iOS App iOS app doesn't sync with Kobo ereaders?

[Cootey]

I've been searching the forums for this problem, but I haven't found it yet:

I do most of my ereading with iBooks and Kindle. Any annotating or bookmarks that I make are seamlessly synced between my iPhone and my iPad for both iBooks and Kindle apps, plus my Kindle e-reader (I'm on my third). I've also used the Kobo app on iOS for years, but since my daughter uses the kobo mini, I've never taken opportunity to test how well syncing works. They could both access my library, so all was good.

However, now that I have a kobo aura one, I've noticed that my annotations on the iOS app are not showing up on the KA1, and visa versa. Neither are bookmarks. It's the same on the Mini. They seem to be separate databases. The app on iPhone & iPad syncs, and the Mini syncs with the KA1, but the apps can't sync with the ereaders. This is like early days on the Kindle when the iPad app was new. Is this a known bug or is there a fix? I'd rather not reinvent the wheel on this one if I can avoid it. Thanks.

[davidfor]

The bookmarks, annotations and reading positions should sync between the Kobo devices and apps. I have tested syncing between the devices, the Android app and the iOS app a few times. It has worked most of the time, but there was a couple of months last year when it didn't.

I don't have my iPad with me today, and my annotations are tend to be temporary markers to fix something or look them up, so there are no annotations to sync to my phone. I'll have a play tonight at home, and see how it goes.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The bookmarks, annotations and reading positions should sync between the Kobo devices and apps. I have tested syncing between the devices, the Android app and the iOS app a few times. It has worked most of the time, but there was a couple of months last year when it didn't.

I don't have my iPad with me today, and my annotations are tend to be temporary markers to fix something or look them up, so there are no annotations to sync to my phone. I'll have a play tonight at home, and see how it goes.

Looking forward to your findings. No matter how many times I sync, they remain separate.

[Cootey]

Any news? I'd love to know how to fix this sync.

[davidfor]

I only had a chance to test last night, and t seems to be bad news. I'm not getting any sync happening between the apps and the devices. But, I'm also not getting any sync between my devices. The weird one was that the desktop app synced the annotations from the apps and one device once, but didn't update them. And the annotations I added using the desktop app didn't sync to anything else.

I have asked Kobo about it, but haven't had a response yet.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I have asked Kobo about it, but haven't had a response yet.

Ever get a response on this? It seems a basic feature of sync. I'm surprised that Kobo still hasn't fixed this.

I remember the good ole days of owning an Amiga and loving the platform but being aggravated with the company. I wonder why I gravitate to these situations. LOL It's not like the world will end because Kobo eReaders can't sync annotations with Kobo apps, but it sure is inconvenient for those of us who want to use the feature across platforms.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Cootey

Ever get a response on this? It seems a basic feature of sync. I'm surprised that Kobo still hasn't fixed this.

I remember the good ole days of owning an Amiga and loving the platform but being aggravated with the company. I wonder why I gravitate to these situations. LOL It's not like the world will end because Kobo eReaders can't sync annotations with Kobo apps, but it sure is inconvenient for those of us who want to use the feature across platforms.

No direct reply, but I remember seeing them sync sometime since May. I mainly use annotations to mark problems in books I want to fix, so they are usually short-lived and don't last long enough to sync. I'd have to explicitly test again to see what is happening.

[DNSB]

Today I was reading a book on my iPhone while waiting for an appointment and it prompted me to go to the last read position from my Aura One. When I got back home, my Aura One informed me that I had been reading on another device and did I want to go the new last read position. The annotation I made while reading on the iPhone was also carried over to my Aura One.

One note is that this was reading an ebook (The Unreal and the Real - Ursula K. LeGuin) synced from Kobo on both devices. Syncing reading position or annotations does not work with sideloaded content.

[Cootey]

I don't sideload a lot onto my Kobo, but I do read a lot of Overdrive borrowed books. I wonder if that's the problem? None of my notes and bookmarks sync. Only the last read position. I'll do some specific testing and report back. If you're syncing, and I'm not, I'd dearly love to know what you're doing differently.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I don't sideload a lot onto my Kobo, but I do read a lot of Overdrive borrowed books. I wonder if that's the problem? None of my notes and bookmarks sync. Only the last read position. I'll do some specific testing and report back. If you're syncing, and I'm not, I'd dearly love to know what you're doing differently.

I'll do some playing when I get home tonight to check. But, it might things need to be reset. You could try removing a book you know has annotations, restarting the device and downloading it again. If that helps, then using the repair function will effectively do that in a big batch. It forces a resync of all the purchased books in your account. Actually, this might do a more thorough cleaning of the database than the delete does, so it might be worth the try even if deleting the book didn't help.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'll do some playing when I get home tonight to check. But, it might things need to be reset. You could try removing a book you know has annotations, restarting the device and downloading it again. If that helps, then using the repair function will effectively do that in a big batch. It forces a resync of all the purchased books in your account. Actually, this might do a more thorough cleaning of the database than the delete does, so it might be worth the try even if deleting the book didn't help.

I'll try the repair function. I have recently logged out of my KA1, logged my daughter's accounts in, then logged myself back in. That's a bit of a reset, but if the database is damaged, maybe the repair feature will do the trick.

~Dˢ

[Cootey]

Haven't tried the repair function yet. That's next, but I wanted to give some more info. I had an overdrive book on my KA1. I highlighted some text, synced, then opened the Kobo app on my iPad. I downloaded the book. The highlight was there! So I deleted it, added a note and a different highlight, then synced the Kobo app. Then I synced the KA1, but the highlight remained and the new annotations didn't appear. I removed the book from my iPad app, re downloaded it, and the book opened to the current page shared between both devices, but the annotations were still different from the KA1. It's the same for purchased books as well. Only the most recent page read is maintained between the two devices. And from experiments in the past, the Kobo devices will maintain a different annotation database than the iOS devices. They sync annotations happily within platforms, but not across platforms.

Curiously, once a book is borrowed using the KA1, it will show up on all other devices and apps linked to my account, though they can't initiate borrows or returns, etc. with Overdrive. This means to me that annotations alone are not being synced, while every other bit of data is.

UPDATE: Repairing the KA1 didn't affect any change. However, if I sign out of the Kobo app on my iPad, then sign back in, the KA1 annotations are transferred over and merged with the Kobo app annotations, but it is only a one way street. The Kobo app on my iPad and iPhone happily share annotations with each other, but they do not share back to the Kobo eReaders. Removing the book from the iOS app, then downloading it again doesn't fix the problem either. There is a one time transfer of KA1 annotations when the book is originally downloaded. You can force that by signing out of the iOS app, then logging back in, but any annotations added on the iOS app remain on the iOS app. I just don't understand. Both of you helping me here have KA1s. I've logged out on both KA1 and iOS, then logged back in again. I've removed the books and re downloaded them. I've synced with the books loaded and exited back to the home screen. I've force quit the iOS app and relaunched it. This should be working.

David, what is your link to Kobo? I dread calling their customer support line. Their advice always involves rebooting, signing out, etc. They are geared to help clueless customers, not troubleshoot OS issues.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Cootey

Haven't tried the repair function yet. That's next, but I wanted to give some more info. I had an overdrive book on my KA1. I highlighted some text, synced, then opened the Kobo app on my iPad. I downloaded the book. The highlight was there! So I deleted it, added a note and a different highlight, then synced the Kobo app. Then I synced the KA1, but the highlight remained and the new annotations didn't appear. I removed the book from my iPad app, re downloaded it, and the book opened to the current page shared between both devices, but the annotations were still different from the KA1. It's the same for purchased books as well. Only the most recent page read is maintained between the two devices. And from experiments in the past, the Kobo devices will maintain a different annotation database than the iOS devices. They sync annotations happily within platforms, but not across platforms.

Curiously, once a book is borrowed using the KA1, it will show up on all other devices and apps linked to my account, though they can't initiate borrows or returns, etc. with Overdrive. This means to me that annotations alone are not being synced, while every other bit of data is.

That is expected. Once the OD account is linked to the Kobo account, books borrowed from OD will appear anywhere the account is being used. Assuming the device/app is at a level that supports this. A few people have taken advantage of this by borrowing an Aura ONE, setting up the OD account and then returning the device to the owner. They can't borrow on their other devices, but they can use the OD apps or the library.

UPDATE: Repairing the KA1 didn't affect any change. However, if I sign out of the Kobo app on my iPad, then sign back in, the KA1 annotations are transferred over and merged with the Kobo app annotations, but it is only a one way street. The Kobo app on my iPad and iPhone happily share annotations with each other, but they do not share back to the Kobo eReaders. Removing the book from the iOS app, then downloading it again doesn't fix the problem either. There is a one time transfer of KA1 annotations when the book is originally downloaded. You can force that by signing out of the iOS app, then logging back in, but any annotations added on the iOS app remain on the iOS app. I just don't understand. Both of you helping me here have KA1s. I've logged out on both KA1 and iOS, then logged back in again. I've removed the books and re downloaded them. I've synced with the books loaded and exited back to the home screen. I've force quit the iOS app and relaunched it. This should be working.

That's roughly what I found. The first sync that happens seems to work, but after that, the devices/apps are independent for the annotations.

David, what is your link to Kobo? I dread calling their customer support line. Their advice always involves rebooting, signing out, etc. They are geared to help clueless customers, not troubleshoot OS issues.

I don't have a real link. I am mainly a user who pays a bit of attention to what I am doing. I do maintain the driver in calibre and my own Kobo related plugins, so, I do dig a bit deeper into things. I am in their beta group, so see some things a bit earlier and do report other bugs, as do other MR members who in the group. I will point this out, but I always recommend reporting bugs directly. It isn't the greatest fun, but if they aren't reported, Kobo might not find out about them, and Kobo won't know how important the bug is to their users. From my experience on development teams of various sizes, bugs reported by external parties will be given higher priority.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That is expected. Once the OD account is linked to the Kobo account, books borrowed from OD will appear anywhere the account is being used. Assuming the device/app is at a level that supports this. A few people have taken advantage of this by borrowing an Aura ONE, setting up the OD account and then returning the device to the owner. They can't borrow on their other devices, but they can use the OD apps or the library.

I've signed my daughter in to my KA1 on two occasions, and borrowed books for her that would appear on her Kobo mini, but I never found the link worked after I logged myself back in. I'll have to experiment with that. Sounds useful.

That's roughly what I found. The first sync that happens seems to work, but after that, the devices/apps are independent for the annotations.

OK. Then my experience is normal.

I don't have a real link. I am mainly a user who pays a bit of attention to what I am doing. I do maintain the driver in calibre and my own Kobo related plugins, so, I do dig a bit deeper into things. I am in their beta group, so see some things a bit earlier and do report other bugs, as do other MR members who in the group. I will point this out, but I always recommend reporting bugs directly. It isn't the greatest fun, but if they aren't reported, Kobo might not find out about them, and Kobo won't know how important the bug is to their users. From my experience on development teams of various sizes, bugs reported by external parties will be given higher priority.

Do you recommend calling them or submitting the bug report in a different way? Got a link? Thanks for your feedback.

~Dˢ

UPDATE: Neither the iOS app logged into my daughter's account nor her Kobo Mini get automatic library downloads. It really seems that the KA1 is the magic link there, but it needs to be persistently logged in. What do folks do to keep the sync working when they just borrow a KA1 and return it? Thanks.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I've signed my daughter in to my KA1 on two occasions, and borrowed books for her that would appear on her Kobo mini, but I never found the link worked after I logged myself back in. I'll have to experiment with that. Sounds useful.

OK. Then my experience is normal.



Do you recommend calling them or submitting the bug report in a different way? Got a link? Thanks for your feedback.

Any time I have reported problems to Kobo I have used either the feedback link that is on the store, or the support link that is in the help accessed from the store. And it's a while since I used the feedback link as I just tried it and it takes me to the support link. This has a form that you fill in and will give you some contact methods once enough is filled in. For a bug report, I would always submit the form as I know it's not something that is fixable over the phone.

UPDATE: Neither the iOS app logged into my daughter's account nor her Kobo Mini get automatic library downloads. It really seems that the KA1 is the magic link there, but it needs to be persistently logged in. What do folks do to keep the sync working when they just borrow a KA1 and return it? Thanks.

Sorry, I haven't tried this myself. I know a few people have reported success. A possible problem is that this relies on a connection between the book in OD and the book in the Kobo store. If the OD book doesn't connect to a Kobo book, it won't appear on the Kobo devices or apps when borrowed.