Cover art not transferring

[SeaBookGuy]

I have an EPUB that looks fine in my Calibre library display, and the cover in the My Documents - Calibre folder is correct. However, no matter what I've tried in terms of metadata, etc. the first page of text becomes the ugly thumbnail on my device instead.

Thanks in advance!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

I have an EPUB that looks fine in my Calibre library display, and the cover in the My Documents - Calibre folder is correct. However, no matter what I've tried in terms of metadata, etc. the first page of text becomes the ugly thumbnail on my device instead.

Thanks in advance!

You must not have used any of the below :

1)use send to device
2)use send to disk
3)use the content server (a pull from device browser)
4)use Polish the book
5)use Modify EPUB

You are looking at the cover (jacket) of the book?
You have not ticked 'No default cover' in the conversion options

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by theducks

You must not have used any of the below :

1)use send to device
2)use send to disk
3)use the content server (a pull from device browser)
4)use Polish the book
5)use Modify EPUB

You are looking at the cover (jacket) of the book?
You have not ticked 'No default cover' in the conversion options

I have used "send to device" - that's how I know it doesn't work for this one book! With every other book I've transferred, the cover art has gone through just fine. I'm wondering why nothing I've tried in terms of metadata and conversion has solved the issue with this particular EPUB.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

I have used "send to device" - that's how I know it doesn't work for this one book! With every other book I've transferred, the cover art has gone through just fine. I'm wondering why nothing I've tried in terms of metadata and conversion has solved the issue with this particular EPUB.

DRM?
How does the book look with Calibres Book Viewer (not the metadata info viewer)?

[aleyx]

I also have the same issue; however I nearly always put my book though the polish and/or convert epub->epub before sending to my device, so I seldom have the wrong thumbnail.

But yeah, sometimes I just send a "raw" epub, and the wrong cover appears on the device. When that happens, neither the book from the device nor the one in the Calibre library have their first page as the correct cover (in the viewer).

I thought it was just an option somewhere I didn't check, but apparently not...

Edit: and no, no DRM. Mostly FFDL-generated epubs from before I discovered the Generate Cover options (genius, by the way). Some GrabMyBook epubs. That sort of things. Everything else pass through the Convert tool at one time or another, so the cover fits.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by aleyx

I also have the same issue; however I nearly always put my book though the polish and/or convert epub->epub before sending to my device, so I seldom have the wrong thumbnail.

But yeah, sometimes I just send a "raw" epub, and the wrong cover appears on the device. When that happens, neither the book from the device nor the one in the Calibre library have their first page as the correct cover (in the viewer).

I thought it was just an option somewhere I didn't check, but apparently not...

Cover images (and the page) have to have proper entries in the source version to be able to replace them with the current version.

Modify EPUB has a setting to ADD/update a jacket which should work if the book had none declared (properly)

[aleyx]

Originally Posted by theducks

Cover images (and the page) have to have proper entries in the source version to be able to replace them with the current version.

Modify EPUB has a setting to ADD/update a jacket which should work if the book had none declared (properly)

Sooo... If I understand correctly, an ePub has to have a "cover slot" defined in its structure for the cover to be properly updated during the Send to Device action.

Makes sense; the convert/polish actions create this slot at need, but the Send to Device only formats the filename and update the Cover.jpg in the file. If the file hasn't already the structure for it, the cover obviously can't update.

Can there be a way to automatically polish a book sent to the device? That would correct the problem.

[Sabardeyn]

I don't imagine that there can be any way to automatically determine a proper cover. Basically the check would come down to something like "Is page 1 an image? If Yes, assume it's the cover image, rename accordingly." The problem is that it might instead be advertising, a map, a legitimate cover - that has become corrupted, a foreign language cover, etc.

The really odd thing about your request is that a few years ago we were all asking Kovid & Co to allow the user more choice in covers/cover generation. Now we've got it and we're swinging back to automation.

[theducks]

Try the Quality Check PI
It has a whole bunch of EPUB Checks for covers/jackets

[SeaBookGuy]

Well, folks, I finally got the cover to transfer. First, I deleted and re-added the cover at Calibre via metadata edit. Then, I deleted the file from my Sony 650 without being connected to my computer, doing a full shutdown before connecting the device. Then, I USB'ed the reader to delete the empty file folder on the main drive. Finally, as I thought perhaps there might've been some sort of "phantom memory" thing going on, I sent the book to the storage card instead this time. When I powered up the reader, the book had its correct cover, as I'd wanted.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

Well, folks, I finally got the cover to transfer. First, I deleted and re-added the cover at Calibre via metadata edit. Then, I deleted the file from my Sony 650 without being connected to my computer, doing a full shutdown before connecting the device. Then, I USB'ed the reader to delete the empty file folder on the main drive. Finally, as I thought perhaps there might've been some sort of "phantom memory" thing going on, I sent the book to the storage card instead this time. When I powered up the reader, the book had its correct cover, as I'd wanted.

finally

[aleyx]

Originally Posted by Sabardeyn

The really odd thing about your request is that a few years ago we were all asking Kovid & Co to allow the user more choice in covers/cover generation. Now we've got it and we're swinging back to automation.

Well, that's not exactly what I meant. I mean, the cover chosen/generated through Calibre is correct (kudos to Kovid & co ^^), but the application of the cover to the book sometimes fails during the book transfer to the device, if the book itself doesn't already have the required structure. The Polish Book function corrects that, and in my experience doesn't take much ressources.

So adding the option to polish books on their way to the device would correct many edge cases where the cover doesn't 'follow' its book to the device. And since the Send to Device is already supposed to do the 'cover' part of polishing, it could be that the solution is to excise that part from the Send to Device code, and replace it by the Polish code, with the 'cover' part of Polish already by default.

Or maybe do an automatic 'polish cover' when the cover metadata changes in Calibre, which would also correct the cover in the viewer.

Does that make sense?