Inconsistent Metadata

windybt · 10-10-2010, 02:48 AM

Hello everyone, I just received the newest Kindle on Friday so that I could take advantage of some of the free ebooks my college gives out. One of my professors gave me the epub files to a few of his books and I used Calibre to convert them to mobi. Later, I noticed that his files didn't have covers. At all. Going back a page after opening it led to a page with a title. So I found the covers on the Internet and updated the metadata so that my Kindle would display the covers instead of a title page when going into the book information. Unfortunately one of the three doesn't seem to update. I've deleted my Kindle's library and Calibre library and re-added the cover image in Calibre and then uploaded it again, but to no avail. Is there anything that I can do? I don't mind not seeing the cover when I open the book, but when I tab over into the book settings I'd like for the little box to have the image. That's all I'm asking. What do I need to do?

Thanks for your help!

itimpi · 10-10-2010, 03:24 AM

You have to run a conversion (even if it is to the same format) to get the covers inserted into the ebook file. Simply updating the cover in Calibre is not sufficient.

speakingtohe · 10-10-2010, 03:27 AM

A long shot but have you tried tabbing back twice?
Some books have a sort of cover that looks like the first page which can be removed by checking the remove first image under structure detection

windybt · 10-10-2010, 03:47 AM

Thanks! The reconverting it fixed the problem. I thought that might work, but I was confused why the other two didn't need to be reconverted before showing the cover.

itimpi · 10-10-2010, 04:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by windybt

Thanks! The reconverting it fixed the problem. I thought that might work, but I was confused why the other two didn't need to be reconverted before showing the cover.

My guess is that either the epub file already had the cover or (more likely) you downloaded the cover before doing the ePub->mobi conversion for the kindle.

jackie_w · 10-10-2010, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by windybt

... but I was confused why the other two didn't need to be reconverted before showing the cover.

Just for your info - Kovid introduced a new feature in v7.11 (quote from What's New page)

EPUB metadata: When setting metadata in an EPUB file, if it has a well defined image based cover, update it

When I asked for clarification of what this meant he replied

That means that if the EPUB file has a <meta name="cover"> element pointing to a cover image in jpg or png format that is not encrypted, it will be updated to the cover stored in the calibre database when saving to disk/sending to device.

i.e. some epubs will get their covers updated from your library metadata merely by resending, no conversion necessary.

DoctorOhh · 10-10-2010, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackie_w

i.e. some epubs will get their covers updated from your library metadata merely by resending, no conversion necessary.

Good Information.

I'm not sure but I guess this applies to mobi files too. After all this is what the original poster was asking about.

jackie_w · 10-10-2010, 08:21 AM

Oops! Perhaps I didn't read the OP carefully enough.

I'm not sure about MOBI either, Kovid's statements only mentioned EPUB. However, this was back in July and Calibre improves so fast...

kovidgoyal · 10-10-2010, 12:31 PM

MOBI files may or may not have their covers updated (it depends on the internals of the file). If they don't you have to reconvert.

10-10-2010, 02:48 AM	#1
windybt Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Latest Generation	Inconsistent Metadata Hello everyone, I just received the newest Kindle on Friday so that I could take advantage of some of the free ebooks my college gives out. One of my professors gave me the epub files to a few of his books and I used Calibre to convert them to mobi. Later, I noticed that his files didn't have covers. At all. Going back a page after opening it led to a page with a title. So I found the covers on the Internet and updated the metadata so that my Kindle would display the covers instead of a title page when going into the book information. Unfortunately one of the three doesn't seem to update. I've deleted my Kindle's library and Calibre library and re-added the cover image in Calibre and then uploaded it again, but to no avail. Is there anything that I can do? I don't mind not seeing the cover when I open the book, but when I tab over into the book settings I'd like for the little box to have the image. That's all I'm asking. What do I need to do? Thanks for your help!

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10-10-2010, 03:24 AM	#2
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	You have to run a conversion (even if it is to the same format) to get the covers inserted into the ebook file. Simply updating the cover in Calibre is not sufficient.

10-10-2010, 03:27 AM	#3
speakingtohe Wizard Posts: 4,812 Karma: 26912940 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: sony PRS-T1 and T3, Kobo Mini and Aura HD, Tablet	A long shot but have you tried tabbing back twice? Some books have a sort of cover that looks like the first page which can be removed by checking the remove first image under structure detection

10-10-2010, 03:47 AM	#4
windybt Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Latest Generation	Thanks! The reconverting it fixed the problem. I thought that might work, but I was confused why the other two didn't need to be reconverted before showing the cover.

10-10-2010, 08:21 AM	#8
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,249 Karma: 16539642 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E, LibraCol, PBTouchHD3	Oops! Perhaps I didn't read the OP carefully enough. I'm not sure about MOBI either, Kovid's statements only mentioned EPUB. However, this was back in July and Calibre improves so fast...

10-10-2010, 12:31 PM	#9
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,215 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	MOBI files may or may not have their covers updated (it depends on the internals of the file). If they don't you have to reconvert.