Send to kindle flaws or restrictions?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by vermontcathy

The covers seem to be back on the lock screen this morning, on my basic kindle and PW.

It is working again for me also. Looks like it was just a temporary mistake.

This does highlight how much control Amazon has over the Kindle user experience even without any new firmware being installed.

[hleo12]

Unfortunately, it's still not back for me.

Edit: And just as I posted this reply, the covers are back again.

[jhlovestoread]

Just a PSA in case anyone else is having the same problem.

I was experiencing a problem sending an EPUB file to my Kindle today and it got rejected repeatedly. I kept getting this message:

---
Dear Kindle Customer,

The following document, sent by you at 06:16 AM on Tue, Feb 28, 2023 GMT, could not be delivered to the address you specified:

* XXXFilename.epub
---

I tried several times with several different methods (desktop app, email, web) and they all rejected the original EPUB file. I tried re-converting the file to EPUB in Calibre and that failed too. I sent via MOBI (converting the original EPUB to MOBI) and that worked. Then I deleted the original EPUB, used the original EPUB to MOBI version of the MOBI file and converted that to EPUB. The new EPUB from MOBI worked.

Takeaway: I think the original EPUB file was glitchy and Amazon's Send-To-Kindle system didn't like the file (it happens), but the MOBI and the new PUB sent.

So, if you ever have a problem sending a file, try converting it to another format and sending that other format. Or convert, delete the original file, convert again, and then send. This all depends on what format you are trying to send.

Anyway, hope this helps someone. I got the idea about trying different file formats from reading this thread.

[jhlovestoread]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Send to Kindle web is failing on a large-ish (60 MB) ePub (Complete Works of H. G. Wells from DelphiClassics). It passes epubcheck, opens without issue with Apple Books, and imports successfully to Kindle Previewer 3. Too large for email or the Send To Kindle app.

I looked at the source, it looks pretty clean to me. Edit Book check complains about using named entities and CYMK color space. But these are not going to trip up S2K service. I had it remove unused CSS rules and fix a spine issue; trying to send again.

[update: Nope, failed again. Took about 50 minutes to fail, maybe it's just timing out.]

KP3 took awhile to 'index' (about 3 minutes), whatever that does. Obviously it has a very large TOC.

What is 'polish feature in calibre'? I see a plugin for it, but how to apply it?

This happened to me recently where it was failing a "large" EPUB file that was 50Mb. I ended up converting (it was text only, so I wasn't fussed about features and formatting) it to MOBI which dropped the file size to about 13Mb and the S2K worked with the file. Of course, since I sent a MOBI file, I also got an email saying that they were discontinuind support for MOBI so I would not be able to send MOBI files pretty soon. It helped in this instance though.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by jhlovestoread

Just a PSA in case anyone else is having the same problem.

I was experiencing a problem sending an EPUB file to my Kindle today and it got rejected repeatedly. I kept getting this message:

---
Dear Kindle Customer,

The following document, sent by you at 06:16 AM on Tue, Feb 28, 2023 GMT, could not be delivered to the address you specified:

* XXXFilename.epub
---

I tried several times with several different methods (desktop app, email, web) and they all rejected the original EPUB file. I tried re-converting the file to EPUB in Calibre and that failed too. I sent via MOBI (converting the original EPUB to MOBI) and that worked. Then I deleted the original EPUB, used the original EPUB to MOBI version of the MOBI file and converted that to EPUB. The new EPUB from MOBI worked.

Takeaway: I think the original EPUB file was glitchy and Amazon's Send-To-Kindle system didn't like the file (it happens), but the MOBI and the new PUB sent.

So, if you ever have a problem sending a file, try converting it to another format and sending that other format. Or convert, delete the original file, convert again, and then send. This all depends on what format you are trying to send.

Anyway, hope this helps someone. I got the idea about trying different file formats from reading this thread.

This is fairly common. Amazon is really picky with their conversion from epub files.

There are probably tags/codes inside the book that Amazon is rejecting. You can try opening the epub files using Kindle Previewer. It will generate an excel file when it fails to convert to an Amazon format (which is what's happening when you send the epub file. Inside the excel document will be the specific content Amazon is rejecting.

A lot of the formatting can get lost when you convert to mobi, and convert it back. Amazon will also remove mobi from their accepted file types for conversion.

[jhlovestoread]

Originally Posted by hleo12

This is fairly common. Amazon is really picky with their conversion from epub files.

