'Get List of Books on Device' Taking 2100 Minutes Plus

[pjmpjm]

I've finally managed to get my 'intermittent' USB cable working between my Fire HD 10 and Calibre (running on Windows 10 on a Satellite laptop), but every time I connect the two now, Calibre goes into 'Get List of Jobs on Device' and never seems to end. In fact, it's still going now, as I type . . .

The only clue I have is that, when the USB cable stopped working the other day, I switched over to Calibre Companion.

CC placed all my newly transferred books into a different Fire directory (the expected 'Books' instead of the unexpected 'Documents, where Calibre had been transferring them when using the cable) and seemed to work fine.

Any idea what's going on? If I could master CC, I think I'd give up the USB cable altogether.

Many thanks for any feedback.

[eschwartz]

The first time you connect an Android device, calibre scans the whole thing in order to find out the directory structure. This can take a while.

Once it is done, you can Configure the device to ignore directories that don't contain books. Subsequent connections will be much, much faster.

This is a limitation of Android.

...

Do note that Calibre Companion handles the indexing of books by itself and does not suffer from this issue.

[pjmpjm]

Thanks very much, eschwartz. I had been using Calibre with this same device since Christmas. Does this mean that the brief use of Calibre Companion somehow 'reset' Calibre's previous knowledge of the Fire's directory structure, leading it to 'forget' and now have to rescan 16,000 plus books? Am happy to keep waiting if I know that eventually Calibre will be satified!

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The first time you connect an Android device, calibre scans the whole thing in order to find out the directory structure. This can take a while.

Once it is done, you can Configure the device to ignore directories that don't contain books. Subsequent connections will be much, much faster.

This is a limitation of Android.

...

Do note that Calibre Companion handles the indexing of books by itself and does not suffer from this issue.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by pjmpjm

Thanks very much, eschwartz. I had been using Calibre with this same device since Christmas. Does this mean that the brief use of Calibre Companion somehow 'reset' Calibre's previous knowledge of the Fire's directory structure, leading it to 'forget' and now have to rescan 16,000 plus books? Am happy to keep waiting if I know that eventually Calibre will be satified!

Using CC does not "reset" calibre's previous knowledge, nor vice versa. Nor does putting books/files in other folders whether by CC, ES File Explorer, or some other mechanism.

CC and calibre don't automatically see each others' books on the device. This is the main reason why you should pick one or the other. My recommendation: stick with the cable, given that you don't want to use most of CC's features.

[pjmpjm]

Hmmmm. This isn't good news, chaley. It leaves me wondering why Calibre is still 'getting list of books on device' after all this time. Maybe it's malfunctioning after all. I had really hoped that it was simply 'disturbed' by CC. I'd be happy to stick with the cable, if I knew that it would work with the Fire. However, after more than a week of 'intermittent' working, I'd been seriously contemplating switching entirely over to CC. Thanks again for your input. But the news that 'CC and Calibre don't automatically see each others' books on the device' was indeed what I was assuming. Just thinking . . . I wonder if there's a way to manually 're-set' what Calibre 'sees' on the device, to make it start all over again.

Originally Posted by chaley

Using CC does not "reset" calibre's previous knowledge, nor vice versa. Nor does putting books/files in other folders whether by CC, ES File Explorer, or some other mechanism.

CC and calibre don't automatically see each others' books on the device. This is the main reason why you should pick one or the other. My recommendation: stick with the cable, given that you don't want to use most of CC's features.

[pjmpjm]

Having decided that no good will be served by allowing Calibre to continue 'getting list of books on the device, I tried to shut it down.

However, it immediately gave me the warning, 'Calibre is communicating with the device! Quitting may cause corruption the device.'

It's been running for 2513 minutes now. What's your advice?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by pjmpjm

Having decided that no good will be served by allowing Calibre to continue 'getting list of books on the device, I tried to shut it down.

However, it immediately gave me the warning, 'Calibre is communicating with the device! Quitting may cause corruption the device.'

It's been running for 2513 minutes now. What's your advice?

Personally, I would shut down calibre then start over by factory-resetting the device. There is enough strange and inexplicable stuff going on that I have no confidence that the device is in good shape. Then try the cabled connection, since that is what you are used to. If that works, well and good. If it doesn't then (perhaps reset again and) try CC.

If you go this route, be sure that you have off-device copies of everything on the device that you care about. Also be sure that you have usernames and passwords for all the "accounts" used on the device.

[pjmpjm]

Thanks again, chaley. This now brings my sad tale around in a full circle, back to your original advice to end the agony over the USB cable failure, to simply re-set the Fire to factory defaults, and re-install everything. My other messages on other MobileRead forums have tried to ascertain whether or not I really do have full backups, not of books, but of apps, settings and everything else on the Fire, apart from the books.

