[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[Majutsushi]

Changes in this release:

• Support restoring and resetting reading times on devices
• When using the "Update metadata" feature to update series information then apply the series number template if configured in the driver

[Lys]

Originally Posted by Majutsushi

Changes in this release:

• Support restoring and resetting reading times on devices
• When using the "Update metadata" feature to update series information then apply the series number template if configured in the driver

Thanks!
I'll try the restore option next time I'll have to reset my device (touching wood, it's been a while since I managed to destroy my DB )

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Majutsushi

Changes in this release:

• Support restoring and resetting reading times on devices
• When using the "Update metadata" feature to update series information then apply the series number template if configured in the driver

Question: Is place to backup reading time?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Question: Is place to backup reading time?

If you have configured the Kobo Utilities properly, that ability was added a while back. The ability to copy that information back to your Kobo is what was added in this release. See attached image.

[dcbrow2]

Hi, thanks for your work on this plugin! I updated but can't get the restore reading times to do anything.

I have a calibre columns for time spent reading and time left and when I sync with kobo, those columns get updated with the seconds spent reading (for example, one book I was testing has 24892 for Kobo Time Spent Reading and 2199 for Kobo Time Left.

But because I had a database corruption recently that caused Kobo to reset itself, I had to restore a backup library that had no reading status for this book. So Kobo shows 0 minutes read under reading stats. Is this where I would expect to see the updated reading time?

For the plugin, I see the "Update reading time" option (and it has a check in the box) when I choose "store/restore reading positions", but the stats on the Kobo don't change.

Am I misunderstanding what this does or how to use it? Thanks. I'm happy to do any testing if that is helpful.

[dcbrow2]

It occurred to me that I should have included the log information. This is what the plug in log says after trying to update the reading time:

15:16:05: Storing reading positions for device Kobo Clara BW (N365654050934)
15:16:05: Using profile 'Kobo Clara BW'
15:16:06: Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life: Found changes:
- Last read time: 2026-11-01 23:04:45+00:00 (device) → 2026-11-01 20:48:59+00:00 (Calibre)
- Time spent reading: 14 (device) → 24892 (Calibre)
- Rest of book estimate: 2200 (device) → 2199 (Calibre)
15:16:07: Found 1 books with changes
15:16:11: Cancelled storing of reading positions

Does that help? I will note that I didn't have set reading status checked.

[giannib]

Hi, I want to get Collectins from Device, but the collection box is emty, where i should choose the column. it worked times ago, any idea mate?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by giannib

Hi, I want to get Collectins from Device, but the collection box is emty, where i should choose the column. it worked times ago, any idea mate?

Posting duplicate messages is a big no-no. See the Posting Guidelines.

I answered your question in the Kobo Utilities Plugin Question thread in the Kobo Reader forum.

[Majutsushi]

Originally Posted by dcbrow2

But because I had a database corruption recently that caused Kobo to reset itself, I had to restore a backup library that had no reading status for this book. So Kobo shows 0 minutes read under reading stats. Is this where I would expect to see the updated reading time?

Yes, that is where you should see it. But if you restore from a library that has no reading status for a book then of course it can't actually restore anything, unless I'm misunderstanding your question.

Originally Posted by dcbrow2

It occurred to me that I should have included the log information. This is what the plug in log says after trying to update the reading time:

15:16:05: Storing reading positions for device Kobo Clara BW (N365654050934)
15:16:05: Using profile 'Kobo Clara BW'
15:16:06: Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life: Found changes:
- Last read time: 2026-11-01 23:04:45+00:00 (device) → 2026-11-01 20:48:59+00:00 (Calibre)
- Time spent reading: 14 (device) → 24892 (Calibre)
- Rest of book estimate: 2200 (device) → 2199 (Calibre)
15:16:07: Found 1 books with changes
15:16:11: Cancelled storing of reading positions

Does that help? I will note that I didn't have set reading status checked.

This log is for the automatic updating of the positions in Calibre from the device, but if I'm understanding your first post correctly then that's not what you're trying to do. In any case the log says that you cancelled storing the reading positions, did you just close the dialog instead of pressing OK? In that case the positions aren't updated in Calibre.

[dcbrow2]

Hi, what happened is that the kobo reset itself. I restored the database with a backup that was about 1 month old. During that month I read Winesburg. OH. So when I restored the database from the backup the book would have been added again to the Kobo (when it says importing content or something similar). I then tried a number of times to restore the time spent reading and couldn't get it working. I never cancelled the dialog, I always pressed OK.

It did occur to me that if the Kobo data base didn't have a record of reading time to restore to, it might not work, so I did try reading Winesburg, OH for a few minutes and restoring the time again but I still couldn't get it to work.

Can you walk through what is needed for the restore to work? It might be helpful to understand under what conditions the restore works. Thanks.