Side load books to Kindle Voyage without USB?

[jeff47]

Calibre runs on a headless server in my basement. My main reader is a Kobo, and getting books onto it is easy. However, I have a Kindle Voyage I wanted to set up for my daughter, and I can't figure out a good way to get books onto it.

I've tried:
1) Mounting it via sshfs and "Mount directory" in Calibre. This works for the Kobo but for the Kindle any books copied this way don't appear on the device.
2) Email as mobi - Amazon pretends they are corrupt or whatever, although they are not. Probably annoyed I didn't buy the books from them.
3) Calibre or Calibre-web via the experiment browser. It was so slow I had to force restart the device.

Are there options I'm not aware of?

[jhowell]

Amazon has just added the ability to email books in EPUB format. You might want to try that instead of MOBI.

[QBit99]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Amazon has just added the ability to email books in EPUB format. You might want to try that instead of MOBI.

Do you need to update to their latest software or it works automatically?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by QBit99

Do you need to update to their latest software or it works automatically?

No special software needed.

[jeff47]

Originally Posted by jhowell

No special software needed.

This works great, although it does seem to lose the book cover. Seems like a minor quibble, but I'm trying to get the device set up for my 2nd grader and the covers matter!

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by jeff47

This works great, although it does seem to lose the book cover.

Yes that is a down side. Emailed personal documents delivered in KF8 format only show a generic cover in the Kindle's library.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Yes that is a down side. Emailed personal documents delivered in KF8 format only show a generic cover in the Kindle's library.

uhhh... so epub books would lose their covers when they get sent as a personal document? Usually I convert a book to the old mobi format using calibre if they don't have any cover on my kindle and that works. There's currently no work around for that? I was kinda looking forward to not converting my books before sending them over, but covers are a pretty big deal for me.

[shamanNS]

Any input file that after going through Amazon's PDOC conversion system ends up as a azw3 file (and this will be the new default behavior) will have that problem. Epub as a starting format has zero effect in that whole scenario, only makes it more ironic because unlike stuff like doc, docx, rtf, txt
... epub actually contains a cover image marked in a way that conversion system should be able to use.

It is the Kindle firmware that is programmed in that way to intentionally not generate thumbnail by extracting existing cover image inside the book / inside the azw3 file.
And Amazon has gone an extra step years ago when they've made a change to stop the firmware from using even user-sideload thumbnail files for azw3 books that are tagged as PDOC.

In the past & on older firmware you could use this script go have both read position & notes sync between Kindle devices AND better book formating (by using azw3 instead of mobi) AND have cover thumbnails.

 https://github.com/quiris11/ExtractCoverThumbs/

And even if post-download you would change that flag from PDOC to EBOK (in order to have cover thumbnail) that would break the sync functionality.


Stimpy put: azw3 with PDOC flag = no thumbnails, no workarounds.

That is one of the ways in which Amazon "subtly" tries to make people buy books from Kindle Store.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by hleo12

uhhh... so epub books would lose their covers when they get sent as a personal document? Usually I convert a book to the old mobi format using calibre if they don't have any cover on my kindle and that works. There's currently no work around for that? I was kinda looking forward to not converting my books before sending them over, but covers are a pretty big deal for me.

Technically, epub books *do not* lose their covers, presuming they have a proper cover in the first place. If a cover image is present in the epub and listed in the TOC, you should be able to enjoy looking at your cover just fine by navigating to it.

But the Kindle won't *show* the proper cover when you are browsing your books in your library. Which is annoying, for sure! I like cover art, but I can live with it not showing in my library as long as I can still view it inside the book.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Yes that is a down side. Emailed personal documents delivered in KF8 format only show a generic cover in the Kindle's library.

It should be noted that this is a Kindle device only issue. When downloaded with Kindle app for iOS/Fire/Android, cover images do show.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

Any input file that after going through Amazon's PDOC conversion system ends up as a azw3 file (and this will be the new default behavior) will have that problem. Epub as a starting format has zero effect in that whole scenario, only makes it more ironic because unlike stuff like doc, docx, rtf, txt
... epub actually contains a cover image marked in a way that conversion system should be able to use.

It is the Kindle firmware that is programmed in that way to intentionally not generate thumbnail by extracting existing cover image inside the book / inside the azw3 file.
And Amazon has gone an extra step years ago when they've made a change to stop the firmware from using even user-sideload thumbnail files for azw3 books that are tagged as PDOC.

