Kobo: ePub closing after first (cover) page?

[theboyk]

I'm converting a number of ePubs for my Kobo touch. I'm having an issue where, once converted and sent to my device, when I first open a title, it loads to a page showing the image of the cover of the book. If I touch the screen to go to the next page, the little page curl (top right corner of the screen) effect happens and the book closes, returning to the main home screen. When I re-enter the book, it starts on a different page and everything is fine. It's just the first time the books open and I attempt to "turn the page" from the cover image to the next page and the book is then marked as "read" (even though it's the first time I opened it and only attempted moving from the initial page to the next page).

I have figured out a work-around in the conversion process by selecting "remove first time" from the "Structure Detection" section of the conversion process.

But, I am wondering if someone could give me a little insight into how the structure of an ePub works to you "explode" it? It looks like the "order" of the book is wrong and that it's starting on a cover image when you first open the book, but this is the "last" page of the book - so, when I touch the screen to go to the next page, I'm in fact "finishing" the book. So, which file would I go into to edit the order of the book with regards to the page it first opens on first reading of the book, etc.?

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

[davidfor]

There is order information in the files content.opf and toc.ncx. It is done somehow with the <spine>, <guide> and the "playorder" attribute in the TOC. But, I'm not sure exactly how. I had a book that did something like what you are seeing and I fixed it. But, I have just tried some experiments, and I can't duplicate this on either the calibre viewer or my Kobo Touch.

IF I remember correctly, when I fixed the one I had, I used Sigil. I know I played with the files in a way that changed the <spine> (managed by Sigil) and regenerated the TOC. I'm not sure which fixed it.

[theboyk]

Thanks!