Touch Kobo Touch "my collections" sort order

[j-beda]

So I just picked up a used Kobo Touch for my son's use, and went to load a bunch of kids books onto it from Calibre. Don't get me started on the requirement to register it with a Kobo account.

The thing I would like insight on is the sort order of the "My Collections". On my Kobo, all of the "collections" seem to be in alphabetical order, with my "Asimov" collection at on the first page, and the "Tom Swift" collection on one of the later pages. With this new one, it is all random. I've got the "Tom Swift Jr" collection as the first collection, the "Asimov - Isaac" collection second, then "Diskworld" then "Apprentice Adept". Within each collection I can set the sort order to "by Title", but how do I set the sort order of the group of collections?

On my Kobo, did I just luck out and happen to have Callibre send over the collection info in alphabetical order?

The new Touch is running Software Version 3.2.0 (d0a9bf18ea, 2/11/14) which it downloaded as part of its setup.

[davidfor]

All the lists can be sorted in different ways. The collection list has name, number of books and date created as the orders. A shelf can be sorted by recently read, title, author, size, format and date added. The current sort is shown at the top of the list. Pressing it displays the choices.

And and have a look at this post about some of the user interface conventions.

[j-beda]

Originally Posted by davidfor

All the lists can be sorted in different ways. The collection list has name, number of books and date created as the orders. A shelf can be sorted by recently read, title, author, size, format and date added. The current sort is shown at the top of the list. Pressing it displays the choices.

And and have a look at this post about some of the user interface conventions.

That sounds wonderful. I cannot find any way to change the sort order of the "My Collections" list. I tap "Library" and select "My Collections" and the lists of "My Collections" is displayed. I have a control to create a "New Collection", and controls to manage each "collection"/shelf, and a slider to go through the pages of collections, but no indication of name/number/date sorting, or any way I can see to change name/number/date sorting.

davidfor, can you give me directions on how to change the name/number/date option?

My "old" touch which has the collection list sorted alphabetically is running 3.0.1 (644485e299, 11/21/13), did the collection list sort order change when going up to 3.2.0?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by j-beda

My "old" touch which has the collection list sorted alphabetically is running 3.0.1 (644485e299, 11/21/13), did the collection list sort order change when going up to 3.2.0?

Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to the device and firmware version. Unfortunately, the library lists on the Touch haven't been updated to the same as on the Glo.

For the Touch, the sort order should be the collection name. The number of books in the collection is under the name in the list. If it isn't in descending order by that number, then it is probably by creation date.

The sort order is stored in the "Kobo eReader.conf". In the "ApplicationPreferences" section, there should be one of the following three lines:

LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByShelfName()
LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByCreationDate()
LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByItemCount()

As the old touch is not using is not in name order, it is probably one of the latter two. Or, the line is missing completely. In that case, it looks like it is in creation date.

To solve the problem, replace the line in the file with the first line above.

[j-beda]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The sort order is stored in the "Kobo eReader.conf". In the "ApplicationPreferences" section, there should be one of the following three lines:

LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByShelfName()
LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByCreationDate()
LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByItemCount()

As the old touch is not using is not in name order, it is probably one of the latter two. Or, the line is missing completely. In that case, it looks like it is in creation date.

To solve the problem, replace the line in the file with the first line above.

Thanks so much for the info davidfor. I take it that there is no user interface on the Kobo Touch for this configuration otherwise you would have directed me to that.

Unfortunately, I cannot find "Kobo eReader.conf" or "ApplicationPreferences".

When I mount the Kobo Touch via USB, I cannot see any appropriate directories. Nothing of the kind is inside of /.kobo or /.fseventsd and all the other directories seem to be author names.

Looking through the calibre.app application bundle (I'm on Mac OS X) also does not turn up any of these files. Also, looking through the various preferences within Calibre itself does not turn up these files.

Where can I find them?

[PeterT]

By default OS/X hides directories that start with a period. There is an override to change that.. Let me look

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by j-beda

Thanks so much for the info davidfor. I take it that there is no user interface on the Kobo Touch for this configuration otherwise you would have directed me to that.

Yes. Hopefully the interface will get updated soon.

Unfortunately, I cannot find "Kobo eReader.conf" or "ApplicationPreferences".

