Aura HD Aura HD VERY slow startup with microSD inserted

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Major General

Have an Aura HD, 2.8.1 firmware, with a 16GB microSD.

I have about 2.5 GB of books in main memory, about 500MB on the microSD.

Ever since upgrading to 2.8.1 I've noticed that startup is VERY slow (3-5 minutes) with the microSD inserted. If I startup without it...just a few seconds.

Is there any solution to this? HELP!

One solution would be to replace the internal 4GB card with the larger 16GB card, and then keep more of your books on the internal card. Boot time appears to be independent of the number of books on the internal card, so it makes sense to keep as many there as possible.

I have an 8GB card in my Glo's internal slot, I use an external card on occasion too, but only keep a few books at a time on it. If I want to keep the books long term I put them on the internal card.

Note that if you install an old firmware version to get around the long boot time, you will just run into other problems with the way external cards used to be managed (no cover images stored for books on the external card for example, which slowed down browsing the library listings because earlier firmware also had no option to hide covers).

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

One solution would be to replace the internal 4GB card with the larger 16GB card, and then keep more of your books on the internal card. Boot time appears to be independent of the number of books on the internal card, so it makes sense to keep as many there as possible.

I have an 8GB card in my Glo's internal slot, I use an external card on occasion too, but only keep a few books at a time on it. If I want to keep the books long term I put them on the internal card.

Note that if you install an old firmware version to get around the long boot time, you will just run into other problems with the way external cards used to be managed (no cover images stored for books on the external card for example, which slowed down browsing the library listings because earlier firmware also had no option to hide covers).

these issues all arose from the complaint " it takes too long to process my books" on initial insertion of sd card... sometimes it tooks hours but it was a one time thing as kobo read and created the data base of the books on the sd card. Then they fixed it and here we are today.

regards

JAck

[Major General]

How do I replace the internal SD card?

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by Major General

How do I replace the internal SD card?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=209122

The above link will take you to the instructions. Remember when upgrading your memory if you have to do a factory reset you will loose all the books in the main memory.

good luck
have fun


Jack

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Major General

How do I replace the internal SD card?

There is a thread here showing how to do it for the Glo using Windows, the basic procedure for the AuraHD should be the same, but the Glo's back is very easy to remove, I am not so sure about the AuraHD's. Perhaps someone else can point to a thread specific to the AuraHD.

The procedure is quite simple if you are familliar with the tools used for making images of the card and expanding filesystem partitions, but if not you might want to practice it on two different size cards before opening up your reader, just to make sure you know it works. The internal card also contains the device's operating system and other data so it is possible to end up with a non-functioning device if you do it wrong. Be sure to keep the original card as a backup, or at the very least keep a copy of the image you make from it, so if anything goes wrong you can restore the device to its original state.

Also be aware that some microSD cards are faster than others, and the original card supplied by Kobo is usually a fast one. If you replace it with a slower card then the device will become slower. You might need to try a few cards to find one that is as fast as the original.

[TechniSol]

I'd add that most smaller cards (4gb) are engineered to move smaller blocks of data around, and those faster class rated large cards are not nearly as efficient at moving smaller blocks around as they are engineered to address larger blocks of data. Rather than a class 10 rated larger card you may be better off with a class four rated card, it certainly makes reading a few threads addressing this issue worthwhile before buying a card to see with which ones others may have found success.

PS The real solution is for Kobo to fix their approach to scanning the external SDHC/maintaining the database on the device. I sometimes wonder that they've taken the approach they have because some marketing tool built a survey designed to show that most people only changed a few books at a time and wouldn't really use the extra storage anyhow...

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

PS The real solution is for Kobo to fix their approach to scanning the external SDHC/maintaining the database on the device. I sometimes wonder that they've taken the approach they have because some marketing tool built a survey designed to show that most people only changed a few books at a time and wouldn't really use the extra storage anyhow...

One of my coworkers who refuses to connect his Kobo directly to his computer -- he swears his Kindle infected his computer with a virus -- so he removes the uSD card and copies files to it using a card reader. His complaint was losing files and scrambled tables of content after replacing some ebooks. The current firmware doesn't have that problem for him so I'm wondering if some of the changes which seem to be rescanning all the ebooks on the external uSD card during power on are due to complaints from people modifying the contents of the uSD card outside of the Kobo ereader.

BTW, as to his virus complaint, most of this gentleman's computer issues are PEBKAC ones.

Regards,
David

[Ken Maltby]

How bad would a programing team have to be to write code that would care how a file came to be on any media? If they are writing code for a device that has a removable media port, wouldn't it be prudent to assume that people who buy the device expect to be able to use the external storage in a normal manner? Removing the removable media from the device and using it as external removable media in a PC, with full access to all the file handling capabilities of the PC, to manage the files on said removable media, makes more sense than making all file handling dependent upon a finicky Database. One that can't seem to handle anything not exactly what it wants, it seems unable to deal with the simplest obstacle, poorest error handling I've ever seen.

If the Kobo software can't handle files being added to the external uSD card, outside of the Kobo device, it has a real problem, not those who use the SD cards as they are intended.

