Kobo: 'Set series info' only works after polishing, and how to get metadata from kobo

[richstant]

Hi,

I have a kobo glo HD, and have 2 questions about metadata management. I've got the kobotouchextended plugin installed.

Firstly, I have series info metadata in calibre. When I first send a book to my kobo, the series info doesn't appear. However if I select polish books, then it does appear. I have 'set series info' set in the plugin. Any ideas why this would be? I notice that there are 3 plugins for kobo - kobo reader device interface, kobotouch, and kobotouchextended. Should I have all 3 installed, or could they be conflicting?

Secondly, when I've finished a book, I move it into a 'read' collection (e.g. from 'fantasy' to 'fantasy read') on the kobo. However when I connect the kobo to calibre, it moves the books back into the collection that is set in calibre (e.g. 'fantasy'). Is there a way to get it to read the collections metadata back from the kobo, into calibre? I used to have a kindle, and the kindle plugin let you sync the metadata back into calibre.

Thanks!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by richstant

Hi,

I have a kobo glo HD, and have 2 questions about metadata management. I've got the kobotouchextended plugin installed.

Firstly, I have series info metadata in calibre. When I first send a book to my kobo, the series info doesn't appear. However if I select polish books, then it does appear. I have 'set series info' set in the plugin. Any ideas why this would be? I notice that there are 3 plugins for kobo - kobo reader device interface, kobotouch, and kobotouchextended. Should I have all 3 installed, or could they be conflicting?

Sorry, but polishing the books is not have any affect. Polishing makes changes to the books in the library. This includes updating the metadata, the cover and other things depending on the options you choose. If you are using Polish to update the metadata, as calibre updates the metadata in the book when sending the book to the device, the Polish isn't really needed.

But, the real thing here is that it just doesn't work this way. Because of the way the Kobo devices work, the series info can only be set once the book is on the device and processed into the database. The device does not read the series info from the book, it has to come from somewhere else. So, the next time you connect, the driver will look for all books where the series in the device database does not match what calibre has and update the database directly.

Secondly, when I've finished a book, I move it into a 'read' collection (e.g. from 'fantasy' to 'fantasy read') on the kobo. However when I connect the kobo to calibre, it moves the books back into the collection that is set in calibre (e.g. 'fantasy'). Is there a way to get it to read the collections metadata back from the kobo, into calibre? I used to have a kindle, and the kindle plugin let you sync the metadata back into calibre.

Yes, there is a way to get the collections back to calibre, but it isn't something you want to use all the time. It's intended as a one-off recovery from disaster or when first starting to use calibre with a Kobo device.

As to the driver, it is one way. It updates the collection status on the device with what is in the calibre library. The simple solution is to do this in calibre rather than on the device. The more complicated solution is to use my Kobo Utilities plugin to pull the reading status of the books back to calibre. You can then create a collection based on this status. See https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo...nd_Collections for more details on creating collections.

[richstant]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Sorry, but polishing the books is not have any affect. Polishing makes changes to the books in the library. This includes updating the metadata, the cover and other things depending on the options you choose. If you are using Polish to update the metadata, as calibre updates the metadata in the book when sending the book to the device, the Polish isn't really needed.

But, the real thing here is that it just doesn't work this way. Because of the way the Kobo devices work, the series info can only be set once the book is on the device and processed into the database. The device does not read the series info from the book, it has to come from somewhere else. So, the next time you connect, the driver will look for all books where the series in the device database does not match what calibre has and update the database directly.


Yes, there is a way to get the collections back to calibre, but it isn't something you want to use all the time. It's intended as a one-off recovery from disaster or when first starting to use calibre with a Kobo device.

As to the driver, it is one way. It updates the collection status on the device with what is in the calibre library. The simple solution is to do this in calibre rather than on the device. The more complicated solution is to use my Kobo Utilities plugin to pull the reading status of the books back to calibre. You can then create a collection based on this status. See https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo...nd_Collections for more details on creating collections.

Thanks for the reply - I'll read up on the kobo utilities plugin later, but for now, can I clarify your comments about series info - are you saying that because of the way it works, I have to connect twice to get the series info there? I.e. polish is unnecessary, but connecting twice is needed?

[JSWolf]

You connect the first time to get the eBooks on the Kobo and then you disconnect to process them. then you connect again to load the series info.

[richstant]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You connect the first time to get the eBooks on the Kobo and then you disconnect to process them. then you connect again to load the series info.

OK, thanks for the info!