Sigil Error Message: Book File Would Not Open in Sigil

[fkustaa]

I have been editing my book in Sigil for several months and until March 10 this year. Then, the 517-page book file would not open in Sigil. I get the message that says the following: “Cannot read file /Users/friedrichkustaa/Documents/Booker T Washington Book As Copy in Sigil-1.epub: file to open is a directory.

These types of error messages are not helpful because I don’t know what “file to open is a directory” means because there are no suggestions on how to solve the problem step by step to open the file as a directory as suggested in the error message.

Also, I tried other programs such as Keka to open the book file, and this software is not opening the book file, and I get additional error messages that don’t mean anything to me. For example, in Keka I get the following error message: Creation of “Booker T Washington … pub.7z” failed. Error code 2 using "p7zip. Fatal error.

When using Calibre, I am also unable to open the book file, and I get the following error message: Failed to add the file /Volumes/Booker T Washinton Book/Booker T Washington Book As Copy in Sigil-1 copy 2.epub to the book: /Volumes/Booker T Washinton Book/Booker T Washington Book As Copy in Sigil-1 copy 2.

In Calibre I also get the following details on the error message: With error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/add.py", line 410, in add_formats
File "site-packages/calibre/db/cache.py", line 1383, in add_format
File "site-packages/calibre/startup.py", line 122, in local_open
IOError: [Errno 21] Is a directory: u'/Volumes/Booker T Washinton Book/Booker T Washington Book As Copy in Sigil-1 copy 2.epub.'

Is there anyone who can help and suggest a few step-by-step procedures that I can use to open my book file in Sigil or in any other software?

F.K

[theducks]

That message says you are trying to open a (copy) FOLDER

Use the OS to search for where the book really is

I would use the OS to search for: Washington,
then resolve which is the good one.
right-clock (the found file) open with: ebook-viewer (since you have Calibre)
Once you find your last good edit, save it someplace safe

[fkustaa]

Theducks, Thank you for your response to my post and your suggestion. I am using a MacBook Pro laptop, and where and how do I do an OS search?

F. Kustaa

[KevinH]

Please stop using two different threads to try to get the exact same questions answered. Pick one thread in our support forum and stick with it.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by fkustaa

Theducks, Thank you for your response to my post and your suggestion. I am using a MacBook Pro laptop, and where and how do I do an OS search?

F. Kustaa

Get a PC or Linux box

Sorry, I don't do MACs

just say "i-won't"

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by fkustaa

Theducks, Thank you for your response to my post and your suggestion. I am using a MacBook Pro laptop, and where and how do I do an OS search?F. Kustaa

Ahem - does your Macbook Pro have Finder? If, yes, press cmd+F. Or, use Spotlight.

BTW : if you buy a 100 shares in Google you'll get a free pass to use it

BR

[RaelIAK]

I have the same issue on some epubs. On my Mac.
Unfortunately, using Spotlight or whatever to look for the original files gives me no other copies than the one that Sigil considers as folders. Any other gentle clue? TIA

[BeckyEbook]

First of all, stay calm.
Such a situation can occur when the EPUB file has lost its "ebookness", so the system detects that it is a ZIP archive and Mac treats it as a folder.

As long as the files are physically in that folder then there is a good chance of success.
First of all, install the FolderInv030.zip plugin

You run the plugin through the Plugins>Input>FolderIn menu

The "Select Folder to Input into Sigil" window will open and there point to your folder. After a while the epub file should load into Sigil.

[KevinH]

And if you are using Apple Books to open your epub, please understand the epub will be expanded into a folder (no idea why iBooks does that but they do) inside their book library but they do not bother to remove the .epub suffix so the folder can actually replace or overwrite the .epub file itself depending on where it was saved.

[philja]

Originally Posted by KevinH

And if you are using Apple Books to open your epub, please understand the epub will be expanded into a folder (no idea why iBooks does that but they do) inside their book library but they do not bother to remove the .epub suffix so the folder can actually replace or overwrite the .epub file itself depending on where it was saved.

Good warning, thanks. Although I've been using my MacBook for a year, I've never used Apple Books. I've always right-clicked and selected 'open with Sigil', although noting that Books was the default. If I just want to read, I've always used Calibre.

I just tried setting Sigil as the default and then tried to open an epub. I got an Apple warning about danger (forget the exact words) with two buttons neither of which enabled me to open the epub with Sigil.

I reset Books as the default and used my 'normal' right-click procedure and it opened in Sigil ok.

I then closed Sigil and opened the same file with Books. Closed the file, and it re-opened ok with Sigil (right-click procedure). Reading the file with Books didn't seem to prevent subsequent use of Sigil, but Apple doesn't like me setting Sigil as the default app for epub files.