Disabling Swipe for Menu?

[Paul Reader]

I recently replaced my never-updated Kobo Clara SE with a new Kobo Clara BW ... and along with that came the latest firmware (4.44 from 2025-11-13). Sometime over the last many years Kobo added a feature whereby swiping up or down while reading brings up a sort of menu (really more like top and bottom control panels).

I need to disable this feature. Kobo is interpreting 25% of my tap-for-next-page gestures as swipes. It's maddening. This thing is overly sensitive as to what is considered a swipe, or my hands are too shaky, or whatever. This is an absolutely awful usability problem, and I can't imagine how anyone with a physical problem (or even my older mother) could ever hope to use this reader.

Unfortunately, there is nothing in the menu to disable the feature or alter the required distance to qualify a swipe. Gemini isn't finding any simple config file item. There is no "Accessibility" menu that I can see, either.

[Tibor]

Some here. Very frustrating. Contact support for make pressing. I hope a software fix.

[bluepeter]

Huh. I've been using a Clara BW since it was launched a couple of years ago, and never noticed this function. I've always, and only ever, tapped the centre of the screen to get the reading menu.

Anyway, it might be worth your while asking in the kobopatch request thread if this can be patched. (I don't see anything in the currently available patches that'll help, but it's not impossible that I've missed it.)

[neclepsio]

Originally Posted by bluepeter

Anyway, it might be worth your while asking in the kobopatch request thread if this can be patched.

This is a post for a similar request and gives a clear indication of how to do it something similar, for someone knowing the matter. Unfortunately, I have no experience with Kobo patching.

[neclepsio]

Kobo is interpreting 25% of my tap-for-next-page gestures as swipes. It's maddening. This thing is overly sensitive as to what is considered a swipe, or my hands are too shaky, or whatever.

I'm 43 and with no physical problems yet, and now that you made me notice I have the very same problem (but now I know the problem is not where I touch, but how). It's definitively too sensitive.

[PennyDred]

It may be worse on the Clara BW but I have also encountered this problem when I set up the Elipsa for my elderly father. He really likes the remote, but if he accidentally touched the screen with his shaky hand he was getting confusing menus popping up. I really wish there was some kind of 'safe mode' to use with the remote.
In the meantime I have changed the reading settings to 'page forward and back by: Swiping only' . It seems counterintuitive. But I've found it helps the kobo to ignore small indefinite gestures.
I'd welcome any other suggestions, or patches that would help.

[xor_]

I've made a patch for this issue the other day.

I didn't do a whole lot of testing, but it basically works for me on Sage and Forma on firmware 4.38.23697.

You can paste the code into your file libnickel.so.1.0.0.yaml in kobopatch yourself, or wait until it gets integrated.

[PennyDred]

This looks promising, thank you. It will be a little while before I get the time to test it but I will post feedback when I can.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PennyDred

This looks promising, thank you. It will be a little while before I get the time to test it but I will post feedback when I can.

The new patches to disable swiping are available here for firmware 4.38.23697. I doubt they'll work for the firmware for the newer Kobo Readers.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=373791

[JSWolf]

I tried the patches with 4.45.23697 and they did not work.

@xor_, could you see if you could make these patches work with 4.45.23697?

[xor_]

I don't have such a device, so I cannot actually test it. But this might work. Anyone on firmware 4.45.23697 want to try and report back?

#disable swipe gestures
disable fw/bckw swipes:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: disable swipes for page turns
  - ReplaceBytes:
      Offset: 0xF9A5B8
      FindH: FA F6 3C CE
      ReplaceH: 00 BF 00 BF
  - ReplaceBytes:
      Offset: 0xF9A5C6
      FindH: F7 F6 A8 CA
      ReplaceH: 00 BF 00 BF

disable menu swipes:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: disable swipes for menu open
  - ReplaceBytes: 
      Offset: 0xF9A604
      FindH: 1D F7 D2 C8
      ReplaceH: 00 BF 00 BF
  - ReplaceBytes:
      Offset: 0xF9A60C
      FindH: EF F6 68 CC
      ReplaceH: 00 BF 00 BF

[retro]

[QUOTE=xor_;4590960]I don't have such a device, so I cannot actually test it. But this might work. Anyone on firmware 4.45.23697 want to try and report back?]

I applied it to my Libra C and it works!
I had already applied it to my Clara2e and was hoping for this!
Thanks!

[Paul Reader]

Gemini was able to give me a quick "fix". A workaround, actually. According to Gemini, this is a problem related to the power management software. If you have WiFi and Bluetooth disabled, parts of the screen controller go to sleep, wake up too late, and cause your presses to be mis-interpreted (there's actually a whole lot of problems I have noticed since I first posted these issues). Sure enough, if I enable WiFi and Bluetooth the problem goes away. The problem is I'm not going to do that long term ... but I do it when it starts making me want to hurl the device at a wall.

So, it's great that there is a patch! I will try it out once I figure out how. Note I posted this in the Kobo feature request thread, too, and someone pointed to Reddit threads that indicate real bug present on the P365 models of the Clara BW, but not the N365 models. Some ppl were doing warranty returns, but since I theorized P comes after N (and the Reddit threads are old) there would be no more N365 models available for exchanges. I tried anyway.

Kobo's customer service was absolutely horrendous but I did eventually manage to return my reader for a new one. Unfortunately, as I suspected, I received yet another P365 despite asking for an N365 or N365B

[Paul Reader]

Originally Posted by xor_

I don't have such a device, so I cannot actually test it. But this might work. Anyone on firmware 4.45.23697 want to try and report back?

#disable swipe gestures

According to Gemini this is not really the cause, so simply disabling the swipes might do nothing. There are actually far more problems than I first reported in this thread and the feature request thread. E.g., long pressing to bring up the dictionary gets interpreted as a single click and turns the page (forward if you are long pressing to the right, backward if you are long pressing to the left).

According to Gemini this is a bug related to the power management features. When WiFi and Bluetooth are disabled the touch controller goes into a deeper sleep, does not wake up fast enough, and mis-interpreted touches. I'm always skeptical of Gemini, but sure enough: enabling WiFi and Bluetooth makes the problem go away for me. That said, I'm not leaving my device like that and still believe a real fix is appropriate.

[xor_]

Originally Posted by retro

I applied it to my Libra C and it works!
I had already applied it to my Clara2e and was hoping for this!
Thanks!

Thanks for testing and confirming that the patch works.