Log my series from Calibre to my KOBO aura H2O

[Clem2605]

Hy!

So here's my problem:
Sometimes I have trouble making my Kobo download the content of my "series" column on Calibre as series on the device, and treat it as such. I have solved the problem several times by deleting all my books from the device and downloading them again but by doing it I'm deleting my reading progress from the kobo, it's pretty annoying to have to "mark as read" half of my books again and again...
I think I could prevent it by understanding what's going wrong, anyone can help me?

I don't know if it is the place where I should post it, but I have another annoying problem with my series:
Let's say I have the series "A Pink Cat".
Usually, when I sort alphabetically my series, I'm gonna have something like:

"A Blue Cat [1]"
"Green Cat [1]"
"Green Cat [2]"
"A Pink Cat [1]"
"A Pink Cat [2]"
"A Pink Cat [3]"
"A Red Cat [1]"

Well for some of my books, it's gonna be like:

"A Pink Cat [2]"
"A Blue Cat [1]"
"Green Cat [1]"
"Green Cat [2]"
"A Pink Cat [1]"
"A Pink Cat [3]"
"A Red Cat [1]"


It doesn't sort every book the same way, how can I solve it?

[JSWolf]

What version Calibre and what version Kobo firmware? The new 4.20.14622 firmware and Calibre 4.15 have features for handling series outside of collections.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Clem2605

Hy!

So here's my problem:
Sometimes I have trouble making my Kobo download the content of my "series" column on Calibre as series on the device, and treat it as such. I have solved the problem several times by deleting all my books from the device and downloading them again but by doing it I'm deleting my reading progress from the kobo, it's pretty annoying to have to "mark as read" half of my books again and again...
I think I could prevent it by understanding what's going wrong, anyone can help me?

I don't know if it is the place where I should post it, but I have another annoying problem with my series:
Let's say I have the series "A Pink Cat".
Usually, when I sort alphabetically my series, I'm gonna have something like:

"A Blue Cat [1]"
"Green Cat [1]"
"Green Cat [2]"
"A Pink Cat [1]"
"A Pink Cat [2]"
"A Pink Cat [3]"
"A Red Cat [1]"

Well for some of my books, it's gonna be like:

"A Pink Cat [2]"
"A Blue Cat [1]"
"Green Cat [1]"
"Green Cat [2]"
"A Pink Cat [1]"
"A Pink Cat [3]"
"A Red Cat [1]"


It doesn't sort every book the same way, how can I solve it?

The series sorting should just work. It shouldn't matter what firmware you have if the device has the series sort option. But, were are you looking at the sorting? In the main book list, a collection or inside a series in the new Series tab? The latter works a little different from the others, but, if one worked they should all work.

Are the series name and index are showing in the library lists on the device? With the correct details.

The simplest answer that I can think of is that the names of the series isn't quite what you think. If one of the characters in the series name is actually a unicode character that just looks the same, it could do this. Though it would probably mess up the sorting in calibre.

Would it be possible to run calibre in debug mode, connect the device and post the log? And a screenshot from the device? The latter is to let me see it in case there is something strange.

And it is always good to know the versions of things involved. So, the firmware and calibre version would be good.

[Clem2605]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The series sorting should just work. It shouldn't matter what firmware you have if the device has the series sort option. But, where are you looking at the sorting? In the main booklist, a collection or inside a series in the new Series tab? The latter works a little different from the others, but, if one worked they should all work.

Are the series name and index are showing in the library lists on the device? With the correct details.

The simplest answer that I can think of is that the names of the series isn't quite what you think. If one of the characters in the series name is a Unicode character that just looks the same, it could do this. Though it would probably mess up the sorting in Calibre.

Would it be possible to run Calibre in debug mode, connect the device and post the log? And a screenshot from the device? The latter is to let me see it in case there is something strange.

And it is always good to know the versions of things involved. So, the firmware and Calibre version would be good.

For my first problem, I found what was wrong: It seems that I was a little too quick to post since I just didn't search enough: I thought that just asking Calibre to put my books would be enough (which it is, one time out of two), but I also have to upload the metadata (I never did it before because I never modify the metadata of a book who already is on my e-reader, why uploading something that doesn't need uploading?) of the books already on my e-reader to be sure that everything is all-right before disconnecting the device.