When I mount the Kobo Touch via USB, I cannot see any appropriate directories. Nothing of the kind is inside of /.kobo or /.fseventsd and all the other directories seem to be author names.

Looking through the calibre.app application bundle (I'm on Mac OS X) also does not turn up any of these files. Also, looking through the various preferences within Calibre itself does not turn up these files.

Where can I find them?

"Kobo eReader.conf" is in the directory ".kobo/Kobo". And, as PeterT said, these directories are hidden on a Mac. The instructions to show these were posted recently in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...73#post2773073.

[j-beda]

The hidden files was no problem, they all show up in the terminal. What I missed was the "Kobo" directory inside the ".kobo" directory.

In any case, there was no "shelfList" text in the file, so I added the appropriate line bellow the existing "LastLibrarySorter_books_filterByPreviews%28%29=so rtByNewest()" line.

And that did the trick. I wonder how it got lost on the newer Kobo, or alternatively how it got set on the older Kobo (which does have the "shelfList" text in the file.

Thanks for your assistance!

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to the device and firmware version. Unfortunately, the library lists on the Touch haven't been updated to the same as on the Glo.

For the Touch, the sort order should be the collection name. The number of books in the collection is under the name in the list. If it isn't in descending order by that number, then it is probably by creation date.

The sort order is stored in the "Kobo eReader.conf". In the "ApplicationPreferences" section, there should be one of the following three lines:

LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByShelfName()
LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByCreationDate()
LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByItemCount()

As the old touch is not using is not in name order, it is probably one of the latter two. Or, the line is missing completely. In that case, it looks like it is in creation date.

To solve the problem, replace the line in the file with the first line above.

Dear davidfor,
My shelves worked fine on both aura hd and aura 6" after I sideloaded 3.3.0, but I had to reset the hd to solve a bug (no more automatic sleeping mode), and since then the user sorting menu for shelves (by name, number of books, creation date) disappeared, on the hd (still there on the 6") and it seems to be sorted by creation date. Here are the only two lines in the config where shelves are mentioned:

LastLibrarySorter_shelf_filterByBookshelf%281.1%20 %E0%20%28re%29lire%29=sortByNewest()
LastLibrarySorter_shelf_filterByBookshelf%281.5%20 divers%20plus%20tard%29=sortByNewest()

I gather those memorize the shelves I have opened: inside the shelves themselves, sorting still functions.

Should I add your three lines before those lines to recreate the shelves sorting options?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Dear davidfor,
My shelves worked fine on both aura hd and aura 6" after I sideloaded 3.3.0, but I had to reset the hd to solve a bug (no more automatic sleeping mode), and since then the user sorting menu for shelves (by name, number of books, creation date) disappeared, on the hd (still there on the 6") and it seems to be sorted by creation date. Here are the only two lines in the config where shelves are mentioned:

LastLibrarySorter_shelf_filterByBookshelf%281.1%20 %E0%20%28re%29lire%29=sortByNewest()
LastLibrarySorter_shelf_filterByBookshelf%281.5%20 divers%20plus%20tard%29=sortByNewest()

I gather those memorize the shelves I have opened: inside the shelves themselves, sorting still functions.

Yes, if you open a shelf and change the sort order, a line like these is added to record the selected sort order.

Should I add your three lines before those lines to recreate the shelves sorting options?

No, you only need to add one of the lines. The three lines show what the possibilities are. Whichever you use will sort the collections list in that order. But, it doesn't matter which you choose. Once one of the lines are in the config file, the collections list should show a sort option at the top of the screen. Changing what is selected will update the config file.

[anacreon]

Many many thanks, it works fine.

I still don't understand why the problem would emerge only after a reset and a kobo desktop firmware downloading, while it worked fine with the sideloaded version.

What do people whith no computer savvy nor the expert help to be found here, particularly yours and a few others (or the time to invest in it) do?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Many many thanks, it works fine.

I still don't understand why the problem would emerge only after a reset and a kobo desktop firmware downloading, while it worked fine with the sideloaded version.

It is a bug in the upgrade. The collections list sorting was added a few firmware versions ago. I think that version correctly adds the options to the config file. If you upgrade through them, everything is OK. But, the firmware since that doesn't do it. So, a factory reset and installing the latest firmware means the sorting is messed up.

