Send to Kindle won't send author name from metadata.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by spanishguy

I just updated to Calibre 6.5 and when I send docs via email to my Kindle I now get gibberish for the title and author unknown. Before the update I was getting the title followed by a dash and then the authors name on the same line with unknown where the authors name should be. Someone needs to sort it out asap.

If you read a couple posts back, you'd find out this isn't a bug with Calibre. Amazon stopped reading the metadata from the book itself and is only basing off of the subject line of the email. Calibre right now puts just random letters on the subject line. Calibre will change the subject line to the title - author of the book on a future update.

[GeniusJ]

Yeah that's what the last few pages of this thread have been about.

[Yammerhant]

I have just been testing this, sending direct from Calibre and also from email, using an EPUB which worked perfectly fine last week, and Amazon is simply using the filename as the document title and ignoring the metadata altogether.

The interesting question is whether this is simply some mistake on their part or a deliberate move.

[shamanNS]

If you take into consideration one historical information regarding (Windows version of) Send to Kindle app then you can come to a conclusion what type of "geniuses" Amazon hires.

STK Historical information = years ago STK app used to read and use mobi file's title and author metadata to pre-fill those two inputs in sending UI dialog and then developers "improved" it to ignore metadata and just use filename for title and whatever for author. And this is the way STK Windows app work till this very day So from having and option to overwrite / override bad metadata when and if it happens to be wrong to having to edit both input fields for every book you're sending.

[BionicGecko]

This is truly bizarre. On the one hand, they bring back cover images for personal documents in the new firmware update, but on the other they cripple personal documents by making it impossible to define the author… this makes no sense.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

This is truly bizarre. On the one hand, they bring back cover images for personal documents in the new firmware update, but on the other they cripple personal documents by making it impossible to define the author… this makes no sense.

Not impossible, just a bit more difficult. You need to use a send-to-kindle app instead of email and enter the title and author manually.

Perhaps someone will produce a calibre plugin that replicates the functionality of a send-to-kindle app but with the proper metadata inserted automatically.

[GeniusJ]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Perhaps someone will produce a calibre plugin that replicates the functionality of a send-to-kindle app but with the proper metadata inserted automatically.

That would be awesome, but I think it would rely on an API call to the Amazon side, which I don't think they have available.

[hleo12]

Calibre is updated to 6.6.

The book title is fixed, but it seems the author is still set to unknown.
I tried to edit my email plugboards but they all result to unknown author.

I was hoping to get started on fixing my library, but I guess that can wait.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Calibre is updated to 6.6.

The book title is fixed, but it seems the author is still set to unknown.
I tried to edit my email plugboards but they all result to unknown author.

I was hoping to get started on fixing my library, but I guess that can wait.

That is how Amazon is handling emailed personal documents these days. The file name of the attachment becomes the title and the author is always set to Unknown. Unless Amazon changes it again the only alternative is using a send-to-kindle app.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by jhowell

That is how Amazon is handling emailed personal documents these days. The file name of the attachment becomes the title and the author is always set to Unknown. Unless Amazon changes it again the only alternative is using a send-to-kindle app.

Then I guess I'll stick to sideloading for now. Other than the books I also want to read on my pc. Re-sending 500+ books one by one doesn't sound appealing right now.

[Pjama]

Yeah, and the send to Kindle app on MacBook hasn't been updated to work with ePubs yet.
I've re-sent some books as ePubs that had previously been converted to mobi. I sent them as ePubs to get the extra font options etc., that you can't get on mobi. So now - we have covers for side-loaded decently formatted books, but no author. Seems like there is always some piece of the puzzle missing. When something is added, something we previously had is taken away. (I don't want to side load, as I want them stored in the cloud).

I have started a new collection - ePubs missing authors - so I can go back and fix them at a later date.

Aside from which, my kindle is a mess anyway - even with the author names - it's a shambles. I wish we could neatly sort in author piles like on Kobo - not the scrolling through 1000 books, please no. I have lots of collections, but it's still a mess. I don't mind when I'm reading, but it's not pleasant aesthetically outside of the actual books.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by Pjama

Yeah, and the send to Kindle app on MacBook hasn't been updated to work with ePubs yet.

That's also how it is on the Windows version. We have to change the extension of the epub file to something else like txt, then drag it to the send to kindle program. Last time the app was updated was like Jan this year.

I wouldn't mind doing this, but the send to kindle app still doesn't auto-fill the author for you. It remembers the last author you put in. Not to mention changing extensions for each book you send.

All the other added steps just make it not worth to use the app. Aside from the one or two books I find myself wanting to read while I'm on my computer. Kindle for PC allowing personal documents was a big surprise.

[fivefilters]

Originally Posted by jhowell

That is how Amazon is handling emailed personal documents these days. The file name of the attachment becomes the title and the author is always set to Unknown. Unless Amazon changes it again the only alternative is using a send-to-kindle app.

I find it difficult to believe this is intentional on Amazon's side. They offer a Send to Kindle email service where they officially accept EPUBs. Are they going to ask people to start writing down the title and author in the email message along with the attachment to get the correct display?

If today you go and download an EPUB from gutenberg.org and send it to your Kindle email address. You'll have no idea what book you're looking at in your library view. It'll say something like "pg21351 by Unknown". You'll have to tap and open it to discover what the book is.

This wasn't a problem two weeks ago.

We wrote a blog post about this and how it's affecting Push to Kindle users here: https://www.fivefilters.org/2022/kindle-epub-issues/

[GeniusJ]

Thanks for the blog post. I've shared it with Amazon customer service (I'm chatting with them now -- they are borderline useless tier 1 "reading from a script" robot support, ugh).

EDIT: Amazon support is worthless. They're demanding I factory reset my Kindle Oasis to troubleshoot the problem with their cloud service. I don't have time for this.

[GeniusJ]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Calibre is updated to 6.6.

The book title is fixed, but it seems the author is still set to unknown.
I tried to edit my email plugboards but they all result to unknown author.

I was hoping to get started on fixing my library, but I guess that can wait.

Calibre 6.6.1 is still emailing files with jibberish subject. This is not fixed in Calibre.