Touch Kobo Touch Firmware 1.9.16

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by Xennex1170

I've hit the limit several times already so I can tell you the Kobo Touch will tell you that your "Disk is Full" and to remove some files so that you can download the rest. As you read and erase (or just erase) onboard book/magazines/previews/newspapers you will free up space for files that it was unable to download in a previous sync. Don't worry the sync will not forget any files that it has failed to download previously. I believe the priority for downloads is as follows based on my experience: kobo ebooks, magazines, newspapers, firmware updates. I have noted that you need about 100MB free when a firmware update is available for it to download and install properly. Any less and it may download but it will fail.. Not to worry though even if it fails it doesn't screw anything up since the failure usually means it wasn't able to unpack the new firmware so it is not available to the system to run yet.

Thanks for that. So could the 'fix' for people running .14 and not wanting to upgrade to .16 yet still sync is to ensure they fill the internal storage and keep less than 100mb free? Would ebooks still sync but the firmware upgrade would continuously fail?

[volpo]

Add this to a list of strange doings with v1.9.16.

I thought I was missing something or losing it.

When I'm reading a book and put the KT to sleep and come back to the book I end up exactly where I left off, on the same page. When I leave the KT long enough it goes to sleep and then off. Upon my return I end up on the home page, select my book and am returned to, not the place I was at, one or two pages back. At first I didn't really notice but as time went on something smelled funny. I was reading stuff that I had already read, or was I?

I let it slide for a while until it bugged me enough that I did some experiments and it was true. Return after sleep was on the same page. Return after off was a page, sometimes two, back from where I left off. Good thing I checked. I thought I was losing it.

So there's another mystery for the developers.

(btw if you were wondering I lost 'it' quite a while ago )

[Geeky]

Originally Posted by volpo

Add this to a list of strange doings with v1.9.16.

I thought I was missing something or losing it.

When I'm reading a book and put the KT to sleep and come back to the book I end up exactly where I left off, on the same page. When I leave the KT long enough it goes to sleep and then off. Upon my return I end up on the home page, select my book and am returned to, not the place I was at, one or two pages back. At first I didn't really notice but as time went on something smelled funny. I was reading stuff that I had already read, or was I?

I let it slide for a while until it bugged me enough that I did some experiments and it was true. Return after sleep was on the same page. Return after off was a page, sometimes two, back from where I left off. Good thing I checked. I thought I was losing it.

So there's another mystery for the developers.

(btw if you were wondering I lost 'it' quite a while ago )

I think that's because a "book page" can span several display pages, depending on your settings (font size, spacings, layout of the ebook). If your Kobo "sleeps", it just changes the screen, but the "reader app" is left running in the background, thus it comes back immediately on when waking up the device. When powering down the "reader app" is closed and the device just marks the page number in the book you were on. So when opening the book again, you might end up a couple of display pages away from your original position.

[mdclements]

Originally Posted by jiminrussell

Just had a new problem (for me at least) with 1.9.16. The Kobo Touch deleted the book I was reading or at least it seemed to have as it was no longer the first book on my carousel and was not in my library so I sync and it downloaded the book again and I start reading and all seems well until I go to the next chapter and it takes me back to a chapter I have already read rather then going to next one (this is Game of Thrones 4 book bundle so finding my place again is a nightmare with no numbered chapters) so I use the table of contents to try and find my place again and every chapter is duplicated, what a mess, it seems like there are two copies of the same book on the device all mashed together.

I had to delete the book from the device and then fiddle around with the website copy of library, delete and undelete and do the same on the desktop app then sync multiple times, eventually got my book back on the kobo touch and it seems to be okay again now.

1.9.16 is a complete mess, if I have any further issues with this firmware I will be joining those who have gone back to 1.9.14.

Did you do the upgrade through the desktop or over wifi?

[jiminrussell]

I have done multiple updates on this and on my vox so not 100% certain of how each of the updates was done, but here is what I remember.

My first upgrade to 1.9.16 was via wifi on the touch itself, but I was too quick to do it and ended up with the original 1.9.16 that had the recommended list all the time (would not save the setting to Shortlist), so I went back to 1.9.14 then used desktop software to do the update to the second version of 1.9.16 so it would at least save my setting to shortlist until a sync.

Unfortunately I ended up with multiple strangeness so did a reset and install again of 1.9.16 this time through the desktop software and as long as I leave my Micro sdcard out of the touch it has been working very well for the last week or so. If I put the Micro SDCard in the touch I see some strange behaviour with books on the SD Card showing up in the library one minute and then disappearing, and then back again. I think this likely stems from my doing reset with the card still in the machine, I have been told this is a no-no, you should always take the sdcard out when doing reset/update)

Anyway at this point I have 1.9.16 installed and it seems stable without the SDCard mounts (I might try formatting the MicroSD at some point to fix this issue). I even have shortlist sticking on the bottom carousel after a sync because I have deleted the recommendations on my account on the kobo website, though that only lasts for a week and then you have to delete the new recommendation. I do see faster page turns with 1.9.16 then I did with 1.9.14 but I also see a bit more ghosting of text so it is a trade off.