Luck;
Ken

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by DNSB

One of my coworkers who refuses to connect his Kobo directly to his computer -- he swears his Kindle infected his computer with a virus -- so he removes the uSD card and copies files to it using a card reader. His complaint was losing files and scrambled tables of content after replacing some ebooks. The current firmware doesn't have that problem for him so I'm wondering if some of the changes which seem to be rescanning all the ebooks on the external uSD card during power on are due to complaints from people modifying the contents of the uSD card outside of the Kobo ereader.

BTW, as to his virus complaint, most of this gentleman's computer issues are PEBKAC ones.

Regards,
David

Well now I know what a PEBKAC is

I have never put anything directly on the card either. I do not have this problem as often now, because it does not reboot as often, because I do not use it as much. I take the mini out and about, and use the T1 at home generally. Only use the Aura when I lend someone my T1 so they can try out a reader.

Helen

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by Major General

Nope, I've never modified the card outside of the Kobo reader. This is a case of Kobo's software performing sexual services on animal genitalia .

Considering your lack of suitable vocabulary to illustrate your emotions, I'm guessing that the 3GB of books on your reader are all comic books? Perhaps you want to might look into getting a tablet that would suit you better.

[guma]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Considering your lack of suitable vocabulary to illustrate your emotions, I'm guessing that the 3GB of books on your reader are all comic books? Perhaps you want to might look into getting a tablet that would suit you better.

Because you don't like the language of a complaint you suggest to change the device to somebody who just wants to use some inbuilt and advertised functionality (reading, presumably, comic books stored on the external SD)?

Vocabulary issues apart this kind of reaction to an unquestionably legitimate complaint about a blatant bug puzzles me. This kind of bug hardly can be blamed on the user ... or can it?

But it is sure imperative to be all nice an respectful to the KOBO developers, programmers, testers, managers, whoever since, for sure, everybody there does such brilliant work and it can't be their fault if the end product turns out to be of questionable quality.

We just have to solve the mystery how comes they consistently turn out crappy software and are unable to implement something remotely resembling professional testing and debugging procedures ...

[PeterT]

You're missing the point in your diatribe. For comics the ereader is not an ideal device. A tablet with a colour screen and heftier processing power makes more sense.

The same for reading PDFs where a tablet offers far more options in terms of apps for reading them.

Just because an ereader offers support for a format does not mean it is the best solution. Frankly I would rather see support for formats like mobi, CBR, cbz removed from the lobos and them left as a pure ePub / kEpub device.

[guma]

Originally Posted by PeterT

You're missing the point in your diatribe. For comics the ereader is not an ideal device. A tablet with a colour screen and heftier processing power makes more sense.

The same for reading PDFs where a tablet offers far more options in terms of apps for reading them.

Just because an ereader offers support for a format does not mean it is the best solution. Frankly I would rather see support for formats like mobi, CBR, cbz removed from the lobos and them left as a pure ePub / kEpub device.

I guess that's not the point here where the issue is that the device does take so long to just start up that, as a user, you're not even able to get to the point where you might notice that an erader as such could be bettered by something like a tablet.

And I keep saying that it is not too much to ask from KOBO that the device at least lets you chose and open any file of the supported formats from any of the supported media.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

How bad would a programing team have to be to write code that would care how a file came to be on any media? If they are writing code for a device that has a removable media port, wouldn't it be prudent to assume that people who buy the device expect to be able to use the external storage in a normal manner? Removing the removable media from the device and using it as external removable media in a PC, with full access to all the file handling capabilities of the PC, to manage the files on said removable media, makes more sense than making all file handling dependent upon a finicky Database. One that can't seem to handle anything not exactly what it wants, it seems unable to deal with the simplest obstacle, poorest error handling I've ever seen.

If the Kobo software can't handle files being added to the external uSD card, outside of the Kobo device, it has a real problem, not those who use the SD cards as they are intended.

Ken, when you can replace a file with a modified version, how dumb would a programming team have to be not to check to see if that has happened? So yes, they appear to expect people to change the files on the removable media. At this time, my opinion is that they have gotten too enthusiastic in checking the books' information matches the information in the database during power on, however as I mentioned in my earlier message, the gentleman who updates all his ebooks externally has not had the issues he had earlier with missing files and/or scrambled tables of contents.

To compare how I replace an ebook with how he replaces an ebook:

Delete ebook(s) from Kobo UI_____Power off his Kobo
Connect Kobo to computer_______Remove uSD card and insert into reader
Copy modified ebook(s)__________Copy modified ebooks
Eject Kobo____________________Eject uSD card and insert into Kobo
Processing screen______________Power on Kobo and wait for the scan
_____________________________of the uSD card during the boot process
Start reading__________________Start reading

In both cases, we are using Sigil to edit epubs and Calibre and/or drag and drop to copy files.

As for poor error handling, if you think Kobo's firmware has poor error handling, you haven't been around computers for very long. I have unfond memories of such things as a customer information system that corrupted the database when a clerk made the error of inserting a corporate phone number that used letters instead of number -- 1-800-CALLCDI as an example of such a number.

Regards,
David

[davidfor]

David: Your friend really doesn't need to power off the device before ejecting the SD card. The card is hot-swappable with no problems.

As to the checks made, as far as I can tell, it is only checking file name and size. If you put a new version with exactly the same name and size, it just uses it. Change the size a little bit, and the books information is completely removed from the database and the book is then added as a new book.