Insanely low "Minutes to Go" values

RobertJSawyer · 01-30-2022, 11:53 PM

My Kobo Libra 2 thinks I'm a Guinness Book of World Records speed-reader. It's showing insanely low "Minutes to Go" reading values for most of the books on my device. I've tried uninstalling all patches and also repairing my account, but nothing has helped.

I think perhaps the problem is only with actual Kepubs bought from Kobo and synchronized with their servers (but I have at least one such book that is showing a plausible time-left value); it seems that Kepubs sideloaded via Calibre might not be having this problem. (I'm still investigating.)

I'm seeing things on full-length books such as:

10% Read
4 MINS TO GO

and

33% Read
1 MIN TO GO

I'm on the latest firmware: 4.31.19086.

Has anyone else seen this? Help, please!

Shopaholic · 01-31-2022, 01:23 AM

Is it showing minutes left in the book or the chapter? Check your settings. I’ve noticed sometimes it takes a bit to learn your reading speed before it’s a little bit more accurate.

RobertJSawyer · 01-31-2022, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

Is it showing minutes left in the book or the chapter? Check your settings. I’ve noticed sometimes it takes a bit to learn your reading speed before it’s a little bit more accurate.

Everywhere the statistics are shown they are the same: the home screen, My Books, in the footer, in the book-progress graph. I have checked every setting.

Shopaholic · 01-31-2022, 10:49 AM

No, you’re not following me. Go to Settings, then reading settings. In the drop down for header and footer what is showing?

You have 4 options for the header:
1 pages left in chapter
2 percent of chapter read
3 time remaining in chapter
4 off

In the footer you have the same except they’re for the whole book not the chapter.

Which options have you selected? And again though, it takes a bit of time for it to “learn” your reading speed.

RobertJSawyer · 01-31-2022, 01:52 PM

I'm following you just fine, thank you. I tried all the possible permutations of those settings before I made the original post. I am a very experienced Kobo user, going back to the very first Kobo in 2010, and I'm a Kobo beta-tester.

After many hours of reading, the ridiculously short values listed for time remaining persist in every place where they can be shown (home screen, My Books, footer, reading-progress graph); the values are consistent in all places. (Percentage read counts and the bottom-of-the-reading-screen progress bar are accurate, however.)

Showing "2 minutes to go" in the entire book (not the current chapter; the entire book) on a book that has over 20,000 words of text left to be read in it is not a case of the device learning my reading speed; it's a bug or some sort of corruption. I'm fast, but not that fast.

As I said, I've been through all settings (all of them, every menu, including toggling including end matter in the calculations on and off), as well as all the values in the "Kobo reader.conf" file.

JSWolf · 01-31-2022, 02:01 PM

The last time I used time remaining for the eBook, I ended up with 1 page = 1 minute. This was reading ePub. It also wasn't a matter of getting the software to learn my reading speed.

Uncle Robin · 01-31-2022, 02:16 PM

I remember having had this problem, and other stats issues, when I was reading mostly kepubs on Nickel. The MUCH more detailed and reliable stats offered in KOReader are one more reason it's my default now

sqdancer · 01-31-2022, 04:45 PM

I've seen this with books I've loaded using the Kobo desktop app.

RobertJSawyer · 01-31-2022, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sqdancer

I've seen this with books I've loaded using the Kobo desktop app.

That's it! Thank you for the insight. That's precisely how I loaded the books, because the Kobo website was down here in Toronto. I'll reload (all 2,000+ of them!) via Wi Fi overnight.

davidfor · 01-31-2022, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

That's it! Thank you for the insight. That's precisely how I loaded the books, because the Kobo website was down here in Toronto. I'll reload (all 2,000+ of them!) via Wi Fi overnight.

Have you tried removing one book and downloading it again? If that doesn't help, it will probably mean signing out and back in. If you have a book that you bought since the sync from the Kobo desktop, that might behave differently.

I have seen something like what you are reporting, but, it involved two devices. Reading on one showed sensible times, but, when I synced and looked at the book on the other device, the times were unreasonable. But, I'm fairly sure that once I started reading on that device, they were recalculated and became sensible.

RobertJSawyer · 01-31-2022, 09:06 PM

Okay, here's the fix. Obviously, only books that are marked as "Reading" have reading "TO GO" stats. Just deleting them from the device and then redownloading doesn't fix that. You first have to place a bookmark at your farthest-point-read position, then mark the book as finished on the device, then delete the book from the device, synch to update the server database, then download the book again, and go back to your bookmark, and the "TO GO" stats will be correct at last.

ownedbycats · 01-31-2022, 10:16 PM

I've come across this in the past; the little chapter length graph is also messed up in those cases.

My solution was to use Calibre to delete it entirely from the database (so it doesn't even show up for download) and then restore account to bring it back.

Shopaholic · 02-01-2022, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

I'm following you just fine, thank you.

Sorry. I meant no harm.

