Calibre issue: not detecting any books on Amazon Fire 10.1" (10th Gen.)

[imladenol]

I've been using Calibre for years to manage my ebooks, but with older models of Amazon tablets. I only recently got this 10th Gen. model and tonight for the first time plugged it into my laptop and started up Calibre. I was really surprised at how quickly the program finished establishing a list of what books were on the device (since there are at least 100+ downloaded from my Amazon cloud and various other sources). But when I actually looked at the list I was surprised it didn't have any of the actual ebooks, just counted a whole bunch of other stuff (.docx, .rtf, .txt and .pdf files I had scattered around) as books and listed those (as per usual). But none of the .mobi, .azw3 or anything like that. And the settings are set to scan ALL FOLDERS, I double and triple checked that before coming here. I've even restarted both machines, and even reset all the default preferences for Calibre (which is the newest update) from the changes I had made.

And nothing has worked.

Could it be the fact it is 10th Gen? Or could it be the newest update of Calibre? Something else I haven't thought of/know about? And, I don't know if this has any bearing on the matter or not, but when I did the USB Preferences on the tablet to switch what the USB was for to File Transfer, I tried to switch the USB Controlled By from "This Device" (the tablet) to "Connected Device" but kept getting "Couldn't Switch" about half a dozen times. Before and after restart of both machines.

Please help this old hippie out...

[Skydog]

This should really be posted in either the Calibre or Kindle Fire sub-forum.

[stumped]

and OP should really have used search - some of this has been explained and answered so many times already..
on the newer fires, they default to USB charging only when connected. user has to manually select data transfer mode, at every connection for it to work. more details, pictures... in other threads.

edit - but if OP was able to see a list of books, then it must have been in correct mode ( which is MTP ( media) , not the camera option- and I have never touched the other options )

as a general rule of thumb, calibre only sees what windows sees, so to check e.g. books on device, outside of calibre - browse device folders with windows file explorer. if they are definitely there, but invisible to calibre post more details, screenshots...

[imladenol]

I'm sorry, I looked around and was having problems figuring out where to post this. This was literally my first time on this forum.

[imladenol]

I had it on file transfer mode, and it showed all sorts of my other files, like my pdf, txt, rtf and docx files I had on there. It just didn't show anything that was an ebook like mobi, prc, azw3, or even the couple of epub files that are on the tablet. And the "folders scanned" was set to all as well.

[imladenol]

I was able to dig via Windows Explorer and find the folder that I believe has the books Amazon puts on there, but of course none of the stuff is under the name I would expect (all sorts of alphanumeric gobbledygook instead)

MY COMPUTER\{{COMPUTERNAME}}\Internal storage\Android\data\com.amazon.kindle\files\Books is where seemed to have located a bunch of stuff, but I can't identify any of it through Windows.

[jhowell]

The Kindle app on Fire tablets is based on the Kindle for Android app. The exact path where it places Kindle book files depends on the model of Fire tablet and whether or not it has an SD card.

When you locate the correct path it will have as part of the path: .../Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files/Books

That should have a subfolder based on your Amazon account ID, such as: amzn1.account.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Under that there will be one folder for each book on the device named by the 10 character ASIN of the book. For example: B082S1N87S or B003RCJNXI

Under each of those folders will be the files that make up that book along with some supplemental data. These days most books will be in KFX format with file names like CR!7TD9PMT74D3EN3ZWG2HDXDYY5T7C.kfx and amzn1.drm-voucher.v1.e4701cd1-97fb-42c2-b356-b1f7c78eeb54.ast. Books in older Kindle formats, such as MOBI or AZW3/KF8, will have a file with the extension of .prc.

[imladenol]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The Kindle app on Fire tablets is based on the Kindle for Android app. The exact path where it places Kindle book files depends on the model of Fire tablet and whether or not it has an SD card.

When you locate the correct path it will have as part of the path: .../Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files/Books

That should have a subfolder based on your Amazon account ID, such as: amzn1.account.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Under that there will be one folder for each book on the device named by the 10 character ASIN of the book. For example: B082S1N87S or B003RCJNXI

Under each of those folders will be the files that make up that book along with some supplemental data. These days most books will be in KFX format with file names like CR!7TD9PMT74D3EN3ZWG2HDXDYY5T7C.kfx and amzn1.drm-voucher.v1.e4701cd1-97fb-42c2-b356-b1f7c78eeb54.ast. Books in older Kindle formats, such as MOBI or AZW3/KF8, will have a file with the extension of .prc.

Yes, that's what I'm seeing when I dig into the tablet with my laptop's Windows UI. Still though, Calibre itself does not recognize that any of the books I have purchaed are there, even though I have it set to scan all folders (I've checked that setting many many times now). It detects every other file of a type Calibre will read that is on the tablet, but not the actual ebooks I own and want to manage. And that is the core of the problem I am writing here about.

