Custom Table of Contents not Showing on Kobo Aura H2o

[CmplxAdSys]

Hi,

I attempted to generate a customized ToC for a book in the public domain using an EPUB generated from WikiSource using Calibre's ToC tool. The ToC shows fine on Calibre's epub viewer, but when I export it to my Kobo Aura H20 (using the extended driver to convert to kepub), only a limited ToC shows that mimics what's listed in the spine section of the opf file.

I found out all of the above through searching on my own, even if I don't understand completely what it means! But now I'm stuck. Is there a way to get my custom ToC to display on my Aura instead of just the limited ToC that came with the book as downloaded?

I'm attaching the files for the book as it's in the public domain and originally downloaded as an epub from Wikisource.

Thanks in advance.

[davidfor]

Just tested on my Glo HD. The ToC shows up OK there.

From the description, I think you put the book on the device, realised the ToC was useless and fixed that in calibre. Then you resent the book to the device. If so, the fix is to delete the book from the device and resend it.

The long explanation...

The Kobo devices process sideloaded books the first time they see them. The metadata and ToC are extracted from the books and put into the database on the device. This database is used for the library lists and the ToC when reading.

If you replace a book manually, the device sees that the file size has changed and decides it is a new book. It then removes all traces of the book from the database and processes the book as new. This has problems because the reading status, annotations and collections for the book is lost.

When you resend a book to the device using calibre, the file size in the database is updated to the new file size. This means that any changes to the metadata or the ToC are not updated in the database. But, it means if you fix things like spelling or layout, you don't lose the reading status, annotations or collections.

Which if these is the better behaviour depends on your viewpoint. The first is probably the safest, but the second is more flexible. It was also how the earlier versions of the firmware worked. When I updated the driver, I had to make a decision on which to do, and chose the latter. I'll be honest, it fits my usage so I wanted to do it. But, overall I think it is better.

[JSWolf]

I agree with David. I've replaced books on my H2O because I had to make corrections because I found errors or formatting that needed to be fixed before I could continue reading.

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Just tested on my Glo HD. The ToC shows up OK there.

From the description, I think you put the book on the device, realised the ToC was useless and fixed that in calibre. Then you resent the book to the device. If so, the fix is to delete the book from the device and resend it....

It's an old thread, but I just wanted to thank you for the answer. I just had the same issue with a book on my Forma and deleting it from the device and resending it fixed it. Thanks.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DaveLessnau

It's an old thread, but I just wanted to thank you for the answer. I just had the same issue with a book on my Forma and deleting it from the device and resending it fixed it. Thanks.

And there is an alternative solution. Earlier this year I added a ToC update function to my Kobo Utilities plugin. With that, if you change the ToC or internal file structure, you can send the updated version to the device and then update the ToC. If you have opened the book on the device, it tries to keep the reading position, but, that doesn't always work. It works better for fine-tuning, or where extra chapters have been added than if the ToC is completely rebuilt.