Deleting books that have been deleted?

[Phssthpok]

I have several books in a series, and I have read and deleted the first five. However, when I do a search for the next one, the first two also show up in the search results (but with a placeholder for the cover images) and when I click on either of them it thinks for a minute and then says "Item Not Available: the item you were reading has been removed and is no longer available on your Kindle".

Calibre thinks the first 5 have been deleted; looking at the Kindle's documents directory I see there is nothing relating to #1 or #2 in the subdirectory for the author, but there is still a .sdr folder for #5; the azw3's have all gone. There is also a file called .fuse_hidden0000b9de00000030, the first few bytes of which are the title of book #5.

What do I have to do to exorcise the ghost of these books which are haunting my device? Is there a way to force the Kindle to refresh its metadata and clean everything up?

[knc1]

According to your nickname, you should have already lived long enough to know all answers.

The books are on your Amazon account cloud.

Read the pop-up more carefully next time:
It says:
"Remove from device"
It does not say:
"Delete from device"
It will only say 'Delete' for item that are not backed up on the Account cloud.

The sidecar directory remains behind to save any user added information (bookmarks, quotes, indexing, whatever) for the next time you bring it onto the device.

Calibre is not checking your cloud account nor the information on your Kindle to see what the actual status of the book is.

Translation:
Get Calibre fixed or always consider its limitations.

The developer's sub-forum here has a script posted that will clean up your Kindle for anything that is no longer present on it.

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by knc1

According to your nickname, you should have already lived long enough to know all answers.

Thank you for your vote of confidence. However, I'm still working on my omniscience.

Originally Posted by knc1

The books are on your Amazon account cloud.
Read the pop-up more carefully next time:
It says:
"Remove from device"
It does not say:
"Delete from device"
It will only say 'Delete' for item that are not backed up on the Account cloud.

No, read what I said. These are not books I got from Amazon, and they are not on my Amazon account. The popup when I deleted the books said "Delete", and I kind of thought (in my naive way) that they would be deleted as a result.

Silly me.

Originally Posted by knc1

The sidecar directory remains behind to save any user added information (bookmarks, quotes, indexing, whatever) for the next time you bring it onto the device.

Thanks, so I can just delete all that manually.

Originally Posted by knc1

The developer's sub-forum here has a script posted that will clean up your Kindle for anything that is no longer present on it.

Thanks, I'll go looking for it -- or perhaps you have a link?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

I have several books in a series, and I have read and deleted the first five. However, when I do a search for the next one, the first two also show up in the search results (but with a placeholder for the cover images) and when I click on either of them it thinks for a minute and then says "Item Not Available: the item you were reading has been removed and is no longer available on your Kindle".

Calibre thinks the first 5 have been deleted; looking at the Kindle's documents directory I see there is nothing relating to #1 or #2 in the subdirectory for the author, but there is still a .sdr folder for #5; the azw3's have all gone. There is also a file called .fuse_hidden0000b9de00000030, the first few bytes of which are the title of book #5.

What do I have to do to exorcise the ghost of these books which are haunting my device? Is there a way to force the Kindle to refresh its metadata and clean everything up?

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

- - - -
No, read what I said. These are not books I got from Amazon, and they are not on my Amazon account.
- - - -

Well, there it is (above), I have read it again, and I still don't see where you state the origin of the books.

I would have to do the same as yourself to find the link, search for it.
Only I am not the one who wants it.

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by knc1

Well, there it is (above), I have read it again, and I still don't see where you state the origin of the books.

I didn't state the origin of the books, but I did state that I deleted them, rather than removed them. As you yourself pointed out, there is a difference.

Originally Posted by knc1

I would have to do the same as yourself to find the link, search for it.
Only I am not the one who wants it.

Gee, thanks.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

I didn't state the origin of the books, but I did state that I deleted them, rather than removed them. As you yourself pointed out, there is a difference.
Gee, thanks.

What exactly did the pop-up say?

It has been a while, but if I remember correctly the books stay in the archive.

[hius07]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Thanks, so I can just delete all that manually.Thanks, I'll go looking for it -- or perhaps you have a link?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...5&postcount=14

[knc1]

Originally Posted by hius07

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...5&postcount=14

Thanks!

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by hius07

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...5&postcount=14

Excellent, many thanks.

I had a quick look at the script and I see that it deletes .sdr folders where there isn't a corresponding file of the same name, but although this is great to have, it won't fix my original issue. So let me try and clarify what's happening.

I have a series of 6 books and am currently reading #6. As I finished each of the other, I deleted them. They are not Amazon downloads, so they're not stored in the Amazon cloud. They were each deleted in the same way from the Kindle: I clicked to the right of the book title to open the menu, select "Delete this book", then selected "Delete" in response to "Are you sure?". The book disappeared from the book list in each case. I assumed all was well until I did a search to find #6 in my book list.

For #1 and #2, the titles show up when I search for the series name (which I included as part of the book title) and are shown with a placeholder icon instead of the cover image in the search results. There are no corresponding files in the documents directory of the Kindle. If I try to open the book, I get the message "Item Not Available: the item you were reading has been removed and is no longer available on your Kindle".

For #3 and #4, they have been deleted correctly. No files remain and they do not show up when I search for them.

For #5, it does no show up when I search for it, but the .sdr directory has not been removed, and there is a .fuseXXX file which contains the title of #5 in the first few bytes.

Removing the .sdr will solve the problem for #5, but what on earth do I do to exorcise the ghost of #1 and #2 when there are no corresponding files at all? Where could it be picking up this information from?

Thanks in advance for any ideas...

[knc1]

Check for clippings or annotations, highlights, bookmarks, or ...
That you may have made on those two, if even by accident.

At least some of those things are stored in that part of the user's data areas that you can't see over the USB cord.

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by knc1

Check for clippings or annotations, highlights, bookmarks, or ...
That you may have made on those two, if even by accident.

At least some of those things are stored in that part of the user's data areas that you can't see over the USB cord.

Hmm, maybe, but it doesn't explain why I get three different outcomes from five books.

In all five books I highlighted typos, bookmarked the pages, and then fixed them in the originals. I didn't delete the highlights, but I deleted the bookmarks as I went through the original.

I just tried reloading the books. They didn't show up as "new" after reloading, and when I searched for them, their covers were displayed correctly. I selected "see all" and got a list of three books: #1, #2, and #6. Neither of #1 or #2 contained any bookmarks or highlighting. I deleted #1 and #2, but neither title disappeared from the book list. Going back to the home page and repeating the search still shows the books as being there, but this time the covers are displayed correctly. They still come up as "Item Not Available" if I try to open them, though.

I was hoping there might be some sort of cleanup tool somewhere in the Kindle itself that I wasn't aware of. Or wouldn't it be nice if there was a "cleanup" option in the "Item Not Available" dialog. Oh well. it looks more and more like I'm just going to have to reformat the damned device and reload my entire collection of 2000+ books just to get rid of these ghosts.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Hmm, maybe, but it doesn't explain why I get three different outcomes from five books.

In all five books I highlighted typos, bookmarked the pages, and then fixed them in the originals. I didn't delete the highlights, but I deleted the bookmarks as I went through the original.

I just tried reloading the books. They didn't show up as "new" after reloading, and when I searched for them, their covers were displayed correctly. I selected "see all" and got a list of three books: #1, #2, and #6. Neither of #1 or #2 contained any bookmarks or highlighting. I deleted #1 and #2, but neither title disappeared from the book list. Going back to the home page and repeating the search still shows the books as being there, but this time the covers are displayed correctly. They still come up as "Item Not Available" if I try to open them, though.

I was hoping there might be some sort of cleanup tool somewhere in the Kindle itself that I wasn't aware of. Or wouldn't it be nice if there was a "cleanup" option in the "Item Not Available" dialog. Oh well. it looks more and more like I'm just going to have to reformat the damned device and reload my entire collection of 2000+ books just to get rid of these ghosts.

Explanation: it is a computer of sorts programmed by homo sapiens.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

- - - -
I was hoping there might be some sort of cleanup tool somewhere in the Kindle itself that I wasn't aware of. Or wouldn't it be nice if there was a "cleanup" option in the "Item Not Available" dialog. Oh well. it looks more and more like I'm just going to have to reformat the damned device and reload my entire collection of 2000+ books just to get rid of these ghosts.

DO NOT reformat the visible USB storage area!
It has some very special options that most FAT-32 format utilities do not support.

PLUS -
That would not touch the 'hidden' user data area where the files exist that are causing you your problems.

Instead -
Over USB, copy the contents of /documents to your PC ;
Disconnect and on the Kindle use the "Reset (to factory defaults)" feature ;
That will erase the 'hidden' storage area and the visible USB storage area ;
Then on you PC, delete the sidecar directories for all 2000 books ;
Then transfer the contents of /documents back to your Kindle no more than a hundred titles at a time (and have a cup of coffee in-between transfers).
The Kindle does need some processing time to re-create all of the sidecar information.

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by knc1

DO NOT reformat the visible USB storage area!
It has some very special options that most FAT-32 format utilities do not support.

Yeah, don't worry; when I said "format" I really meant "factory reset", i.e. "reinitialize". I would always use the Kindle for this rather than trying to do it from the outside.

It's a pity that it's the only solution, though.

(Also, I don't need to do all the copying; I keep masters as EPUBs elsewhere and Calibre auto-converts to AZW3 as necessary when I upload.)

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Yeah, don't worry; when I said "format" I really meant "factory reset", i.e. "reinitialize". I would always use the Kindle for this rather than trying to do it from the outside.

It's a pity that it's the only solution, though.

(Also, I don't need to do all the copying; I keep masters as EPUBs elsewhere and Calibre auto-converts to AZW3 as necessary when I upload.)

The point is:
After the Kindle is Kleaned do not put the same sidecar directories back onto the Kindle that you took off, only the books and documents.
Let the Kindle build new sidecar directories.

Not everybody makes backups.
And in this case, we want to separate the document/book file from the sidecar directories.
If the sidecar directories where also restored from the backup, then you would just be restoring the problem.
And the intent is to fix the problem.