Connecing To Calibre Content Server

[LUEBECKER]

Overnight, I started having trouble getting a connection to Calibre. When I try to connect my iPhone or iPad as a wireless device, I get the message "Connected - Starting Initial Sync". Never saw this before. It stays up for a little while and then goes away. I see Connected at the top, but when the message goes away nothing has happened and when I look at Calibre while this is happening, I don't show my device as being connected there. Any suggestions as to what is going on?

[chaley]

You don't say what OS calibre is running under. If it is windows then the most likely problem is that your antivirus has decided that calibre is evil and is blocking connections.

Another possibility: some other device is connected to calibre via a cable or the "Folder Device" in calibre is connected to something. Calibre can support only one device at a time.

[LUEBECKER]

Originally Posted by chaley

You don't say what OS calibre is running under. If it is windows then the most likely problem is that your antivirus has decided that calibre is evil and is blocking connections.

Another possibility: some other device is connected to calibre via a cable or the "Folder Device" in calibre is connected to something. Calibre can support only one device at a time.

I'm running under Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. I disabled the antivirus with no result. What's puzzling to me is that I've been using CC and Calibre for over a year and never had a problem. Suddenly overnight when I tried to connect to the content server as a wireless device from CC, I started getting the message I had never seen before, Connected-Starting Initial Sync. Nothing happens and then it says disconnected, when in fact it had never really connected to the content server. I can access the content server from my browser on my desktop, but I suddenly can't access it from within Marvin either on both my iPhone or iPad. So neither Calibre Companion nor Marvin running on iOS connects to the content server. This just happened from one day to the next and I'm at a loss.I can access Dropbox and iTunes and acquire books that way, but I've really appreciated the match up with CC and Calibre.

[chaley]

You are using the terms "content server" and "wireless device" somewhat interchangeably. For CC they are different connection types. Marvin supports only the content server.

What I think I understand is that CC cannot connect as a wireless device and that neither CC nor Marvin can connect to the content server, where recently both could connect. That says quite unambiguously that connections to calibre from outside the computer are being blocked. This is almost always caused by AV software. A calibre update can trigger new AV behavior.

Note that disabling an AV is often not enough. Some of them contain "internet security" that blocks incoming connections. Some, such as MalwareBytes, contain "security" inserts itself in the middle of network connections, breaking them more often then not. You can usually test for this by restarting your desktop in "safe mode with networking" and see if things now work. If they do then something running on your computer, probably the AV, is blocking connections.

Another possibility is that your home network router was updated and now enforces WiFi Guest Mode and/or Wireless Isolation.

A third possibility is that your desktop computer has decided that its network connection is "public", not "private". That breaks calibre and a lot of other stuff.

There are many suggestions for troubleshooting on our FAQ How do I setup Calibre Companion to connect to calibre?.

[LUEBECKER]

Thank you so much. Your third possibility was the culprit. Somehow my home network changed from Private to Public and when I changed it back everything worked as before. I very much appreciate your comprehensive response and providing me with something I wouldn't have noticed unless you pointed it out.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by LUEBECKER

Thank you so much. Your third possibility was the culprit. Somehow my home network changed from Private to Public and when I changed it back everything worked as before. I very much appreciate your comprehensive response and providing me with something I wouldn't have noticed unless you pointed it out.

Hey, this recently happened with the last W10pro x64 update. I had not gotten around to checking the why.
Hate it when an update changes settings quietly
BTW this was a 1G WIRED connection

[chaley]

Originally Posted by theducks

Hey, this recently happened with the last W10pro x64 update. I had not gotten around to checking the why.
Hate it when an update changes settings quietly
BTW this was a 1G WIRED connection

I bet it was a consequence of removing "Homegroup". When it was "removed", some combination of older network settings and homegroup probably made the upgrade change the "place" to public.

After every one of these "feature updates" I need to scurry around to undo stuff MS did. The last one put a "Microsoft Account" button on my taskbar. Unpinning it did nothing. Clicking it did nothing. Only after unpinning it and rebooting did it actually disappear. That and answer "No" to all the questions "Can Microsoft have your life story by doing X?"