Plugin to update Kobo Plus series/subseries info?

[tamarissa]

Is there a Calibre plugin that actually updates series and sub-series metadata for Kobo Plus books these days? The Kobo Utilities plugin used to do this, but it hasn’t worked for me for at least a couple of years now.

It’s only a minor annoyance, but almost nothing in any of my collections will actually sort correctly in series order anymore.

For example, I use the Series field as the Universe, and the Sub-series field for the individual series within that Universe. Kobo Utilities used to update both of those on the device. Now the sub-series information doesn’t appear at all for Kobo Plus books.

The series information looks correct in both Calibre and on my Kobo (e.g. ABC 1, ABC 2, etc.), but sorting by series on the device is clearly not using that information. There’s no world where 6, 1, 8, 2, 3 is the correct numeric order, and the series name is identical for every book.

The "Update metadata in device library" option in Kobo Utilities used to fix this, but it no longer does.

Has anyone found an alternative plugin or workflow that updates series and sub-series metadata for Kobo Plus books now that Kobo Utilities no longer does this? Even something that just fixes the series sort order itself would be amazing.

The attached image shows what I mean.

The books that display “A Novel (Nocturne Falls, Book #)” in the Sub-series label are not Kobo Plus books, and they show up correctly via Kobo Utilities plugin. The Kobo Plus books should display the same information in the same way, but they do not (they do not even register as selected books when using the "updating the metadata in device library" function).

You can also see that the sort order is clearly wrong, even though the series name and book number are displayed.

[DNSB]

A bit odd. I generate a dummy book for each Kobo Plus book, update the metadata and let calibre update the metadata on my Kobos. Seems to work as expected on firmware V4 and lower. V5 firmware has it's own oddities but that is not a worry as yet. I don't use the subtitle field for anything other than the occasional book with a subtitle worth keeping. The only time I use the Kobo Utilities to update the metadata is those sadly common occasions when I manage to require a factory reset.

I've attached a screenshot of a set of Kobo Plus books and also a set of random books with subtitles. You will notice the Kobo Plus books have the series numbering as 1-3 for instance which is a template that sets that for omnibus editions instead of 1.03.

[tamarissa]

It sounds pretty much like your setup is the same as mine, not counting the sub-series part obviously, but I sure don't know why you get correct sort results and I don't. I did go check my software version; it's 4.45.

Kobo does have its own set of subtitle information, which is what's displaying, obviously, but I'm just not sure why what I want it to say is not overriding.

I may steal your Omnibus Edition idea; that's pretty cool. I just use 1, 4, 7, etc instead... Whatever number the first book in the omnibus is.

On a side note, how did you get that amazing picture of your device? That was way nicer than mine!

[DNSB]

In the .kobo/Kobo directory, I edited Kobo eReader.conf and added Screenshots=true under the [FeatureSettings] header. I normally use NickelMenu to toggle screenshots on/off since the power button is used to take the screenshot. This means you can't put your Kobo to sleep using the power button and would need to use a sleep cover to do this.

Sadly, since I have my Libra Colour on a v5 firmware, NickelMenu will not run.

The options I use with [FeatureSettings] are all below though Screenshots is the only one you need. Some are just leftovers from testing various items.

[FeatureSettings]
BookSpecificStats=true
ExcludeSyncFolders=(\\.(?!kobo|adobe).+|([^.][^/]*/)+\\..+)|(screensaver_old)
FullScreenReading=false
IgnoreCaptivePortal=false
InvertScreen=false
Screenshots=false