[iOS] Newbie is Stumped!

[redcars]

Hi Folks,

I just joined the forum today. A brief introduction: I have a Windows 10 PC, and have recently purchased an iPad 9.7 Pro. This is my first Apple product, and most things have gone fairly smoothly until I tried Calibre Companion.

I have about 50 epubs now, and they are all on both my PC and iPad. On the iPad I have three readers: iBooks, Marvin, and PDF Expert.

I have a Dropbox account, a Google Drive account, iTunes, and iCloud Drive.
I can add books to Marvin the easiest by dropping them into the Marvin app in iTunes. Fast, one step, works great.

I have used Google Drive to transfer some epubs in iBooks, and for most pdf books and files. PDF Expert is a great viewer for pdfs and some videos. The files are downloaded onto the iPad and are not synced with anything.

I have all the books loaded into Calibre, but before I did this I tried using Calibre to transfer epubs to Calibre Companion. I also tried to sync directly with Marvin, but my efforts were in vain. CC either doesn’t connect, it disconnects, or it does nothing. I have been unable to sync Marvin to CC despite doing exactly what was recommended on line. I have had very little luck with any of this, and I have come to the conclusion that my earlier methods for moving books and files is far simpler even if I can get CC to work.

Calibre is ok/good for conversions, and I like the Calibre viewer/reader better than Adobe Digital Editions. It is nice to see a detailed spreadsheet of my books in one place.

CC is doing nothing for me. I have spent the better part of two days trying this and have run out of patience.

Ok, so my question: If I am using the iPad for reading only and not organizing, what is the benefit of CC over my previous system.

Any suggestions will be welcome!

Thanks,
Don

[HarryT]

If you only have 50 books, there's little benefit in using CC. CC becomes beneficial for people with large ebook libraries. It allows you to search and organise the books on your iThing far better than any reading app does. I'm sure you'll appreciate the benefits of flexible and powerful searching and filtering when thousands of books are involved.

With 50 books, though, just send the books directly to the reading app. You don't need CC.

[svenlind]

I have many more than 50 books. I really like the way CC organizes books. One more benefit in using CC is that it is very easy to transfer books from CC to your favorite reading app.

I use both Marvin and Mapleread. Mapleread is my current favorite.
I generally only have a few books in my reading apps and the lot in CC.

You seem to have problems connecting Calibre to CC. Have you tried to manually transfer the IP address and port from Calibre to CC?

[redcars]

Originally Posted by svenlind

I have many more than 50 books. I really like the way CC organizes books. One more benefit in using CC is that it is very easy to transfer books from CC to your favorite reading app.

I use both Marvin and Mapleread. Mapleread is my current favorite.
I generally only have a few books in my reading apps and the lot in CC.

You seem to have problems connecting Calibre to CC. Have you tried to manually transfer the IP address and port from Calibre to CC?

Wow! Thanks for this. I misunderstood what the content server was all about. So now I instantly got all my books on my iPad and went through and downloaded all of them to CC. Is there a way to have the books download automatically when they move from the PC to CC?

I deleted the books from my readers (loaded previously) and added a few back through CC.

I'm a happy camper; I'll try this for a while.

Thanks again for your help,
Don

[redcars]

Hello again,
I spoke too soon. Five minutes later and I cannot connect.
I reread the instructions. I received a message "Failed to connect to port 8080. Try a different value." (It previously connected fine.)
I read about ports being regulated by the firewall. (Windows + McAfee). I went into the advanced firewall rules and selected a new rule to allow calibre on both inbound and outbound rules to connect with calibre-complete.exe

I restarted everything. It won't connect. I'm afraid that this is over my head.
Unless there is a more simple answer . . . . . .?????

Thanks,
Don

[redcars]

This is getting embarrassing.

I went back through my settings and discovered that my internet connection "make this PC discoverable" was set to "off." I did not set it that way. Don’t know how it happened.

Is there a book on wi-fi connections for dummies?
Don

[svenlind]

Originally Posted by redcars

Wow! Thanks for this. I misunderstood what the content server was all about. So now I instantly got all my books on my iPad and went through and downloaded all of them to CC. Is there a way to have the books download automatically when they move from the PC to CC?

I deleted the books from my readers (loaded previously) and added a few back through CC.

I'm a happy camper; I'll try this for a while.

Thanks again for your help,
Don

Maybe you already tried this but here goes.
Instead of using Start Content Server
in Calibre try using Start wireless device connection .

In CC then select Connect -> as Wireless Device.
After connection Calibre will show all the books that are downloaded to CC and it is very easy to select and add those books not present.

AFAIK it is not possible to have the books download automatically to CC and if there was I wouldn't use it

[redcars]

Originally Posted by svenlind

Maybe you already tried this but here goes.
Instead of using Start Content Server
in Calibre try using Start wireless device connection .

In CC then select Connect -> as Wireless Device.
After connection Calibre will show all the books that are downloaded to CC and it is very easy to select and add those books not present.

svenlind,
Thank you again for your help! The wireless device" seems to be the smoothest way to go. Great suggestions.
Best,
Don