Kindle Fire, sideloaded books and synching

I'm thinking the Python scripts probably are the best way to go, but they are probably too intimidating for most. And even people like me who are not intimidated by them just don't want to bother with all that command line entry, not to mention the trouble of finding and installing everything needed. I've got it installed and have had for months and months, but i hate bothering with it. I use calibre and it works fine with books on the K3s and K4s. I still say the Fire is buggie in this area and we are just going to have to wait until syncing gets corrected before this will work consistently.

[frankz]

Originally Posted by SCION

So, you're saying use the books that are in the Calibre library folder (with the DRM removed). Run the scripts. Are the original files overwritten or will their be two files now? Do the files need to be re-added to the Calibre libary? Does the original metadata remain in tact after running the scripts? There's a lot of unknowns for me to proceed.

The Wiki Page on this site that describes this process ( https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kind...oks_on_Windows ) does so very clearly and in great detail. Basically, you control which metadata entries are touched and which are not. It is my understanding and experience that the meat of the file - the data - remains unchanged.

There is one file afterward. I do not know if you need to re-import it into Calibre. That's a Calibre question (whether Calibre re-reads metadata on restart or relies on what's already in the database).

You update to enter the ASIN into the appropriate EXTH entry, click to update, enter EBOK into the appropriate EXTH entry, click to update, and you can see right then whether it "took." Everything else remains untouched.

I have never NOT had the process keep last page read updated among Kindle Fire, Kindle for Android and K4PC. It has been flawless.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by frankz

The Wiki Page on this site that describes this process ( https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kind...oks_on_Windows ) does so very clearly and in great detail. Basically, you control which metadata entries are touched and which are not. It is my understanding and experience that the meat of the file - the data - remains unchanged.

There is one file afterward. I do not know if you need to re-import it into Calibre. That's a Calibre question (whether Calibre re-reads metadata on restart or relies on what's already in the database).

You update to enter the ASIN into the appropriate EXTH entry, click to update, enter EBOK into the appropriate EXTH entry, click to update, and you can see right then whether it "took." Everything else remains untouched.

I have never NOT had the process keep last page read updated among Kindle Fire, Kindle for Android and K4PC. It has been flawless.

Oh, I read it further. You have to manually enter in the ASIN. Nevermind. Thanks though (karma to you). I'll deal with the majority of my books syncing last page read simply using Calibre.

[shinew]

Originally Posted by SCION

Oh, I read it further. You have to manually enter in the ASIN. Nevermind. Thanks though (karma to you). I'll deal with the majority of my books syncing last page read simply using Calibre.

I didn't read all the pages but if your issue is just want to get the book synced, mobi2mobi and calibre works. but the easiest way I find is just to send it through personal document. Amazon automatically assigns an ASIN(re-send to again to get a new ASIN) available for syncing, and it provides a permanent backup copy accessible through any wireless connection that frees you from tying to a PC.

Of course this only works the best if you're not the type who wants your entirely library on the device.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by shinew

I didn't read all the pages but if your issue is just want to get the book synced, mobi2mobi and calibre works. but the easiest way I find is just to send it through personal document. Amazon automatically assigns an ASIN(re-send to again to get a new ASIN) available for syncing, and it provides a permanent backup copy accessible through any wireless connection that frees you from tying to a PC.

Of course this only works the best if you're not the type who wants your entirely library on the device.

Thanks. I emailed (personal document) the one book that was not syncing. I saw the book in my personal documents library (amazon.com) and sent it to the Fire and Touch. It still won't sync between the two. I would have to archive it on one device and pull it down again on the other in order to access furthest read location. I'm done with it. I'll just have to remember the chapter when bouncing between the two for this book.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by shinew

I didn't read all the pages but if your issue is just want to get the book synced, mobi2mobi and calibre works. but the easiest way I find is just to send it through personal document. Amazon automatically assigns an ASIN(re-send to again to get a new ASIN) available for syncing, and it provides a permanent backup copy accessible through any wireless connection that frees you from tying to a PC.

Of course this only works the best if you're not the type who wants your entirely library on the device.

It wont work on the Fire. There is no personal cloud for the Kindle fire. It works the old way.

[shinew]

Originally Posted by SCION

Thanks. I emailed (personal document) the one book that was not syncing. I saw the book in my personal documents library (amazon.com) and sent it to the Fire and Touch. It still won't sync between the two. I would have to archive it on one device and pull it down again on the other in order to access furthest read location. I'm done with it. I'll just have to remember the chapter when bouncing between the two for this book.

well that's too bad. "Sync to furthest read" doesn't work 100% of the time for me either, but I don't use the feature too much and most of the time it works, so it doesn't bother me much.

Originally Posted by Blossom

It wont work on the Fire. There is no personal cloud for the Kindle fire. It works the old way.

I don't own a Fire but amazon says there is personal documents for it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=200788310

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by shinew

well that's too bad. "Sync to furthest read" doesn't work 100% of the time for me either, but I don't use the feature too much and most of the time it works, so it doesn't bother me much.


