CC iOS v1.0.0 Comments Thread

[Dusky Rose]

Hey! Just downloaded Calbre Companion for iPad this morning. Haven't ever used it before, so I've got a large learning curve here.

I'm still working on trying to get it connected and books loaded, but one thing I did notice in the instructions to "Align cover at top" shows a typo.

"Check this box to align th ecover at hte top of the row."

[BenG]

How do I open the books in CC to read? None of my reader apps are listed except for Goodreader. This is on an iPad mini 2.

[jamie_lord]

Originally Posted by BenG

How do I open the books in CC to read? None of my reader apps are listed except for Goodreader. This is on an iPad mini 2.

What is the format(s) of the book you're trying to read?

[Annie-MultiPie]

Hi Dusky Rose,

Thanks for downloading the app. Yes it can take a bit of time to figure out, like Calibre the app has a lot of features and options. If you've not come across it already do have a look at our FAQ. There's a guide to solving common connection issues on there, as well as tips for getting the most out of CC.

Thanks for pointing out the typo, we'll fix that in the next update!

[BenG]

Originally Posted by jamie_lord

What is the format(s) of the book you're trying to read?

Thanks, I have epub and kindle formats in Calibre and apparently CC automatically downloaded the azw format. I have it set now to only download epubs.

[ekbell]

My series are losing their series numbers when imported into CC iOS, making it impossible to sort my series properly.

[jamie_lord]

Originally Posted by ekbell

My series are losing their series numbers when imported into CC iOS, making it impossible to sort my series properly.

Thanks for the feedback.

Are you using calibre's in-built "Series" column or a custom column?

When you say "sort", do you mean they're not appearing in the 'Series' list in the grouping drawer?

I've tested the series sort (select "Series" from the sort menu in the top right with the AZ↕ icon) and it appears to work for my setup, it sorts all books in the current view by their series alphabetically - is this not the behaviour you're expecting?

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by jamie_lord

Thanks for the feedback.

Are you using calibre's in-built "Series" column or a custom column?

When you say "sort", do you mean they're not appearing in the 'Series' list in the grouping drawer?

I've tested the series sort (select "Series" from the sort menu in the top right with the AZ↕ icon) and it appears to work for my setup, it sorts all books in the current view by their series alphabetically - is this not the behaviour you're expecting?

I`m referring to Calibre's in-built 'Series' column

It`s the in-series sort that`s not working as expected. When I select a series and then select sort by series I expect the books to then be sorted by their series` numbers, as they are in Calibre, Marvin and the Android CC so that the first book in the series is at the top.

However CC ios is not sorting in-series by series number (it appears to be sorting by Date Updated CC) and in fact does not appear to have kept the series number. This is annoying as I have a number of series with 20+ books and no desire to use a plug-in to re-title my books.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ekbell

However CC ios is not sorting in-series by series number (it appears to be sorting by Date Updated CC) and in fact does not appear to have kept the series number. This is annoying as I have a number of series with 20+ books and no desire to use a plug-in to re-title my books.

Which connection type are you using?

[Terisa de morgan]

It's not in the connection but the library itself. The same is happening to me. I cannot see the number in the series (maybe it hasn't been included to show it yet), but when I order by series, and I choose ascending or descending order, nothing changes in the display.

My books were sent through wireless connection.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by chaley

Which connection type are you using?

I've used both the wireless and content server, mostly wireless without noticing an effect on series sorting.

[Steve_Haley]

Series sorting: I think I know what the problem is, but haven't had a chance to fix it yet. (Thanks @chaley). There's an update working its way through with Apple now, but it doesn't include this fix.

As mentioned last week, I'm now on my own with this app. It was Jamie's last day before the new job today, and he didn't manage to get this fix in before his final submission to Apple. (He's not going to be involved anymore.) On my side, I'm working full time already but am going to try to keep this together. I'll do my best!

[Dusky Rose]

Is there a limit to how many files the program can handle?

I have a huge library, separated in Calibre into six different libraries. When I connect my iPad mini to Calibre, the "on device" column shows up in Calibre. I copy over a chunk of epubs, and it looks like they transfer okay over the Wireless connection.

I took all day to load up my library yesterday. This morning I thought I'd missed a library, as they didn't show up in CC. I loaded them, then found another library full of epubs not loaded.

When I check the tags, it only shows the current library I'm loading. The rest, that I saw on it yesterday, are gone. I've loaded some of them many times now.

It seems as though the new titles have over written the older titles. I have 17gig left on the mini, so it should have enough room for the physical books.

Is there something I'm missing?

[Steve_Haley]

Originally Posted by Dusky Rose

Is there a limit to how many files the program can handle?[...]

I received an email from someone with the initials M.G. reporting a similar problem. Was that you? If not, could you send me a debug log? It's the last option in the settings menu.

At the moment I don't know what the problem is, but I'll look into it this weekend.

To directly answer the question - the only hard limit for the number of books in the app is about 10 million. In practice though, no device has enough RAM to manage a library of that size. (RAM is different to storage space. It's a bit like how a person can write something down or keep it in their head; normal storage space is writing it down whereas RAM is trying to just remember it.)

Back to the question: we had it working on libraries of about 5,000 books on an original iPad Mini. That's the device with the least amount of RAM that we could get our hands on. It was a bit slow but it coped. Newer devices, like an iPhone 6 or iPad Air were fine. We didn't have a way to see if the old iPad Mini coped with more than that but I wouldn't expect it to have any real problems until we reached more than 10k.

Anyway, send me that debug log and I'll look at it on the weekend.

[Dusky Rose]

Originally Posted by Steve_Haley

Anyway, send me that debug log and I'll look at it on the weekend.

I sent you the debug log, but I tried to load books through iTunes last night, and they also are not showing up. So this may be showing a different problem than I first described. It seems to be stuck at 2330 files.

Unless there's another step to get the program to recognize the iTunes files, but I can't find anything about that in the helps sections I've seen.

But thanks for looking.

Originally Posted by Steve_Haley

I received an email from someone with the initials M.G. reporting a similar problem.

No, that wasn't me

Originally Posted by Steve_Haley

In practice though, no device has enough RAM to manage a library of that size. (RAM is different to storage space. It's a bit like how a person can write something down or keep it in their head; normal storage space is writing it down whereas RAM is trying to just remember it.)

I just got a Kobo Aura One last week, and loaded it up to see how it would handle. I have it filled with about 9,700 epubs, and while slow it seems to be working just fine. I still have a gig of space left on it, so may try maxing it out later to see what happens.

On the reading programs for the iPad, I prefer Marvin, but it tends to flake out on me at 8,000. Some of the other programs have similar problems. Which is why I usually use a file manager to actually store my library, then just open one at a time from there. I was just hoping that CC would do the same, only give me more info on a book than the plain file manager does.