My Kobo library screen

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

EDIT: And I'm only five books into the list and have already come upon a missing book that doesn't have an add to library button but instead a buy button.

I've gone through the first 30 Sony books and of those 10 didn't have the add button. Upon further research these are all part of the list of books Kobo told me didn't transfer because the weren't available in the Kobo store. Never mind that the are available in the Kobo store (and were back then too) . Anyway I won't be looking for them to have add buttons since Kobo failed to transfer them in the first place and wouldn't do anything to fix them after it was pointed out to them on a book by book basis right after the transfer.

EDIT: I take that back too. Now I'm finding books that were transfers, but don't have the add button.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by katojenist

The date the book was added is wrong, also. Books that I know I bought well over two years ago, show up reading 4/20/2016. Crazy!

I have about 50 books, of 349, that are shown as added on 4/20/2016 as well. They must have done some processing as part of the library changes that has affected this. And it might explain why a few books have resynced to my Glo HD recently.

[library addict]

Grr, I don't have time today to look and see what books are missing, but it's a few hundred for me. I have them all in Calibre, but I suppose I should add it to my To Do list just in case.

I kind of like the ability to look at the list by cover. But the sorting is just...so Kobo. I guess the alphabet goes in a different order for them And the date added column is 99% incorrect now.

After all those Google vs Kobo questions in the last survey I laughed when I saw the three dots. I knew right where to go to find the download export option.

All of my books show as "unread" because I never sync my mini. I have no plans to do so, plus the fact most of my books aren't even on it. So Kobo can just think I'm not much of a reader, just a book collector.

[MGlitch]

This is why I back up and 'future proof' -all- my ebooks.

[GeoffR]

I think this change is a step backward, I hope they are going to return the missing functionality of the Trash folder in some form.

Previously I was able to delete a book completely from my device and account, but have it sit in the Trash folder on the website in case I wanted it back. Even if the publisher decides to withdraw the book from sale I could still download the original version by temporarily moving it from Trash back into my Kobo library, downloading, then movng it back to the trash.

But now I would have to leave it in my library to avoid losing access if the publisher decides to withdraw the book, and just delete it from the device only. While this would still allow me to download it again by tapping the download button on he device, and I can hide it from the main library lists, it still shows up in search results together with the corrected book which is a bit of a pain.

I have the ePub version of all my books downloaded and backed-up so it is not a big loss if I lose access to the syncable version of the book in my Kobo library, but it is still amounts to one less reason to prefer buying books from Kobo over other ePub retailers.

[AnemicOak]

About halfway through checking my Sony books. Many could be added back into the library, 12 aren't even listed on the site anymore, & 12 more are listed but can't be added to my library (although Kobo will be happy to resell them to me for $121.88). A few were public domain and I didn't include those in my numbers.

Has anyone found any Kobo purchased books missing? I don't even want to contemplate checking all my Kobo purchases as there are many hundreds more of those than there are Sony ones.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Has anyone found any Kobo purchased books missing? I don't even want to contemplate checking all my Kobo purchases as there are many hundreds more of those than there are Sony ones.

All of mine are Kobo purchases, I had 46 missing that were in the trash folder because I had deleted them recently, I was able to recover 45 of them by looking up the book in the library, but one I will have to get Kobo to fix for me. (Edit: Done, no problems. I just provided the book title, purchase date and receipt number and it was back in my library in a minute.)

I have some other books that were deleted longer ago that are still showing in my Kobo library but are not syncable (Edit: at some point Kobo changed the way deleted books were handled, it used to be that they were simply removed from the Reading folder and you could add them back by bookmarking from the Purchased folder without putting anything in the Trash folder). In the old website I would have been able to use the "Bookmark" option to make them syncable again. However I found I can now make them syncable by deleting them from my Kobo library and adding them back again.

After the delete confirmation screen there is a second screen that tells you about how to add the book back by looking it up in the store, and that screen also has a button that allows the book to be immediately returned to the library without the need to look up the book in the store. I tested this method on a book that no longer exists in the store*, and it was added back okay and became syncable again.

* The book is At the Edge of Space by C. J. Cherryh. The publisher (DAW) has withdrawn the book from sale, it is no longer available at Kobo or anywhere else. I guess if I delete this book completely there will be no way to add it back since there is no way to locate it in the store, and I wouldn't even have the option to buy it again.