I don't own a Fire but amazon says there is personal documents for it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=200788310

Yes but it's doesn't work like the Kindle 3.3, K4 and KT. It works the old way. You send the doc to your Fire, it doesn't get stored and it doesn't sync. The only way to sync on the Fire is to trick it into thinking the book is by Amazon. There is no Personal documents cloud for the Fire.

[shinew]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Yes but it's doesn't work like the Kindle 3.3, K4 and KT. It works the old way. You send the doc to your Fire, it doesn't get stored and it doesn't sync. The only way to sync on the Fire is to trick it into thinking the book is by Amazon. There is no Personal documents cloud for the Fire.

Ah, amazon is really treating the Fire as a complete different device than the rest of the kindle devices then. But still it's odd that the Fire, being the most expensive and most advanced device of their current kindle line-up, is the only one that can't sync personal docs.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by shinew

Ah, amazon is really treating the Fire as a complete different device than the rest of the kindle devices then. But still it's odd that the Fire, being the most expensive and most advanced device of their current kindle line-up, is the only one that can't sync personal docs.

Agreed but it could be implemented later on. Right now though they need to focus on parental controls and ability to hide book covers on the Carousal.

[lutando]

My sideloaded books went from having covers to having a grey icon. Anyone else having this problem?

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by lutando

My sideloaded books went from having covers to having a grey icon. Anyone else having this problem?

Some else here did. Let me see if I can find the thread. We got it fix but darn if I don't remember what I told them that works.

I replied in your other thread how to fix it.

[Merischino]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I'm not sure if the pdoc trick with calibre works on the Fire. I never use this method.

However, the Personal Documents cloud syncing method by emailing a mobi to your Kindle so that it can be placed in your Archive and thus treated like a book purchased via Amazon is not yet supported on the Fire. The Fire cannot access archived Personal Documents nor can it sync archived Personal Documents. At present only Kindle E Ink readers can do this. We are still waiting for this feature to be extended to the Fire and the Kindle for Android/iOS apps.

I'm not sure how what I did differs from what you say above is not possible. I'll just say what I did that worked for me. I have a large library i've been working with Calibre and my iphone 3GS. I just got the Kindle Fire.

I removed [pdoc] and added [ebok] as the tag for my files and then converted to Mobi (either from epub or from existing mobi to reconverted mobi) and I

a) Added my email address to my Amazon account at amazon.com as an accepted/known sender of books
b) emailed a .mobi file to my kindle fire email address.
c) logged back into amazon.com account and found the option to approve or disprove sending of a book by that name to my kindle fire. The time elapsed from emailing the book to the kindle fire account and when this option showed up on the account page seemed to be several hours.
d) At the amazon website, I approved the transfer
e) Within a few moments, the book became available for use in the Documents folder of my kindle fire

So... from experience you CAN email yourself books to the kindle fire.

What I haven't done which I think might be part of the op question is if books you sent to your KF will ALSO be available to other kindles on your account. My guess is you have to email to each individual kindle email address if the book in Q was processed initial on the KF. It sounds like other kindles currently work with cloud syncing so that what is uploaded for one kindle becomes available for others in the cloud. I haven't tried that because I dont have any other kindles.

Just posted this to clarify to anyone reading this thread that the fact that kindle fire doesnt have cloud computing enabled does NOT mean that you cannot email books to your Kindle Fire and have them arrive on the KF.

[kdoc]

I"m just trying to synch underlines/highlights and bookmarks between my older Kindle and my Fire (synching last page read seems to work). Can you tell me exactly what to do?

kdoc

Originally Posted by Merischino

I'm not sure how what I did differs from what you say above is not possible. I'll just say what I did that worked for me. I have a large library i've been working with Calibre and my iphone 3GS. I just got the Kindle Fire.

I removed [pdoc] and added [ebok] as the tag for my files and then converted to Mobi (either from epub or from existing mobi to reconverted mobi) and I

a) Added my email address to my Amazon account at amazon.com as an accepted/known sender of books
b) emailed a .mobi file to my kindle fire email address.
c) logged back into amazon.com account and found the option to approve or disprove sending of a book by that name to my kindle fire. The time elapsed from emailing the book to the kindle fire account and when this option showed up on the account page seemed to be several hours.
d) At the amazon website, I approved the transfer
e) Within a few moments, the book became available for use in the Documents folder of my kindle fire

So... from experience you CAN email yourself books to the kindle fire.

What I haven't done which I think might be part of the op question is if books you sent to your KF will ALSO be available to other kindles on your account. My guess is you have to email to each individual kindle email address if the book in Q was processed initial on the KF. It sounds like other kindles currently work with cloud syncing so that what is uploaded for one kindle becomes available for others in the cloud. I haven't tried that because I dont have any other kindles.

Just posted this to clarify to anyone reading this thread that the fact that kindle fire doesnt have cloud computing enabled does NOT mean that you cannot email books to your Kindle Fire and have them arrive on the KF.

Yes you can email a book to your Fire and it will archive. But you still cannot download archived personal documents sent to other Kindles. I guess you can say the Fire only has Personal Documents Lite when compared to the functionality available to the K3 and K4.