[Xennex1170]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

Thanks for that. So could the 'fix' for people running .14 and not wanting to upgrade to .16 yet still sync is to ensure they fill the internal storage and keep less than 100mb free? Would ebooks still sync but the firmware upgrade would continuously fail?

Yeah, I guess that could be one way to postpone an update. :P It kept my Kobo Touch from updating for 2 weeks or so till I cleared enough space.

[therealjoeblow]

Originally Posted by Janet56

... and I have the problem with very slow response to touches, including where I have to tap the screen in a blank spot to make the first tap do what it is supposed to...

...And another one with the same problem... I wonder if the Dev's are listening and planning to:

a) fix the real, reported problems with the menu selections etc, and
b) roll back most of the silliness of this update.

The REAL Joe

[therealjoeblow]

Originally Posted by Shigalyov

Umm... so instead of useful features that people asked for we get a bunch of advertisements for products I will deliberately boycott and changes to some things we were just starting to get used to.

No support for tags, folders, series information... etc.

Plus a bunch of book previews taking up my precious space.

The other thing is that my KT actually seems dramatically slower since the update.

Sorry Kobo, if you really want to sell me books you're going to have to do a much better job than this. I'll be going out of my way not to buy them until things improve.

facepalm.jpg

All up, I'd give this update an E- .The only things nice I can say about it is that it hasn't actually killed my reader or given it a virus (I hope). And that at least "airplane mode" stays off now when I restart the reader (in previous versions it would be off).

Maybe I should be looking into an alternative operating system.

+1 on that!

I have seen *numerous* requests for proper tag, series and metadata support over the past 6 months. I have not seen one single request to have a bunch of advertising take over the home page on devices that people paid full price for.

Come on Kobo - how about listening to your paying customers and adding features that people want, rather than cramming in crap your marketing idiots tell you to???

The REAL Joe

[Panatec]

I would like to go back to firmware 1.9.14, but the link is no longer valid. Kobo, why pulled it off ? why not willing to give me the option to restore to former version? I do not want this current 1.9.16 version with advertisement, let me get rid of this featured books thing. If you really try to force me accepting the new version, I will not buy any book from you in the future as a protest.

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by therealjoeblow

+1 on that!

I have seen *numerous* requests for proper tag, series and metadata support over the past 6 months. I have not seen one single request to have a bunch of advertising take over the home page on devices that people paid full price for.

Come on Kobo - how about listening to your paying customers and adding features that people want, rather than cramming in crap your marketing idiots tell you to???

The REAL Joe

And +1 more from me as well. There is no way I would recommend a Kobo Touch to anyone now. And I shall also be boycotting buying books from Kobo in protest against this shameless pushing of products - none of which have been of the slightest interest to me by the way.

I shall stick to read public domain books (there are plenty after all) and keep the Kobo in Airplane Mode to avoid their ridiculous "Recommendations".

There are a lot of cheesed-off people here, Kobo. What are you going to do about it, or don't you care?

[Janet56]

Originally Posted by mconh

I have 1000 plus books on an SD card.
I managed to get acceptable speed by deleting all Kobo image files except Library_Full.parsed, Library_Grid.parsed and Library_List.parsed. The number of image files deleted was 3,000 plus.

This led to a dramatic increase in performance and responsiveness. I have also stayed with firmware 1.9.14.

Just to be sure before I start deleting files - for each book I have
N3_Full.parsed, N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed, N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed, N3_LIBRARY_List.parsed and N3_LIBRARY_Shelf.parsed.

Did you remove the N3_FULL and the N3_LIBRARY_SHELF for each book?

[voom]

I would like to go back to firmware 1.9.14, but the link is no longer valid.

I just wonder out of curiousity, if hosting or providing an unmodified "outdated" firmware that is no longer offered by the original source as such is legal.

[mconh]

Originally Posted by Janet56

Just to be sure before I start deleting files - for each book I have
N3_Full.parsed, N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed, N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed, N3_LIBRARY_List.parsed and N3_LIBRARY_Shelf.parsed.

Did you remove the N3_FULL and the N3_LIBRARY_SHELF for each book?

Yes, I removed N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed, N3_LIBRARY_SHELF and N3_Library_SOCIAL.

[mconh]

Originally Posted by mconh

Yes, I removed N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed, N3_LIBRARY_SHELF and N3_Library_SOCIAL.

Sorry it was the N3_FULL not LIBRARY_FULL.

[FJames]

Let's not get crazy here. There's nothing wrong with offering recommendations or suggestions for other books you might want to read. They usually aren't very good suggestions for most people, but some people that buy a lot of a specific type of book from kobobooks might find it useful. It's a little cheesy to copy competitors like the Nook Simple Touch and put the recommendations on the home screen, but the layout change itself is not the problem. The problem is the lack of flexibility to put other books lists on that bottom bar and have it stick, to customize the recommendations, or to remove that bottom bar entirely if you prefer the old layout.

So here's my suggestions to Kobo:
- Offer the option to remove the bottom bar entirely and go back to the old layout
- Make sure that alternative list choices for the bottom bar stick through a sync and don't revert to Recommendations
- Offer the option (in your Kobo account) to customize those recommendations, e.g., to watch for new books by specific authors, or in specific series