Transfer of files on Android is incredibly slow, but same files super quick on iPad?

[lealla]

Hi all,

I have calibre companion on both my android phone* and my ipad 3.
I transfer my books via the 'connect/wireless device/sync books' option on both devices.

The transfer of files on my android phone is excruciatingly slow - at least 2-3 minutes for a 2mb epub. In contrast, my ipad received a 100mb pdf in about 40 seconds.

They are both on the same network, and connecting to the same PC.

Can anyone help me figure out how to fix the speed on my android phone? I put off copying new books to my phone because it takes so long, and I'm sure it's not normal behavior for the app...

Thank you for any advice!


(*Samsung Galaxy s5 running Lineage OS 14.1 / Android 7.1.2)

[chaley]

Take a look at this FAQ [Android] I have added a lot of books and now adding books takes forever. What do I do?

[chaley]

Also, if the info in that FAQ doesn't apply to you, we can get some diagnostic information from a CC debug log. For example, I sent a book to my test device and the debug log contains the following:

2018-01-24 12:07:59.493:  calibre sent command SEND_BOOK
2018-01-24 12:07:59.495:  current lpath=History of Don Quixote ...
2018-01-24 12:07:59.496:  Command SendBook: receiving sequence 0 of 1, title=The History of ...
2018-01-24 12:08:02.281:  Command SendBook: received book. length=8778128
2018-01-24 12:08:02.283:  Command SendBook: creating queue object
2018-01-24 12:08:02.285:  DbUpdateThread starting: command=SendBook, supportsSync=true, allowCreation=true
2018-01-24 12:08:02.287:  Command SendBook: queued metadata write. queue length=0
2018-01-24 12:08:02.684:  Command SendBook: queue finished 0 in 403 ms, title=The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete, lpath=History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete, The - Miguel de Cervantes Raavedra (1235).epub
2018-01-24 12:08:02.685:  Command SendBook: queue thread exited

We see that it took almost 3 seconds to receive an 8 megabyte book. The time to create the file is included here. It took 403 milliseconds to add the book to CC's database.

The CC receive book progress bar can give you some information without referring to a debug log:

• The bar won't move until the file is created. If the time is spent here then the FAQ should be relevant.
• The bar will move while the book is being received over the network. If the time is spent here then the network on the device is very slow.
• The bar will sit at the end while writing CC's database. If the time is here then updating the CC database is slow. CC "Settings / Other / Clean book database" might help.

[lealla]

Thank you very much for the tips! I followed the instructions from the guide and the copying has sped up significantly. It's not as quick as the ipad, but it's so much better than before - I'm thrilled. I'm guessing any speed discrepancies will just be device or sd card based, but I'm happy enough with the new speed not to worry about it
Thanks again!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by lealla

Thank you very much for the tips! I followed the instructions from the guide and the copying has sped up significantly. It's not as quick as the ipad, but it's so much better than before - I'm thrilled. I'm guessing any speed discrepancies will just be device or sd card based, but I'm happy enough with the new speed not to worry about it
Thanks again!

What did the issue turn out to be, lealla? What change did you make that made copying go more quickly? It's always helpful for other people to know these things!

[lealla]

Hi HarryT,

I followed the guide here: http://cc_faq.multipie.co.uk/index.php?solution_id=1094

I had calibre companion setup to copy all my epub files into one directory. I had to delete everything and then set calibre companion up on android the way that they suggested - i.e so that each epub file is in it's own directory (under author/book title/ ect). That sped things up a lot!

[HarryT]

Makes sense - thanks!