Help with converting for older kindle.

[yasdig]

Hi there,

I am having an issue converting .epub files for my wife's older kindle device. It is the 4th generation Kindle from 2011. I have tried using Calibre as well as Kindle Previewer 3 to create .mobi files but though the files can be viewed fine on my computer, on the Kindle it usually only shows the first and last few pages (Author's note, Dedication, About the author, etc.) and sometimes the first page of each chapter. I think it may be something to do with Enhanced Typesetting, as I am usually able to convert older published books just fine.

I have also been able to read the .mobi files I've created on my newer Kindle Paperwhite, but I would really like to be able to figure out the settings to convert for my wife's older Kindle.

Many thanks for reading this and your help! Have a great day!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by yasdig

Hi there,

I am having an issue converting .epub files for my wife's older kindle device. It is the 4th generation Kindle from 2011. I have tried using Calibre as well as Kindle Previewer 3 to create .mobi files but though the files can be viewed fine on my computer, on the Kindle it usually only shows the first and last few pages (Author's note, Dedication, About the author, etc.) and sometimes the first page of each chapter. I think it may be something to do with Enhanced Typesetting, as I am usually able to convert older published books just fine.

I have also been able to read the .mobi files I've created on my newer Kindle Paperwhite, but I would really like to be able to figure out the settings to convert for my wife's older Kindle.

Many thanks for reading this and your help! Have a great day!

Hi...

well, I'm unclear on why you would be thinking about ET, which probably plays zero role in this. You say it's a 4th-gen "Kindle" from 2011, so, an early K4, which means no fonts, etc. Right? You have Caecilia, Courier and that's it, yes?

The "convert older published books just fine" doesn't really tell us a lot. ARe you coding this to be K7-compatible, or...? ET is for KF8 devices, KF8 and Fire-compatible, not KF7 compatible. Your newer PPW is a KF8 device, not KF7.

Is this an ePUB2? ePUB3 that you're converting? And are you telling Calibre to convert it as a MOBI, or a dual-mobi or AZW3?

Hitch

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by yasdig

I am having an issue converting .epub files for my wife's older kindle device. It is the 4th generation Kindle from 2011.

• Check the Kindle firmware version. If it isn't 4.1.4, download and install the latest firmware version from Amazon.
• In Calibre, select AZW3 as the output format. This might fix some of the issues.

[yasdig]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

• Check the Kindle firmware version. If it isn't 4.1.4, download and install the latest firmware version from Amazon.
• In Calibre, select AZW3 as the output format. This might fix some of the issues.

Thanks for the help, I just tried this. Unfortunately no luck, it apparently had the latest firmware already and AZW3 still shows only the beginning page of each chapter with none of the actually pages.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by yasdig

Thanks for the help, I just tried this. Unfortunately no luck, it apparently had the latest firmware already and AZW3 still shows only the beginning page of each chapter with none of the actually pages.

HAVE YOU TRIED the older MOBI format????

Hitch

[yasdig]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Hi...

well, I'm unclear on why you would be thinking about ET, which probably plays zero role in this. You say it's a 4th-gen "Kindle" from 2011, so, an early K4, which means no fonts, etc. Right? You have Caecilia, Courier and that's it, yes?

The "convert older published books just fine" doesn't really tell us a lot. ARe you coding this to be K7-compatible, or...? ET is for KF8 devices, KF8 and Fire-compatible, not KF7 compatible. Your newer PPW is a KF8 device, not KF7.

Is this an ePUB2? ePUB3 that you're converting? And are you telling Calibre to convert it as a MOBI, or a dual-mobi or AZW3?

Hitch

Hi thanks for the reply,

Sorry I don't have any experience in converting e-books. It's my first time using Calibre and I selected to convert to MOBI. The device I am having the issue with not being able to see any of the pages of that MOBI file is the 4th/5th Generation Kindle that I linked to the wiki. As an experiment I opened the same MOBI file on my new PPW and it worked.

I just checked and the files I have are ePUB3. The MOBI file that worked on the old Kindle was converted from ePUB2.

I have no real idea how to do this but I just want to convert these ePUB files correctly, in Calibre or otherwise, so that they can be read on the 4th Generation Kindle. I have no preference or requirement as to what file type the end result is, as long as the pages show up correctly.

Thanks again.

[yasdig]

Originally Posted by Hitch

HAVE YOU TRIED the older MOBI format????

Hitch

Yes I tried older MOBI

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by yasdig

Hi thanks for the reply,

Sorry I don't have any experience in converting e-books. It's my first time using Calibre and I selected to convert to MOBI. The device I am having the issue with not being able to see any of the pages of that MOBI file is the 4th/5th Generation Kindle that I linked to the wiki. As an experiment I opened the same MOBI file on my new PPW and it worked.

I just checked and the files I have are ePUB3. The MOBI file that worked on the old Kindle was converted from ePUB2.

I have no real idea how to do this but I just want to convert these ePUB files correctly, in Calibre or otherwise, so that they can be read on the 4th Generation Kindle. I have no preference or requirement as to what file type the end result is, as long as the pages show up correctly.

Thanks again.

Yes, you've tried older mobi, but the problem is, you're feeding it a file that it cannot read, mobi or otherwise. ePUB3 is absolutely not compatible with a Kindle from 2011. You can't get there from here, in short.

You could open the ePUB3 file in Sigil and try to "downconvert" it to ePUB2, but you'd also need to know enough to know what ALSO needs to be done, besides giving it an NCX and a toc.html file, rather than a NAV file. It's entirely possible that other entities or elements are used, too, that would be incompatible.

So, the problem isn't the output format of MOBI, which is what you need for a Kindle from 2011. It's the input format that you're trying to automagically make into a Kindle MOBI eBook. You can either learn enough about ePUB to fix the ePUB3 file and then make a mobi, or just bite the bullet and buy the book in a compatible format from Amazon.

HTH.

Hitch

[yasdig]

Just converted from epub3 to old MOBI disabling all margins and it seems to have worked.

Thank you anyway.