I can't migrate annotations/collections from Clara 2E (4.38) to Clara BW (4.45)

[Hoshizuki]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to migrate from a Kobo Clara 2E to a Kobo Clara BW while keeping: reading stats, collections, annotations

All of my books are sideloaded (mix of EPUB and KEPUB). Around 1000 books.

From Kobo Clara 2E Firmware: 4.38.23697 to Kobo Clara BW Firmware: 4.45.23697

Same Kobo account on both devices. I turned on the sideloading model for both devices.

I followed the first post of this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=336182

It seemed very successful at the beginning: All books, reading stats, collections and annotations were transferred.

However, even though I can see my old annotations in the annotation list, if I tap any annotation, Kobo jumps to the page and then the highlight disappears. Returning to the annotation list shows that all annotations have disappeared. After that, new annotations can not be saved as well. This happens for both EPUB and KEPUB books.

Factory resetting the BW restores normal annotation functionality.

I have been fighting it over with chatgpt but it couldn't help me at all. I decided to come back here for any possible solution.

Has anyone successfully migrated annotations from firmware 4.38 to 4.45 (Clara BW)?

Is the 2020 user-table migration still expected to work on recent firmware, or are additional tables now required?

Has anything changed in the annotation subsystem after 4.38 that would explain why old annotations initially appear but disappear when opened and prevent new annotations from being created?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance!

[Aleron Ives]

That guide is from 2021, and the firmware has changed a lot since then. There are likely other parts of the database that you must fiddle with in order to copy the data, so unless somebody has already documented this process for modern firmware, you would have to discover and document the process yourself.

[DNSB]

He is also trying to migrate from a 4.38.23697 to a 4.45.23697 firmware. There are differences between the two databases.

[Hoshizuki]

I see... Is there no hope for me doing a migration between the 2 devices then? I have also Calibre uploaded on my PC. Even though reading stats can not be transferred I was hoping to at least transfer collections I made on device and the annotations.

I tried Calibre once as well but Kono utilities didn't help me with collections at least. Maybe because the books were not transferred with Calibre in my old Kobo Clara, I'mnot sure... I never tried Calibre for annotations.

[Aleron Ives]

If you don't know how to document the database format yourself, you'd probably have to pay somebody to do it on your behalf.

[JSWolf]

If both the Clara 2E and the Clara BW were backed-up and the database/books from the 2E copied over to the BW, would that work or would that cause a problem?

[DNSB]

You could try it after a factory reset of the Clara BW and before installing the updated firmware.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Hoshizuki

I tried Calibre once as well but Kono utilities didn't help me with collections at least. Maybe because the books were not transferred with Calibre in my old Kobo Clara, I'mnot sure... I never tried Calibre for annotations.

You could import the books from the Clara 2E to calibre. Then configure a custom column for collections—enter it in the Kobo driver configuration on the 2nd tab under Collections. Then see if the Kobo Utilities Get Collections From Device option will work. It does work for me.