Scribe: Missing covers/thumbnails from firmware update?

[Otter]

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced missing covers when sideloading from calibre to a kindle Scribe recently? Mine has worked up until today with no problem. I keep it in airplane mode and somehow (?) must have knocked it out of airplane mode because I looked down and saw a message about it updating software right before it rebooted. I transferred about a half-dozen books from calibre to my scribe after it fully rebooted but then discovered none of them have covers (just the generic thumbnail), but all my previous loaded content still seems to have them. My scribe is reporting it's now running 5.16.3.1, so is that what is causing the problem? Any/or any known way to fix? This is the worst. Many thanks in advance for any help!

[tomsem]

It is due to the 5.16.3 update: Scribe no longer mounts as USB mass storage, and instead uses MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) for file transfers.

Calibre has an MPT client, but will need an update to copy thumbnails over MTP for the Scribe.

If you somehow have a thumbnail with the required name (e.g. one created for another Kindle), you can copy it manually.

Or you can send ePub to Send To Kindle service, and you'll have a cover that way.

[Otter]

Originally Posted by tomsem

It is due to the 5.16.3 update: Scribe no longer mounts as USB mass storage, and instead uses MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) for file transfers.

Calibre has an MPT client, but will need an update to copy thumbnails over MTP for the Scribe.

If you somehow have a thumbnail with the required name (e.g. one created for another Kindle), you can copy it manually.

For some of the books, I sideloaded to the Scribe (no covers displaying) but I also sent some to my paperwhite. Sorry for my ignorance, but how would I get/find the thumbnail to manually copy and move? And if Scribe no longer detected as USB, I guess I'm unsure how to get the thumbnail in the right location on the Scribe, but if you're willing to explain I will find a way to make it work. Thank you for this glimmer of hope!

[shamanNS]

You would need to copy "system/thumbnails" folder from Paperwhite into the same destination on Scribe.
One thing to keep in mind that "system" folder is flagged as a hidden folder so you would need to either turn on display of hidden files or in case of Windows Explorer you can manually type / add "\system" into address bar and press enter to go to that location.

[Otter]

For some reason I couldn't find the \system folder on the paperwhite, even though show hidden files/folders was checked. There was a folder amazon-cover-bug and I found the thumbnail in there and copied it to the thumbnail folder on my Scribe (which did show the system folder) and it seems to be working. I noticed the Scribe also has a amazon-cover-bug folder too, but I put the cover file into the thumbnail folder instead. I hope that was correct?

When I went back to the paperwhite, I noticed it was being identified as E:\Kindle, so I changed the nav bar to E:\system and it let me in and displayed all the subfolders. I found the thumbnail folder and noticed it also contained the missing cover, but it had the same name so I didn't bother copying that one over. Do I need the amazon-cover-bug folders? They both seem to be getting populated when I move books via calibre (which is always), so I'm thinking to just leave them alone. But I'm not sure which folder to copy my missing covers from/to until calibre gets fixed for the Scribe....do you think it eventually will be?

Thanks again for everyone's help!

[DNSB]

The amazon-cover-bug folder is used by calibre to store the replacement thumbnails which will be copied to the thumbnail folder as needed. Due to the change to MTP, that replacement is not being done automagically but, hopefully, that will be corrected in the future.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The amazon-cover-bug folder is used by calibre to store the replacement thumbnails which will be copied to the thumbnail folder as needed. Due to the change to MTP, that replacement is not being done automagically but, hopefully, that will be corrected in the future.

I think this would be unnecessary if the modify date were advanced, say, 24 hours, prior to copying it over to the Kindle (Kindle runs on GMT time). But I have been unable to reproduce the 'replacement' issue and thus unable to test to see if this works.

[Otter]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I think this would be unnecessary if the modify date were advanced, say, 24 hours, prior to copying it over to the Kindle (Kindle runs on GMT time). But I have been unable to reproduce the 'replacement' issue and thus unable to test to see if this works.

Thanks! So, if I'm trying to copy covers from my Paperwhite to my Scribe, should I copy them from the amazon-cover-bug folder or from the thumbnails folder?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Otter

Thanks! So, if I'm trying to copy covers from my Paperwhite to my Scribe, should I copy them from the amazon-cover-bug folder or from the thumbnails folder?

(Assuming you side loaded the same set of books to your Paperwhite) you can take them from /amazon-cover-bug folder, but you need put them in /system/thumbnails folder on the Scribe.

And again, if anyone can tell me how to reproduce the 'disappearing covers' issue, I would appreciate it.

[weto91]

Originally Posted by Otter

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced missing covers when sideloading from calibre to a kindle Scribe recently? Mine has worked up until today with no problem. I keep it in airplane mode and somehow (?) must have knocked it out of airplane mode because I looked down and saw a message about it updating software right before it rebooted. I transferred about a half-dozen books from calibre to my scribe after it fully rebooted but then discovered none of them have covers (just the generic thumbnail), but all my previous loaded content still seems to have them. My scribe is reporting it's now running 5.16.3.1, so is that what is causing the problem? Any/or any known way to fix? This is the worst. Many thanks in advance for any help!

I just created an app that helps you solve the problem in a matter of seconds. I leave you the link: https://github.com/weto91/kindle-cover-fixer

[knowncold]

Originally Posted by tomsem

(Assuming you side loaded the same set of books to your Paperwhite) you can take them from /amazon-cover-bug folder, but you need put them in /system/thumbnails folder on the Scribe.

And again, if anyone can tell me how to reproduce the 'disappearing covers' issue, I would appreciate it.

Hi tomsem, I encountered this issue as well. Books can be loaded to Scribe, but in the /system/thumbnails, all thumbnails are broken as thumbnail_xxuuid_EBOK_portrait.jpg.tmp.partial with emtpy content. I wonder why the boos can be transfered, but thumbnails not...

Issue found on Scribe 5.16.5, Calibre 7.2, Mac 13.6.3.

[sirgilmour]

You're a genius! All my covers are back on the Scribe!

Can you make an app to create all Collection Folders (and subfolders if possible) from your pc? Because there are hundreds of books all over the place with absolutely no order and the idea of creating folders one by one on the device is tiresome.

Also do you suggest koreader? i'm on the latest firmware anyway.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by knowncold

Hi tomsem, I encountered this issue as well. Books can be loaded to Scribe, but in the /system/thumbnails, all thumbnails are broken as thumbnail_xxuuid_EBOK_portrait.jpg.tmp.partial with emtpy content. I wonder why the boos can be transfered, but thumbnails not...

Issue found on Scribe 5.16.5, Calibre 7.2, Mac 13.6.3.

It is a known issue. If someone sends Kovid a Scribe maybe he will implement it.

[sirgilmour]

Do you think the missing covers on all sideloaded file is intentional from Kindle and will likely not resolve the issue to urge people to only buy from amazon? Or it's more a temporary issue that they were unaware of.