It appears that previous 'Manual Backup' option has disappeared from the new Version 5 Fire OS, which leaves me having to depend on Amazon to mysteriously 'once a day' back up my Fire. No Fire experts have so far been able to give me a definitive answer about this, so I've been 'holding fire' (pardon the pun) until I have enough confidence to re-set. Otherwise, I picture myself spending many happy hours re-installing things and struggling to get my Fire back to its usual state.

I guess what I really hoped to hear from someone was, 'Yes, this happened to me too! If you do A and then B, you'll fix it.' But so far I've only had one helpful reply, confirming that the 'Manual Backup' option is gone from Fire.

I take your point that my Fire is acting 'squirrelly' (as we used to say) and needs a reboot.

I really do appreciate your patience in continuing to get back to me on this rather sad story . . .

Originally Posted by chaley

Personally, I would shut down calibre then start over by factory-resetting the device. There is enough strange and inexplicable stuff going on that I have no confidence that the device is in good shape. Then try the cabled connection, since that is what you are used to. If that works, well and good. If it doesn't then (perhaps reset again and) try CC.

If you go this route, be sure that you have off-device copies of everything on the device that you care about. Also be sure that you have usernames and passwords for all the "accounts" used on the device.

[theducks]

Calibre leaves 2 files on your device when successful.

If you tamper with them, it starts over the next connection.

[pjmpjm]

Thanks for the feedback, theducks. Perhaps Calibre considered my brief use of Calibre Companion use as 'tampering.' In any case, I stopped its scanning, despite the warning message, re-installed the new version of Calibre, and it seems to be working OK new. Upon starting with the latest version, Calibre scanned only the usual (a few minutes) amount of time.

The intermittent operation of the USB cable continues, however. Sometimes it's fine and works for hours; other times Fire refuses to talk to the computer, and Calibre, via the cable.

This problem is what started my whole fiasco.

Originally Posted by theducks

Calibre leaves 2 files on your device when successful.

If you tamper with them, it starts over the next connection.

[Ken Maltby]

USB cables are not normally very expensive.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by pjmpjm

Thanks for the feedback, theducks. Perhaps Calibre considered my brief use of Calibre Companion use as 'tampering.' In any case, I stopped its scanning, despite the warning message, re-installed the new version of Calibre, and it seems to be working OK new. Upon starting with the latest version, Calibre scanned only the usual (a few minutes) amount of time.

The intermittent operation of the USB cable continues, however. Sometimes it's fine and works for hours; other times Fire refuses to talk to the computer, and Calibre, via the cable.

This problem is what started my whole fiasco.

It may not be your cable.
Some USB ports (either end) have power management that 'shuts down to 'Save Power".
Check the ports Properties for a power Management tab

[pjmpjm]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

USB cables are not normally very expensive.

Thanks for the input, Ken. At the risk of boring the others, I'll repeat that I have FOUR (count 'em) USB cables within arm's length of me at this very moment, and have tried them all. As well, I own two other Kindles, and all four cables work perfectly with those two devices. So the fault isn't with the cable. Wish it were . . .

[pjmpjm]

Originally Posted by theducks

It may not be your cable. Some USB ports (either end) have power management that 'shuts down to 'Save Power". Check the ports Properties for a power Management tab

Thanks very much, theducks. That does indeed seem to be worth a try. Would explain the 'on again, off again' nature of the problem. As you no doubt recall from my earlier laments, it was the failure (albeit intermittently) of the Fire-to-Calibre cable connection that led to this whole range of issues. If I could get the Fire to talk reliably to Calibre on my computer, all would be well and I'd be a happy camper indeed.

Worth noting is that the computer continues to consistently charge the Fire device (at a low level) through the USB cable connection even when it's not talking to Calibre.

As well, I have three USB ports on my laptop, and have experimented with all three, to make sure that I don't have a single wonky port.

As suggested by others, however, the most likely (IMHO) cause of all this is the Fire HD 10 software. That's why a dreaded 'reset to factory defaults' is looming.

[pjmpjm]

In Windows 10 there is, wonderfully, an easy fix for the potentially troublesome USB port settings. Access 'Power Options' and then click on ‘Change power plan settings’ relating to the power plan that you're using. Choose 'Advanced Power Settings' and in the popup box, double click on USB settings and on USB selective suspend; then click on ‘Enabled’ and change it to ‘Disabled. Have just done this, so will now re-boot and see if there's any change in USB port/cable connections to the Fire. Thanks again to theducks.