New to Kobo, want to manage with Calibre

[Patrick Faret]

Number of the version of Calibre :7.4
And my os is windows 11 64 bits

[Patrick Faret]

Attached are images of Calibre

[chaley]

That debug log is very strange. It stops just where the driver is to update the collections. My debug log is 65000 lines long. Yours is 174 lines long. Our two logs more-or-less agree to the point where your's stops.

• Did you let all the jobs finish before you ejected the Kobo? The number of running jobs is displayed on the lower right corner of calibre's window. These jobs can take some time to run.
• I see you are using the KoboTouchExtended driver. What happens if you use the base driver?
• I also see you are using Kobo Utilities. You can easily switch between the drivers by going to Kobo Utilities / Driver / Switch between main and extended driver. To be safe you should restart calibre after you change the driver. Once you have done that, please verify that the configuration of the main driver is still what you want.
• Before reconnecting the Kobo to calibre, please power it off (not sleep) then on. For my Libra 2 I do that by pushing the power button for several seconds until the screen says "Powered off". I then press the power button again until the device starts to reboot.
• Once you have changed the driver, and done the power off/on, reconnect the device to calibre in debug mode. Send the new debug log. Also let us know if the behavior changes (it works).

[Patrick Faret]

I changed drivers. I took Kobotouch. I then turned my Kobo off and back on again. Calibre was in debug mode, so I waited until the task counter was at zero, then I ejected my Kobo.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Patrick Faret

I changed drivers. I took Kobotouch. I then turned my Kobo off and back on again. Calibre was in debug mode, so I waited until the task counter was at zero, then I ejected my Kobo.

That debug log is cut off, stopping in the middle. Example:

DEBUG:   16.5 KoboTouch:update_device_database_collections - category='Rain Oxford' books=5
DEBUG:   16.5 KoboTouch:update_device_database_collections - end for category='Rain Oxford'
DEBUG:   16.5 <====== This line isn't complete

It also appears to be updating the collections now. Did you check the device to see if you now have collections?

[chaley]

Note: you must quit calibre to get the complete debug log.

[Patrick Faret]

I have my collections, but it's when I want to add a book to an existing collection, or a book to a new collection, that things don't work out so well.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Patrick Faret

I have my collections, but it's when I want to add a book to an existing collection, or a book to a new collection, that things don't work out so well.

I am confused. You said in your original post

Sorry to be a stick-in-the-mud, I also have an Elipsa 2e, but no matter how many times I log in, I can't get my collections back until I go to .

Now you say you have your collections.

What precisely is the problem? What are you doing (step by step), and what doesn't work?

[Patrick Faret]

Well, when I want to add a book to an existing collection, it doesn't work straight away. I have to reconnect to Calibre and then eject the kobo, and then I get the book back into its collection. When I search for the book, in Calibre, before sending it to the kobo, I click on integrate metadata. but it doesn't work every time

[Patrick Faret]

I've just tried something with Calibre. I've uninstalled KoboTouchextended and reinstalled it. And tomorrow I'll be trying to create a new collection. I'll keep you posted.
In the meantime, thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Patrick Faret

Well, when I want to add a book to an existing collection, it doesn't work straight away. I have to reconnect to Calibre and then eject the kobo, and then I get the book back into its collection. When I search for the book, in Calibre, before sending it to the kobo, I click on integrate metadata. but it doesn't work every time

If I understand the problem correctly then calibre is operating the way it is intended. Calibre is in charge of collections. To add a book to a collection (shelf) you must add the appropriate metadata in calibre, in your case a tag. You then connect the kobo, at which point its collections are updated. You then eject the Kobo so it can process the changes.

It sounds as if you are using the menu item in calibre's device view "Update metadata on device". This won't work if the book is newly sent to the device because it isn't yet in the kobo's database. It must be "imported" by the Kobo, which happens when you eject. I don't use that operation so I can't say with any certainty under which conditions it does work, if any. The Kobo connection process is very complex and "Update metadata" only does a part of it.

Note also that series information requires a second connect after sending books. There are ways around this involving "Nickel", but I don't use them and can't comment on them.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Patrick Faret

Well, when I want to add a book to an existing collection, it doesn't work straight away. I have to reconnect to Calibre and then eject the kobo, and then I get the book back into its collection. When I search for the book, in Calibre, before sending it to the kobo, I click on integrate metadata. but it doesn't work every time

That's the way it's supposed to work. Updating collections always takes two connection sessions.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

That's the way it's supposed to work. Updating collections always takes two connection sessions.

I don't think that is correct. I just used calibre to send a couple of new books to my Libra2. They are in the correct Collection immediately after the Kobo has imported them.

I suppose it's possible that the 1st/2nd connection differentiation might depend how Collections are configured. Mine are simply via the calibre Tags field.

At a guess I'd say that metadata fields which can be reliably extracted as-is from the book's OPF file, from one of the "official" <dc:> tags will probably appear on the Kobo immediately after the first connection, e.g.
Author <dc:creator>
Title <dc:title>
Comments/synopsis <dc:description>
Publisher <dc:publisher>
Tags <dc:subject>
Language <dc:language>

anything else, e.g. Series metadata, probably has to wait for the second connection to calibre.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I don't think that is correct. I just used calibre to send a couple of new books to my Libra2. They are in the correct Collection immediately after the Kobo has imported them.

I suppose it's possible that the 1st/2nd connection differentiation might depend how Collections are configured. Mine are simply via the calibre Tags field.

At a guess I'd say that metadata fields which can be reliably extracted as-is from the book's OPF file, from one of the "official" <dc:> tags will probably appear on the Kobo immediately after the first connection, e.g.
Author <dc:creator>
Title <dc:title>
Comments/synopsis <dc:description>
Publisher <dc:publisher>
Tags <dc:subject>
Language <dc:language>

anything else, e.g. Series metadata, probably has to wait for the second connection to calibre.

Perhaps I'm confusing it with the series data. I always connect twice because of the latter and haven't checked what's there after the first connection. But then I use a custom column for collections, so who knows.

[theducks]

@sirtel
I don't think you are wrong unless shelves/collections don't care if the book exists on the device.

Until the new book has been processed, there is no place to land other data.
OTOH if the data is embedded like Jackie_w surmises, then a single connect might do. BUT...
There are 2 bits of info that get cross referenced.
Collection
Book

How does a book get logged as a collection member if it is the first member?