’t support the latest Kindle features for documents, including Kindle Scribe handwriting features. To make document(s) compatible with Kindle format conversion: Split large tables into several smaller tables, align the direction of text in the tables, and remove drop-caps in the tables. Remove multi-media content such as audio, video, and SVG images. Remove mathematical equations. Remove images that contain linear gradients. Remove password protection or any other security settings. Remove any footnotes inside footnotes. Check the document can be opened on a computer. Make sure the document doesn’t have more than 8,000 pages. Try sending the document again via Send to Kindle for Web. To learn more about converting documents to a Kindle format, please visit our help page. By downloading or using Send to Kindle, you agree to the terms here. Regards, Amazon Kindle Support " I a ton of these emails last night because I sent to my Kindle Scribe, which I haven't opened up because it's misplaced at the moment, so I can't see what it is that is giving me problems. Is it possible that the Cover Jacket is causing the problems? It has a box with text in it. Also, why aren't my .epubs being able to directly be sent to kindle using the app? They are the "old" epubs.

03-29-2024, 05:55 PM	#2
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,939 Karma: 27060151 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	A few ideas: Run epubcheck on it Check for errors using Calibre Edit Install Kindle Previewer 3 and see what it complains about - it seems to complain about the same things as STK service for the most part.

12-12-2024, 12:19 AM	#9
sricochet Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2014 Device: Kindle Scribe	Send to Kindle has a timeout of 45 minutes. So if the book is large, has many images, or has many pages, it might timeout if it takes longer than 45 minutes to transfer to the library. I think that internet connection has nothing to do with it because the books are already uploaded to Amazon, it's a matter of the speed at which the book is transferred from the Amazon server to the Amazon content library I have uploaded files from Delphi Classics that are quite large, and have much text but fewer pages and many images using techniques discussed above and elsewhere (convert EPUB to AZW3 to EPUB, reconstructing or completely deleting the Table of Contents), so I think the Delphi Classics formatting is pretty good. I have tried to upload some texts from Digitale Bibliothek, with many images or pages, and they have failed, no matter what I did. Then I tried splitting the files into smaller chunks with EpubSplit calibre plugin, and the split epubs uploaded after EpubCheck, checking for errors in calibre Edit Book option, and converting EPUB to AZW3 to EPUB in calibre and limiting TOC entries to less than 500, after deleting the Table Of Contents and creating table of contents with the Create TOC From Files. It is very frustrating that Amazon promises a 200 MB upload limit on Send to Kindle Web and has such limitations that they are not advising on. It would be helpful if they publish the limitations somewhere and wouldn't waste people's time discovering these limitations. However the 200 MB limit is very convenient and is a great feature for large epubs and I hope that Amazon keeps this limit or perhaps even expands it in the future, as there are many authors who are prolific and will perhaps publish large collections in the future. Just a few observations for anyone who has run into this issue before or currently or in the future. Last edited by sricochet; 12-12-2024 at 07:19 PM.

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03-29-2024, 07:00 PM	#3
Rellwood Library Breeder (She/Her) Posts: 1,265 Karma: 1937891 Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Fullerton, California Device: Paperwhite 2015 (2), PW 2024 (12 GEN), PW 2023 (11 GEN), Scribe (1st)	What is the Kindle Previewer 3? Is it a plugin? - and I read somewhere on reddit that if you convert from epub to mobi and back to epub it works, which is a pain. I ended up resending them and they went through, it's just that NO epubs at ALL are ever able to send to kindle unless it's by email.

04-26-2024, 07:55 PM	#5
Rellwood Library Breeder (She/Her) Posts: 1,265 Karma: 1937891 Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Fullerton, California Device: Paperwhite 2015 (2), PW 2024 (12 GEN), PW 2023 (11 GEN), Scribe (1st)	Yes, but sending to Kindle via email can support Epubs, but they convert them. The send to kindle desktop app refuses to use .mobi anymore and it won't take epubs either. It's only useful for dox, html, and pdf.

12-12-2024, 07:19 PM	#10
sricochet Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2014 Device: Kindle Scribe	edit: it seems as if 500 TOC links is too much. Reducing it to 300 or so works better.

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