Now Kindle can set current ebook cover as lockscreen

[Kuhnke]

[QUOTE=sprite7;4122355]I've got the cover feature today. Still, it's not working for like 70% of sideloaded azw3(kf8) books.

I have a simular problem:
All my self made ebooks (source code is clean html with css, self made cover and converted with calibre) show there cover in sleepmode, the cover is also shown when I navigate inside an ebook with "go to cover" to the cover.

But, some of my "old" ebooks (epubs), converted to kindle format, do not show the cover in sleep mode, only a rectangle with author and title inside is shown. In this ebooks it is also imposible to move (inside ebook) to the cover. Onle a white page is shown.

An new convertion in calibre did not help.

After I added a new cover to the book in the calibre main window a new convertion did help: The cover is shown inside the ebook with "go to cover" and also in "sleep mode".

[solitarywolf]

I finally got my Kindle Voyage to show the Cover art on the main screen.

Somewhere in this thread someone pointed out they left their kindle plugged in and connected to WiFi. I never leave mine connected longer than is necessary to charge it. That’s where I went wrong.

Yesterday I left it plugged in all day while I went to work. I came home and the cover art feature was now on my kindle and working.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Having spent nearly 10 years with various Kindles before switching to Kobos, I'm trying to figure out "what data, and how do you lose it?"

This is embarrassing, but I'll tell you because you asked.

Because I have insomnia, I often read soporific books as a way to ease into sleep. One night, I nodded off for a few moments while holding the restart button on my Aura HD. When I caught myself, I realized I'd accidentally held the button for so long that the ereader reset to default. This erased all of my books and my attendant progress within them.

That wasn't my finest moment, but accidental default restores due to idiocy seem not to be an issue with Kindles. I haven't checked to see whether later firmware and design choices made it harder to do that on the Clara.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

This is embarrassing, but I'll tell you because you asked.

Because I have insomnia, I often read soporific books as a way to ease into sleep. One night, I nodded off for a few moments while holding the restart button on my Aura HD. When I caught myself, I realized I'd accidentally held the button for so long that the ereader reset to default. This erased all of my books and my attendant progress within them.

That wasn't my finest moment, but accidental default restores due to idiocy seem not to be an issue with Kindles. I haven't checked to see whether later firmware and design choices made it harder to do that on the Clara.

Interesting. I still have an Aura HD kicking around and can't find a restart button on it. There is a light button, a power button and a recessed (as in needing a paper clip) reset button. Holding the light button for 2 minutes did nothing. Holding the power button forced the Aura HD to turn off and nothing else happened in two minutes. If I recall correctly (it's been years since I've done this), holding the light button while sliding the power button to turn the Aura HD on after the forced off is part of the manual factory reset procedure.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Interesting. I still have an Aura HD kicking around and can't find a restart button on it. There is a light button, a power button and a recessed (as in needing a paper clip) reset button.

Holding the power button for too long while nodding off is exactly how I reset the Aura HD. As I mentioned, perhaps they fixed that in a later firmware update. I did get mine when the Aura HD was first introduced. I haven't used it very much since getting the Clara, and I won't be home until Tuesday to check my Aura to confirm exactly what I did. I can confirm that I was only holding down the one button, though perhaps I'd slid it to a dangerous position. I really will have to check.

I can hear the counter now: "But how do you know you weren't holding down two buttons, Prestiwhatevs? After all, you were asleep."

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gaseous

Actually, I'd just really like it to sort my amazon store-bought books into series I sideload some but not many books.

Amazon took access to the database away very early on. Originally Kindles were able to integrate much better with Calibre to create collections. NOw you can't do that or anything else that needs database access. So side loading and getting use of the series feature is a no go.

Kobo might be the only Reader brand that does support series with Calibre.

[ps67]

I manually updated the firmware of my Kindle to have the cover of the book I am reading as screensaver. I rarely do it, only for features that I consider important. Well, it is not as important like to set font thickness or to consent custom fonts but it is important.

***

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Amazon took access to the database away very early on. Originally Kindles were able to integrate much better with Calibre to create collections. NOw you can't do that or anything else that needs database access. So side loading and getting use of the series feature is a no go.

Kobo might be the only Reader brand that does support series with Calibre.

Also Pocketbook can show the series from calibre. It calls it in Italian "Collana", that it is not really a good translation of "series" but anyway it does.

