Personal Documents Covers

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Skydog

Were the mobi books converted from epub in Calibre with the [EBOK] tag? If not, what was the original format and how were they converted?

No they were converted from epub, mobi, html and lit with Calibre. I don't use tags seeing emailing adds the pdoc tag. I do know there is a problem with large covers when converting from lit. if a cover is over 500 in Width it won't show when you send to the fire. I know how to fix that. What I don't know how to fix is having an archive. So at the moment all archive docs are on my Fire and only then is the covers finally working right.

I guess I will use my Carousel for books I am reading and the docs tab with have to host all my docs or they lose their covers.
The key to fixing this seems to wait till the Amazon server is non busy like 3AM and clearing the Kindle data until covers are back.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by sadievan

This was happening to me. What I found worked was to email them specifically to my Fire address. They showed up in archive on all my Kindles and the covers showed up across all. If I emailed to my generic account, myname@kindle.com or any other device the covers would not show up on the Fire. I used Calibre to email the books.

Of course this could change at any minute.

Carol

That's what I did however if you remove the doc from Fire and later download it from archive it may or may not show a cover. I had all my covers yesterday and in a second they went poof and it took downloading them all and clearing the kindle data at 3AM to fix them. However this makes the archive useless.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I'm still thinking there are two problems that are related:

1. Update 6.3 is not handling Personal Documents correctly
2. Covers MUST BE correctly defined in the OPF

Update 6.3 seems to have been rushed. Perhaps Amazon took on too many updates with various Kindle apps at the same time. But obviously they have broken parts of the Personal Documents concept as well as parts of the sideload concept.

Using 3rd party applications like calibre which produce sloppy conversions is only going to make item two worse. Only Amazon can correct item 1, so let us hope 6.3.1 gets here soon.

No it isn't a OPF issue. I am thinking it's a generating/refresh problem with the docs. If the server is hammered they don't generate correctly. Only Clearing the Kindle data when the server is responding will work to fix the cover issue. Why must the server be involved is silly. Yesterday the server wasn't responding fully because my books I bought around noon didn't show up till 3AM on the Fire. You think it could read from the file like sideloaded mobi books.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by Blossom

No they were converted from epub, mobi, html and lit with Calibre. I don't use tags seeing emailing adds the pdoc tag. I do know there is a problem with large covers when converting from lit. if a cover is over 500 in Width it won't show when you send to the fire. I know how to fix that. What I don't know how to fix is having an archive. So at the moment all archive docs are on my Fire and only then is the covers finally working right.

I guess I will use my Carousel for books I am reading and the docs tab with have to host all my docs or they lose their covers.
The key to fixing this seems to wait till the Amazon server is non busy like 3AM and clearing the Kindle data until covers are back.

Well, I confess to being a bit confused now. My experience differs greatly from yours and I am trying to figure out why. I think the confusion on my part is the labeling. Are you actually refering to "documents" (not books) with the PDOC and appearing under the "Documents" tab? Or are you refering to sending books as personal documents?

I have loads of side-loaded books purchased from other places over the years. Epub, mobi, txt, html. ALL of them have been converted with Calibre, MANY have covers exceeding 500ppi -- even over 1000 ppi, and the covers have all converted beautifully. I side-load with cable, via Calibre. They all appear, instantly, with covers, on my bookshelf (and carousel when first loaded).

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Skydog

Well, I confess to being a bit confused now. My experience differs greatly from yours and I am trying to figure out why. I think the confusion on my part is the labeling. Are you actually refering to "documents" (not books) with the PDOC and appearing under the "Documents" tab? Or are you refering to sending books as personal documents?

I have loads of side-loaded books purchased from other places over the years. Epub, mobi, txt, html. ALL of them have been converted with Calibre, MANY have covers exceeding 500ppi -- even over 1000 ppi, and the covers have all converted beautifully. I side-load with cable, via Calibre. They all appear, instantly, with covers, on my bookshelf (and carousel when first loaded).

I am talking about Personal Documents that are sent to the Fire by Amazon's servers. Sideloaded books are not an issue
Pdoc covers in the Doc tab are buggy.

6.3 gave us access to the Personal Documents cloud that the other Kindles have had for awhile now but it's a nightmare.
Pdocs can be sync across devices just like Amazon books.
I have two other Kindles. Yesterday I went through each one and deleted everything not in the pdoc archive. So now all my books (Pdocs) will sync correctly.

The covers will work okay if you send the doc to your Fire via email or upload it using Send to Kindle but if you try to pull the book from the Pdoc archive the covers usually don't work so you have to literally keep all books from the Pdoc Archive on the Fire to keep the covers. If you do lose your Pdoc covers the only way to get them back is clear the Kindle Data and that will only work correctly if Amazon server is responding like it should.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I am talking about Personal Documents that are sent to the Fire by Amazon's servers. Sideloaded books are not an issue
Pdoc covers in the Doc tab are buggy.

6.3 gave us access to the Personal Documents cloud that the other Kindles have had for awhile now but it's a nightmare.
Pdocs can be sync across devices just like Amazon books.
I have two other Kindles. Yesterday I went through each one and deleted everything not in the pdoc archive. So now all my books (Pdocs) will sync correctly.

The covers will work okay if you send the doc to your Fire via email or upload it using Send to Kindle but if you try to pull the book from the Pdoc archive the covers usually don't work so you have to literally keep all books from the Pdoc Archive on the Fire to keep the covers. If you do lose your Pdoc covers the only way to get them back is clear the Kindle Data and that will only work correctly if Amazon server is responding like it should.

Oh, ok. -- thanks, Blossom. I know about the personal docs capability with 6.3, I just had not used it for any books. And yes, I've used "clear data" to solve problems more than a few times - what a hassle.

Does Amazon ever fully test before releasing updates?

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Skydog

Oh, ok. -- thanks, Blossom. I know about the personal docs capability with 6.3, I just had not used it for any books. And yes, I've used "clear data" to solve problems more than a few times - what a hassle.

Does Amazon ever fully test before releasing updates?

I use it to sync my books. I have a K3, K4 and KF and I want to be able to switch between them and pick up where last read.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I use it to sync my books. I have a K3, K4 and KF and I want to be able to switch between them and pick up where last read.

I've got a K3, KT, Fire and DX but haven't bothered with adding books to my personal docs. And it appears I won't be, unfortunately.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Skydog

I've got a K3, KT, Fire and DX but haven't bothered with adding books to my personal docs. And it appears I won't be, unfortunately.

Syncing works fine. Anything you add to your PDoc cloud is accessible via your Archive Items on your eInk Kindles. They sync just like Amazon books.

So I read on my K4 downstairs and then if I am upstairs I can read on my K3 picking up right were I left off and then at bedtime when the lights are off my KF picks up where I last read.. It like having the same books in three locations with the same bookmark.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Syncing works fine. Anything you add to your PDoc cloud is accessible via your Archive Items on your eInk Kindles. They sync just like Amazon books.

So I read on my K4 downstairs and then if I am upstairs I can read on my K3 picking up right were I left off and then at bedtime when the lights are off my KF picks up where I last read.. It like having the same books in three locations with the same bookmark.

This may be related. Just following the update last week I received the latest edition of my bi-monthly magazine. While downloading, in the carousel view, the magazine cover was blank/gray. Odd, I said to myself. I checked the Newsstand bookshelf and the cover was intact. I removed the periodical from the carousel, then opened it -- still, a blank, gray cover on the carousel. I even removed from device, re-downloaded and the result was the same. I chalked it up to a corrupted file by the publisher. About one day later, the normal cover magically displayed on the carousel -- no action taken on my part. This cannot be a coincidence.

Additionally, I just now emailed a book directly to the Fire's address and it appears normally on the Documents bookshelf, but blank on the carousel -- just like my magazine did initially.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Skydog

This may be related. Just following the update last week I received the latest edition of my bi-monthly magazine. While downloading, in the carousel view, the magazine cover was blank/gray. Odd, I said to myself. I checked the Newsstand bookshelf and the cover was intact. I removed the periodical from the carousel, then opened it -- still, a blank, gray cover on the carousel. I even removed from device, re-downloaded and the result was the same. I chalked it up to a corrupted file by the publisher. About one day later, the normal cover magically displayed on the carousel -- no action taken on my part. This cannot be a coincidence.

Additionally, I just now emailed a book directly to the Fire's address and it appears normally on the Documents bookshelf, but blank on the carousel -- just like my magazine did initially.

The grey covers are another bug that has gotten worse since 6.3. I get it sometimes on my Amazon books and occasionally the pdocs. Mostly I get white cover with text on the pdocs.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by Blossom

The grey covers are another bug that has gotten worse since 6.3. I get it sometimes on my Amazon books and occasionally the pdocs. Mostly I get white cover with text on the pdocs.

I have never seen this problem on periodicals before. A major email campaign to Amazon is in order. Is this the one? : kindle-fire-feedback@amazon.com

[geoffwood]

I'm seeing similar behavior on my Fire. Cover art works intermittently, sometimes it shows on the carousel and sometimes it doesn't. Wipe the device and reload and cover art that used to work no longer does.

In the meantime cover art for the same files is 100% reliable on my iPad and iPhone, so I don't think it is a file issue, or a Calibre conversion issue, it is specific to the Fire.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by geoffwood

I'm seeing similar behavior on my Fire. Cover art works intermittently, sometimes it shows on the carousel and sometimes it doesn't. Wipe the device and reload and cover art that used to work no longer does.

In the meantime cover art for the same files is 100% reliable on my iPad and iPhone, so I don't think it is a file issue, or a Calibre conversion issue, it is specific to the Fire.

It really isn't even a simple cover issue, it is a problem with the covers of personal documents. And since the syncing of personal documents is only available for Kindle devices, it would be impossible to test with your other devices. Whatever the culprit, it certainly needs to be fixed.

[geoffwood]

Originally Posted by Skydog

And since the syncing of personal documents is only available for Kindle devices, it would be impossible to test with your other devices. Whatever the culprit, it certainly needs to be fixed.

Personal Document Synching came to Apple devices several months ago, so it is possible to check the same files on both platforms.

http://liliputing.com/2011/12/amazon...ndle-fire.html