Aura ONE Kobo Aura One owners thread

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by koboy

the KA1 should work 100% perfectly out of the box for everyone i'm sure we can all agree on that, the FACT that it doesn't implies a serious lack of quality control on Kobos part.

wisely for me i didn't buy a KA1 but if i did and it had the problems that a lot are having on this forum i would have sent it straight back for a replacement, if the replacement was also not to my satisfaction i would have got a refund as i have no need for an expensive piece of junk.

and may i add all Ereaders should work 100% perfectly out of the box without needing any tweaking or patching.

best wishes koboy

I should have put the coffee down before reading your message -- cleaning the laptop screen and keyboard was not fun. OTOH, that first paragraph whether intentionally or not was one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

Sorry but in the world I live in, very little works 100% out of the box with no room for improvement. Software products? Nope. Hardware products? Nope. Since my pet rock, I haven't had any device that did not offer room for improvement. The number of firmware updates on my high end BlueRay player, the number of patches for Windows, OS X, Linux, etc. would testify to that fact.

Now if Kobo had produced the equivalent to my home control system with it's canned into the firmware backdoor user, I might feel a bit more concerned.

[Godbluffer]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I seem to remember someone (davidfor???) saying that if a setting is missing from the .conf file it will mean the default is used and I believe the default is PeriodicAutoSync=true.

Maybe the whole crux of this bug is that the GUI Settings is simply failing to write the PeriodicAutoSync=false line when the user unchecks the box, i.e. it's perma-stuck on true unless you manually edit the file.

Well, I just experimented by adding the line at the very bottom of the file, but the AutoSync still wouldn't stay off after unticking the box in the settings menu; it had just been ticked again straight away after I had left that particular screen and then went back in to check. What was odd was that after I looked into the file again afterwards was that the line had autopositioned itself under [Services], where it seems to be a complete mismatch. When I tried to place it manually under the correct header, making sure it was placed there among the alphabetical order of the prompts, again the AutoSync box would NOT remain unticked, and upon looking into the file again, the line had stayed where I had put it, but oddly enough there was a "-sign added just before 'false.' I ended up just deleting the line altogether, because it didn't work anyway. Seriously, this is a VERY strange issue that Kobo will need to look into.

Apart from this, other settings had automatically changed, too. The auto-light settings had magically been turned on, as well as the sleepcover function. I could change those back to my own preferred settings without a problem, though.

[Lemons]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'd be interested in seeing the full error, as it might have been a coincidence. I rewrote the configuration in the main driver a little while ago and messed up part of the migration. That error hit the extended driver users the most. I fixed most of that, but there is still at least one case where it will fail. For this case, the best thing to do is remove the extended driver's configuration file.

Ill try and get you one although I don't know if Calibre has an error log. I reabled the plugin just now and it seems to be working fine, so might have been a coincidence as you said.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Godbluffer

Well, I just experimented by adding the line at the very bottom of the file, but the AutoSync still wouldn't stay off after unticking the box in the settings menu. What was odd was that after I checked the file again afterwards was that the line had autopositioned itself under [Services], where it seems to be a complete mismatch. When I tried to place it manually under the correct header, making sure it was placed there among the alphabetical order of the prompts, again the AutoSync box would NOT remain unticked, and upon checking the file again, the line had stayed where I had put it, but oddly enough there was a "-sign added just before 'false.' I ended up just deleting the line altogether, because it didn't work anyway. Seriously, this is a VERY strange issue that Kobo will need to look into.

Apart from this, other settings had automatically changed, too. The auto-light settings had magically been turned on, as well as the sleepcover function. I could change those back to my own preferred settings without a problem, though.

Firstly, it's a bug in the code managing the settings. If you turn the option off, leave the screen and come back, it will show as turned on. There is nothing you can do to change that. If you make any changes on that screen, the option will be turned on again.

In the config file, the position of these options is important. The file is broken down into names sections. The have square brackets around them. If you don't put an option into the correct section, it will not be used. The "PeriodicAutoSync" option goes into the "[ApplicationPreferences]" section. If you look at the file, each section will be sorted alphabetically. But, it doesn't matter where you add a new option. The firmware will read the file and when it writes it our again, it sorts the options. You can put it anywhere in that section. Also, the case is important on for both the name and value of the option. And if you add unknown options, the firmware doesn't care. It reads them and will write them out again, it just doesn't do anything with them.

If you change the option in the file to false, and look at the setting screen, it should be shown as off. But, DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING on that screen. If you do, the bug is triggered and the option is turned on again.

It is a weird little bug, but it will be fixed in the next update.

[Godbluffer]

Thanks for that *thorough* explanation, @davidfor ! I'm now going back to experimenting with the time-of-day setting of the AutoSync function, making sure it's always turned to another time of day than I'm currently in. Wondering if that will prevent the device from syncing at will when Wi-Fi is turned on.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Lemons

Ill try and get you one although I don't know if Calibre has an error log. I reabled the plugin just now and it seems to be working fine, so might have been a coincidence as you said.

"It's working", one of my favourite things to hear.

There isn't a log, but one can be produced when needed. But, any time calibre displays an error, there should be a "Details" button to show more info and a "Copy" button to copy the full details to the clipboard. If you get any sort of error in calibre, copying the details and posting them is a really big help.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Godbluffer

That is quite an interesting explanation, and I will certainly be trying that out after I'm done with my "set autosync to any other time than it is at this particular moment" experiment.

