Show cover with .mobi OTA

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by shalym

For me, the cover means nothing on my device, as I never see it. I also leave wifi on all the time, because I like to look things up using wikipedia. I also like to be able sync my books from device to device. I may sometimes read multiple books at the same time, but I don't want to *have* to...I want my books to sync across all of my devices seamlessly.

This is the main reason why I use my Kindles rather than my Kobo. It's also the main reason why I never bought another Kobo after my Aura HD. If Kobo ever decides to offer syncing of all books across devices, I'll probably buy another one, because they do have good hardware, and the software is fine as long as I'm reading Kepubs. Until then, Kindles allow me to read the way I want to, and Kobos do not.

Shari

I'm in the same boat as you; constantly switching across devices, and syncing the last page read is an absolute must. In fact I'm willing to pay the premium for a 3G Kindle, so it will sync the page even when I go read in the park, etc.

I recently lost my PW3, and was in the market for a new reader; I spent a bit of time investigating the alternatives, and for better of for worse, Kindles are still the only devices that fit the bill for me, for that precise reason.

As a final comment, it used to be possible to have your cake and eat it too (i.e. Whispersync on AZW3 with book covers) using a python script called ExtractCoverThumbs, which would extract the covers from the AZW3 files after they were downloaded to your kindle and make them visible. Unfortunately this script doens't work on firmware 5.8.5 or above. I kept the firmware on my PW3 below that number just for that.

[vargr]

Originally Posted by odamizu

The problem with Send-to-Kindle is that when you send a dual-mobi (containing both AZW3/KF8 and old mobi formats), Amazon creates a new ASIN for the AZW3 and overwrites whatever ASIN you may have embedded yourself. As a result, eink Kindles that receive the AZW3 are not able to download the cover and you get a generic cover. (I don't know about Android, but iOS uses yet another format, AZK, which appears to use the cover image inside the ebook so don't have this problem.)

So for eink Kindles, if you prefer AZW3 format (as I do), you have to choose between Whispersync and covers.

First: thank you for this succinct summary, I've been searching and experimenting for two days and there are so many different/often conflicting answers about how this works.

The reason I'm replying: I've been led to believe by other threads and the mobileread wiki that LRP sync SHOULD work as long as you have a matching ASIN in your file(s), which you can insert by using QualityCheck plugin's fix.

You can't use the email-to-kindle option because the server will change your inserted ASIN, but you CAN use Calibre send-to-device and the AZW3 file with the inserted ASIN does get transferred over (verified by looking on the Kindle itself with MobiMetaEditor). But my book still isn't syncing like the wiki leads me to believe it should.

Like you, I'm trying to stick to AZW3 versions, and I've gotten to the point where I have cover thumbnails and no "personal" banner. If it's just not possible to sync LPR outside of using the personal document service, I'd understand, but supposedly that's NOT true and mine just isn't working? I feel like I'm so close.....

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by shalym

This is the main reason why I use my Kindles rather than my Kobo. It's also the main reason why I never bought another Kobo after my Aura HD. If Kobo ever decides to offer syncing of all books across devices, I'll probably buy another one, because they do have good hardware, and the software is fine as long as I'm reading Kepubs. Until then, Kindles allow me to read the way I want to, and Kobos do not.

Shari

I'll disagree with you because you are wrong. The software for reading ePub works well. I read mostly ePub and that works well. The display is better for ePub.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by vargr

... I've been led to believe by other threads and the mobileread wiki that LRP sync SHOULD work as long as you have a matching ASIN in your file(s), which you can insert by using QualityCheck plugin's fix ...

Interesting. I was not aware of this trick and have never tried it. I may give it a whirl when I have time, though I gave up covers long ago and now no longer miss them (using List View rather than Cover View helped get me over that hurdle )

Though in addition to inserting an ASIN (EXTH Record 113), it seems the EXTH record 501 (cdetype) needs the value 'EBOK' (rather than 'PDOC'). I think Calibre is supposed to be able to do both, but I tend to use KindleGen as that has been more consistently successful for me in getting AZW3 and WhisperSync (via Send-to-Kindle).

Have you tried the Mobi2Mobi tool described in the Wiki? Also, all these posts are rather old (2010, 2011), and something may have changed on Amazon's end since then. If you get it working, would appreciate if you'd report back.

[NiLuJe]

@odamizu: It does, that's exposed to the user via the "share_not_sync" option in the MOBI output.

(i.e., when it's kept at its default, off, you get an ASIN, and an EBOK cdeType).

[shamanNS]

@odamizu: IIRC at least on Kindle for Android app the situation can be summed up as "books ASIN is not associated with your Amazon account = sync button is disabled".
The app downloads and keeps a catalog of all your books Amazon knows about (= either archived PDOCs or bought EBOKs).

So no use in using retail ASINs / faking ASINs to a value from Kindle Store As far as sync goes...

I used to use that Wiki "trick" years ago on my Kindle Keyboard ... not sure if it ever worked when I bought my first Paperwhite (PW1) ... the only thing I recall is that Android app sync broke first... and then later I could't even sync between two Paperwhites...

[odamizu]

Thanks NiLuJe! Thanks shamanNS!

That explains why it's not working for vargr. Oh well. It was an interesting thought

[vargr]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

@odamizu: IIRC at least on Kindle for Android app the situation can be summed up as "books ASIN is not associated with your Amazon account = sync button is disabled".
The app downloads and keeps a catalog of all your books Amazon knows about (= either archived PDOCs or bought EBOKs).

So no use in using retail ASINs / faking ASINs to a value from Kindle Store As far as sync goes...

I used to use that Wiki "trick" years ago on my Kindle Keyboard ... not sure if it ever worked when I bought my first Paperwhite (PW1) ... the only thing I recall is that Android app sync broke first... and then later I could't even sync between two Paperwhites...

Ahh, thank you for the insight. This is the trouble with digging through ancient threads, there aren't always follow-ups when things change even if something used to work...

So this is annoying, but at least I can rest now knowing it's just not possible, rather than that I was just doing something wrong that I couldn't pin down!

I mostly read on the PW to save my eyes anyway, so having page sync working would be more of a "just in case" and because I got it in my head that I HAD to figure it out... at least I now know how to get the covers to look nice.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'll disagree with you because you are wrong. The software for reading ePub works well. I read mostly ePub and that works well. The display is better for ePub.

So are you able to easily zoom in on pictures with epubs now? What about highlighting? Those are just 2 of the things that were painful with epubs but worked perfectly with kepubs. I will say, though, that I haven't tried an epub on my Kobo for quite a while, so it may have changed.

Shari