PRS-350 Collections Glitch - Page 2

Bookworm_Girl · 02-22-2011, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pomtroll

Bookworm wrote: I am curious. When you connect your ereader via USB, do you have a file called metadata.db on your ereader?
How do I bring up anything on my reader when it is connected via USB. All I get is charging battery & I can't get any other screen? Even if I press options no other screen comes up.

Use Windows Explorer (or Mac Finder). Your 350 should show up like a hard-drive and then you can look at the files on it. That's where you can find the media.xml file too. Sometimes when data gets corrupted it's helpful to delete the media.xml file and have it recreate itself. Don't forget to properly eject your 350 before you disconnect the USB cable.

Pomtroll · 02-22-2011, 05:54 PM

I'm getting confused here. For one, I don't know how to find the media.XML file or the metadata.db

And no I haven't tried a soft reset. Will try that.

I feel like such a dunce.

Shopaholic · 02-22-2011, 07:10 PM

How are you transfering the books onto your reader? Are you dragging them to the reader from your computer Sony Library or are you using the Sync feature explained earlier?

To me, it sounds like you're using Sync which will create multiple copies of books sometimes on the reader.

Are you good with computers or not? The file Bookworm Girl is asking you to find is on your reader but you have to go to you computer to find the file that is on the reader through windows explorer. NOT the browser internet explorer, but windows explorer that shows you the various files that are on your computer or any device connected to your computer.

Follow?

Pomtroll · 02-22-2011, 07:40 PM

First off. I want to thank everyone for trying to help me.

Bookworm_Girl Okay I found the media file on my Mac. It lists the books I've loaded on my Sony350. I can't find any metadata.db though. I did find metadata.calibre but I don't have the application to open it according to my Mac when I click on it.

Shopoholic I'm clicking on the book & dragging it to my reader. But if it is syncing then it would be downloading to my reader more than once right? How do I check for that? Is it under preferences at the Reader Library? I do have a syncing folder on my device hardware. It says cache2.XML & deleted.XML

Bookworm_Girl · 02-22-2011, 09:08 PM

Pomtroll, it's ok to be confused. We are throwing a lot of different ideas at you. It has got to be more than a little overwhelming, especially when the Sony is new to you. We've all been in your position before. Good to know you are on a Mac, that's what I have too.

If you delete the media.xml file, then it will erase all your collections currently on your 350 and start fresh. The negative is that I think that you will lose any of your notes and bookmarks, etc. I would make a copy of the media.xml file before you delete it. For example, place a copy on your desktop. You shouldn't need the backup copy, but it's usually a good idea.

I don't think you should do anything with the metadata file. I just wanted to know if you had one. Since you have a metadata.calibre file that implies that at some point you had your ereader connected when calibre was open. I still think that calibre is the likely source of all your collections. Here's a test you can try. I would open calibre (when your ereader is not connected via USB). Here's what I would look for in calibre. To begin with, make sure that you have selected the icons in the lower right corner of the calibre window so that you "Show Tag Browser" and "Show Book Details".

1) In the box in the left of the screen (that's the Tag Browser), do you see an item called "Tags"? For example, I have 45 tags. If you expand the drop-down box under Tags, do any of the names look like the names of the collections on your 350?

2) Are any of the books in your calibre library list the same as the books that are on your 350? If so, click on the book to highlight it. In the window on the right of the screen (that's the Book Details) are the tags listed that look like the collections on your 350?

If the answer to these 2 questions is yes, then calibre was probably the problem. You could edit the metadata for your books in calibre to delete all those tags or simplify them. Then the next time you connect your 350 with calibre, it won't try to recreate any of those random collections again.

I think that you are probably not syncing with Reader Library if you aren't sure. I have a sync folder on my 350. In the Sync folder that you found, I also have a file called sync.xml. When I right click on sync.xml and open with TextEdit, then I see a list of all of the collections which are being synced between my 350 & Reader Library. If you don't have a sync.xml file in this folder, then you aren't syncing collections.

Pomtroll · 02-22-2011, 09:29 PM

I've been working on this problem all evening & I think I've narrowed it down to my work computer. I have both Calibre & Sony Reader Library on my 2 computers. The home one is a Mac & the work one is Windows.

