Calibre doesn't detect Kobo

[mdclanahan]

My wife has a Kobo Aura H2O she hasn't used in a while, and it has been a few years since I have transferred any books to it from Calibre. I am currently running Calibre 4.15 on macOS Catalina 10.15.3.

I have the KoboTouch (2.5.1) plugin enabled as well as KoboTouch Extended, and have tried using KoboUtilities to switch between the two drivers. Nothing I've tried has allowed Calibre to detect the connected device. I can't figure out what has changed, as this worked just fine the last time I attempted to connect the device to Calibre.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
mdclanahan

EDIT: It might also be important to note that the Kobo is running firmware 4.20.14622 (8bb853a72a, 3/13/20). The device mounts in macOS but does not mount in Calibre.

[mdclanahan]

I'm now discovering that the same thing is happening with my Kindle Oasis 2. The OS mounts the device, but Calibre does not. I have checked System Preferences>Security & Privacy>Privacy>Files and Folders per the Calibre FAQ, and Calibre should have access to "Removable Volumes." I don't understand why Calibre suddenly won't detect devices.

[theducks]

are you sure you don't have 2 (MTP) devices plugged in?

[davidfor]

Are the devices being mounted read-only? That seems to be a common problem for MACs and will prevent calibre from accessing the device properly.

And go through the steps in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=118560.

[mdclanahan]

Originally Posted by theducks

are you sure you don't have 2 (MTP) devices plugged in?

Positive. The only other devices connected are an external hard drive and an external optical drive.

I've also tried using several Micro USB cables with varying degrees of success—some will charge the devices but won't mount them; the few that will mount the devices in macOS still aren't working with Calibre.

[mdclanahan]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Are the devices being mounted read-only? That seems to be a common problem for MACs and will prevent calibre from accessing the device properly.

And go through the steps in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=118560.

No, they're not read-only, although that could have explained it.

Those steps are nearly verbatim from the Calibre FAQ I mentioned in my first reply to the original post. I've confirmed everything I can. How long should the debug device detection report take? I've tried multiple times now and haven't made it past the "Waiting" status, and it says "Unavailable" for Progress.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mdclanahan

No, they're not read-only, although that could have explained it.

So you can write something to these devices?

Those steps are nearly verbatim from the Calibre FAQ I mentioned in my first reply to the original post. I've confirmed everything I can. How long should the debug device detection report take? I've tried multiple times now and haven't made it past the "Waiting" status, and it says "Unavailable" for Progress.

That last bit wasn't mentioned in the first post. And it is probably the important bit. I means that calibre doesn't have permissions to access the mounts or something. I'm not a MAC user, so I don't know how this works.

[Bookstooge]

Doubling down on what Davidfor wrote, have you tried to move something to the kobo using the mac equivalent of file explorer? Just because it is mounted doesn't necessarily mean communication is actually happening.

[PeterT]

And do try posting the log from the final step in My device is not detected by calibre

[mdclanahan]

After all this, it seems my problem was all in the Micro USB cables. On the sixth cord I tried, Calibre saw both devices and everything worked normally. Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions.