Calibre, synchr. iBooks and Marvin

[desertblues]

Alright; perhaps I am missing something very obvious, but here's my problem:

A while back Calibre didn't send books to iBooks on my Macbook pro OSX 10.7.5. After several in-and re-installing the iOs-reader plugin I left it; I dragged my books to iTunes to synchronize with iBooks.
Also I installed Marvin and connected Calibre to it. That worked.

Now I've an iPad air iOs 7.0.4. and Calibre(1.15) sends books to iTunes, but iTunes doesn't synchronize with iBooks. That's why I drag my books in Dropbox and use the option 'open in iBooks'. That works.

Calibre doesn't see Marvin any more though. When I open Marvin on the iPad, the 'cloud' icon doesn't appear. (It does for Dropbox).
Several times I de-and re-installed both the iOs reader application plugin and the Marvin XD plug in as advised in "Marvin for iOs", with the iDevice de-connected and connected as advised and Calibre started and restarted.

I would like to have at least one reader application that works directly with Calibre on my iPad air.
What am I doing wrong? I would like to use either iBooks or Marvin with Calibre, or both......
I would appreciate some thoughts on this puzzle.

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by desertblues

Alright; perhaps I am missing something very obvious, but here's my problem:

A while back Calibre didn't send books to iBooks on my Macbook pro OSX 10.7.5. After several in-and re-installing the iOs-reader plugin I left it; I dragged my books to iTunes to synchronize with iBooks.
Also I installed Marvin and connected Calibre to it. That worked.

Now I've an iPad air iOs 7.0.4. and Calibre(1.15) sends books to iTunes, but iTunes doesn't synchronize with iBooks. That's why I drag my books in Dropbox and use the option 'open in iBooks'. That works.

Calibre doesn't see Marvin any more though. When I open Marvin on the iPad, the 'cloud' icon doesn't appear. (It does for Dropbox).
Several times I de-and re-installed both the iOs reader application plugin and the Marvin XD plug in as advised in "Marvin for iOs", with the iDevice de-connected and connected as advised and Calibre started and restarted.

I would like to have at least one reader application that works directly with Calibre on my iPad air.
What am I doing wrong? I would like to use either iBooks or Marvin with Calibre, or both......
I would appreciate some thoughts on this puzzle.

The cloud icon in Marvin was replaced by the 'Get books' button a few releases back. You can start the calibre connector from within the choices displayed after touching 'Get books'.

G

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by GRiker

The cloud icon in Marvin was replaced by the 'Get books' button a few releases back. You can start the calibre connector from within the choices displayed after touching 'Get books'.

G

Yes, thank you GRiker, that is what I thought, but when I touch the 'get books' on my iPad, the Marvin icon in Calibre remains grey and doesn't show my books on Marvin in Calibre. Customizing the iOS reader application or the Marvin plug in doesn't give me any option but "epub or pdf". I used to be able to choose between iBooks, Goodreader and Marvin.

[GRiker]

Disconnect your iPad.
Open calibre. Go to Preferences|Advanced|Plugins, then locate the iOS reader applications plugin. Customize it, change the preferred reader application to Marvin.
Save, close calibre.
Reconnect your iPad.
Start Marvin.
Touch 'Get books', then 'calibre' to start the calibre connector.
Start calibre.
You should see the red Marvin icon as your connected device.

If you're still having problems, review the iOS reader application plugin thread to make sure you have things properly configured.

G

[desertblues]

Thank you very much for your help, GRiker.
For some reason it just doesn't work for me or it just isn't for me. I also always get the iOS reader application double when I install the plugin. I can't customize it. I have been trouble with this for over half a year and am getting rather discouraged by the whole process of installing, de-installing, connecting, de-connecting the iDevice, searching this forum, searching the internet, the Marvin section etc.

On the positive side, I do have my Kindle that works well with Calibre, and which is my preferred reader.

Thanks again for your help. It will work out some day I expect.

[GRiker]

@desertblues, if you want to get to the bottom of the problem, there are specific instructions in the iOS reader applications thread about how to create an issue reporting the problem with a debug log, which will give me the diagnostic information I need to resolve the problem for you and potentially others.

One thing that comes to mind given the symptoms you're describing and the length of time you've had the problem. Please check your installed plugins to see if you have the obsolete 'Apple iDevice interface' plugin installed. The iOS reader applications plugin replaced that plugin. If you have it installed, it needs to be removed. And of course, after removing it, you would need to restart calibre.

That's a guess; if you want a definitive resolution create an issue and we can work together to discover the source of the problem.

G

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by GRiker

....One thing that comes to mind given the symptoms you're describing and the length of time you've had the problem. Please check your installed plugins to see if you have the obsolete 'Apple iDevice interface' plugin installed. The iOS reader applications plugin replaced that plugin. If you have it installed, it needs to be removed. And of course, after removing it, you would need to restart calibre......

GRiker. I took another look at the obsolete Apple iDevice Interface plugin and saw that it was de-activated. But that isn't enough, I discovered your advice on the bottom of the iOs reader application page :
" Go to Preferences | Advanced | Miscellaneous, click Open calibre configuration directory.
Open the plugins folder.
Delete iOS reader applications.json.
Delete the iOS_reader_applications_resources folder.
Restart calibre."

1. Though I hesitate to interfere with directories, not being a specialist, I went ahead and deleted these two. That gave me the option to customize the iOs reader plugin.

2. To send books from Calibre directly to iBooks, without having to synchronize with iTunes, I enabled "(select device, then in options) Manually manage videos or Manually manage music and videos ".

Am I right in thinking that I can't switch in Calibre from iBooks to Goodreads, Marvin or Kindle on iOs without:
"Disconnect your iDevice.
Open Preferences|Advanced|Plugins|Device Interface plugins, then highlight iOS reader applications.
Click Customize plugin." ?

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by desertblues

Am I right in thinking that I can't switch in Calibre from iBooks to Goodreads, Marvin or Kindle on iOs without:
"Disconnect your iDevice.
Open Preferences|Advanced|Plugins|Device Interface plugins, then highlight iOS reader applications.
Click Customize plugin." ?

Yes, those are the steps you need to take. After changing the Preferred reader application in the iOS reader applications plugin, you need to restart calibre.

It's a bit tedious, but necessary because the iOSRA plugin loads a completely different library of additional reader-specific code for each reader application. That code is active until the plugin is reconfigured for a different reader application and calibre is restarted.

G

[desertblues]

Thanks again, GRiker. I have now a workable librarymanagement.

[GRiker]

Great, thanks for your persistence. I'm glad it's working for you.

G

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by GRiker

.....resolve the problem for you and potentially others......
G

Originally Posted by GRiker

Great, thanks for your persistence. I'm glad it's working for you.
G

he, he...... the thought that there could potentially be others with the same problem kept me going........