Stop Kobo from updating Reading Life, Awards and Dictionaries

[pentel]

Every time I buy a book from Kobo and sync the Kobo e-reader, Kobo would load the book and update Reading Life, Awards and Dictionaries.

Is it possible to stop Kobo from updating Reading Life, Awards and Dictionaries? I just want the book I bought and don't need the Reading Life, Awards and Dictionaries.

[Cosimo]

Download > Sideload

[GeoffR]

If you buy the from the device's bookstore instead of from the website, then the book will download immediately after purchase without doing a full sync.

If you buy from the website, then you can search for the book you bought in the device's bookstore and download it without doing a full sync, but it is probably faster just to sync.

Edit: You can also do a full sync, but then tap the sync tile again to cancel the rest of the sync once the books you bought have downloaded.

[pentel]

Originally Posted by Cosimo

Download > Sideload

Is that from the Kobo device?

[pentel]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

If you buy the from the device's bookstore instead of from the website, then the book will download immediately after purchase without doing a full sync.

If you buy from the website, then you can search for the book you bought in the device's bookstore and download it without doing a full sync, but it is probably faster just to sync.

Edit: You can also do a full sync, but then tap the sync tile again to cancel the rest of the sync once the books you bought have downloaded.

I buy from the website. I bought one book and it took maybe 10 seconds to load the book. It took longer to update Reading Life and Awards. And much longer to update dictionaries. I don't want the update of Reading Life, Awards and Dictionaries because it takes so long to complete and it is taking up resources (disc space etc) in my Kobo Mini.

What is puzzling about Dictionaries is why does it need to update the Dictionary every time I load a book. Dictionary don't change that often, even if they do, I don't need the latest changes. The Dictionary update is bothersome because it takes the longest among the book download, Reading Life and Awards update.

Thanks for the tip about cancelling the sync after the book is downloaded. I didn't attempt that because I thought it might "crash" the device if I do that, something like switching off the computer during windows update.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by pentel

What is puzzling about Dictionaries is why does it need to update the Dictionary every time I load a book. Dictionary don't change that often, even if they do, I don't need the latest changes. The Dictionary update is bothersome because it takes the longest among the book download, Reading Life and Awards update.

How many dictionaries do you have loaded? There are 19 dictionaries available, but you can remove the ones you don't need in Settings > Language > Dictionaries. I think the fewer dictionaries you have loaded the faster that part of the sync will be. Loading dictionaries only lakes a second or less when I sync, I only have the English and translation-to-English dictionaries loaded.

[pentel]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

How many dictionaries do you have loaded? There are 19 dictionaries available, but you can remove the ones you don't need in Settings > Language > Dictionaries. I think the fewer dictionaries you have loaded the faster that part of the sync will be. Loading dictionaries only lakes a second or less when I sync, I only have the English and translation-to-English dictionaries loaded.

Thank you again for your help! I didn't know I could edit the dictionaries from the Settings. I have 6 installed dictionaries from factory default settings. I remove all of them except for one - English dictionary. That should, as you say, speed up the sync process. I do hope Kobo, one day will allow Kobo users to set if they want to have update on Reading Life and Awards or otherwise.

[Alastair_S]

If you don't care for Reading Life and Awards you can turn them off via Settings > Reading settings (page 2) > Track reading activity.

As for updating dictionaries, it could be that it is just checking to see if you have the latest version rather than re-downloading the dictionaries, though I may be wrong. Whichever is the case, GeoffR's suggestion of reducing the number of installed dictionaries will reduce the sync time.

[pentel]

Originally Posted by Alastair_S

If you don't care for Reading Life and Awards you can turn them off via Settings > Reading settings (page 2) > Track reading activity.

This is great! I can now prevent Kobo from updating Reading Life and Award.Looking forward to see a shorter sync time on my next book purchase. Thank you for your help!