Glo Sync .epub books between devices

[Kat90]

Hi,
I just bought a Kobo glo HD, I especially chose the Kobo because I read that I can sync books between devices. I have bought 3 books through the Kobo store before and I got them added to the reader and they sync nicely between my Android phone, the Kobo Desktop and the ereader. But I also have lots of other books in the .epub format that I can add to the reader directly (by adding them via the Adobe Digital Editions software) but then they don't sync to my phone. r I can also add them to my phone via dropbox but then they don't sync to the Kobo ebook reader. Does anybody have a solution to this syncing problem?
Thank you!

[PeterT]

Syncing ONLY works for books bought from the Kobo store and loaded via either Kobo Desktop or WiFi (either case only in native Kobo kepub format).

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Syncing ONLY works for books bought from the Kobo store and loaded via either Kobo Desktop or WiFi (either case only in native Kobo kepub format).

... If you are using the stock software only. (For some reason Peter always forgets that.) Koreader can be added to your device and it can sync progress in epubs between Kindles, Kobos, Pocketbooks, and some Android devices.

Luck;
Ken

[PeterT]

Ken;while you seem to be in LOVE with alternate readers, many other people want to stay with the stock environment.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Kat90

Hi,
I just bought a Kobo glo HD, I especially chose the Kobo because I read that I can sync books between devices. I have bought 3 books through the Kobo store before and I got them added to the reader and they sync nicely between my Android phone, the Kobo Desktop and the ereader. But I also have lots of other books in the .epub format that I can add to the reader directly (by adding them via the Adobe Digital Editions software) but then they don't sync to my phone. r I can also add them to my phone via dropbox but then they don't sync to the Kobo ebook reader. Does anybody have a solution to this syncing problem?
Thank you!

You heard wrong, then. It is specifically the Kindle that can sync sideloaded books between devices.
The way it works is by emailing your books to a send-to-kindle email address (something@free.kindle.com) and then downloading the books from the same "Cloud" tab that lists your purchased-from-Amazon books for download.
See: http://amzn.com/kindlepersonaldocuments

calibre can convert your EPUBs to MOBIs and even email them for you.

The only option on a Kobo for sideloaded books is to use alternative readers, as Ken says. That may or may not be something you are interested in trying -- there is a reason why people usually choose a Kindle if syncing sideloaded books is important to them.

[danido]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

... If you are using the stock software only. (For some reason Peter always forgets that.) Koreader can be added to your device and it can sync progress in epubs between Kindles, Kobos, Pocketbooks, and some Android devices.

Since I am having the same problem: Can I actually sync my progress to an Android smartphone (Galaxy S4) with Koreader?

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by danido

Since I am having the same problem: Can I actually sync my progress to an Android smartphone (Galaxy S4) with Koreader?

Koreader is relatively new to Android, and doesn't work well on every device out there, yet. Some devices only work on some earlier releases, some on only the most recent, and I believe sometimes Koreader won't work on a particular device. It has worked well on my Asus TF-101 almost from the start of the Android versions, and I have used the sync with that.

This thread at Github might help. But it well cost nothing to give it a try.

This MR thread also.

Luck;
Ken

[danido]

Koreader is relatively new to Android, and doesn't work well on every device out there, yet.

Thanks for that pointer -- I didn't realize you could just compile Koreader for Android! I'm happy to report that it indeed does work on the Galaxy S4. It's a bit slow and I've had some weird crashes, but that might just be because I did something wrong with the compilation.

edit: I just saw that you posted a link to a binary release, ouch. Never mind the instructions below, then.

