Kobo Firmware 4.6.9995

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Incanus

OK. Then you probably won't have any problems with your device's catalog management and time response.

Thanks for your patience and kind reply!

Well, if anyoone else has an Aura 2013 "overflowing" ebooks on a uSD card with a large Collections set, I'd be happy to know about your experience with this new firmware.

Doubting to upgrade yet,

Incanus

Plug your Reader into your computer, copy the contents of the Aura to your computer and update. If you don't like the update, you can always go back.

[compurandom]

I was also getting collections times >1min on the old firmware.
I've got about 240 collections with ~1800 books and collections load in about 6-10 seconds. It's a huge difference, hard to believe it use to take more than a minute.

With the loss of the collections on the home screen, I couldn't accept v4 firmware also having a huge collection load time, but now that it's short, I've upgraded.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Incanus

OK. Then you probably won't have any problems with your device's catalog management and time response.

Thanks for your patience and kind reply!

Well, if anyoone else has an Aura 2013 "overflowing" ebooks on a uSD card with a large Collections set, I'd be happy to know about your experience with this new firmware.

The collections list performance has little to do with which Kobo device you are using. They are all using roughly the same CPU and most have 512MB of RAM (the Touch has 256MB).

The performance improvement with version 4.6.9995 is across the board for my devices. I don't have as many books as you, but my Aura ONE has about 3800 books and 50 pages of collections. One of the collections has 2951 books, then there are a few over 100, a few more between 50 and 100, then the rest. I'm mentioning these collections because size of the collections probably has more impact on opening the collections list than the number of collections.

Right now, it takes about 10 seconds to open the collections list. With 4.5.x, it was taking about 45 seconds without that 2951 book collection. I think it was taking over a minute with that collection, so I never kept that collection on the device.

During the beta testing for 4.6.x, I generated a set of collections on one of my devices that took about 2.5 minutes. The device had somewhere between 1500 and 2000 books, but a few collections with more than 500 books. After the fix, it was down to about 15 seconds.

The performance improvement is the same on all my devices. The change is in code that is common to all the devices, so it will affect all devices the same. The only thing I didn't explicitly test is the external SD card. But, one of my devices has most of its books on the SD card and I haven't notice any real difference in how quickly the collections list opens.

[zampir]

I have 4.6.9960 on my Kobo Aura H2O.
Now I am trying to update to 4.6.9995:
- "Sync to download new items and software update"
- "Sync now"
Everything seems working well ( connecting... checking for updates.. loading content)
with the ending message "Sync complete".
But in Setting-Software Details there is still "Software version: 4.6.9960".
In the past I always have update the firmware without problems.
Any suggestion?
Thanks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by zampir

I have 4.6.9960 on my Kobo Aura H2O.
Now I am trying to update to 4.6.9995:
- "Sync to download new items and software update"
- "Sync now"
Everything seems working well ( connecting... checking for updates.. loading content)
with the ending message "Sync complete".
But in Setting-Software Details there is still "Software version: 4.6.9960".
In the past I always have update the firmware without problems.
Any suggestion?
Thanks.

Find the post #5 in this thread that has all the links for this firmware. Find your device and click the link to download the ZIP file. Plug your device into the computer and unzip the contents of the firmware file to .kobo and eject the device. Then wait and it will update.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by zampir

I have 4.6.9960 on my Kobo Aura H2O.
Now I am trying to update to 4.6.9995:
- "Sync to download new items and software update"
- "Sync now"
Everything seems working well ( connecting... checking for updates.. loading content)
with the ending message "Sync complete".
But in Setting-Software Details there is still "Software version: 4.6.9960".
In the past I always have update the firmware without problems.
Any suggestion?

Kobo doesn't release the firmware to everybody at the same time. They release to a few affiliates to start with and then expand as time goes on. As the release was on Friday, they will still be in the early stages with very few affiliates. If you want to update now, you need to change the affiliate on the device, or manually install from the links supplied early in the thread.

[geek1011]

Is it just me, or has this update fixed the touchscreen accuracy on the Aura 2?

[PeterT]

Remember patches ae not released to all affiliates at the same time

[zampir]

I'm uncertain about the manual update: I looked in the current directory .kobo: the content is very different from kobo-update-4.6.9995 unzipped
I'd rather wait and sync later.
Thanks for the informations and suggestions.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by zampir

I'm uncertain about the manual update: I looked in the current directory .kobo: the content is very different from kobo-update-4.6.9995 unzipped
I'd rather wait and sync later.
Thanks for the informations and suggestions.

I have never synced a firmware release. All firmware updates I've done have been manual side loaded. I've never had a problem. so I can suggest you side load and get the new firmware now rather than later.

[lightbulbjim]

Originally Posted by zampir

I'm uncertain about the manual update: I looked in the current directory .kobo: the content is very different from kobo-update-4.6.9995 unzipped
I'd rather wait and sync later.
Thanks for the informations and suggestions.

Yep, the contents of the zip file will be different from the .kobo directory. Once you place the unzipped files there and disconnect the USB cable the Kobo will detect the new files and start the firmware installation. As part of the installation it will reboot, after which you’ll find that the files you copied are gone and you’re running the new version.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by lightbulbjim

Yep, the contents of the zip file will be different from the .kobo directory. Once you place the unzipped files there and disconnect the USB cable the Kobo will detect the new files and start the firmware installation. As part of the installation it will reboot, after which you’ll find that the files you copied are gone and you’re running the new version.

It's the same way the sync does it.

[Incanus]

Well, I side loaded and upgraded to firmware 4.6.9995 on my Kobo Aura 2013 and after some testing, I downgraded back to 3.12.1 (side loading, mind you: it works like a charm).

To keep in mind: I keep 14.774 books organized on 239 collections, storing them on a 32Gb Class 4 uSD SanDisk Card that I manage with Calibre

Even though the Collections' access time did improve to merely 20 seconds (compared to my previous 2 minutes or so on 3.12.1) almost every other function takes closer to 30 seconds or more: getting to the home screen, changing reading settings (while reading a book, mind you), opening the search option, getting to my library, changing configuration... all of it takes what it feels like forever, compared with the near instantaneous response on 3.12.1.

So: if you, like me, keep a large library on a uSD Card, with many a collection, and general interface time (not merely Collections access) matters to you, my advice is to pass this upgrade for Kobo Aura 2013.

On the other hand, if no matter the library size/storage/collections arrangement, you change or alternate books rarely and use other functions of the reader seldom, then by all means upgrade.

Anyway, that's my experience with this firmware.

Thank you all for your patience and kind reply.

Until the next firmware version ;-)

Incanus

[JSWolf]

Where does someone get 14,774 eBooks and why would you want them all at once?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Where does someone get 14,774 eBooks and why would you want them all at once?

There are Gutenberg bundles and fan fiction, for two examples.