Ereader to sync (read position, highlights etc) sideloaded books with Android app ?

cd2013 · 02-27-2019, 05:31 AM

I’m hoping this is the right section of the forum to post in.

I manage my library of DRM-free books with Calibre.

Is there a combination of eink ereader and Android app that allows me to sync read position and highlights/notes/annotations among the ereader, and Android app for phone or tablet, and Calibre on my PC?
This would be for sideloaded books, not for books bought from a store like Kobo's or Amazon's.

I’m open to any kind of ereader (including those running customised Android) and any ebook format ( Calibre should be able to convert into any format), and am of course open to storing my library on something like Dropbox.

For read position, of course there is the very low-tech solution of trying to remember, or jotting down, the last sentence read, and then manually searching for that.

For highlights/notes/annotations, I’m not so sure.

Thoughts?

Ideally it would be some kind of connection from the ereader or the Android app to a cloud, without necessarily running Calibre on the PC, but I’d like to understand what the art of the possible is. Bookfusion probably offers something similar, but I’d rather avoid a proprietary system that may change or shut down at any moment.

ilovejedd · 02-27-2019, 10:00 AM

If you're willing to upload/email your sideload books (as MOBI) to Amazon's cloud, then Kindle + Kindle app will do what you want.

I've actually done highlighting on an emailed book on my Paperwhite, then downloaded the book on Kindle for iOS to export highlights to HTML.

cd2013 · 02-27-2019, 10:09 AM

Thanks a lot for your suggestions.

Am I right in understanding that 'send to Kindle' would make the books appear as 'personal documents', while sideloading them via Calibre would make them appear as books? Would they be backed up and synced to Amazon's cloud in both cases?

How about syncing between the Amazon Cloud and Calibre? Say I sideload a book from Calibre to the Kindle, read it on the kindle, and take some notes/highlight some passages. Is there an easy way to sync notes and highlight between Amazon and Calibre?

The main thing I don't like about Kindles is that managing collections is a huge pain, especially with the newer models, which need jailbreaking, whereas Kobo shelves can be created based on Calibre tags (or any other column) in a much more straightforward way.

ilovejedd · 02-27-2019, 10:30 AM

Yes, they'll show up as personal documents. Only "Send to Kindle" will be backed up and sync using Amazon's cloud.

There's a Calibre annotations plugin that works with the "My Clippings.txt" on Kindle e-ink readers. I'm not sure but I believe the plugin only does a one-way sync from Kindle to Calibre. @davidfor can correct me on this. Caveat, while annotations created on the Kindle for Android or iOS apps are synced to Kindle ereaders (.mbp1), they don't get exported to "My Clippings.txt".

I hear you about the crappy native collection management. I purchased extra Kindles just so I have jailbroken backups that work with LibrarianSync + Kindle Collections.

maximus83 · 02-27-2019, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

There's a Calibre annotations plugin that works with the "My Clippings.txt" on Kindle e-ink readers. I'm not sure but I believe the plugin only does a one-way sync from Kindle to Calibre. @davidfor can correct me on this. Caveat, while annotations created on the Kindle for Android or iOS apps are synced to Kindle ereaders (.mbp1), they don't get exported to "My Clippings.txt".

That is true, annotations tool is definitely one-way: from device to Calibre only. It loads the annotations into an HTML view (which you can modify) when you look at the "Details" view of a book.

cd2013 · 02-27-2019, 11:32 AM

By 'annotations' you mean both notes and highlights?

Is there any way to do a two-way sync of annotations, from ereader to Calibre, then from Calibre to ereader? With any ereader, be it a Kindle, Kobo, Android e-ink reader, or else

maximus83 · 02-27-2019, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cd2013

How about syncing between the Amazon Cloud and Calibre? Say I sideload a book from Calibre to the Kindle, read it on the kindle, and take some notes/highlight some passages. Is there an easy way to sync notes and highlight between Amazon and Calibre?

Sadly, you will not be able to "sync"--in the true sense of that word, a 2-way updating process--between Amazon cloud notes and Calibre.

ETA: Saw your question after I posted, yes by 'annotations' I mean broadly notes, highlights, and bookmarks. The Calibre annotations tools imports those to Calibre.

The best you could do is something like treat the notes that are in your Amazon cloud documents (whether in books purchased from them, or your own books uploaded to the personal docs area) as the 'source' of your notes. And periodically do the one-way sync to Calibre so that it has current copies of all your notes. Using the Calibre annotations function as sort of a local backup for your cloud-based notes. The obvious limitation with this 'backup' scheme is you could never get the annotations in Calibre back onto a device.

madagascaradam · 02-27-2019, 01:34 PM

Can someone link to the Kindle-to-Calibre annotations tool for me? I'd like that!

cd2013 · 02-27-2019, 01:37 PM

I haven't used it but one option is:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=241206

davidfor · 02-27-2019, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cd2013

By 'annotations' you mean both notes and highlights?

Is there any way to do a two-way sync of annotations, from ereader to Calibre, then from Calibre to ereader? With any ereader, be it a Kindle, Kobo, Android e-ink reader, or else

That's not going to happen until some standards are created and actually adopted. At the moment, everyone does annotations differently, some make them visible to other systems and some don't. Then there is the simple issue of how to find the same location in two different versions of a book, or two different formats.

cd2013 · 02-27-2019, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madagascaradam

Can someone link to the Kindle-to-Calibre annotations tool for me? I'd like that!