In case somebody else wants to attempt the compilation (this was Kubuntu 15.04): I tried to follow the instructions on GitHub to the letter, though some tinkering was needed. Here's a quick gist:

1. Install all the recommended packages, there's a convenient list on the github page.

2. Download the Android NDK and SDK

3. Setup your environment variables. You need to set
- $NDK to the root of the NDK directory
- include a bunch of directories in your $PATH variable. In the end, I had:

/opt/Android/Ndk
/opt/Android/Ndk/build-tools
/opt/Android/Ndk/build-tools/21.1.2
/opt/Sdk/build-tools/21.1.2/
/opt/Android/Sdk/tools/android
/opt/Android/Sdk/tools/
/opt/Android/Ndk/android-ndk-r10e/

3. Clone the repository from the github page

git clone https://github.com/koreader/koreader.git koreader

4. Fetch the dependencies:

cd koreader
make fetchthirdparty

5. At this point, I had to patch some of the scripts. In 'base/Makefile' I had to add ' --toolchain=arm-linux-androideabi-4.8' to the android-toolchain target (lines 607--610), the changed target looks like this:

android-toolchain:
	mkdir -p $(ANDROID_TOOLCHAIN)
	$(NDK)/build/tools/make-standalone-toolchain.sh -platform=android-9 \
	--toolchain=arm-linux-androideabi-4.8 --install-dir=$(ANDROID_TOOLCHAIN)

You can see which toolchains are available on your computer in the 'toolchains' subdirectory of your NDK. I don't know if 'arm-linux-androideabi-4.8' is the right toolchain for all smartphones.

6. The toolchain is hardcoded as 'arm-linux-androideabi-4.6' into koreader/platform/android/luajit-launcher/mk-luajit.sh, so I changed all four occurences of 'arm-linux-androideabi-4.6' in that file into 'arm-linux-androideabi-4.8'. If you choose a different toolchain in step 5, you will need to change the script accordingly, I guess.

7. In koreader/platform/android/luajit-launcher/Makefile, I had to add '--target android-21' to line 5, so the new line reads

	android update project --target android-21 --path .

The number in 'android-21' specifies the SDK level of the Android running on your smartphone, SDK level 21 is Lollipop (5.0).

8. Now you're good to go, do a

make android-toolchain
make TARGET=android clean androidupdate

in the root directory.

9. This should give you an *.apk file in the root directory that can be installed on the smartphone.

The app takes a long time to load on my phone, so it might look as if it is crashed (just shows a black screen), but in fact, it comes up after a while.

[Ken Maltby]

@danido; The other MR Android thread has links to several versions of the .apk releases. While the most current one will have the most added features, some of the older ones work better for some devices. Being able to make your own .apk should provide an ability to create a specific port of Koreader for your device. The Wiki includes info for developers, including about porting to other devices.

Luck;
Ken

[danido]

Thanks again, Ken! The older nightly (the 309 one) mentioned in the other thread and the stable both don't work on the S4 (I just get a black screen), but the current nightly at least starts. It still takes time to load and it crashes every other time, but once it's up, it's stable.

More importantly, however, the current nightly runs just fine on my tablet that still has an older Android version. Very nice!

I've added my report to the github thread. Unfortunately, I have no experience with debugging android apps, otherwise I could probably provide more useful information.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by danido

Thanks again, Ken! The older nightly (the 309 one) mentioned in the other thread and the stable both don't work on the S4 (I just get a black screen), but the current nightly at least starts. It still takes time to load and it crashes every other time, but once it's up, it's stable.

More importantly, however, the current nightly runs just fine on my tablet that still has an older Android version. Very nice!

I've added my report to the github thread. Unfortunately, I have no experience with debugging android apps, otherwise I could probably provide more useful information.

I seem to remember someone posting that they had their S4 running koreader, well. I have asked at Github if the Android version creates a crash log.

Luck;
Ken

[danido]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I seem to remember someone posting that they had their S4 running koreader, well.

There was a firmware update early this summer that patched the S4 to Android 5.0. Koreader probably worked just fine on the older Android, since it does so on my Galaxy tablet (that didn't get the firmware update). Anyway, I'm happy with the current state, synching the tablet and the Kobo is perfect. So, thanks again