Troubleshooting Sideloaded books from one author disappearing WITHOUT WiFi

Siavahda · 01-12-2025, 02:06 AM

I sideload everything using Calibre (7.24) and haven't switched WiFi on for years. I'm using a Kindle Paperwhite 10, I believe.

Yesterday I sideloaded a handful of books, all by the same author. When I disconnected my kindle, I saw that a) most of the new books disappeared after a few minutes, and b) two books by the same author, that I had been reading recently but which have been on my kindle for months if not years, also vanished.

a) The new books were a mix of AZW3 and MOBI. Some of both formats vanished. The AZW3 books reappeared and stayed (for a while) after I restarted the kindle. The MOBI books stayed gone; I converted them to AZW3 and in that format they stayed put. (For a while).

b) The old books were both MOBI. When I checked via file explorer, the MOBI files appear to be gone (although the MBS + MBP1 files were still there). But when I connect my kindle to Calibre, Calibre still saw both the missing books as on my device.

I replaced the missing books with AZW3. But when I disconnected my kindle from Calibre, all this author's books were at the top of my kindle screen (my books are arranged by most recent, so as if I just opened them) and all claimed to be read at 0%, even though that's incorrect for most of them. (When I open them, they open to the correct page.) And most of the new AZW3 files (not the ones that replaced the MOBI files) vanished after a few minutes again.

I removed all this author's books, converted everything to EPUB and back to AZW3 (it's helped with similar issues before, I think?), and put four back onto the kindle. Three stayed put; one vanished. I have no idea what the difference is between the one that vanished versus the others (they're all from different sources, etc). Outside of these three, all the others vanish after a minute or so when I put them on the kindle.

I've restarted the kindle four or five times during this process. Sometimes the missing books came back after a restart, but only briefly (and always reset to 0%).

No other books seem to be affected, it's only ones by this author.

Does anyone know what could cause this? And how to stop it?

(Please explain any theories as if I were 5yo, I am not the tech-savviest person!)

Siavahda · 01-12-2025, 02:55 AM

I might have figured it out?

The author is Patricia McKillip, listed as 'Patricia A. McKillip' on Calibre. But I noticed that the books that WEREN'T disappearing didn't have the stop after the A - they were listed as 'Patricia A McKillip'.

I edited the metadata to remove the dot from the author name on the other books; sent them all onto the kindle in AZW3 format. And now they've all been stable, no more vanishing! (At least not yet...)

I have no idea why this made any difference, but hopefully it helps if anyone else runs into the same problem!

01-12-2025, 02:06 AM	#1
Siavahda Zealot Posts: 121 Karma: 9400 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Helsinki Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2018	Sideloaded books from one author disappearing WITHOUT WiFi I sideload everything using Calibre (7.24) and haven't switched WiFi on for years. I'm using a Kindle Paperwhite 10, I believe. Yesterday I sideloaded a handful of books, all by the same author. When I disconnected my kindle, I saw that a) most of the new books disappeared after a few minutes, and b) two books by the same author, that I had been reading recently but which have been on my kindle for months if not years, also vanished. a) The new books were a mix of AZW3 and MOBI. Some of both formats vanished. The AZW3 books reappeared and stayed (for a while) after I restarted the kindle. The MOBI books stayed gone; I converted them to AZW3 and in that format they stayed put. (For a while). b) The old books were both MOBI. When I checked via file explorer, the MOBI files appear to be gone (although the MBS + MBP1 files were still there). But when I connect my kindle to Calibre, Calibre still saw both the missing books as on my device. I replaced the missing books with AZW3. But when I disconnected my kindle from Calibre, all this author's books were at the top of my kindle screen (my books are arranged by most recent, so as if I just opened them) and all claimed to be read at 0%, even though that's incorrect for most of them. (When I open them, they open to the correct page.) And most of the new AZW3 files (not the ones that replaced the MOBI files) vanished after a few minutes again. I removed all this author's books, converted everything to EPUB and back to AZW3 (it's helped with similar issues before, I think?), and put four back onto the kindle. Three stayed put; one vanished. I have no idea what the difference is between the one that vanished versus the others (they're all from different sources, etc). Outside of these three, all the others vanish after a minute or so when I put them on the kindle. I've restarted the kindle four or five times during this process. Sometimes the missing books came back after a restart, but only briefly (and always reset to 0%). No other books seem to be affected, it's only ones by this author. Does anyone know what could cause this? And how to stop it? (Please explain any theories as if I were 5yo, I am not the tech-savviest person!)

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01-12-2025, 02:55 AM	#2
Siavahda Zealot Posts: 121 Karma: 9400 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Helsinki Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2018	I might have figured it out? The author is Patricia McKillip, listed as 'Patricia A. McKillip' on Calibre. But I noticed that the books that WEREN'T disappearing didn't have the stop after the A - they were listed as 'Patricia A McKillip'. I edited the metadata to remove the dot from the author name on the other books; sent them all onto the kindle in AZW3 format. And now they've all been stable, no more vanishing! (At least not yet...) I have no idea why this made any difference, but hopefully it helps if anyone else runs into the same problem!

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