Does anyone use the MicroSD card in their eReader

[kaufman]

I have 1700 or so eBooks and it only comes to 1.6 GB.

Can you put anything on the eReader besides books, or do you really have that many eBooks to carry around?

So is anyone actually using it?

[Uschiekid]

Yes. But not because I have 32,000 books or something.

I use the MicroSD for my epubs that I sideload with Calibre and I use the main memory for kepubs (and ADE-loaded library loans...cause they won't let me do anything else). I had stopped doing this for awhile as things on the MicroSD were being treated differently...but now that covers are stored and not regenerated each time, I switched back.

Main reasons for doing this:
1) Keeping things organised. I find it much easier to figure out what is what when I don't have kepubs and epubs floating together when looking at them in Calibre
2) If something were to go wrong and I wasn't near my computer, some things can be fixed just removing and inserting the MicroSD.
3) If I ever have to do a factory reset when not at home, I won't have to wait to get home to get my books back on.

Some people have mentioned that they do use it because they don't have enough room. Remember, the Aura HD has 3GB free as opposed to the Glo or Mini which have only 1GB free and so wouldn't fit your large collection. And some have even bigger collections where even the 3GB wouldn't be enough.

[paola]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

Yes. But not because I have 32,000 books or something.

I use the MicroSD for my epubs that I sideload with Calibre and I use the main memory for kepubs (and ADE-loaded library loans...cause they won't let me do anything else). I had stopped doing this for awhile as things on the MicroSD were being treated differently...but now that covers are stored and not regenerated each time, I switched back.

Main reasons for doing this:
1) Keeping things organised. I find it much easier to figure out what is what when I don't have kepubs and epubs floating together when looking at them in Calibre
2) If something were to go wrong and I wasn't near my computer, some things can be fixed just removing and inserting the MicroSD.
3) If I ever have to do a factory reset when not at home, I won't have to wait to get home to get my books back on.

Some people have mentioned that they do use it because they don't have enough room. Remember, the Aura HD has 3GB free as opposed to the Glo or Mini which have only 1GB free and so wouldn't fit your large collection. And some have even bigger collections where even the 3GB wouldn't be enough.

and let me add: if (touch wood) the device were ever to die, you can sync the kepub back to the replacement, and just plug in the card with the epub, rather than storing everything again. I'd also suggest taking a periodic copy of the KoboReader.sqlite database file which stores all the annotations, bookmarks, postion in books, etc, so that you can go back to almost normal should the unmentionable happen!

[Ripplinger]

I prefer all my ebooks in the main memory, and I sideload them all through Calibre, none of which are kepubs (I really hate the title at the top of the screen on them, I can't even begin to say how much). However, I have also copied the identical books to an SD card that I keep in my wallet in case the device needs resetting while I'm out. I'd hate to be stuck without anything to read, and since it locked up within the first hour of using it, I'd rather be safe since I have the option.

But my Sonys don't have an SD card and I never missed it at all. In over 2 years they've maybe locked up 3x and always because of how I was editing books with a lot of bookmarks in them, and just copying the corrected books back over by dragging/dropping, so I never worried about having to reset it at a bad time.

[ottdmk]

I just started using my SD card, but not for space reasons. There is a bug with how bookmarks work if the book is in the main memory. Putting my gaming PDFs, (where bookmarks are very valuable to me) on the SD card lets the bookmarks work properly.

[pidgeon92]

I don't use them. I only keep a few books on my readers, and the rest in calibre.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by kaufman

I have 1700 or so eBooks and it only comes to 1.6 GB.

Can you put anything on the eReader besides books, or do you really have that many eBooks to carry around?

So is anyone actually using it?

I ran into issues on one trip with my original Kobo where I had to do a factory reset and was left with a choice of 7 books to read for 10 days since I hadn't copied the sideloads to my laptop. So I now keep all my sideloaded books on a uSD card. Much easier when one of the firmware updates I've sideloaded or a new plugin crashes the Touch/Glo/Aura. Just remove the uSD card (likely not needed but even paranoids have enemies...), factory reset the Kobo, connect to WiFi and update, stuff the uSD card back in, wait for processing and away you go.

Currently, I have ~1700 books on the uSD card which takes about 1.6GB. Much of that space is tech publications which tend to have massive numbers of graphics and are much larger than the average fiction book.

Regards,
David

[danskmacabre]

I use a 4gb microsd card.

I store all my ebooks on it. The advantage of this for me is if I have to restore to factory settings or whatever, I don;t have to reload the ebooks as they're on the MicroSD card.

I have about 250 ebooks on my Microsd card, which is a tiny fraction of it's capacity.

I'll probably not ever have much more than that on it as well, as I clear down stuff I know I'll never read again every now and then.

[Ripplinger]

What would be ideal to me would be if the Kobo had an option to just ignore the SD card even when present and only load books off the internal memory. Then I wouldn't have to risk carrying the duplicate library in my wallet on the SD card, and still have a backup available in case you have to reset and lose all books from the internal memory.

[Lily7]

All of my books are sideloaded books. I try to put as many books as I can in the main memory, because I prefer how the covers are handled there better than how they are handled on the SD card. However, I do have a large SD card on there and that's where I put any book that shows to be larger than 5mb when in calibre, such as books with lots of pictures or whatever.

If Kobo ever makes it so that covers are handled as well on SDcard as they are on the main memory I will definitely start keeping all of my books on that instead.

[RZetlin]

I use a micro SD card because I read a lot of manga.

One volume of manga can range from 20 MB to 40 MB.

[Haesslich]

I use it for PDF files, and for manga as RZetlin does. Those files can easily be 20-40 MB each, and the Aura is fast enough, and high-res enough, that I can read both without resizing it on my computer first.

Plus I side load some books, which use the microSD as my "in case of factory reset" backup.

[Thane1]

Originally Posted by kaufman

So is anyone actually using it?

Yes!
I keep slide-loaded books on the micro-SD card, and just use main memory for KEPUB's and borrowed library books.

While Kobo's firmware is improving, during the great glut of firmware 2.0.0 I was growing weary of factory resets and lengthy book reloads caused by flaws in the firmware, by keeping my books on a card it made for much faster "restoration" my reader when (not if) a problem cropped up.

I wish Kobo put a micro SD slot on the Mini, it would have added to its appeal and usefulness.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by RZetlin

I use a micro SD card because I read a lot of manga.

One volume of manga can range from 20 MB to 40 MB.

I've got manga volumes (around 190-210 pages) that are 100+MB each. I think average volume size for me is 40-50MB so yep, definitely need the microSD. I still haven't received my Aura HD yet but one thing is for sure, I wouldn't have purchased it if it didn't have an expansion slot.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by Lily7

However, I do have a large SD card on there and that's where I put any book that shows to be larger than 5mb when in calibre, such as books with lots of pictures or whatever.

Is the 5MB limit a Calibre issue or a Kobo issue?