In the past & on older firmware you could use this script go have both read position & notes sync between Kindle devices AND better book formating (by using azw3 instead of mobi) AND have cover thumbnails.

 https://github.com/quiris11/ExtractCoverThumbs/

And even if post-download you would change that flag from PDOC to EBOK (in order to have cover thumbnail) that would break the sync functionality.


Stimpy put: azw3 with PDOC flag = no thumbnails, no workarounds.

That is one of the ways in which Amazon "subtly" tries to make people buy books from Kindle Store.

This might be the end of me ever using whispersync then, the one kindle feature that made me stay with kindle. Unless someone somehow finds a way around this.

Originally Posted by graycyn

Technically, epub books *do not* lose their covers, presuming they have a proper cover in the first place. If a cover image is present in the epub and listed in the TOC, you should be able to enjoy looking at your cover just fine by navigating to it.

But the Kindle won't *show* the proper cover when you are browsing your books in your library. Which is annoying, for sure! I like cover art, but I can live with it not showing in my library as long as I can still view it inside the book.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The cover thumbnail is a pretty huge deal to me. I re-convert and resend my books multiple times if they somehow don't display their covers on my kindle. Specially now that Amazon forced thumbnails on list view.



If things go forward this way, I might just have to stick with sideloading books via USB. And since I'll be sideloading anyways, my next upgrade probably won't be a Kindle.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by tomsem

It should be noted that this is a Kindle device only issue. When downloaded with Kindle app for iOS/Fire/Android, cover images do show.

Yes, this is true. I think it's odd they allow the covers to show on tablets/phones but not on e-ink, but Amazon does what Amazon wants to do, I guess. It just seems so pointless to deny the thumbnail to the e-ink readers.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by hleo12

snippage And since I'll be sideloading anyways, my next upgrade probably won't be a Kindle.

It's one of the reasons I prefer my Kobo. I don't really need the Whispersync aspect often, though to be sure, it's a blamed nice feature that I wish Kobo also had. But I like seeing my covers.

I roll some of my own ebooks, simply because I have a lot of vintage out-of-print books that are not likely to become ebooks any time soon. I've usually side-loaded those, because of the cover thing.

My Kindle is a convenience reader, primarily used for easy reading of Kindle specific freebies. I only remove DRM from those if I actually *like* the book and think I might wish to re-read.

I love reading, so while it is an indulgence to have multiple e-readers, they do get used!

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by graycyn

It's one of the reasons I prefer my Kobo.

To be honest, aside from whispersync, one of the biggest deciding factors for me was that Kobo isn't just as readily available here. There are shops online that carries Kobos locally, but they're usually out of stock, while Kindles are easy to find. Not to mention Kobos here are overpriced. A Kobo Nia here is the same price as a pw4, and a Clara HD the same as pw5. Just basing on the hardware alone, I'd rather get a pw5 than an older clara hd. But with these recent changes from Amazon, losing money over features doesn't sound that bad.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by hleo12

To be honest, aside from whispersync, one of the biggest deciding factors for me was that Kobo isn't just as readily available here. There are shops online that carries Kobos locally, but they're usually out of stock, while Kindles are easy to find. Not to mention Kobos here are overpriced. A Kobo Nia here is the same price as a pw4, and a Clara HD the same as pw5. Just basing on the hardware alone, I'd rather get a pw5 than an older clara hd. But with these recent changes from Amazon, losing money over features doesn't sound that bad.

Kobo isn't perfect either. Covers are not a problem, but then there's kepub vs. epub. Both have advantages and disadvantages, so one has to decide which is best for which book. I usually prefer the look of epub for most fiction, but I forgot, and loaded epub for a non-fiction book, one with tons of footnotes, and realized I'm gonna have to re-sideload that specific book again only in kepub to have the best experience.

Kobo has become easier to get here in the U.S., via ordering through Amazon or WalMart, but I ordered my first Kobo through Kobo, got a lemon and had a rather poor and lengthy return/exchange annoying warranty experience. Subsequent Kobos were not purchased from Kobo directly, but from Chapters/Indigo and Amazon.

But I've been very happy with the devices, so I'm glad I didn't give up on them.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk