Kobo collection management

[mdclanahan]

I have a fairly large ebook library (~1300 books), and Kindle's "collections" are a bit unwieldy.

For library management, I use Calibre and love it. This led me to Calibre Companion, which is also fantastic. Unfortunately, I have now broken two e-ink Android devices (inkBOOK Obsidian and inkBOOK Prime) due to extremely minor jostling--it's not easy to get one's hands on an appropriate case/cover here in the states.

While I realize I won't be able to use Calibre Companion with a Kobo, I desperately want a sturdy device, with a case/cover, that can handle sorting and organizing a large collection.

Would someone who owns a Kobo be willing to post a few pictures of how collections/shelves are displayed on the device? If you use Calibre for library management, so I know exactly how it works with the Kobo, even better!

Thanks,
mdclanahan

[davidfor]

The Kobo collections are very flexible. They allow as many collections as you want, books can be in multiple collection or none at all. The collections list has multiple ways of sorting (name, number of books, date added) and each collection has multiple ways of sorting and filtering.

A guide to doing collection management on the Kobo devices via calibre is in https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kob...nd_Collections. Again, very flexible and allows multiple columns to be used to specify the collections.

Sorry, I can't take any screenshots at the moment. The collection list is basically just the name with the number of books. The individual collections just looks like the main book list but has the collection name at the top.

[mdclanahan]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The collections list has multiple ways of sorting (name, number of books, date added) and each collection has multiple ways of sorting and filtering.

The collection list is basically just the name with the number of books. The individual collections just looks like the main book list but has the collection name at the top.

Thanks for the response! I noticed you refer to collections as lists, which makes me curious: can collections be displayed with cover art, or just as a text-based list? I'm a pretty visual person and would want to be able to display cover art within collections.

One other thing: I have heard that chapter progress can only be viewed for Kobo epubs and not for sideloaded epubs. Is this true?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by mdclanahan

Thanks for the response! I noticed you refer to collections as lists, which makes me curious: can collections be displayed with cover art, or just as a text-based list? I'm a pretty visual person and would want to be able to display cover art within collections.

One other thing: I have heard that chapter progress can only be viewed for Kobo epubs and not for sideloaded epubs. Is this true?

The list of collections themselves do not display cover art, however once you open a specific collection you can choose 'list view' which displays the cover of the book(s) then the title, series, and author information if you've provided all of that. Or 'cover view' which displays just the covers of the books in the collection.

Chapter progress is only available for kepubs. However you can convert epubs to kepubs using calibre, using the kobotouch extended plugin lets you do it on the fly as you send epubs to your Kobo.

[mdclanahan]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

The list of collections themselves do not display cover art, however once you open a specific collection you can choose 'list view' which displays the cover of the book(s) then the title, series, and author information if you've provided all of that. Or 'cover view' which displays just the covers of the books in the collection.



Chapter progress is only available for kepubs. However you can convert epubs to kepubs using calibre, using the kobotouch extended plugin lets you do it on the fly as you send epubs to your Kobo.

Perfect! Thanks for the information.

I already use Calibre to convert ebooks, so that's awesome.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JSWolf]

To find out how to configure Calibre to handle collections on your Kobo, please read the thread (in its entirety) at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=193184

[gorskial]

Hi there,
I've tried to follow what you guys wrote out there but I'm at a loss, so I hope someone will be able to help me.
Long story short: I had a Kobo Aura on which all my books were organized in collections. I've had to reset my computer at one point but somehow Calibre kept recognizing the collections. Then I lost my ebook and had to buy a new one... and I just can't get the config right.
I still have the column #collection in calibre with the right parameters
I setup the ebook so that metadata would update automatically
I went into Customize Plugin, inserted #collection in the dialogue box... and nothing...
Now my kobo recognizes the collections but they all indicate 0 books.
When I connect my ebook to my laptop and check its library, in the column collection I only see Read/Reading... which is weird
Finally, whatever I'm trying to setup on my kobo interface through calibre does not work.
Can anyone tell me what I did wrong?
I'm using Calibre 3.14 and the kobo firmware is 4.6.9995, and the ebook is still a kobo aura 1st edition...

Then, since I now lost the history of what I did actually read or not, I might be interested in saving that info in calibre. Can anyone tell me how to do that?

Thanks a lot for you help

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by gorskial

Then, since I now lost the history of what I did actually read or not, I might be interested in saving that info in calibre. Can anyone tell me how to do that?

What I've done is to add my own custom column to Calibre under Preferences, Add your own columns. I simply named it "Read" with Date for the type. Just clicking on that column brings up the current date, so if you do it right away, you don't even have to hunt for the date.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by gorskial

Hi there,
I've tried to follow what you guys wrote out there but I'm at a loss, so I hope someone will be able to help me.
Long story short: I had a Kobo Aura on which all my books were organized in collections. I've had to reset my computer at one point but somehow Calibre kept recognizing the collections. Then I lost my ebook and had to buy a new one... and I just can't get the config right.
I still have the column #collection in calibre with the right parameters
I setup the ebook so that metadata would update automatically
I went into Customize Plugin, inserted #collection in the dialogue box... and nothing...
Now my kobo recognizes the collections but they all indicate 0 books.

The collections were probably recreated when you setup the device. The collections and which purchased books are on them are synced to the Kobo server. But, Kobo doesn't sync anything about sideloaded books.

When I connect my ebook to my laptop and check its library, in the column collection I only see Read/Reading... which is weird

The collections column is details of what is on the device. So, this is the expected result if there are no books in the collections on the device. The "Read" and "Reading" collections are virtual collections, based on the reading status of the books.

