Covers of sideloaded .azw3 books from Calibre getting replaced, help needed

hengyu · 01-05-2018, 07:08 AM

Just to get this out of the way, I far far far prefer .azw3 just because how much prettier the footnotes look as compared to the .mobi. The page turning seem to be faster too, although I can't be sure of that.

The problem though is that my Paperwhite 2016 tries to download a cover from Amazon servers to replace the original one from Calibre. Without using the fix ASIN thing from the Quality Check plugin, the device will fail to download the cover and bewilderingly put a blank thumbnail as the book's cover, replacing the already-correct ones from Calibre.

With the correct ASIN these covers are correct most of the time, but these covers are black and white (which is fine), and tend to be in lower resolution, and sometimes outright wrong. And of course you can't choose which cover you prefer, robbing you of any chance of customisation.

Is there any way to work around this? It seems to me that if Calibre could make the thumbnail file in question read-only during the sideload process it would prevent this from happening altogether, but I don't know how to make that happen.

Would gladly appreciate help and advice!

kovidgoyal · 01-05-2018, 07:19 AM

Doesn't happen on my PW. In fact, I've never heard of this happening on any e-ink kindle.

hengyu · 01-05-2018, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Doesn't happen on my PW. In fact, I've never heard of this happening on any e-ink kindle.

Thanks for the response!

I've been doing some Googling and it seems that there were other instances of this happening, though it seems rare-ish. It seems to only happen when the azw3 book has an ASIN in its metadata (which is necessary for Goodreads integration) which prompts the Kindle to download the corresponding cover from Amazon servers even if there's already one. Not sure if anything can be done on Calibre's part though

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=3125326
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=264736

kovidgoyal · 01-05-2018, 10:46 AM

Yeah, not something calibre can do anything about. It has no control over what the kindle decides to do. And marking files readonly is a no-non, if it worked it would prevent the kindle from deleting the covers when the book is deleted.

Why are ASINs needed for goodreads integration, doesn't goodreads have its own internal ids?

hengyu · 01-05-2018, 12:25 PM

I have always assumed that that's how we get sideloaded books to have Goodreads integration, at least that's how I learned to do it when I googled for the method lol. Can't seem to get books to do that without ASIN

https://ebooks.stackexchange.com/que...dle-paperwhite

kovidgoyal · 01-05-2018, 10:21 PM

I dont use goodreads so I cant comment, but I do remember they have internal ids. Maybe that changed after they were acquired by amazon.

01-05-2018, 07:08 AM	#1
hengyu Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2016 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2016	Covers of sideloaded .azw3 books from Calibre getting replaced, help needed Just to get this out of the way, I far far far prefer .azw3 just because how much prettier the footnotes look as compared to the .mobi. The page turning seem to be faster too, although I can't be sure of that. The problem though is that my Paperwhite 2016 tries to download a cover from Amazon servers to replace the original one from Calibre. Without using the fix ASIN thing from the Quality Check plugin, the device will fail to download the cover and bewilderingly put a blank thumbnail as the book's cover, replacing the already-correct ones from Calibre. With the correct ASIN these covers are correct most of the time, but these covers are black and white (which is fine), and tend to be in lower resolution, and sometimes outright wrong. And of course you can't choose which cover you prefer, robbing you of any chance of customisation. Is there any way to work around this? It seems to me that if Calibre could make the thumbnail file in question read-only during the sideload process it would prevent this from happening altogether, but I don't know how to make that happen. Would gladly appreciate help and advice!

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01-05-2018, 07:19 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Doesn't happen on my PW. In fact, I've never heard of this happening on any e-ink kindle.

01-05-2018, 10:46 AM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Yeah, not something calibre can do anything about. It has no control over what the kindle decides to do. And marking files readonly is a no-non, if it worked it would prevent the kindle from deleting the covers when the book is deleted. Why are ASINs needed for goodreads integration, doesn't goodreads have its own internal ids?

01-05-2018, 12:25 PM	#5
hengyu Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2016 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2016	I have always assumed that that's how we get sideloaded books to have Goodreads integration, at least that's how I learned to do it when I googled for the method lol. Can't seem to get books to do that without ASIN https://ebooks.stackexchange.com/que...dle-paperwhite

01-05-2018, 10:21 PM	#6
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	I dont use goodreads so I cant comment, but I do remember they have internal ids. Maybe that changed after they were acquired by amazon.

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