Kindle Fire: Books no longer showing in library or recents list

[kunkel321]

I'm using Calibre Companion (full version) on a Fire 10. The last several books that I've synced over from Calibre Windows don't seem to work right. The bookmarks are not saved. If I bookmark where I stopped reading, then close/reopen the book from CC, it just starts from the beginning of the book again.

Probably related: The affected books also do not show up in the Fire 10's native book browser. Older books though -- that were synced previously -- do still show up, and the bookmarks do still work in those books.

It's interesting, that I've always converted to .mobi for books to go on my Fire (and on my previous Kindle Fire HD 7). With this last batch of books though, I thought I'd try .AZW3. When I realized that the bookmarks weren't working, I deleted the AZW3 files and converted my books to mobi. But those are not working either... Did I break my CC by trying to put AZW3 files on it ???

I checked the various CC settings and searched the help docs. No luck. I have plenty of unused memory, so no problem there.

Thoughts?

[chaley]

CC on Amazon has never been able to open a book where it was last closed. Amazon doesn't allow it. By default CC shows a message telling you this. My guess is that you have turned off this message.

You can turn it on again by going to CC settings / Other / Reset hidden dialogs.

To open where you least closed you must open the book using Amazon's reader.

[kunkel321]

Thanks for the reply Chaley. I guess I've been using the Fire's launcher to open MOBI files, and had forgotten about the message in CC. So the real question I should ask is: Why isn't the last batch of books that I synced, showing up in the Fire book browser? It occurred to me to try and clear the cache of the built-in Kindle reader app. There doesn't appear to be such an app though. It must be built in to the OS(?) I did restart the Fire. I think I'll set my Calibre conversion settings back to default, in case I inadvertently changed something there.. I'll reply again if it works.

[chaley]

I am traveling and don't have my fire with me, but I have a memory of there being a home screen page for "documents" as opposed to "books". Amazon treats books that don't have a "correct" ASIN as documents.

I also have a memory that the documents appear on the "last touched" home screen page.

[kunkel321]

I think my Kindle Fire HD had a "Documents" tab. My side-loaded PDFs would show up there. The newer Fire 10 has a "Docs" link on the main desktop which is similar. The MOBI (and the PDF) books from Calibre do show up there, but the last page viewed is not remembered. I'm still befuddled as to why past synced items show up in the Fire's book browser, but more recent ones do not. Just to make sure that my tablet's not broken, I went to the Amazon Kindle store found a couple of freebie books and downloaded them. They do show up in the book browser and the last-read page is remembered. I saw an option in Calibre to create a log while converting books. Perhaps I'll try looking into that.

Anyway, have safe travels Chaley !!!

[chaley]

Back home where I can try my fire. I found that if you set CC's book folder to "Books" in main storage then azw3 books do appear in the books list, and opening the book from there does go to the remembered position. The book also appears on the "For You" home screen page with a "Continue reading" link.

[kunkel321]

Hi again Chaley. If I go to the CC settings, and set the MOBI folder, it's already at /storage/emulated/0/Books/. If I manually choose the folder called "Books" that is under "Internal Storage," then it still shows /storage/emulated/0/Books/. (BTW I LOVE the little animated icon!!!!) Is this the folder that you are using on your device? It appears that all of the books (MOBI, PDF, etc) that I've synced with CC are in there. This includes the couple-of-hundred that are working normally, and also includes the more recently synced ones that don't show up in the Fire's book browser. Oddly, I have a couple the are from Amazon.com, and the DO NOT appear to be in that folder (?!) What other folder could they be in? I looked around and couldn't find them. I also have a micro SD card, and can't find them there.

Question: What type of tablet are you working with? Mine is a Fire HD 10 (7t Generation). The OS is Fire OS 5.6.1.0. I can't help but be suspicious that Amazon has pushed an updated that is blocking non-Amazon books.

EDIT: I logged the result of converting an EPUB into a MOBI file, in case it offers any useful information... Sent link to zipped folder in private message.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kunkel321

Hi again Chaley. If I go to the CC settings, and set the MOBI folder, it's already at /storage/emulated/0/Books/. If I manually choose the folder called "Books" that is under "Internal Storage," then it still shows /storage/emulated/0/Books/. (BTW I LOVE the little animated icon!!!!) Is this the folder that you are using on your device? It appears that all of the books (MOBI, PDF, etc) that I've synced with CC are in there. This includes the couple-of-hundred that are working normally, and also includes the more recently synced ones that don't show up in the Fire's book browser. Oddly, I have a couple the are from Amazon.com, and the DO NOT appear to be in that folder (?!) What other folder could they be in? I looked around and couldn't find them. I also have a micro SD card, and can't find them there.

There is an Amazon-private folder in Android / Data / com.amazon.kindle, and perhaps in a few other places in Data. Also, some books from amazon aren't really "books" but instead are folders.

Question: What type of tablet are you working with? Mine is a Fire HD 10 (7t Generation). The OS is Fire OS 5.6.1.0. I can't help but be suspicious that Amazon has pushed an updated that is blocking non-Amazon books.

Mine is a Amazon Kindle Fire 7" 2015 5th Gen running Fire OS 5.6.1.0 (updated 21/June/2018.

Just for grins, I decided to start over with my Fire. I did a system reset and erased my SD card to be sure that things were in a known state. I then converted the Calibre Quick Start Guide to both mobi and azw3, with PDOC removed from the mobi. The destination CC folder was "Books".