Also https://kmate.me/

maximus83 · 02-27-2019, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cd2013

Also https://kmate.me/

That looks promising, I wonder if anyone has reviewed it here?

ilovejedd · 02-28-2019, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maximus83

That looks promising, I wonder if anyone has reviewed it here?

I played with it a little a while back and it just uses "My Clippings.txt" same as the Calibre plug-in.

While I believe it allows merging notes from various devices into one "My Clippings.txt" file, it doesn't actually add new highlights/notes to the ebook sidecar files.

ilovejedd · 02-28-2019, 12:24 AM

Just a thought, KOReader might not support annotations sync at the moment but it does support Evernote. Haven't really used it though so can't comment on how it works with KOReader.

Personally, I do my annotations on Marvin (iOS).

maximus83 · 02-28-2019, 11:11 AM

The KOReader has limited annotation functionality right now, and the Evernote feature seems to only work in a limited way. I believe annotations (specifically: add notes) are on their to-do list for a future release. You can 'sort of ' add them by hacking a highlight.

More here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=314688

02-27-2019, 05:31 AM	#1
cd2013 Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3G	Ereader to sync (read position, highlights etc) sideloaded books with Android app ? I’m hoping this is the right section of the forum to post in. I manage my library of DRM-free books with Calibre. Is there a combination of eink ereader and Android app that allows me to sync read position and highlights/notes/annotations among the ereader, and Android app for phone or tablet, and Calibre on my PC? This would be for sideloaded books, not for books bought from a store like Kobo's or Amazon's. I’m open to any kind of ereader (including those running customised Android) and any ebook format ( Calibre should be able to convert into any format), and am of course open to storing my library on something like Dropbox. For read position, of course there is the very low-tech solution of trying to remember, or jotting down, the last sentence read, and then manually searching for that. For highlights/notes/annotations, I’m not so sure. Thoughts? Ideally it would be some kind of connection from the ereader or the Android app to a cloud, without necessarily running Calibre on the PC, but I’d like to understand what the art of the possible is. Bookfusion probably offers something similar, but I’d rather avoid a proprietary system that may change or shut down at any moment.

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02-27-2019, 10:00 AM	#2
ilovejedd hopeless n00b Posts: 5,111 Karma: 19597086 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: in the middle of nowhere Device: PW4, PW3, Libra H2O, iPad 10.5, iPad 11, iPad 12.9	If you're willing to upload/email your sideload books (as MOBI) to Amazon's cloud, then Kindle + Kindle app will do what you want. I've actually done highlighting on an emailed book on my Paperwhite, then downloaded the book on Kindle for iOS to export highlights to HTML.

02-27-2019, 10:09 AM	#3
cd2013 Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3G	Thanks a lot for your suggestions. Am I right in understanding that 'send to Kindle' would make the books appear as 'personal documents', while sideloading them via Calibre would make them appear as books? Would they be backed up and synced to Amazon's cloud in both cases? How about syncing between the Amazon Cloud and Calibre? Say I sideload a book from Calibre to the Kindle, read it on the kindle, and take some notes/highlight some passages. Is there an easy way to sync notes and highlight between Amazon and Calibre? The main thing I don't like about Kindles is that managing collections is a huge pain, especially with the newer models, which need jailbreaking, whereas Kobo shelves can be created based on Calibre tags (or any other column) in a much more straightforward way.

02-27-2019, 10:30 AM	#4
ilovejedd hopeless n00b Posts: 5,111 Karma: 19597086 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: in the middle of nowhere Device: PW4, PW3, Libra H2O, iPad 10.5, iPad 11, iPad 12.9	Yes, they'll show up as personal documents. Only "Send to Kindle" will be backed up and sync using Amazon's cloud. There's a Calibre annotations plugin that works with the "My Clippings.txt" on Kindle e-ink readers. I'm not sure but I believe the plugin only does a one-way sync from Kindle to Calibre. @davidfor can correct me on this. Caveat, while annotations created on the Kindle for Android or iOS apps are synced to Kindle ereaders (.mbp1), they don't get exported to "My Clippings.txt". I hear you about the crappy native collection management. I purchased extra Kindles just so I have jailbroken backups that work with LibrarianSync + Kindle Collections.

02-27-2019, 11:32 AM	#6
cd2013 Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3G	By 'annotations' you mean both notes and highlights? Is there any way to do a two-way sync of annotations, from ereader to Calibre, then from Calibre to ereader? With any ereader, be it a Kindle, Kobo, Android e-ink reader, or else

02-27-2019, 01:34 PM	#8
madagascaradam Enthusiast Posts: 36 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2015 Device: Kobo H2O Edition 2	Can someone link to the Kindle-to-Calibre annotations tool for me? I'd like that!

02-27-2019, 01:37 PM	#9
cd2013 Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3G	I haven't used it but one option is: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=241206

02-28-2019, 12:24 AM	#14
ilovejedd hopeless n00b Posts: 5,111 Karma: 19597086 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: in the middle of nowhere Device: PW4, PW3, Libra H2O, iPad 10.5, iPad 11, iPad 12.9	Just a thought, KOReader might not support annotations sync at the moment but it does support Evernote. Haven't really used it though so can't comment on how it works with KOReader. Personally, I do my annotations on Marvin (iOS).

02-28-2019, 11:11 AM	#15
maximus83 Nameless Being	The KOReader has limited annotation functionality right now, and the Evernote feature seems to only work in a limited way. I believe annotations (specifically: add notes) are on their to-do list for a future release. You can 'sort of ' add them by hacking a highlight. More here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=314688

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