For my second problem, I thought too that it was a problem of a character not being what it should be or something like that, which is why the first thing I did was to delete the series name for every book of the series and rewriting it. But it didn't work.

From what I did (unsuccessfully) to correct the problem, I'd say that there is something in the book's metadata that make the sorting tool take the series' name differently (Like for the author or title sorting):
In the majority of cases, it sort le series like that "Pink Cat, A", but in a few cases, it sort it like that "A Pink Cat. But I don't know how, or where, to fix it...

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Clem2605

From what I did (unsuccessfully) to correct the problem, I'd say that there is something in the book's metadata that make the sorting tool take the series' name differently (Like for the author or title sorting):
In the majority of cases, it sort le series like that "Pink Cat, A", but in a few cases, it sort it like that "A Pink Cat. But I don't know how, or where, to fix it...

You might want to check the language settings. I had a couple of epubs where for reasons known only to the author, the epub language was set to Portuguese despite the content all being in English and this did strange things to the sorts,

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Clem2605

For my first problem, I found what was wrong: It seems that I was a little too quick to post since I just didn't search enough: I thought that just asking Calibre to put my books would be enough (which it is, one time out of two), but I also have to upload the metadata (I never did it before because I never modify the metadata of a book who already is on my e-reader, why uploading something that doesn't need uploading?) of the books already on my e-reader to be sure that everything is all-right before disconnecting the device.

Unfortunately, for the series info, it takes two steps. When you send the book to the device, calibre will make sure it has the latest metadata in it. And you can fiddle with some of that using metadata plugboards. When you eject the device, it imports the books. It reads the metadata from the books and puts it in a database for later use. Unfortunately, it doesn't read everything. And series info is one of the things it doesn't read. This is reasonable as the metadata standards used for epub2 does not include series info.

The second step is to connect the device after the books have been imported. The KoboTouch/KoboTouchExtended driver can update the database on the device with the current metadata. This includes the series info and the other metadata the device doesn't import. Plus, it can sync any changes without the book being resent. It does this each time the device is connected. It is reasonably fast as it only does an update if there is a difference between the library and the device.

For my second problem, I thought too that it was a problem of a character not being what it should be or something like that, which is why the first thing I did was to delete the series name for every book of the series and rewriting it. But it didn't work.

From what I did (unsuccessfully) to correct the problem, I'd say that there is something in the book's metadata that make the sorting tool take the series' name differently (Like for the author or title sorting):
In the majority of cases, it sort le series like that "Pink Cat, A", but in a few cases, it sort it like that "A Pink Cat. But I don't know how, or where, to fix it...

That does sound like a language setting somewhere.

Also, if you need to fiddle with the series for a set of books, I recommend the Manage Series plugin. It's very handy for updating the series and the order of books.

[Clem2605]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That does sound like a language setting somewhere.

Also, if you need to fiddle with the series for a set of books, I recommend the Manage Series plugin. It's very handy for updating the series and the order of books.

I already tried the Manage Series plugin, and it treats the books as a part of the series, there isn't any problem there...

FOUND IT! Thank you so much!! I already had a column "Language" (I'm french, so I have books in French and books in English) but since there are both books in English and French, I didn't see that for some of my series, some books were marked as French, and others English...

Well, thank you, I feel dumb now that I've realized that it was easy fixes that I could've found myself... But I was so fixed on those things I didn't see the obvious...

[JSWolf]

I forget which eBook, but I do remember one eBook I bought had the language set to French. It has since fixed and I do have an updated version.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Clem2605

FOUND IT! Thank you so much!! I already had a column "Language" (I'm french, so I have books in French and books in English) but since there are both books in English and French, I didn't see that for some of my series, some books were marked as French, and others English...

Thanks for letting us know the problem is solved. So often people offer help and never hear back if the issue was resolved.

Originally Posted by Clem2605

Well, thank you, I feel dumb now that I've realized that it was easy fixes that I could've found myself... But I was so fixed on those things I didn't see the obvious...

Nothing wrong with learning from other people's experience. We've all had (well, at least, I've had) those times when we chase off on the wrong path.