How bad an idea is it to put calibre-portable on my kobo and run it from there?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by TheRealJohnAdams

Spot-on—it did in fact try to import all my calibre files (.txt config files, interface graphics, etc.) as ebooks. That took a while to fix, but apparently there is a built-in option in the Kobo eReader.conf file that lets you set a regex of paths to ignore. So that problem is solved.

When you do this, you'll want to create a .calibre directory as the regex you should use for this blocks .directories from being scanned.

(As an aside, I don't plan on keeping the calibre library itself on the Kobo. The main library will live on my desktop—I only need access to the calibre program in case I want to add new books while I'm away from home.)

If you have your library on your laptop, you might as well have Calibre there as well. It's going to be a lot slower to run Calibre from a Kobo.

[JimmXinu]

It was slow to install on an older Kindle, but worked without issue for a quick test.

Need to remember to quit Calibre before ejecting, of course.

[DNSB]

Did some quick testing with a Kobo Sage and having calibre portable installed on it worked. OTOH, since I needed my laptop to run this while out and about, it was just simpler to install calibre portable on the laptop.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

It was slow to install on an older Kindle, but worked without issue for a quick test.

Need to remember to quit Calibre before ejecting, of course.

When Calibre ran, did it automatically recognize that the Kobo was plugged into the USB port? I would expect that and I would also expect because of that, there would be no way to use Calibre to put eBook on any other Reader while the Kobo was plugged in.

[Quoth]

Yes, you'd need to disable the Kobo detection to transfer to a different ereader, or use a disk location as a device (not great for Kobo, but works for Kindle, non-android Binatone and Android.

I'd use a USB stick on the car or house keys? Then you've bigger problems if it's lost!

[ownedbycats]

If it did detect the Kobo, I'd also be curious to see what the device tab looked like.

[theducks]

Putting the Library management Activity on the built in flash can lead to early demise of non replaceable flash.

Normal/portable Calibre does quite a few file read-writes in normal usage. This would add a lot more wear-n-tear

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by theducks

Putting the Library management Activity on the built in flash can lead to early demise of non replaceable flash.

Normal/portable Calibre does quite a few file read-writes in normal usage. This would add a lot more wear-n-tear

Yes, I mentioned that:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Also while not as much a concern, I'd be a biit worried about premature wearing on the SD card.

[JimmXinu]

Since the whole point is to manage the one Kobo, not recognizing other devices wouldn't really be a problem, IMO.

Originally Posted by theducks

Normal/portable Calibre does quite a few file read-writes in normal usage. This would add a lot more wear-n-tear

Quite possibly. That would be my primary concern, actually.

But OTOH, I would tend to assume that the internal storage is the same chip as a thumb drive/SD card.

I vaguely recall seeing a literal microSD card on the board as the 'internal' storage in some device. Early Nook maybe?

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Since the whole point is to manage the one Kobo, not recognizing other devices wouldn't really be a problem, IMO.

In the worst case, configure Calibre to ignore the Kobo and use a different USB port.

[theducks]

The chip may be the same, but you have to replace the reader (not many folk have SMD repair facilities) if it fails, while a USB pen drive is a lot less expensive