PB903: Calibre cannot see preloaded books, and only sends to "books"

[paola]

I posted the following question on the Calibre forum:

I am having problems though in making Calibre and my Pocketbook 903 speak to one another. I have three problems:

1) Calibre sees none of the preloaded books;

2) when sending books to the device, they are not "merged" in the existing library: although the books do appear if I list them all (not very practical), they do not appear under the various tags; moreover, if I browse the files (instead of the "Library"), all the books that I send to the device via Calibre appear in the subdirectory "books\AuthorName", while the preloaded books are organised in directories still with the author name, but in the root directory of the device.

3) connected to problem 2, if I create new tags they are sometimes accepted by the device, sometimes not: for instance, I have tagged about 25 items as "academic", but only 2 of them show under this tag in the library vie on the device.

I am sure I must be doing something wrong, but I cannot see what: can anyone please help?

p.s.
All of the books are in the main memory of the device, I do not have a memory card.

and kovid replied

The driver looks for files under the books folder in the main memory. All books there will be listed. Move your builtin books into that folder if you want them detected by calibre.

As for 2 and 3 that is a device issue, all calibre does is put the files on the device, after that, it's upto the device to read the metadata from the files and present a list of books to the user. You should try posting in the pocketbook forums for help.

After all the scare stories about not being able to access the library anymore after deleting files, I am scared of moving the entire preloaded library under the "books folder": if anyone has any suggestions/tips, they will be warmly appreciated!

[troll05]

1) Calibre "sees" only books it knows are on the device, because on connection it runs a metafile-update and compares which of the books that should be there actually are.

2) Calibre creates an own file system on your reader which you can influence via "Settings-> Store books on device" (don't know the exact english name)

3) Tagging books via Calibre to show up in the Library only helps with epub files, all other formats are ignored. According to 2) you can set {tags}/{authors_sort}/{title}, the you have it at least in the files directory

For the Freebooks I suggest you import them into Calibre when the device is connected, then you delete the original installed ones language by language, each time you connect it to your PC. So the amounts are not to big and your devices is relative sure of freezing. If it happens nontheless, I made the experience it is quite helpful to have only some books in the "favourites" folder and connect it to the PC only when on the main page. If it freezes after disconnection just turn of, then on again. Normally it will boot up to the main page and only freeze again if you enter the library, but if you go via favourites it normally works. If you use an SD card it is helpful to restart it once inbetween without the card. And NEVER remove the card while it is switched on, even when it is apparently dead.

I hope I could help, troll

[paola]

Originally Posted by troll05

1) Calibre "sees" only books it knows are on the device, because on connection it runs a metafile-update and compares which of the books that should be there actually are.

2) Calibre creates an own file system on your reader which you can influence via "Settings-> Store books on device" (don't know the exact english name)

3) Tagging books via Calibre to show up in the Library only helps with epub files, all other formats are ignored. According to 2) you can set {tags}/{authors_sort}/{title}, the you have it at least in the files directory

troll, thanks a million, this is very helpful, had not realised I could play around with the Calibre settings, I have a lot to learn

Originally Posted by troll05

For the Freebooks I suggest you import them into Calibre when the device is connected, then you delete the original installed ones language by language, each time you connect it to your PC. So the amounts are not to big and your devices is relative sure of freezing.

Just to see if I understand you: do you mean I import the books into Calibre, then delete them on the device, and then re-send them to the device, so that now Calibre sees them?

[troll05]

Originally Posted by paolamanzini

troll, thanks a million, this is very helpful, had not realised I could play around with the Calibre settings, I have a lot to learn

Just to see if I understand you: do you mean I import the books into Calibre, then delete them on the device, and then re-send them to the device, so that now Calibre sees them?

Exactly! It's only one way, sending them all to the "books" folder as Kovid suggested may work as well, but with this method you have the as a backup on PC too

[paola]

Originally Posted by troll05

Exactly! It's only one way, sending them all to the "books" folder as Kovid suggested may work as well, but with this method you have the as a backup on PC too

many thanks, I like your method better