As to checking out the tags, none of the books in question (from my Sony) are there on my Mac computer Calibre program at home. I'll have to check my computer at work tomorrow.

I downloaded 2 books tonight via my mac computer from 2 different sources & there are no new collections created. Everything went smoothly.

So I'll check it out tomorrow with the Windows computer. I'll run through all that you mentioned tonight on that one. Thank you so much for trying to help me. I've learned a lot tonight.

Bookworm_Girl · 02-22-2011, 09:48 PM

Great! Get some rest tonight and maybe when you are fresh tomorrow it will be better. Sometimes it helps to sleep on it while your mind works in the background.

delphin · 02-23-2011, 05:52 AM

This is almost certainly due to Calibre.

As much as I like Calibre, it did do this 'hundreds of collections' thing to me also.

There are two main issues here.

1. When adding titles into Calibre, it imports or downloads way too many metadata tags.

2. When you send the files to your Sony, these tags get converted to collections.

Calibre has several options that control how files are tagged when added to your Calibre library.

Unfortunately, the options that control tags are splattered all over the place -

Under "Behavior"

- Overwrite author and title by default when fetching metadata
- Download social metadata

Under "Adding Books"

- Read metadata from file contents rather than file name

The above options will control how many tags, if any, that Calibre creates when adding files.

Once Calibre creates the tags in it's internal library, conversion of these Calbre tags to Sony reader collections is controlled by yet another set of options -

First the metadata is filtered through the "Metadata plugboards" (should be no problems here if you didn't change anything)

Then the conversion to actual collections on the reader is controlled by -

Preferences -> Plugins -> Sony Device Interface

Be sure to pick the 'Device Interface' plugin, NOT the Sony Output plugin (which is probably what most people would guess).

Under the Sony Device Interface plugin's options you will see an option that controls tag to collection conversions.

If you don't care how many tags Calibre creates internally, but DON'T want Calibre to create ANY collections on your Sony, the Sony Device Interface Plugin options are where you can fix things.

This has changed with recent updates to Calibre, so older versions in Linux or Mac OS look different, but ALL versions have the potential to cause problems by sending too many tags to the reader as collections, depending on how they are set up, so I have disabled this feature entirely, and just create my collections manually on the reader.

Pomtroll · 02-23-2011, 10:03 AM

Thanks delphin, that makes sense. I'll look into this.

Pomtroll · 02-23-2011, 02:12 PM

Okay I looked into Calibre on my Windows here at work.

Unfortunately, the options that control tags are splattered all over the place -

Under "Behavior"

- Overwrite author and title by default when fetching metadata
- Download social metadata

Are these suppose to be checked or not? Mine are checked

Under "Adding Books"

- Read metadata from file contents rather than file name (This should be checked? Mine is)

The above options will control how many tags, if any, that Calibre creates when adding files.

Once Calibre creates the tags in it's internal library, conversion of these Calbre tags to Sony reader collections is controlled by yet another set of options -

First the metadata is filtered through the "Metadata plugboards" (should be no problems here if you didn't change anything)

Mine has all spaces empty

Then the conversion to actual collections on the reader is controlled by -

Preferences -> Plugins -> Sony Device Interface Can't Find Sony Device interface

Be sure to pick the 'Device Interface' plugin, NOT the Sony Output plugin (which is probably what most people would guess). How do you pick this???? I'm not sure I'm seeing the same things you are.

Under the Sony Device Interface plugin's options you will see an option that controls tag to collection conversions. Don't see this. But I'll go back & re-look.

If you don't care how many tags Calibre creates internally, but DON'T want Calibre to create ANY collections on your Sony, the Sony Device Interface Plugin options are where you can fix things.

This has changed with recent updates to Calibre, so older versions in Linux or Mac OS look different, but ALL versions have the potential to cause problems by sending too many tags to the reader as collections, depending on how they are set up, so I have disabled this feature entirely, and just create my collections manually on the reader.

delphin · 02-23-2011, 08:22 PM

What software version of Calibre do you have?

I ask because these "plugin" options changed from release to release in Calibre.

Don't get too hung up on the exact name, just open up your preferences and find the 'plugin' section, and do your best to find the Sony Device plugins.

Can you see ANY of the 'plugin' settings under preferences?