Experiment 1: send the azw3 to "Books".

1. Connect as a wireless device, send the book, disconnect
2. Using the "Amaze" file manager, verify that the book was where it was supposed to be. It was.
3. "Read" the book from CC. I got the message about resetting the position. The book opened.
4. Go back to the home screen. The book is not in the library or recent list.
5. Using Amaze again, I find that the book has been *deleted* from Books!
6. Using the search function of amaze, I find a .bin version of the book buried in Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files/cache... There is also a .luci file buried equally as deep.

Absolutely no joy.

Experiment 2: I clean up, using CC to delete the book from its database and using Amaze to delete all the various bits and bobs that the Fire made. I then copy the mobi. The same thing happens except that the book file is not deleted. Again, no joy.

Experiment 3: I notice that the Fire has a folder named "kindle".

1. I delete all the books from CC and all the dregs from the Fire file system.
2. Start CC and set the default storage folder to the kindle folder.
3. Connect as a wireless device and send the mobi version of the quick start guide. Disconnect.
4. Using Amaze, note that the book file is in fact in the kindle folder (where it should be) and that there aren't any of the other dregs.
5. Read the book from CC.
6. At this point the "dregs" have appeared and the book is listed in both my library and the recent list.
7. Verify with Amaze that the book is still in the kindle folder. It is.

Much more joy.

Experiment 4: try the above with an azw3 created by calibre from an epub. It worked in exactly the same way. Still have joy.

Experiment 5: send the azw3 version of the quick start guide. At this point I have both books in CC, one book per format (this is expected).

1. I "read" the azw3 version, which works.
2. I go much further into the book this time so that the reading position will be different.
3. The book with the higher reading position is shown in the library and the recent list.
4. In CC I "read" the mobi version. I don't advance the reading position.
5. Now the recent list shows the non-advanced reading position.

Still have joy, but with some caveats. Apparently Amazon uses the title without the extension to keep track of books, which means that one cannot be reading two different formats of the same book at the same time. Not a problem for me.

Experiment 6: see what happens if one of the formats is deleted.

1. In CC, delete the azw3 version of the quick start guide.
2. The book stays on the recent list. Tap it to read. The book disappears from the list and nothing is opened.
3. In CC, read the mobi version. It opens but does not appear on the recent list.
4. Using Amaze, delete all the amazon dregs.
5. Read the guide from CC. It opens but does not appear on the reading list.
6. Delete the mobi from CC. Remove all the dregs.
7. Resend the mobi. I can read it but it doesn't appear in the recent list.
8. I note that the guide is listed in the library page but won't open. I delete it from there, which deletes the mobi file from the kindle folder.
9. Resend the mobi version of the guide using CC. It reappears in the library but "read" from there doesn't work.
10. Read the mobi from CC. The book now appears in the recent list.
11. Reboot the fire. Now the mobi version of the guide can be read from the library screen.

I confess that I don't know what the Fire is doing, but I ended up in an OK place where I can read both of the books I have sent.

Experiment 7: Move the books to "Books" from "kindle".

1. In CC, change the default folder to Books. CC moves the book files.
2. The Amazon library list now shows no books. Using Amaze I see the books.
3. I can "read" the book from CC. Nothing appears on the recent or library list.
4. Reboot the Fire. Nothing changes.
5. Read the mobi guide from CC. No difference.
6. Delete the mobi guide with CC and resend it. Disconnect. The azw3 book reappears in the library!
7. "Read" the guide. It doesn't appear in the library or the recent list.
8. Move the books back to "kindle". Now both books are on the library list.
9. "Read" the guide, advancing a page or two. Go back to the home screen.
10. The guide is now in the "recents".

From this I conclude that the Books folder has new "behavior" where Amazon is making assumptions. Sometimes book files are deleted "automagically". Mobis in that folder don't seem to show up in the library or the recents list. Azw3s may or may not show up. However, the "kindle" folder seems to work as expected. Of course, YMMV.

[kunkel321]

Thanks for your diligent work and documentation here Chaley! I seem to have gotten my setup working, at least for now, using essentially your steps above. I had forgotten that when I got the Fire (about 6 months ago), I also got a micro sd card, and set the Fire to save books on the card. So the folder I needed was there on the card. Ironically, the card has a level-one "Books" folder, but the place I needed was /storage/sdcard1/Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files/Books/amzn1.account.<huge string of characters>/. There are hundreds of folders full of the bits and pieces you described above. There are a couple of PRC files that have names corresponding to books, but 99% of the file names are just huge strings of random characters. (This explains why I wasn't able to find my Amazon-gotten ebooks using the search function of TotalCommander Android!)

Anyway, I changed the CC settings so that MOBI files would be put in the above-mentioned folder. It took a few minutes to copy them over, but now it seems to work. I restarted the Fire to make sure everything "stuck." I synced-over a bunch of MOBIs from Calibre and they do show up in the Fire's book browser and the 'recent' list. The last-read positions are remembered. Joy! I browsed to that folder again using TotalCommander. It still contains the Fire-generated folders with the horrible huge random character names. It also, now, contains my hundred or so MOBI files synced from Calibre over that last 6 months. I'm guessing that there are probably a few new random-character-named folders the are holding the "last-read" position of my CC books as well.

Fingers crossed. Moving forward. Thanks again!