Cover art not appearing for books transferred to new Kindle Basic via Calibre

[slquoue]

Books that I've transferred to my new Kindle Basic via Calibre don't show their covers.

I have registered my Kindle mainly to avoid the annoying sync popup but have transferred these books via USB-C.

Any help appeciated!

[tomsem]

You need to mark them as PDOC (personal document). If you convert to KFX (using KFX Output plugin) this is the default. If you convert to AZW3 you need to use one of several scripts to mark it as PDOC, calibre does not currently have this option.

You could try this one for AZW3 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=364681

[kovidgoyal]

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...-the-book-list

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...-the-book-list

The MOBI conversion options are confusing to me (as someone who has used this conversion option very rarely and never in recent years).

It is not clear what Enable Sharing does because the documentation refers to 'sharing to Facebook', something Kindles have not done for years. At the same time I expected having [PDOC] for personal document tag would be sufficient to have it selected when filter is set to Documents.

But unless Enable Sharing option is selected, it is treated as EBOK, and cover does not get generated. The tag can be anything or nothing; it seems to have no effect on whether it is treated as Document or not.

In any case it would be nice if conversion to AZW3 also had option to set PDOC, since some people prefer that to KFX.

[kovidgoyal]

The same option exists under AZW3 output as well.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The same option exists under AZW3 output as well.

Thanks, I see that now, and I understand what it does, more or less.

But the description is still confusing: 'Sharing' (on Kindle I guess that is just Goodreads now, at least in USA) means the book has to 1) have an ASIN for some book on Amazon, and 2) be EBOK (i.e show when Books filter is set), because otherwise it cannot be associated with some book on Goodreads.

However turning on 'enable sharing' option makes it a Document, and the UI for Sharing with Goodreads is unavailable.

Also having it be marked EBOK with ASIN makes it more likely to get removed from the Kindle if the ASIN is not associated with some purchase from Amazon, and cover images will not be generated on device as they will be for PDOC/Personal Documents (which AFAICT Amazon will not remove on sync).

IMO the wording should be updated to reflect current Kindle terminology (e.g. mark as Personal Document or some such), and default should be Personal Document, since it doesn't suffer from issues of removal and having no cover image.

Yes, there are use cases where someone may want it to be EBOK, as when they've made some style or spelling corrections to an Amazon purchase and also want it to have usual purchased features like being able to export notes and share status to Goodreads. But if it isn't Amazon purchase, and is just being side loaded, then fewer issues ensue with having it marked as Personal Document.

[kovidgoyal]

Except that if the default is changed, there will ensue a flood of bug reports about people either not able to find books on the kindle after sending them or finding them in documents instead of books.

The wording could possibly be updated, sadly I left the amazon ecosystem a while ago, so I am not sure of the best wording, PR welcome.

[tomsem]

Yes, I'll do a PR, thanks.