If you can find the plugin preferences, but can't see the one for the Sony, be aware that on at least one version of Calibre, I couldn't easily find ANY of the Sony plugins, because the of a silly/stupid thing where the plugin preferences window was defaulted just a little too small. So it wasn't wide enough, and the right side scroll bar wasn't visible. Because of this, you couldn't scroll down and find the "Sony" plugins in the list until you intentionally grabbed the right side of the window and dragged it to resize it larger.

When you find the right plugin you should be able to hit the "customize plugin" button and then, if it's the right one, down near the bottom of the pop up window, will be an option that controls turning "metadata fields into collections on the device" In older versions of Calibre it was just a yes or no check box, on newer versions it's a single line text box.

On the older versions of Calibre with the check box, you just un-check it, and on the new versions with the single line text box, if you blank it out and don't list any tag fields, then it will also disable the creation of collections completely.

Pomtroll · 02-23-2011, 08:40 PM

Okay I found that & blanked the single line text box. I came back to ask if I did any harm by doing that, but found your reply saying that was what I was suppose to do. Phew

delphin · 02-23-2011, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pomtroll

Okay I found that & blanked the single line text box. I came back to ask if I did any harm by doing that, but found your reply saying that was what I was suppose to do. Phew

Great, that should take care of things, you can still manage things on your Sony itself by putting books into any collections that you want to create and manage on the device itself (which is how I prefer to handle things)

It's not likely, but if you do see any issues going forward, be aware that some older versions of Calibre have a couple of those Sony Interface plugins, and so anyone running into this, if you do happen to set the wrong one, just go back and set the other Sony Interface plugins the same way (doesn't hurt on older versions of Calibre to have them ALL turned off).

The version you described though sounds like the current version, which I believe now has only a single Sony Interface plugin for all models, so what you did should take care of it.

Bookworm_Girl · 02-23-2011, 10:12 PM

Glad you are getting everything sorted out, pomtroll. And now you are becoming a calibre expert too!

Thanks for the detailed explanation on how calibre manages collections, delphin. I have already turned off "Download social metadata" and that's how I avoid too many random tags. However, I think I might also take your advice to customize the Device Interface plugin.

02-23-2011, 05:52 AM	#23
delphin Evangelist Posts: 434 Karma: 346901 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: SONY PRS-650	This is almost certainly due to Calibre. As much as I like Calibre, it did do this 'hundreds of collections' thing to me also. There are two main issues here. 1. When adding titles into Calibre, it imports or downloads way too many metadata tags. 2. When you send the files to your Sony, these tags get converted to collections. Calibre has several options that control how files are tagged when added to your Calibre library. Unfortunately, the options that control tags are splattered all over the place - Under "Behavior" - Overwrite author and title by default when fetching metadata - Download social metadata Under "Adding Books" - Read metadata from file contents rather than file name The above options will control how many tags, if any, that Calibre creates when adding files. Once Calibre creates the tags in it's internal library, conversion of these Calbre tags to Sony reader collections is controlled by yet another set of options - First the metadata is filtered through the "Metadata plugboards" (should be no problems here if you didn't change anything) Then the conversion to actual collections on the reader is controlled by - Preferences -> Plugins -> Sony Device Interface Be sure to pick the 'Device Interface' plugin, NOT the Sony Output plugin (which is probably what most people would guess). Under the Sony Device Interface plugin's options you will see an option that controls tag to collection conversions. If you don't care how many tags Calibre creates internally, but DON'T want Calibre to create ANY collections on your Sony, the Sony Device Interface Plugin options are where you can fix things. This has changed with recent updates to Calibre, so older versions in Linux or Mac OS look different, but ALL versions have the potential to cause problems by sending too many tags to the reader as collections, depending on how they are set up, so I have disabled this feature entirely, and just create my collections manually on the reader. Last edited by delphin; 02-23-2011 at 06:36 AM.