[AnemicOak]

Final stats on my Sony books...

29 Missing and can't be added to library (unless I want to re-buy for $260.71)

41 Missing and can't be found at all on Kobo website

The rest of my 166 Sony books that transferred (a bunch didn't despite Kobo selling them) were able to be re-added to my library.


Now to see if I can get Kobo to do anything about it.

[library addict]

I went through and checked all of my Kobo and Sony books. I had some of my Sony books still in my Kobo library, including one that didn't transfer back in 2014.

I managed to re-add over 100 books with the “You already own this item, but have removed it from your library. You can add it back using the button below.” (which Kobo removed not me ). Such fun

But there were some they wanted to me to rebuy and others no longer for sale. Not all of my missing books were Sony transfers. Some were purchased at Kobo. But I'm not going to bother arguing with them over the missing books from my library since they're in Calibre and I have my backups. Dealing with their customer service isn't worth the headache.

[Purple Lady]

You can still get to the old library page here https://www.kobobooks.com/library/library.html Ferrywoman posted that in the Kobo deals thread.

The sort problem for me seems to be the books that Kobo no longer sells have a date of 4/20/2016 and are always on top no matter what sort I choose.

I don't have many Sony books so I won't worry about them, but the old library shows that I have 191 books and the new only shows 183. If the sorts worked it would be a lot easier to compare.

Edit: the books Kobo no longer has don't seem to be the problem. I had guessed that might be the problem when I couldn't see the date added column.

[AnemicOak]

I spent a bunch of time on chat with Kobo CS last night. Before they ended the chat without us being done they re-added the books I couldn't, but they still don't show on the new library screen. They do show on devices and in the old library at https://www.kobobooks.com/library/library.html

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I spent a bunch of time on chat with Kobo CS last night. Before they ended the chat without us being done they re-added the books I couldn't, but they still don't show on the new library screen. They do show on devices and in the old library at https://www.kobobooks.com/library/library.html

Are you using search to look for the books in your library?

The library search function seems to be faulty. If I search for a book in my library that is no longer for sale at Kobo then search doesn't find it, even though I can see it if I page through my library.

If I search my library for an author, it only lists the books that are currently available at Kobo, it leaves out the ones that are no longer available. But if I sort by author and page through the library I can see all the books by that author including the ones that are no longer available.

(I just mean the search function for the new library pages on the website, the search function on my device works fine.)

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Are you using search to look for the books in your library?

The library search function seems to be faulty. If I search for a book in my library that is no longer for sale at Kobo then search doesn't find it, even though I can see it if I page through my library.

If I search my library for an author, it only lists the books that are currently available at Kobo, it leaves out the ones that are no longer available. But if I sort by author and page through the library I can see all the books by that author including the ones that are no longer available.

(I just mean the search function for the new library pages on the website, the search function on my device works fine.)

Yes, I was using search. CS confirmed that the list of missing books I gave them was missing. I also get a different total number of books looking at old vs new library.

[Lynx-lynx]

My golly, Kobo doesn't have a strong track record when it comes to systems changes so I hope this progresses smoothly .......

Like others have mentioned, I can't work out the order of books shown when I click on the 'Author' arrow, for both ascending and descending.

I can appreciate that 'Status' moves those yet to be purchased books, eg previews, to the top of the list, and series seems to be a subset of (in my case) 'Author'. (But 'Author' is not in alpha order, just a mish mash of alpha listings!)

And for the same account, new format I have 249 books, old format 242, the difference being 7 I can't really account for because there are 9 previews in the new format.

Edit
Oh, and my Purchase History for that same account shows 196 purchases, with the difference being over 50 books. Maybe the difference relates to 'freebies' but I don't download freebies very often. Who knows!!

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I also get a different total number of books looking at old vs new library.

This is to be expected I think.

In the old library there were "I'M READING" and "PURCHASED" folders, but neither one is necessarily a list of all the books in your library.

The count for the "I'M READING" folder only included the books that are currently set to sync to devices, it doesn't include books that were made non-syncable before Kobo changed the way this was done.

The "PURCHASED" folder didn't list books that were received as gifts, or free books.

Also I noticed that I have to log of the website out and log back in again to update the count in the new library.