"kindle (collection) doesn't display some books - Possible cause/fix?"

[SampleAndy]

I've got a kind of weird problem with my Paperwhite. I have a collection which I'm trying to use for the Tempe Brennan books and my series document. The weird thing is that two of the seven books that are counted as being in the collection don't show up in the collection. If I create a new collection and add the seven books, they all show up, and all seven books show up in the root.

The simplest solution is to just delete the old collection and rename the new one, but this has happened before. When you have a large number of books in a collection, it's a little more difficult to even realize you have a problem.

Does anybody have any idea what might be going on? I'm running Firmware 5.3.3 and I've tried using ixtab's Collection Manager. I only mention that because I've had some problems in the past where I'd hidden books in the root and could only find them in the collections. To the best of my limited knowledge, you can't hide books except through some addon.

Thanks

[NiLuJe]

Originally Posted by SampleAndy

The weird thing is that two of the seven books that are counted as being in the collection don't show up in the collection.

Counted how/where?

Originally Posted by SampleAndy

If I create a new collection and add the seven books, they all show up, and all seven books show up in the root.

How? From the Kindle UI or CM?


How was the original 'broken' collection built?

[SampleAndy]

Thanks for checking in, NiLuJe.
Counted as in the number following the collection name, in both the original interface and the Collections Manager (also counted as in counting the titles within the collection.)

I created the new collection in the original interface. The original one? Sorry, I have no idea.

Something I just found out when I was checking in CM... although both collections show seven books, the two problem books only show up as being in one collection. Doing a long click in CM on the problem books show that they only exist in the NEW collection, that I created today. Last night, I deleted all the books from the 'broken' collection and re-added them, so...

Aside from the checking I have just done now, almost everything has been done from the original interface. Deleted the original five books, added them back with an additional two, created the new collection and added seven books.

[NiLuJe]

@SampleAndy: How do you manage your books?

Meaning where do they come from:
* do you download them from the KS/Archive straight from the device?
* do you sideload them manually (is so, where do they come from, and do you manage the metadata of those somehow?
* do you use Calibre?

[Because if the internal ASIN changed in the metadata, then, yeah, the collection would have lost track of the book. And/or possibly even if the file was renamed/moved somehow, not sure how well the Kindle Catalog/Collection handles that...]

[SampleAndy]

Amazon books are downloaded to Kindle for PC, then imported into Calibre, all others downloaded into a folder with others of that source, (feedbooks, Baen, Gutenberg) and then imported into other libraries in Calibre.

When would the ASIN change? The only thing I remember doing was changing the covers and pushing the books out to the Kindle again. Even so, I'm almost positive that I deleted all the books from the collection and added them again. I would have thought that it would be the next best thing to creating a new collection... I'll try it one more time.

OK... I just deleted all the books from the collection and added them again. No difference. I deleted the problem books from the device (without removing them from the collection) and then reimported them from Calibre. Both collections now show all the books. The immediate symptom is solved, but the problem remains unidentified.

[NiLuJe]

@SampleAndy: Hmm. The only thing that comes to mind is the Kindle being very finicky about files being modified from under its feet, so, if you ever do update a book for whatever reason, try deleting it *from the device itself* first.

[ixtab]

^What NiLuJe said. It's quite likely that the file ended up getting a new identifier when you modified it. And because the experts at lab126 seem to never have heard about database normalization or referential integrity, it seems quite likely that you ended up with an inconsistent collections database after overwriting the file.

Could you either post here, or -- probably preferrable for privacy reasons -- send me via PM, your collections database (/var/local/cc.db) ? I'd like to take a look at it and see what kind of inconsistencies there are.

Alternatively, you can also do that yourself - the file is a plain SQLite database. The format isn't too hard to understand.

Your best bet to (hopefully) fix this is to export the collections to calibre via CM, then manually delete the /var/local/cc.db, restart the device, import from calibre via CM. And in the future, to prevent this from happening again: make any needed adjustments to files before you start filing them into collections.

[SampleAndy]

Originally Posted by ixtab

...

Your best bet to (hopefully) fix this is to export the collections to calibre via CM, then manually delete the /var/local/cc.db, restart the device, import from calibre via CM. And in the future, to prevent this from happening again: make any needed adjustments to files before you start filing them into collections.

I'd been having some weird problems all along. At one point not too long ago, I gave up and used the feature in CM to [Delete all collections]. I then used [Create collections from directories] and started from there.

If I understand correctly, (meaning guess) these processes just delete all the records from the database and create new ones, but if the database is corrupted, it would still BE corrupted. The only real solution would be to actually delete the database and start from scratch. If I delete the database, will the Kindle automatically create an empty one or do I need to do something else?

Thanks for your help, as always,
Andy

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by SampleAndy

I'd been having some weird problems all along. At one point not too long ago, I gave up and used the feature in CM to [Delete all collections]. I then used [Create collections from directories] and started from there.

If I understand correctly, (meaning guess) these processes just delete all the records from the database and create new ones, but if the database is corrupted, it would still BE corrupted.

Almost

The "delete all collections" will delete all collections from the database. But it won't delete any "zombie" book entries from it - which is what seems to cause your problem. But I can't tell for sure unless I can take a look at the actual database. So yes, even if you delete all collections, your DB might still contain junk entries. But it's worth giving it a try. In the worst case, you can still delete the entire database afterwards.

The only real solution would be to actually delete the database and start from scratch. If I delete the database, will the Kindle automatically create an empty one or do I need to do something else?

Yes, it will re-create it when the framework is restarted. Actually, the database contains information about both books and collections (and the special items, like "archive", too). So it will re-create the DB and populate it only with the books & stuff, but no collections.

[SampleAndy]

Originally Posted by ixtab

...

Could you either post here, or -- probably preferrable for privacy reasons -- send me via PM, your collections database (/var/local/cc.db) ? I'd like to take a look at it and see what kind of inconsistencies there are

....

ixtab has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.

hmmm...

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by SampleAndy

ixtab has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.

hmmm...

Try again now

[SampleAndy]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

... if you ever do update a book for whatever reason, try deleting it *from the device itself* first.

Thanks to ixtab for checking the database and giving his seal of approval... within limits.

NiLuJe, when you say *from the device itself* do you mean through the device interface, or do you mean just deleting the book from the device whether via the Kindle interface, calibre, Windows Explorer or some other method? When I read the post the first time, I thought it meant delete the book instead of just overwriting it with a new copy, but now I'm starting to wonder.

Thanks again to all!

[NiLuJe]

I meant from the Kindle's UI

[Aeris]

OMG guys, I don't know how to thank you!

I had exatly the same inconsistency problem, and not only for books in collection... 6 books of 359 weren't showing up anywhere! I was going mad.

Then I've deleted the /var/local/cc.db through kindleExplorer app and now it's everything ok! I just have to make collections anew...

I'll try in the future to delete the book from the device before editing them in any way, as you suggest.

Maybe the topic could be renamed in "kindle doens't display some books" or anything helpful to be found easily from other users, it's quite critical!