02-23-2011, 08:22 PM	#26
delphin Evangelist Posts: 434 Karma: 346901 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: SONY PRS-650	What software version of Calibre do you have? I ask because these "plugin" options changed from release to release in Calibre. Don't get too hung up on the exact name, just open up your preferences and find the 'plugin' section, and do your best to find the Sony Device plugins. Can you see ANY of the 'plugin' settings under preferences? If you can find the plugin preferences, but can't see the one for the Sony, be aware that on at least one version of Calibre, I couldn't easily find ANY of the Sony plugins, because the of a silly/stupid thing where the plugin preferences window was defaulted just a little too small. So it wasn't wide enough, and the right side scroll bar wasn't visible. Because of this, you couldn't scroll down and find the "Sony" plugins in the list until you intentionally grabbed the right side of the window and dragged it to resize it larger. When you find the right plugin you should be able to hit the "customize plugin" button and then, if it's the right one, down near the bottom of the pop up window, will be an option that controls turning "metadata fields into collections on the device" In older versions of Calibre it was just a yes or no check box, on newer versions it's a single line text box. On the older versions of Calibre with the check box, you just un-check it, and on the new versions with the single line text box, if you blank it out and don't list any tag fields, then it will also disable the creation of collections completely. Last edited by delphin; 02-23-2011 at 08:31 PM.

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02-22-2011, 05:54 PM	#17
Pomtroll Guru Posts: 822 Karma: 1341819 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Minnesota USA Device: Sony 350, Sony T1, Kindle Touch, Kindle PW1	I'm getting confused here. For one, I don't know how to find the media.XML file or the metadata.db And no I haven't tried a soft reset. Will try that. I feel like such a dunce.

02-22-2011, 07:10 PM	#18
Shopaholic Cockatoo Mom! Posts: 1,509 Karma: 1841741 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: PW4, Kobo: A1, Clara, Libra 2, iPad Pro 11, iPad Mini	How are you transfering the books onto your reader? Are you dragging them to the reader from your computer Sony Library or are you using the Sync feature explained earlier? To me, it sounds like you're using Sync which will create multiple copies of books sometimes on the reader. Are you good with computers or not? The file Bookworm Girl is asking you to find is on your reader but you have to go to you computer to find the file that is on the reader through windows explorer. NOT the browser internet explorer, but windows explorer that shows you the various files that are on your computer or any device connected to your computer. Follow?

02-22-2011, 07:40 PM	#19
Pomtroll Guru Posts: 822 Karma: 1341819 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Minnesota USA Device: Sony 350, Sony T1, Kindle Touch, Kindle PW1	First off. I want to thank everyone for trying to help me. Bookworm_Girl Okay I found the media file on my Mac. It lists the books I've loaded on my Sony350. I can't find any metadata.db though. I did find metadata.calibre but I don't have the application to open it according to my Mac when I click on it. Shopoholic I'm clicking on the book & dragging it to my reader. But if it is syncing then it would be downloading to my reader more than once right? How do I check for that? Is it under preferences at the Reader Library? I do have a syncing folder on my device hardware. It says cache2.XML & deleted.XML

02-22-2011, 09:08 PM	#20
Bookworm_Girl E-reader Enthusiast Posts: 4,873 Karma: 36536965 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southwest, USA Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5	Pomtroll, it's ok to be confused. We are throwing a lot of different ideas at you. It has got to be more than a little overwhelming, especially when the Sony is new to you. We've all been in your position before. Good to know you are on a Mac, that's what I have too. If you delete the media.xml file, then it will erase all your collections currently on your 350 and start fresh. The negative is that I think that you will lose any of your notes and bookmarks, etc. I would make a copy of the media.xml file before you delete it. For example, place a copy on your desktop. You shouldn't need the backup copy, but it's usually a good idea. I don't think you should do anything with the metadata file. I just wanted to know if you had one. Since you have a metadata.calibre file that implies that at some point you had your ereader connected when calibre was open. I still think that calibre is the likely source of all your collections. Here's a test you can try. I would open calibre (when your ereader is not connected via USB). Here's what I would look for in calibre. To begin with, make sure that you have selected the icons in the lower right corner of the calibre window so that you "Show Tag Browser" and "Show Book Details". 1) In the box in the left of the screen (that's the Tag Browser), do you see an item called "Tags"? For example, I have 45 tags. If you expand the drop-down box under Tags, do any of the names look like the names of the collections on your 350? 2) Are any of the books in your calibre library list the same as the books that are on your 350? If so, click on the book to highlight it. In the window on the right of the screen (that's the Book Details) are the tags listed that look like the collections on your 350? If the answer to these 2 questions is yes, then calibre was probably the problem. You could edit the metadata for your books in calibre to delete all those tags or simplify them. Then the next time you connect your 350 with calibre, it won't try to recreate any of those random collections again. I think that you are probably not syncing with Reader Library if you aren't sure. I have a sync folder on my 350. In the Sync folder that you found, I also have a file called sync.xml. When I right click on sync.xml and open with TextEdit, then I see a list of all of the collections which are being synced between my 350 & Reader Library. If you don't have a sync.xml file in this folder, then you aren't syncing collections.

