Problem: Epub passes epubcheck but crashes ADE

[dynabook]

I have liberated several of my (purchased) epub ebooks but after editing them (removing Google page map, renaming chapt files, fixing spelling and typos, etc.) some (not all by any means) will crash ADE and will not read on my Kobo Aura ONE (which uses a version of the Adobe RMSDK).

Is there any way to troubleshoot this behavior? These files all pass EPUB Check 3.0. I can't guess what may cause this. I don't get an error message just crash or on the Aura ONE a white screen (no crash).

Thanks for any suggestions on how to proceed. Maybe a tool that provides more depth look into the ePub.

--MH

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by dynabook

I have liberated several of my (purchased) epub ebooks but after editing them (removing Google page map, renaming chapt files, fixing spelling and typos, etc.) some (not all by any means) will crash ADE and will not read on my Kobo Aura ONE (which uses a version of the Adobe RMSDK).

Is there any way to troubleshoot this behavior? These files all pass EPUB Check 3.0. I can't guess what may cause this. I don't get an error message just crash or on the Aura ONE a white screen (no crash).

Thanks for any suggestions on how to proceed. Maybe a tool that provides more depth look into the ePub.

--MH

Check for Scramble Ebook in either a calibre plugin ( ScrambleEbook plugin) or a standalone utility (ScrambleEbook standalone). Use it on one of your ebooks and attach it to a message here so others can take a look at it.

Scramble Ebook will basically turn the your file into garbage but garbage that can be looked at to see what errors or omissions might be there.

[dynabook]

Thanks. I'll get on that. Have to dust off my PC since I normally use a Mac.

--MH

[KevinH]

Many older ADE devices would either crash or whitescreen if an xhtml chapter exceeded a certain size. Something like 200k bytes or along those lines. Did you merge chapters into a larger file. If so, you may want to put them back.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by dynabook

Thanks. I'll get on that. Have to dust off my PC since I normally use a Mac.

--MH

If you are using calibre, the plugin will work on a Mac. I'm not sure about running the Python code standalone on a Mac. On my PC, it required calibre as quite a bit of the code is using imports from calibre.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by dynabook

[...] some (not all by any means) will crash ADE.

Are you referring to the desktop version or the Kobo ADE app?

Originally Posted by dynabook

These files all pass EPUB Check 3.0.

The current version is EPUBCheck v4.2.1. You might want to re-check your books with it.

Originally Posted by dynabook

Is there any way to troubleshoot this behavior?

Open the file with Calibre Editor, click Run check, and have Calibre Editor fix all issues. Alternatively convert your books to .kepub files.

[dynabook]

Okay, Doitsu I have downloaded EPUBCheck 4.2.1 and will try it. In the meantime here is one of my problem books scrambled by ScrambleEbook.

I will also try Calibre Editor.

--MH

[dynabook]

I am using ADE 2.0 to try to open these ebooks. Calibre Ebook Editor may have resolved the problems with the epub I uploaded (at least ADE opened it.) The next one was not resolved by fixing with Calibre Editor.

--MH

[DiapDealer]

The attached epub doesn't pass EpubCheck without errors. I was led to believe that the problem epubs ADE would't open were passing validation.

Invalid role attributes and missing manifest properties would certainly be enough to trip up ADE. There's also only so much support for Epub3 that ADE 2.0 will be able to accommodate in the first place.

Use Sigil to Update Manifest Properties (Tools->Epub3 Tools), change the invalid "doc-footnotes" role attributes to the proper "doc-footnote" and see if that doesn't fix the issues.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by dynabook

Okay, Doitsu I have downloaded EPUBCheck 4.2.1 and will try it. In the meantime here is one of my problem books scrambled by ScrambleEbook.

I will also try Calibre Editor.

--MH

I used Sigil as the editor to check your uploaded ebook (epubcheck and W3C check for the stylesheet). Removing the two blank @media declarations at the end of your stylesheet lets ADE 2.0.1 display the file quite happily. I'd also suggest getting rid of the mass of "font-family: "Times New Roman" , serif;" lines in your stylesheet. Very few ereaders will have the Times New Roman font available and you are preventing users from being able to switch fonts. I would also wonder about your FreeSerif font family being used for the last character of some words -- that is a bit of an oddity, IMHO.

Also note that your first upload was an epub2 while your second is an epub3.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by dynabook

I am using ADE 2.0 to try to open these ebooks. Calibre Ebook Editor may have resolved the problems with the epub I uploaded (at least ADE opened it.) The next one was not resolved by fixing with Calibre Editor.

--MH

Checking this one out, I changed the 2 doc-footnotes to doc-footnote, added the 'properties="svg"' to the cover.xhtml line in the manifest section of content.opf and removed the following media queries from one of the stylesheets:

@media amzn-kf8 {
  }
@media amzn-mobi {
  blockquote {
    margin: 2em auto 2em auto;
  }
  .squeeze {
    width: auto;
  }
  }

ADE 2.0.1 now seems to happy with this file as well. In both cases, it seems the amazon media queries were enough to cause problems since another media query in the 2nd file found in prhStyle-media-queries.css doesn't seem to cause issues.

[dynabook]

Thanks for all the help. I am using the Sigil plugin for epubcheck (ver. 4.1.1). It showed no errors. I was not able to get the 4.2.1 version to install. i will try these suggestions on the original ePub. Of over 200 ePubs I have purchased I have about half-dozen which have exhibited these issues. I assume it is a variety of causes but fonts seem to play a big part as well as the media queries.

Again, thanks. If there are any suggestions of sites to better understand ePub3 I would welcome them.

--MH