What do people whith no computer savvy nor the expert help to be found here, particularly yours and a few others (or the time to invest in it) do?

Yes, that is a problem. Their only options are to accept it or search and find these discussions. Or go and buy a different ereader.

[Ogion]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Many many thanks, it works fine.

I still don't understand why the problem would emerge only after a reset and a kobo desktop firmware downloading, while it worked fine with the sideloaded version.

What do people whith no computer savvy nor the expert help to be found here, particularly yours and a few others (or the time to invest in it) do?

Originally Posted by davidfor

It is a bug in the upgrade. The collections list sorting was added a few firmware versions ago. I think that version correctly adds the options to the config file. If you upgrade through them, everything is OK. But, the firmware since that doesn't do it. So, a factory reset and installing the latest firmware means the sorting is messed up.


Yes, that is a problem. Their only options are to accept it or search and find these discussions. Or go and buy a different ereader.

Absolutely!!!

However, I've just bought an Aura HD and, from the outset, I've been unable to sort the collections into any order at all because there's no menu showing in the top left-hand side of the Collections view, so this information is invaluable.

Initially, thought that I'd made a huge mistake in buying this device because I'd be unable to use Bookshelves/Collections sort my books into an accessible order.

How many other people have felt that disappointment I wonder?

It's a real shame that this fantastic reader is still marred by such a minor mistake as a missing line of code because Kobo haven't immediately addressed this issue.

I'm very grateful to have come across this forum and its contributors.

@ davidfor



Here's the relevant section of my Kobo eReader.conf file: -

[ApplicationPreferences]
AIRPLANE_MODE=true
CurrentLocale=en_US
EarliestChangeLog=2.5.0
LastFTEStep=LOGIN
LastLibraryReadingStatusFilter_books_filterByMine% 28%29=removeReadingStatusFilter()
LastLibraryReadingStatusFilter_books_filterByPrevi ews%28%29=removeReadingStatusFilter()
LastLibraryReadingStatusFilter_shelf_filterByBooks helf%28Gemmell%29=removeReadingStatusFilter()
LastLibraryReadingStatusFilter_shelf_filterByBooks helf%28Pratchett%29=removeReadingStatusFilter()
LastLibrarySorter_books_=sortByNewest()
LastLibrarySorter_books_filterByBundled%28%29=sort ByNewest()
LastLibrarySorter_books_filterByMine%28%29=sortByN ewest()
LastLibrarySorter_books_filterByPreviews%28%29=sor tByNewest()
LastLibrarySorter_shelf_filterByBookshelf%28Gemmel l%29=sortByNewest()
LastLibrarySorter_shelf_filterByBookshelf%28Pratch ett%29=sortByNewest()
LastLibraryViewType_books=viewBy5List()
LastLibraryViewType_news=viewBy5List()
LastLibraryViewType_shelf=viewBy5Shelf()
LastShelfSorter_books_=sortByNewest()
LastSyncTime=@Variant(\0\0\0\x10\0%|\xdb\x1\xd1\xb bk\x2)
SwipeDialogShown=true
hasSyncedExistingRelatedItems=true
pocketFteTileShown=true

It seems that: -

LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByShelfName()

should go between lines 12 and 13 (in this example) - in other words, between: -

LastLibrarySorter_books_filterByPreviews%28%29=sor tByNewest()

and

LastLibrarySorter_shelf_filterByBookshelf%28Gemmel l%29=sortByNewest()

I've added it there and I now have a menu allowing me to sort my Collections but is that the correct placement or have I now possibly caused a problem elsewhere?

again.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ogion

It seems that: -

LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByShelfName()

should go between lines 12 and 13 (in this example) - in other words, between: -

LastLibrarySorter_books_filterByPreviews%28%29=sor tByNewest()

and

LastLibrarySorter_shelf_filterByBookshelf%28Gemmel l%29=sortByNewest()

I've added it there and I now have a menu allowing me to sort my Collections but is that the correct placement or have I now possibly caused a problem elsewhere?

So long as it is in the "ApplicationSettings" section, it doesn't matter where. The firmware is looking for the option by name. And it will rewrite the config file with the options in alphabetical order.

[Ogion]

Thanks davidfor