[sprite7]

Originally Posted by sprite7

As far as I know it's proper "image/jpeg" (used online service to see mime).

Solved the problem by re-saving the cover image file. Probably some jpeg file metadata/format incompatibility. Now it's showing in sleep screen.

Used Honeyview program, CTRL+T, saving settings: do not resize, JPG 100 quality.

In Calibre: open (book) path, save the cover file as a new file, when converting epub-azw3 use the new cover file.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by sprite7

Solved the problem by re-saving the cover image file. Probably some jpeg file metadata/format incompatibility. Now it's showing in sleep screen.

I have been researching causes of failure for the lockscreen cover feature. One thing I found is that the cover image must be JPEG with JFIF metadata. If the image instead has EXIF metadata then the cover will not display on the lock screen.

Some image manipulation software, such as Photoshop Elements, create files with EXIF metadata and will cause problems for this feature.

[RetroEggy]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I have been researching causes of failure for the lockscreen cover feature. One thing I found is that the cover image must be JPEG with JFIF metadata. If the image instead has EXIF metadata then the cover will not display on the lock screen.

Some image manipulation software, such as Photoshop Elements, create files with EXIF metadata and will cause problems for this feature.

Just tried that with a book that caused problems and wouldn't show the cover. Exported the original file with Gimp to a new jpeg, used that as cover in calibre and converted it into a new azw3 file. Now it shows the cover on both the lockscreen and gallery view - so apparently a jpg with exif instead of jfif can mess up a book's gallery view as well.
Thanks a lot - this has been way more of a hassle than I was hoping for.

[Cootey]

The display cover option was enabled for me today. I haven’t had a chance to test it on all my books, but it seems to be working fine. I don’t have any side-loaded books currently on my Kindle to test. Docs don’t have covers to display, but the few books I tested worked.

I’m still puzzled why Amazon needed to roll out a feature like this so slowly, but I assume it has to do with a database issue on their end. Regardless, I’m happy to finally show my current read on the sleep screen. Now I just have to wait for the feature to be enabled on my Japanese Kindle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Quoth]

Um, it's taken them 13 years to roll out the option for a sleep screen. But it took them about 5 years to add proper non Latin-Roman font support (apart from a few Greek letters), which pre-existed in the OS they used. I guess they did the minimum to port the Mobi stuff they bought in.

They were always years behind Sony, and then Kobo.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Um, it's taken them 13 years to roll out the option for a sleep screen. But it took them about 5 years to add proper non Latin-Roman font support (apart from a few Greek letters), which pre-existed in the OS they used. I guess they did the minimum to port the Mobi stuff they bought in.

They were always years behind Sony, and then Kobo.

They still are behind Kobo.

[Tarana]

Testing on my many older kindle gadgets, the cover update works on Kindle Basic 8, Basic 10, Paperwhite 3 and Voyage. Does not exist on update for Basic 7 or Paperwhite 2. As mentioned by others, doesn't work on the Voyage that still has ads.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by DNSB

If I recall correctly (it's been years since I've done this), holding the light button while sliding the power button to turn the Aura HD on after the forced off is part of the manual factory reset procedure.

I can now confirm that sliding the power button alone, which is how my Aura HD switched on and still does, is what reset the device when I nodded off several years ago. Holding in the switch for too long was the only thing I did. I did not have a pin or tiny L wrench pressed into the reset hole, nor was I holding the light button at the time. I simply woke to the horror of the reset.

I haven't investigated the potential for that glitch with new firmware because I'd rather not encounter that same issue if it still exists in undocumented or sparsely documented form. Obviously, the Clara HD doesn't seem to have it, but I'm wary of pressing the matter (as it were).

These are the kinds of oddities one encounters on a far more flexible but slightly less finessed device. The tradeoffs are clear and quite defensible: innovators and gate-openers introduce more useful options and variables. The Kindle's refinements are also defensible, though their gatekeeping is not.

If made to choose, I'd of course opt for Kobos and epub.

But I do find the Kindle more pleasurable to use for highlighting, looking up words, switching dictionaries, syncing progress and inserting bookmarks. The ability to add a new bookmark and delete the old one on the same new page is quite useful for readers like me who are always making sporadic progress between necessary naps. (I'm a chronic insomniac who is sometimes unable to sleep deeply for days).