RobertJSawyer · 02-01-2022, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

Sorry. I meant no harm.

No problem! Thank you for trying to help.

01-30-2022, 11:53 PM	#1
RobertJSawyer Guru Posts: 739 Karma: 4306712 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Libra 2, Clara 2E, and Clara HD; Kindle PaperWhite	Insanely low "Minutes to Go" values My Kobo Libra 2 thinks I'm a Guinness Book of World Records speed-reader. It's showing insanely low "Minutes to Go" reading values for most of the books on my device. I've tried uninstalling all patches and also repairing my account, but nothing has helped. I think perhaps the problem is only with actual Kepubs bought from Kobo and synchronized with their servers (but I have at least one such book that is showing a plausible time-left value); it seems that Kepubs sideloaded via Calibre might not be having this problem. (I'm still investigating.) I'm seeing things on full-length books such as: 10% Read 4 MINS TO GO and 33% Read 1 MIN TO GO I'm on the latest firmware: 4.31.19086. Has anyone else seen this? Help, please!

01-31-2022, 01:52 PM	#5
RobertJSawyer Guru Posts: 739 Karma: 4306712 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Libra 2, Clara 2E, and Clara HD; Kindle PaperWhite	I'm following you just fine, thank you. I tried all the possible permutations of those settings before I made the original post. I am a very experienced Kobo user, going back to the very first Kobo in 2010, and I'm a Kobo beta-tester. After many hours of reading, the ridiculously short values listed for time remaining persist in every place where they can be shown (home screen, My Books, footer, reading-progress graph); the values are consistent in all places. (Percentage read counts and the bottom-of-the-reading-screen progress bar are accurate, however.) Showing "2 minutes to go" in the entire book (not the current chapter; the entire book) on a book that has over 20,000 words of text left to be read in it is not a case of the device learning my reading speed; it's a bug or some sort of corruption. I'm fast, but not that fast. As I said, I've been through all settings (all of them, every menu, including toggling including end matter in the calculations on and off), as well as all the values in the "Kobo reader.conf" file. Last edited by RobertJSawyer; 01-31-2022 at 02:00 PM.

01-31-2022, 10:16 PM	#12
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 11,331 Karma: 79528341 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	I've come across this in the past; the little chapter length graph is also messed up in those cases. My solution was to use Calibre to delete it entirely from the database (so it doesn't even show up for download) and then restore account to bring it back. Last edited by ownedbycats; 01-31-2022 at 10:44 PM.

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01-31-2022, 01:23 AM	#2
Shopaholic Cockatoo Mom! Posts: 1,509 Karma: 1841741 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: PW4, Kobo: A1, Clara, Libra 2, iPad Pro 11, iPad Mini	Is it showing minutes left in the book or the chapter? Check your settings. I’ve noticed sometimes it takes a bit to learn your reading speed before it’s a little bit more accurate.

01-31-2022, 10:49 AM	#4
Shopaholic Cockatoo Mom! Posts: 1,509 Karma: 1841741 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: PW4, Kobo: A1, Clara, Libra 2, iPad Pro 11, iPad Mini	No, you’re not following me. Go to Settings, then reading settings. In the drop down for header and footer what is showing? You have 4 options for the header: 1 pages left in chapter 2 percent of chapter read 3 time remaining in chapter 4 off In the footer you have the same except they’re for the whole book not the chapter. Which options have you selected? And again though, it takes a bit of time for it to “learn” your reading speed.

01-31-2022, 02:01 PM	#6
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 80,677 Karma: 150249619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	The last time I used time remaining for the eBook, I ended up with 1 page = 1 minute. This was reading ePub. It also wasn't a matter of getting the software to learn my reading speed.

01-31-2022, 02:16 PM	#7
Uncle Robin Diligent dilettante Posts: 3,662 Karma: 52758936 Join Date: Sep 2019 Location: in my mind Device: Kobo Sage; Kobo Libra Colour	I remember having had this problem, and other stats issues, when I was reading mostly kepubs on Nickel. The MUCH more detailed and reliable stats offered in KOReader are one more reason it's my default now

01-31-2022, 04:45 PM	#8
sqdancer Guru Posts: 638 Karma: 891247 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Canada Device: Sony T2 T3, Kobo Glo H2O GloHD Clara Libra2, Kindle NT PW4, PB Verse	I've seen this with books I've loaded using the Kobo desktop app.

01-31-2022, 09:06 PM	#11
RobertJSawyer Guru Posts: 739 Karma: 4306712 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Libra 2, Clara 2E, and Clara HD; Kindle PaperWhite	Okay, here's the fix. Obviously, only books that are marked as "Reading" have reading "TO GO" stats. Just deleting them from the device and then redownloading doesn't fix that. You first have to place a bookmark at your farthest-point-read position, then mark the book as finished on the device, then delete the book from the device, synch to update the server database, then download the book again, and go back to your bookmark, and the "TO GO" stats will be correct at last.