02-22-2011, 09:29 PM	#21
Pomtroll Guru Posts: 822 Karma: 1341819 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Minnesota USA Device: Sony 350, Sony T1, Kindle Touch, Kindle PW1	I've been working on this problem all evening & I think I've narrowed it down to my work computer. I have both Calibre & Sony Reader Library on my 2 computers. The home one is a Mac & the work one is Windows. As to checking out the tags, none of the books in question (from my Sony) are there on my Mac computer Calibre program at home. I'll have to check my computer at work tomorrow. I downloaded 2 books tonight via my mac computer from 2 different sources & there are no new collections created. Everything went smoothly. So I'll check it out tomorrow with the Windows computer. I'll run through all that you mentioned tonight on that one. Thank you so much for trying to help me. I've learned a lot tonight.

02-22-2011, 09:48 PM	#22
Bookworm_Girl E-reader Enthusiast Posts: 4,873 Karma: 36536965 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southwest, USA Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5	Great! Get some rest tonight and maybe when you are fresh tomorrow it will be better. Sometimes it helps to sleep on it while your mind works in the background.

02-23-2011, 10:03 AM	#24
Pomtroll Guru Posts: 822 Karma: 1341819 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Minnesota USA Device: Sony 350, Sony T1, Kindle Touch, Kindle PW1	Thanks delphin, that makes sense. I'll look into this.

02-23-2011, 02:12 PM	#25
Pomtroll Guru Posts: 822 Karma: 1341819 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Minnesota USA Device: Sony 350, Sony T1, Kindle Touch, Kindle PW1	Okay I looked into Calibre on my Windows here at work. Unfortunately, the options that control tags are splattered all over the place - Under "Behavior" - Overwrite author and title by default when fetching metadata - Download social metadata Are these suppose to be checked or not? Mine are checked Under "Adding Books" - Read metadata from file contents rather than file name (This should be checked? Mine is) The above options will control how many tags, if any, that Calibre creates when adding files. Once Calibre creates the tags in it's internal library, conversion of these Calbre tags to Sony reader collections is controlled by yet another set of options - First the metadata is filtered through the "Metadata plugboards" (should be no problems here if you didn't change anything) Mine has all spaces empty Then the conversion to actual collections on the reader is controlled by - Preferences -> Plugins -> Sony Device Interface Can't Find Sony Device interface Be sure to pick the 'Device Interface' plugin, NOT the Sony Output plugin (which is probably what most people would guess). How do you pick this???? I'm not sure I'm seeing the same things you are. Under the Sony Device Interface plugin's options you will see an option that controls tag to collection conversions. Don't see this. But I'll go back & re-look. If you don't care how many tags Calibre creates internally, but DON'T want Calibre to create ANY collections on your Sony, the Sony Device Interface Plugin options are where you can fix things. This has changed with recent updates to Calibre, so older versions in Linux or Mac OS look different, but ALL versions have the potential to cause problems by sending too many tags to the reader as collections, depending on how they are set up, so I have disabled this feature entirely, and just create my collections manually on the reader.

02-23-2011, 08:40 PM	#27
Pomtroll Guru Posts: 822 Karma: 1341819 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Minnesota USA Device: Sony 350, Sony T1, Kindle Touch, Kindle PW1	Okay I found that & blanked the single line text box. I came back to ask if I did any harm by doing that, but found your reply saying that was what I was suppose to do. Phew

02-23-2011, 10:12 PM	#29
Bookworm_Girl E-reader Enthusiast Posts: 4,873 Karma: 36536965 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southwest, USA Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5	Glad you are getting everything sorted out, pomtroll. And now you are becoming a calibre expert too! Thanks for the detailed explanation on how calibre manages collections, delphin. I have already turned off "Download social metadata" and that's how I avoid too many random tags. However, I think I might also take your advice to customize the Device Interface plugin.

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