Category problems on Sony PRS 700

[starrigger]

Category tags have started behaving oddly on my Sony. The tags I see (and edit) in Calibre when the reader is plugged in do not necessarily match what I see in Collections on the reader after I've disconnected it. Longstanding tags have suddenly vanished. The sudden changes are all in main memory. Books on the SD card seem unaffected.

The books themselves seem okay, so I don't think it's a problem with the memory itself. Maybe the database has gotten corrupted?

Is there some way to "refresh" the tags on the reader from Calibre? (Short of deleting and re-uploading, I mean. I have over 300 books on the device.)

Thanks.

[chaley]

What version of calibre are you running? On what OS? What is your setting of preferences -> add/save -> send to device -> Metadata management? And when did this behavior start (if you remember)?

If the tags/series in Calibre are what you want, you might want to consider changing Metadata management to 'Automatic'. See the preferences pages for some explanation.

[starrigger]

Ah--I see my Notes went away, too. And placemarks, etc. Any advice?

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by chaley

What version of calibre are you running? On what OS? What is your setting of preferences -> add/save -> send to device -> Metadata management? And when did this behavior start (if you remember)?

If the tags/series in Calibre are what you want, you might want to consider changing Metadata management to 'Automatic'. See the preferences pages for some explanation.

Win 7, Calibre 7.16.

I first noticed the problem today, but it could have started earlier, without my noticing. (I updated Calibre after noticing the problem, was previously on 7.15.)

I was unaware of the automatic metadata management feature. I'll try setting that, and see what happens.

Thanks!

[starrigger]

That seems to have fixed it!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by chaley

If the tags/series in Calibre are what you want, you might want to consider changing Metadata management to 'Automatic'. See the preferences pages for some explanation.

I'm curious. Is Metadata management set to Automatic by default? If not, what is? I guess my point would be that any option but manual should be default. Manual is an oddity that doesn't give users the best benefit.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I'm curious. Is Metadata management set to Automatic by default? If not, what is? I guess my point would be that any option but manual should be default. Manual is an oddity that doesn't give users the best benefit.

Apparently it's set to manual by default--or at least, that's how I found it on both my computers. As I was unaware of the existence of the function, I don't think I set it to manual.

BTW, I think it's an excellent enhancement of the program. Can save a lot of fiddling. (If you know about it.)

[itimpi]

I think in one release it was set to automatic by default - and that resulted in a raft of complaints from users that Calibre had messed with the collections they had spent a lot of time setting up manually on their Sony.

What I guess is needed is some sort of mechanism for advising users that such options exist. I am not sure how this could easily be done. Perhaps some sort of 'tips' message that gets popped up on device connection (that can then be disabled by experienced users).

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by itimpi

I think in one release it was set to automatic by default - and that resulted in a raft of complaints from users that Calibre had messed with the collections they had spent a lot of time setting up manually on their Sony.

Those few did run into trouble, but if you use two different software packages to control your device you're asking for trouble. But I guess manual is what calibre has always done, create collections based on tags and series by default. Makes sense to leave that the norm.

Originally Posted by itimpi

What I guess is needed is some sort of mechanism for advising users that such options exist. I am not sure how this could easily be done. Perhaps some sort of 'tips' message that gets popped up on device connection (that can then be disabled by experienced users).

This seems reasonable.

I recall making the argument that downloading tags should not be the default and the response was if people weren't swamped with tags to begin with they would never know the option was available.

Leaving manual as the default seems the correct thing to do since this does mimic the long running usage.

I withdraw my suggestion, I momentarily forgot all of the previous discussions. Hell I forgot what manual did. I guess I'm suffering from OFD....






Old Fart's Disease.

[starrigger]

My issue had nothing to do with downloading tags. It had to do with keeping tags synced between Calibre and the device. I still don't understand why the tags went away on my device (though I'm happy that enabling automatic syncing of tags brought them back).

How long has this option been there? I wonder if some change when it was introduced caused my vanishing tags.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by starrigger

My issue had nothing to do with downloading tags.

I know, I was just rambling.

Originally Posted by starrigger

How long has this option been there?

Since 0.7.9 was released on 17 July.

Originally Posted by starrigger

I wonder if some change when it was introduced caused my vanishing tags.

Anything's possible, at least all is well now.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by starrigger

My issue had nothing to do with downloading tags. It had to do with keeping tags synced between Calibre and the device. I still don't understand why the tags went away on my device (though I'm happy that enabling automatic syncing of tags brought them back).

In my experience the Sony has always had a tendency to lose tags if it crashed while reading a book. This seemed to be more likely to happen when using LRF rather the EPUB books.

How long has this option been there? I wonder if some change when it was introduced caused my vanishing tags.

It is quite recent, but still a month or so ago. It appeared as part of supporting syncing with devices and the new toolbar look. However even the first release should not have ever caused tags to be lost - if anything it would have caused too many to appear!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I'm curious. Is Metadata management set to Automatic by default? If not, what is? I guess my point would be that any option but manual should be default. Manual is an oddity that doesn't give users the best benefit.

Something similar to Automatic was the default in the early 07. releases, and indeed a lot of people were most upset. These people either maintained collections with Sony SW or manually on calibre's device view, something I didn't know that people actually did. They felt (quite reasonably, really) that what worked before should continue to work, and even more importantly that calibre should not undo their labors. Any setting other than manual will cause loss of user-defined collections (collections that were not series and were not tags). The feedback (and common sense) indicated that losing data without warning was a bad thing.

@starrigger: it sounds like the database on your reader got corrupted somehow. If this happens, the Sony will rebuild it from metadata stored in the books, in the process erasing all collections, bookmarks, and annotations. Why this happens is a mystery. Itimpi's hypothesis is as good as any I have seen, but it also seems to happen in other situations.

I haven't seen a case where calibre corrupts the DB, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. For example, if the device is unplugged (or power is lost or ...) while calibre is writing the DB, then it will almost certainly not survive the experience. I recommend that you backup the Sony DB from time to time. For main memory, the DB is in "database/cache/media.xml". For SD cards, it is in "Sony Reader/database/cache.xml".