Forma Kobo Forma is losing power from full to empty overnight...

[Gadgetguy]

Hello all,

I may have found a bug (or is it user error)?

On my Forma I usually switch the unit on (from total off) by pushing the power button and typically I do not start to immediately read - but I want it to be "ready" when I want to read.

Several times I have observed, that when I switch the unit on, the backlight comes on and it goes into "read" mode (and stays there with backlight on), even if I do not open the magnetic cover for a few minutes. Since I most of the time shortly after powering on start to read, that was fine (and I did not worry why the unit did not go into sleep after the set period)

However last night I powered it on, and then ended up not reading (and I did not touch the magnetic cover). This morning the Kobo shows battery empty (it was fully charged yesterday) and it was ON (2% battery) despite me not using it since last evening. It should have powered down (due to the power saving setting) - but it did not.

So is it possible that after a power on (without reading, without opening the magnetic cover) the usual power save settings do not activate and so the unit will discharge itself to zero?

This sounds like a bug, no? Or am I doing something wrong? What could that be?

[JSWolf]

Yes you are doing something wrong. You are turning your Forma off. Readers are designed to be put to sleep and not turned off when you are not reading. You are causing more of a battery drain with turning off instead of just closing the cover and letting it sleep.

Try not shutting off and just putting it to sleep and see how your battery drain goes. It should work well that way.

[Gadgetguy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Yes you are doing something wrong. You are turning your Forma off. Readers are designed to be put to sleep and not turned off when you are not reading. You are causing more of a battery drain with turning off instead of just closing the cover and letting it sleep.

Try not shutting off and just putting it to sleep and see how your battery drain goes. It should work well that way.

Thank you for the reply.

However - I do not follow. My energy saving settings are
- go to sleep after 5 minutes and
- go to power off after 60 minutes of not using.

Then, when I want to read I press the power button to switch on.

Is that not how one is supposed to use it? Should I say - never go off? (I do not switch the unit by hand off - it goes off due to the energy saving setting)

Still: why did the unit did not go to sleep/off or off after switching it on last night?

[DevonHess]

Yep, it's a glitch. I just did a little test with my Forma

Sleep cover open: turn on and don't touch device = device goes to sleep after set time, expected behavior

Sleep cover closed: turn on and don't touch device = device stays awake indefinitely

You could report the issue to Kobo, but I agree with JSWolf, you don't need to turn off your device every day. Think of it like a car battery, only disconnect it if you're not going to use it for a prolonged period.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Gadgetguy

Thank you for the reply.

However - I do not follow. My energy saving settings are
- go to sleep after 5 minutes and
- go to power off after 60 minutes of not using.

Then, when I want to read I press the power button to switch on.

Is that not how one is supposed to use it? Should I say - never go off? (I do not switch the unit by hand off - it goes off due to the energy saving setting)

Still: why did the unit did not go to sleep/off or off after switching it on last night?

From what @DevonHess says, there is an actual problem. It sounds like if the cover is closed and never opened when the Forma is turned on, it doesn't trigger the sleep modes properly. And the device stays on rather than going to sleep when the timer expires. And I have just tried it with my Libra H2O and it isn't going to sleep when I power on with the cover closed. It looks like a bug. I have haven't noticed this before as I rarely turn my devices off. And on the occasions I do, I normally open the cover before turning it on.

The response from @JSWolf was in his usual manner: Ignoring the actual problem and ordering you to do what he thinks is the only way to do something.

His, badly expressed, point was: Why turn the device off at all? While the default configuration is something like you show above, for most users, it isn't the best configuration. If you are reading even just once a day, it probably isn't saving any power. And means the device isn't ready for you when you want to use it. The suggestion is usually to set the power off timer to never. That way it will sleep after a few minutes when you put it down, but, it will wake quickly when you want to read again. And the book you were reading will be opened.

[Gadgetguy]

Thank you all. I was not aware that the recommended way of operation was not turning off at all (considering the many options offered by the forma to do so). Will do that now to avoid this bug showing up. Thank you!

[koboy]

Originally Posted by Gadgetguy

Thank you all. I was not aware that the recommended way of operation was not turning off at all (considering the many options offered by the forma to do so). Will do that now to avoid this bug showing up. Thank you!

bare in my mind when making any changes powering off is the best way to ensure the database is updated accordingly.

best wishes koboy

[JSWolf]

I tested my H2O and I could not replicate the sleep bug.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by davidfor

From what @DevonHess says, there is an actual problem. It sounds like if the cover is closed and never opened when the Forma is turned on, it doesn't trigger the sleep modes properly.

I've definitely seen this on my forma, and possibly on my H2O as well.
Bad timing between the power button and the sleep cover can cause it to go insane.

I've also had this happen if the sleep timer triggers and then I immediately (within less than 5 seconds) try to turn it back on. Sometimes that deactivates the touchscreen also, and I've got to put it back to sleep for 30 seconds to reset that.

[NiLuJe]

Originally Posted by compurandom

Sometimes that deactivates the touchscreen also, and I've got to put it back to sleep for 30 seconds to reset that.

That should only affect devices with an IR grid (e.g., the H2O), where, yeah, it's a bug ;p. I'd be *extremely* curious if you can reproduce that on a device with a capacitive grid instead (e.g., the Forma).

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

That should only affect devices with an IR grid (e.g., the H2O), where, yeah, it's a bug ;p. I'd be *extremely* curious if you can reproduce that on a device with a capacitive grid instead (e.g., the Forma).

When I tried to reproduce it on the forma, I get the slide to unlock screen.
Possibly I could trigger it if I disabled that. But why would I want to re-enable a bug?

[james_]

Before I bought a sleep cover for the Forma I used to power it on/off and now it is permanently either 'asleep' or 'on' it seems to make no noticable difference to power consumption. That is how you'd expect if it is just the page turns and backlight that eat up the power. I do like just being able to flip open the cover and start reading whenever I feel like it, it's not worth wrestling with the on/off button on this device!

[PeterT]

Not sure if this is applicable but just saw this in a tweet from Kobo

https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/artic...harging-issues

[Lypa]

Originally Posted by Gadgetguy

Hello all,
Several times I have observed, that when I switch the unit on, the backlight comes on and it goes into "read" mode (and stays there with backlight on), even if I do not open the magnetic cover for a few minutes.

I don't know which magnetic cover you use but could it be it lost the magnet which makes the cover work properly?

[davidfor]

For the record, I reported this problem to Kobo. They have reproduced it with both the Forma and Libra H2O. Hopefully it will be fixed in the next firmware release.