Finally, whatever I'm trying to setup on my kobo interface through calibre does not work.
Can anyone tell me what I did wrong?
I'm using Calibre 3.14 and the kobo firmware is 4.6.9995, and the ebook is still a kobo aura 1st edition...

The most common problem is that "Metadata management" is not set to automatic. This is on the "Sending books to devices" page of the preferences. Another common problem is configuring the wrong driver. Calibre comes with the KoboTouch driver but there is also the KoboTouchExtended driver. You need to configure the one you are using. Other than that, double check the driver configuration is right.

If checking the configuration doesn't fix it, then I need to see a debug log. Run calibre in debug mode (right-click the preferences and select the restart in debug mode option), connect the device and let the jobs run. When they finish, close calibre and the debug log will be displayed. Post or PM me the full log. Usually I can work out what is wrong from this.

Then, since I now lost the history of what I did actually read or not, I might be interested in saving that info in calibre. Can anyone tell me how to do that?

My Kobo Utilities plugin has a function to fetch the reading status from the device when it is connected. This stored in calibre and can be restored if you need to reset the device.

[gorskial]

Hey Davidfor,
Thanks a lot for your help. I downloaded the KoboTouchExtended driver, deactivated all the others, made sure the config was alright... and it didn't solve a thing !
Then I realized collections were deactivated by Calibre and I had to go to Device>Config>Metadata and then tick the box "Intent to use a more recent firmware"
Problem solved
But I looked into the Kobo Utilities plugin and couldn't find how to fetch the reading status. Would really appreciate it if you could detail how to do this.
Thanks a lot

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by gorskial

Hey Davidfor,
Thanks a lot for your help. I downloaded the KoboTouchExtended driver, deactivated all the others, made sure the config was alright... and it didn't solve a thing !
Then I realized collections were deactivated by Calibre and I had to go to Device>Config>Metadata and then tick the box "Intent to use a more recent firmware"
Problem solved

That's impossible. You stated you have firmware version 4.6.9995. Calibre has supported this firmware version since calibre version 3.9. But, you stated you have 3.14. Calibre 3.14 supports every released version of the Kobo firmware (latest release is 4.7.10413 which was added in calibre 3.14) on all released Kobo ereaders. So, changing that option could not have affect. It will only have an affect if you get an error from calibre stating that you are using a firmware version that is not supported by the driver. I can assure you that collection management is happening correctly here with this option turned off.

If the collections were disabled, then you should have been going to the "Collections, covers & uploads" tab if the driver configuration and enabling the "Collections" option. Plus setting the rest of the options in that group of options.

Now, checking the "Attempt to support newer firmware" option truly did fix things, then I really need to see some debug logs to see why. I really want to see a debug log with the option on and another debug log with the option off. That way I can see why this is not working properly for you.

But I looked into the Kobo Utilities plugin and couldn't find how to fetch the reading status. Would really appreciate it if you could detail how to do this.

The plugin has help built into it. There should a link to it in the top right corner of any of the plugins dialogs. There is a section on how do the status fetching. I suggest you read that first and see how you go. If you have any problems, come back and ask, but anything I could say at this point would be just repeating what is in the help.

[gorskial]

I was actually getting an error from calibre but thought it was linked to something else until I actually read the comments telling me to tick that box. I can try to send you the debug logs later.
As for the reading status, I found what you guys wrote in another post:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=215339
Seems to work
Thanks again

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by gorskial

I was actually getting an error from calibre but thought it was linked to something else until I actually read the comments telling me to tick that box. I can try to send you the debug logs later.

I am baffled about what you are seeing, so I would like to see the logs.

As for the reading status, I found what you guys wrote in another post:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=215339
Seems to work

Yes, that's the main thread for discussion the plugin, so instructions for various functions are scattered throughout it. The help is should be more directed, but probably doesn't have anything about the last few changes made to the plugin.

[gorskial]

Hey,
Please find enclosed the debug logs (I couldn't PM them !!!)
For the first one (tmppp9htk) I simply connected my kobo with the current settings.
Then I unticked the box "Attempt to support newer firmware" and restarted Calibre (tmpi6i_xy). The collections were still recognized but I tried to delete one book as I knew the error message would pop up and it did.
Hope this helps

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by gorskial

Hey,
Please find enclosed the debug logs (I couldn't PM them !!!)
For the first one (tmppp9htk) I simply connected my kobo with the current settings.
Then I unticked the box "Attempt to support newer firmware" and restarted Calibre (tmpi6i_xy). The collections were still recognized but I tried to delete one book as I knew the error message would pop up and it did.
Hope this helps

At the top of both logs is:

calibre Journal de débogage
calibre 3.7  embedded-python: True is64bit: False
Windows-10-10.0.16299-SP0 Windows ('32bit', 'WindowsPE')
32bit process running on 64bit windows
('Windows', '10', '10.0.16299')
Python 2.7.12+
Windows: ('10', '10.0.16299', 'SP0', u'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: fr
Successfully initialized third party plugins: Kobo Utilities (2, 6, 0) && KoboTouchExtended (3, 0, 1)
calibre 3.7  embedded-python: True is64bit: False
Windows-10-10.0.16299-SP0 Windows ('32bit', 'WindowsPE')

And the firmware listed is 4.6.9995. You said earlier you were running calibre 3.14, but this is showing version 3.7. And it does not support firmware 4.6.9995. Support for that firmware version was added in version 3.9.

Running this version of calibre with the "Attempt to support newer firmware" option checked is safe. There only recent changes in the KoboTouch driver have been to bump the supported firmware version.