Covers on Amazon Personal Documents

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by zamana

Would be nice if you could share your mobi conversion parameters with us.

I don't have any parameters, sorry, I just use the defaults already set in Calibre. Before I reconvert I use the edit function to download the metadata from Amazon, Goodreads etc, and the picture size I normally select for the cover is the 375/500 size. I don't like to keep the size covers they normally load with as they are too large.

I've never used KindleGen or any program, just Calibre.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by abishur

Can I edit it with Calibre or what software would I use to edit it?

You cannot edit mobi, you'd need to convert to epub/azw3 and edit that. calibre can edit both, using the Edit Book feature. Shortcut key is "T", it may be on the toolbar.

...

Actually, you can install the "KindleUnpack" plugin and it will pop open the mobi, but I don't know how good it is at preserving the content. Probably do all right, though.

[zamana]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

You cannot edit mobi, you'd need to convert to epub/azw3 and edit that. calibre can edit both, using the Edit Book feature. Shortcut key is "T", it may be on the toolbar.

...

Actually, you can install the "KindleUnpack" plugin and it will pop open the mobi, but I don't know how good it is at preserving the content. Probably do all right, though.

Another option to edit ePubs: Sigil (google it).

Unlike the editor embedded in Calibre, you can edit both the source (HTML) and the text itself, in a WYSIWYG way.

[zamana]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

(...)
Before I reconvert I use the edit function to download the metadata from Amazon, Goodreads etc, and the picture size I normally select for the cover is the 375/500 size (...)

Perhaps this is the magic!

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by zamana

Another option to edit ePubs: Sigil (google it).

Unlike the editor embedded in Calibre, you can edit both the source (HTML) and the text itself, in a WYSIWYG way.

True. Although it requires more stuff installed, whereas calibre is already installed, and anyway I have a feeling that WYSIWYG is not the way to go here.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by zamana

Another option to edit ePubs: Sigil (google it).

Unlike the editor embedded in Calibre, you can edit both the source (HTML) and the text itself, in a WYSIWYG way.

The editor is not "embedded" in Calibre. It's a totally standalone program called "ebook-edit" which can be run completely independently of Calibre.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by zamana

Perhaps this is the magic!

When I use the edit function to download the metadata including a cover image the image I select is the Amazon pull through. Then I simply reconvert the mobi to a new mobi.

I've never had a cover not show up on my Paperwhite after doing this.

[abishur]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I've never had a cover not show up on my Paperwhite after doing this.

The cover shows up fine on my Kindle Touch once I download it from the cloud. The problem is it doesn't show up in the Personal Documents on the cloud which is really annoying.

To be fair, all I'm really looking for is a cloud repository that I can point my kindle to and see my books (with covers ) I know I could upload them to google drive or drop box, but then I'd be equally coverless. I'm open to all kinds of suggestions if it's not going to work on Amazon's Personal Documents.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by abishur

The cover shows up fine on my Kindle Touch once I download it from the cloud. The problem is it doesn't show up in the Personal Documents on the cloud which is really annoying.

To be fair, all I'm really looking for is a cloud repository that I can point my kindle to and see my books (with covers ) I know I could upload them to google drive or drop box, but then I'd be equally coverless. I'm open to all kinds of suggestions if it's not going to work on Amazon's Personal Documents.

Best thing I can suggest is a photo cloud library. Do you have the new Manage Your Kindle then? I've never seen covers in the Amazon Cloud on Manage Your Kindle but then again I have list view and have never looked for them.

[abishur]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Best thing I can suggest is a photo cloud library. Do you have the new Manage Your Kindle then? I've never seen covers in the Amazon Cloud on Manage Your Kindle but then again I have list view and have never looked for them.

I do not have the new manage your kindle, sorry despite my best efforts, I seem to be saying things as confusingly as possible

Let me break it down bit by bit

1) I have a mobi file, it's nicely done in calibre with a summary and a cover.
2) When I transfer said file to my kindle via USB everything shows up exactly like it's supposed to
3) When I turn off the auto-archive feature and e-mail it to a specific device the cover displays on the device exactly like it is supposed to.
4) Since I use my kindle on a tablet, a phone, and an actual kindle Touch, I said, "Hey why not turn on auto-archive so I can sync up my reading between the multiple devices I have?"
5) At this point when I e-mail the mobi file it shows up in the manage your kindle (which is just a list). If I click on the + sign next to the document it expands out and there is no cover
6) If I go to my kindle or any of my other devices and browse the "cloud" it shows my personal documents with just a generic "K" as the cover image
7) If I download the book from the cloud to my device, then the cover shows up.

It's really a minor nuisance but one that I'd like to figure out how to fix, when I'm looking at the "cloud" from my kindle, I'd like to see the cover instead of a generic K as a browse the books. Now that I think about it, it would be nice if I could work this out with Amazon because the whole reason I turned on the auto-archive in the first place was to sync my progress between my reading devices.

[HarryT]

I believe you're seeing precisely the behaviour that is to be expected. I don't know of any way to change it.

[quiris]

Originally Posted by abishur

The cover shows up fine on my Kindle Touch once I download it from the cloud. The problem is it doesn't show up in the Personal Documents on the cloud which is really annoying.

You can recover thumbnails covers after downloading it to you Kindle Touch or Paperwhite using my own application: ExtractCoverThumbnails.exe.

You have to connect your device to USB and note drive letter where the Kindle will be mounted

ExtractCoverThumbnails.exe [-h] kindle_directory

positional arguments:
  kindle_directory  directory where a Kindle Paperwhite is mounted

optional arguments:
  -h, --help        show this help message and exit

The file is available for download from this location: http://goo.gl/oxSEVH

Source code of the tool is available on github: https://github.com/quiris11/ExtractCoverThumbs