There are probably tags/codes inside the book that Amazon is rejecting. You can try opening the epub files using Kindle Previewer. It will generate an excel file when it fails to convert to an Amazon format (which is what's happening when you send the epub file. Inside the excel document will be the specific content Amazon is rejecting.

A lot of the formatting can get lost when you convert to mobi, and convert it back. Amazon will also remove mobi from their accepted file types for conversion.

You are correct. I did lose a bunch of the formatting when I converted from EPUB to MOBI back to EPUB. There was a section of the book that was using a funky script font to show handwritten letters and I think that's the part where Amazon was not happy with the EPUB.

Thanks for the link for the Kindle Previewer. I'll check that out and save it for future files.

[slm]

Originally Posted by jhlovestoread

You are correct. I did lose a bunch of the formatting when I converted from EPUB to MOBI back to EPUB. There was a section of the book that was using a funky script font to show handwritten letters and I think that's the part where Amazon was not happy with the EPUB.

Thanks for the link for the Kindle Previewer. I'll check that out and save it for future files.

I've had a lot of luck converting troublesome epub files to docx and then sending the docx to Kindle. The docx file preserves all the formatting.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by slm

I've had a lot of luck converting troublesome epub files to docx and then sending the docx to Kindle. The docx file preserves all the formatting.

Actually for a while that was fine on KDP, then Amazon changed something and there were no authored page breaks. The epub is what Amazon recommends for KDP, but it has to be correct. Then there is a page break at the start of each internal HTML file.

Properly formatted epubs are better than docx on KDP upload, especially if certain things not editable in docx need tweaked in the epub.

The Send To Kindle system seems now to be using similar conversion tools to what KDP upload has used for a few years.

But what works even better is your own azw3 copied via USB.

[jhlovestoread]

Originally Posted by slm

I've had a lot of luck converting troublesome epub files to docx and then sending the docx to Kindle. The docx file preserves all the formatting.

Good tip. Thank you. What do you use to do the conversion? Calibre or something like Convertio online? I've been using Convertio to convert PDFs to Docx and it does a great job.

[slm]

Originally Posted by jhlovestoread

Good tip. Thank you. What do you use to do the conversion? Calibre or something like Convertio online? I've been using Convertio to convert PDFs to Docx and it does a great job.

I generally use Calibre to convert epubs to docx becuase its so convenient. I've never tried Convertio--for PDFs, my first choice has been Word: it does quite a good job on many files.

[jhlovestoread]

Originally Posted by slm

I generally use Calibre to convert epubs to docx becuase its so convenient. I've never tried Convertio--for PDFs, my first choice has been Word: it does quite a good job on many files.

I've mostly been using Convertio online because it pretty much converts any format to any format. I was using it a lot for audio and video files. I'll try both Calibre and Convertio and see what works best.

I've been using Convertio for PDFs because in the past Calibre didn't go a good job converting PDFs but I haven't tried it for a long time, so maybe it's improved.

[slm]

I don't think Calibre's PDF conversion has improved much. But, as I said, Microsoft Word does a very good job for PDFs that started out as computer output (not scans).

Oddly enough, if you can find it, the old Mobipocket converter does a pretty good job on pdfs.

[jhlovestoread]

Originally Posted by slm

I don't think Calibre's PDF conversion has improved much. But, as I said, Microsoft Word does a very good job for PDFs that started out as computer output (not scans).

Oddly enough, if you can find it, the old Mobipocket converter does a pretty good job on pdfs.

Gosh! Mobipocket. That brings back memories. Takes me back to the original Peanut Press days of early ebooks. I think I might still have a copy of the Mobipocket reader app floating round on some old hard drive somewhere.

[sendb00ks]

My issue is when sending to kindle/email to kindle/kindle upload site , it comes with no table of contents, I’ve ended up having to do it by usb, which is the whole reason I got a kindle, to just be able to send my book wirelessly without needing a dekstop

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by sendb00ks

My issue is when sending to kindle/email to kindle/kindle upload site , it comes with no table of contents, I’ve ended up having to do it by usb, which is the whole reason I got a kindle, to just be able to send my book wirelessly without needing a dekstop

It's not that it doesn't have table of contents, but the table of contents on the original isn't up to Amazon's standards. Amazon used to outright reject a book for conversion if the toc isn't formatted right, now they just remove them.

You can run the book file using Calibre's epub checker.