For what it's worth, I always keep Wi-fi on, and I have auto-sync set to night-time. Typically my battery loses 1% or so overnight. I also usually do a manual sync when I am done reading and going to bed. I have had 2 instances where I had a drastic battery drop overnight. Both times I had not done a manual sync the night before.

[Godbluffer]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

For what it's worth, I always keep Wi-fi on, and I have auto-sync set to night-time. Typically my battery loses 1% or so overnight. I also usually do a manual sync when I am done reading and going to bed. I have had 2 instances where I had a drastic battery drop overnight. Both times I had not done a manual sync the night before.

Yes, normally the battery should lose no more than 1% overnight or after a sync, whether manual or automatic. And I'm afraid battery drops *did* occur with me after I had already done a manual. What I'm trying to find out is whether these spontaneous, endlessly looped auto-syncs only occur during the period of the day to which you've set the device to be autosyncing, or if they can occur at *any* time. Since these draining sessions don't always happen, I'll obviously have to do this for at least a week or so... or until the firmware update arrives and resolves the issue.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I just gave you a data point that both of the battery drops that I experienced were overnight during the auto-sync period overnight.

[Godbluffer]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I just gave you a data point that both of the battery drops that I experienced were overnight during the auto-sync period overnight.

Indeed you did. Thank you!

[TheHazardsDuke]

So it's been a little over a month now since the KA1 arrived and, firmware bugs aside (and it does seem there are alot) are those of you who've got one satisfied/happy/dissapointed and those of you who haven't got one do you plan to get one (or not get one as the case maybe)?

Seems like it's had alot of positive reviews but it also seems like there's alot of complaints regarding build quality of the casing (specifically the gaps down the side) and the frontlight. I'm still on the fence because of this. The pictures I've seen the gap doesn't look like a problem but could it allow dust to creep in and potentially damage it in the long term?

[robko]

Originally Posted by TheHazardsDuke

So it's been a little over a month now since the KA1 arrived and, firmware bugs aside (and it does seem there are alot) are those of you who've got one satisfied/happy/dissapointed and those of you who haven't got one do you plan to get one (or not get one as the case maybe)?

Seems like it's had alot of positive reviews but it also seems like there's alot of complaints regarding build quality of the casing (specifically the gaps down the side) and the frontlight. I'm still on the fence because of this. The pictures I've seen the gap doesn't look like a problem but could it allow dust to creep in and potentially damage it in the long term?

While there are people with battery drain problems, this isn't consistent across devices (which probably makes tracking it down harder). I'm extremely happy with mine and when I went back to my H2O while away one weekend (haven't had a chance to build a carry box for my KA1 yet) I couldn't get over how small the H2O seemed even after reading it on all weekend. The natural light isn't as even as it should be at higher levels and the autolight is a little oversensitive. I don't use the autolight and I prefer the natural light at a lower level anyway so these don't bother me, but might bother others. Could dust get into the "gap" around the screen? Sure. Is it likely to cause an issue? Not likely in my opinion. I'm not sure what it could really affect and since the device is internally coated rather than requiring keeping water out for waterproofing that's not an issue either.

[iCowboy]

Originally Posted by TheHazardsDuke

So it's been a little over a month now since the KA1 arrived and, firmware bugs aside (and it does seem there are alot) are those of you who've got one satisfied/happy/dissapointed and those of you who haven't got one do you plan to get one (or not get one as the case maybe)?

Seems like it's had alot of positive reviews but it also seems like there's alot of complaints regarding build quality of the casing (specifically the gaps down the side) and the frontlight. I'm still on the fence because of this. The pictures I've seen the gap doesn't look like a problem but could it allow dust to creep in and potentially damage it in the long term?

Right now, I am pretty happy with it. The big screen is beautiful, lovely and clear and lots of space for text. The design is also much more comfortable to hold in one hand than the H20 and the textured back is really comfortable to hold.

Issues that Kobo needs to get on with are that the store still isn't particularly easy to use and the search is nowhere near as good at digging up books as Amazon Kindle's. But this is common to all Kobos.

The two downsides with the One are the battery problems if you leave auto sync and wifi on - which should be fixable with new firmware. The seam down the lefthand side is in an odd place and a little big compared to the build quality on other Kobos I've owned, but so far no problems with getting stuff stuck there.

I haven't really had any problems with the lighting although there is a very slight colour banding produced by the different coloured LEDs at the bottom of the screen.

Overall I'd recommend it.

Mike.

[Godbluffer]

Originally Posted by Godbluffer

What I'm trying to find out is whether these spontaneous, endlessly looped auto-syncs only occur during the period of the day to which you've set the device to be autosyncing, or if they can occur at *any* time. Since these draining sessions don't always happen, I'll obviously have to do this for at least a week or so... or until the firmware update arrives and resolves the issue.

Well, it didn't take a week for my experiment to fail. With Wi-Fi on, and AutoSync set to 'evening', I just noticed it got stuck in an autosync loop in the middle of the night (after 3 a.m. local time), so it's pretty obvious I can't leave the Wi-Fi on under any circumstance.

[gtim108]

Got my KA1 yesterday. It's almost perfect, but found one problem. When I try to select a word for translation it almost always selects a word to the left or right not a word under my finger. Just thinking is it a hardware problem (should I exchange it) or a software. Any suggestions? Thanks!