Aura H2O how to switch the external sd card to a bigger one without losing reading progress?

[failedKoboCustom]

si I've been racking my brains out trying to replace my external sd card from 16GB to 32GB and even if I copy everything from one card to the other when I open the aura's library it shows up empty, it doesn't even seem to bother loading what's currently on the 32GB sd card
so to summarize copying everything from one sd card to the other makes library empty, putting the old sd card shows all the epubs on it
please , this is driving me nuts!

[frostschutz]

If the copy is accurate, it should work... if it changes filenames, sizes, timestamps then it will be considered as a new file. if nothing shows up at all even though it's on there, the card may not be compatible with the kobo.

if in doubt you could power off the kobo entire, make a 1:1 image copy and then resize the filesystem on the new card. kobo will not notice/care about the card switch at all.

[davidfor]

It's been ages since I checked this, but, it doesn't work like that. And I can't test at the moment as I seem to have only one card lying around.

For books on the external card, there is an id for the card stored. I have no idea how the id is calculated, but it is unique to the card. Putting the same books on a different card will probably trigger the removal of the existing books and then the they will be loaded as a new books. And the reading status will be lost.

A workaround is to use calibre and my Kobo Utilities plugin to store and then restore the reading status.

Another way would be to update the external id in the database. But, you would need to put the new card in to find out what id the device wants to use. What I would do is:

- Backup the database.
- Put the new card in with the books. If it keeps the status, good. If it doesn't, go to the next step.
- Look in the database to see the external id. This is in the column "ExternalD" on the table "contents".
- Take a copy of the backup database and change the value of "ExternalID" to the new value.
- Copy the updated database back to the device.
- Eject the device.
- Cross your finger and insert the new SD card.

This should work, but I haven't tried it. Or maybe I did a long time ago. I don't remember now

[frostschutz]

Oh wow. I didn't know about the external id...

SELECT ExternalId from content; -> 3E1E1C89

file -s /dev/sdj1 -> /dev/sdj1: DOS/MBR boot sector, code offset 0x58+2, OEM-ID "mkfs.fat", sectors/cluster 8, Media descriptor 0xf8, sectors/track 62, heads 61, hidden sectors 2048, sectors 3858432 (volumes > 32 MB) , FAT (32 bit), sectors/FAT 3768, serial number 0x3e1e1c89, unlabeled

It's the serial number of the FAT filesystem, so raw 1:1 copy should work. Or a formatter that lets you pick this number directly. Or using a hexeditor to change it. Or just updating the database itself.

[failedKoboCustom]

thanks frostschutz but a raw 1:1 does not seem to work, although it shows and is able to open recently read books my library shows up empty, it also momentarily shows the message that's unable to read the sd card but quickly dissapears

Originally Posted by davidfor

It's been ages since I checked this, but, it doesn't work like that. And I can't test at the moment as I seem to have only one card lying around.

For books on the external card, there is an id for the card stored. I have no idea how the id is calculated, but it is unique to the card. Putting the same books on a different card will probably trigger the removal of the existing books and then the they will be loaded as a new books. And the reading status will be lost.

A workaround is to use calibre and my Kobo Utilities plugin to store and then restore the reading status.

Another way would be to update the external id in the database. But, you would need to put the new card in to find out what id the device wants to use. What I would do is:

- Backup the database.
- Put the new card in with the books. If it keeps the status, good. If it doesn't, go to the next step.
- Look in the database to see the external id. This is in the column "ExternalD" on the table "contents".
- Take a copy of the backup database and change the value of "ExternalID" to the new value.
- Copy the updated database back to the device.
- Eject the device.
- Cross your finger and insert the new SD card.

This should work, but I haven't tried it. Or maybe I did a long time ago. I don't remember now

how do you go about backing up reading progress through calibre and kobo utilities? as far as I could tell from the plugin all I can backup are bookmarks not the default reading progress of the kobo

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by failedKoboCustom

how do you go about backing up reading progress through calibre and kobo utilities? as far as I could tell from the plugin all I can backup are bookmarks not the default reading progress of the kobo

The "Store/restore current bookmark" is what you want. The "current bookmark" is the reading status and where you are up to in the book.

[failedKoboCustom]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The "Store/restore current bookmark" is what you want. The "current bookmark" is the reading status and where you are up to in the book.

it shows as unclickable when I select warlock of the magus world, which I know should have reading progress since I just read and shows up as 40% read on my kobo

[failedKoboCustom]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The "Store/restore current bookmark" is what you want. The "current bookmark" is the reading status and where you are up to in the book.

My only option now is to edit the database, what software do you recommend for this? Windows and linux is fine

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by failedKoboCustom

it shows as unclickable when I select warlock of the magus world, which I know should have reading progress since I just read and shows up as 40% read on my kobo

Did you do that from the device list? If so, go back to the the library list, find the book in the list, make sure that it is shown as on the device and try again. You will need to configure the plugin to select which columns the reading status is stored in.

[failedKoboCustom]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Did you do that from the device list? If so, go back to the the library list, find the book in the list, make sure that it is shown as on the device and try again. You will need to configure the plugin to select which columns the reading status is stored in.

will storing the bookmark make it so that there is a bookmark on the book if you open it in calibre?

[failedKoboCustom]

alright I give up, the library is still showing up empty and reseting and reloading the sd card gives errors, I'm gonna use a 32GB sdhc to see if that fixes it

[failedKoboCustom]

nope, still not even bothering to reload the epubs in the sd card, guess I'm stuck on this 16gb until I finish all these books

[freekobo]

When I back up, I just highlight everything on the kobo drive, Right Click hold and drag to desktop or somewhere, let go and then click on 7-Zip and then Add to... Zip file.
Then if I reset and I need to restore, I just unzip the file to the Kobo drive. Everything comes back exactly the same as it was before, except I do have to connect to Wi-Fi again. This may work for you on the external sd as well.

Another option is to image the card using like win32diskimager , restoring to the larger one and the stretching out the partition using like minitool or something afterwards.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by failedKoboCustom

will storing the bookmark make it so that there is a bookmark on the book if you open it in calibre?

No. I'll look at doing this with calibre 3. That includes a rewrite of the viewers, so hopefully it will be easy to do.