No offense, but nothing anyone has said has come close to actually relating to the problem I am having, though I do appreciate the sentiment of their intentions.

I know that Calibre should be detecting these books. Before I got this 10th generation model of the Amazon Fire 10.1, and before the last two updates of the Calibre software (which is the last time I had plugged my previous tablet, the 9th gen, into my laptop) I had no problems with Calibre finding all of my ebooks and managing them. It just took some time when the tablet was first plugged in, depending on how many books were actually on the device at the time.

This leads me to believe that either one of two things, or a combination of the two has led to this problem: something changed in the software of the 10th Gen model, or something changed in the updates of Calibre, or a combo of the two changing.

Again, I apologize for posting this in the wrong place. I didn't know where to place it, still not sure how to navigate this forum yet (I'm a dunce, ok).

But if anyone can I would highly appreciate it. (When I'm not pressed for time I'll post some screenshots as the one commenter suggested, since I will have to set up an account somewhere to be able to have URLs for images to share, instead of just like, you know, embedding them into the post)

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by imladenol

Again, I apologize for posting this in the wrong place. I didn't know where to place it, still not sure how to navigate this forum yet

The calibre Devices subforum is the place where questions relating to importing and exporting books to various devices using calibre is usually discussed.

You can ask a moderator to move this thread there if you like. (Starting a new thread on an existing topic is frowned on at MobileRead.)

[stumped]

its very simple.
calibre cannot detect kfx format books that amaZon has sent to 10th gen tablet.
amaZon now has most of its book in TAMPER PROOF KFX AND WILL SEND THAT FORMAT IF THE DEVICE CAN READ IT
the older tablets and books used a format that calibre could detect

THIS STUFF IS FALSE ASSUMPTIONS..
I know that Calibre should be detecting these books. NO...

This leads me to believe that either one of two things, or a combination of the two has led to this problem: something changed in the software of the 10th Gen model, or something changed in the updates of Calibre, or a combo of the two changing. NO ,NEITHER. ITS A FORMAT THING ( kfx)

[imladenol]

Originally Posted by stumped

its very simple.
calibre cannot detect kfx format books that amaZon has sent to 10th gen tablet.
amaZon now has most of its book in TAMPER PROOF KFX AND WILL SEND THAT FORMAT IF THE DEVICE CAN READ IT
the older tablets and books used a format that calibre could detect

THIS STUFF IS FALSE ASSUMPTIONS..
I know that Calibre should be detecting these books. NO...

This leads me to believe that either one of two things, or a combination of the two has led to this problem: something changed in the software of the 10th Gen model, or something changed in the updates of Calibre, or a combo of the two changing. NO ,NEITHER. ITS A FORMAT THING ( kfx)

Okay, it is probably a format thing for the books purchased through Amazon/Kindle, but I also have books through 3rd party vendors on there that are not showing up either, books that I specifically got as .mobi files when I downloaded them (these are from various independent self-pub authors using stuff like BookFunnel and another system I don't recall the name of). So there is probably more going on that just that. I know for a fact that there are dozens of .mobi files on this machine, and they too are not showing up. So my assumption is still true, unless Calibre stopped detecting .mobi files.

I really wish people would try to figure out what is potentially wrong with the software (Calibre) or hardware (my computer) instead of what is wrong with me. Because that is basically what every response has boiled down to: "imladenol is wrong in some way, imladenol is mistaken, imladenol posted in the wrong place (oops sorry), imladenol cannot be correct because this isn't a possible error." That is what it has felt like since the first response I have gotten. I came asking for help and instead all I've gotten has basically been attacks on me in some form or another.

And yes, please, if there's a moderator around, please move this to the appropriate location. Or someone let me know how to contact one. And please do it in a way that isn't an attack on me yet again.

[stumped]

the best way to get improved help is via a screenshot [ taken with the device' screenshot function ] showing the device location of those mobi books which you" know for a fact" are present.

then another screenshot showing a windows file explorer view of that same device folder, which on usb connection, so that we all see what windows sees.

[ you can attach screenshots easily here, no need for any picture hosting. just click advanced... upload when replying.

once you can prove that the books exist, and have settled whether or not windows can see them, further trouble shooting may help

but another round of " I KNOW FOR A FACT.... OH NO YOU DON'T... "would be counter productive

for clarity: if you now accept the .kfx partial explanation, is this just a mobi issue, or are there any other problem formats gone missing ? e.g. have you tried a test send of any non-drm azw files

perhaps you could also acknowlwedge ( without feeling attacked) that many other users have that same fire tablet, and have calibre, and DON'T have a missing books problem, so its very unlikely to be a " calibre problem".