Kobo....really?

[Celler6]

Hi All, I have a Kobo aura, and just got a Microsoft surface. I want to be able to do the following:
1) Read on my ereader at night, synch the device. Pick up my surface during the day and be at the same page that I synched (sunk? ) the night before.
2) Have the read/unread status match on each device. As it stands now, my reader shows the status, but every book shows unread on my new Surface.

Anyone know the answer? Kobo customer service said the synch is not set up to synch between devices. Really? I thought that would have been the first thing anyone would think about when designing a synch function.

Any help would be appreciated...thank you in advance.

[JSWolf]

Is this a Surface or is it a Surface Pro?

[HarryT]

Moved to the Kobo forum, which is where Kobo questions belong.

[barryem]

Actually the Surface 3 (not Pro) is full Windows as well. It's the 10" model with an Atom CPU. I don't think they're making Windows RT models anymore. I guess his might be a used one.

By the way, what happened to your penguin? This thing is too scary!

Barry

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by barryem

Actually the Surface 3 (not Pro) is full Windows as well. It's the 10" model with an Atom CPU. I don't think they're making Windows RT models anymore. I guess his might be a used one.

I did see Surface RT sold on Groupon.

By the way, what happened to your penguin? This thing is too scary!

Barry

It's Tux's Halloween costume.

[AnemicOak]

As I recall the only things that sync on a Kobo are bookmarks & annotations. Also sync will download your latest purchases and check for firmware updates.

I suppose you could place a bookmark when you stop reading and that should sync to the same book on the other device? Not as handy as how the Kindle will sync the last place read, but it might get you essentially what you're asking for.

All of the books on my Kobo are sideloaded so I can't try this myself at the moment, but perhaps someone else will know.

[JSWolf]

delete post

[Celler6]

Surface Pro 4

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Celler6

Surface Pro 4

Since syncing isn't working, take note of the page number and go to that page every time you switch devices.

or

Read different books on each device.

[Celler6]

Thanks..was hoping that someone here would have a solution to help me achieve what I thought was a reasonable goal....and I am sure you guys would have, if Kobo had had half a brain when they designed this stuff. Oh well....have to accept, it cant do what I want....and their half a brain is making them a helluva lot more money than I am so they must be something right Thanks!!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Celler6

Thanks..was hoping that someone here would have a solution to help me achieve what I thought was a reasonable goal....and I am sure you guys would have, if Kobo had had half a brain when they designed this stuff. Oh well....have to accept, it cant do what I want....and their half a brain is making them a helluva lot more money than I am so they must be something right Thanks!!

Sideloaded ebooks do not sync but the Kobo's kepubs do sync the reading position though this does require a live WiFi connection. I've been reading an ebook on the KA1 and moved to my Nexus and had a popup about New bookmark location It looks as if you have been reading on another device. Would you like to return to the page you most recently opened? (No) (Yes).

[girlwithabook]

Originally Posted by Celler6

Thanks..was hoping that someone here would have a solution to help me achieve what I thought was a reasonable goal....and I am sure you guys would have, if Kobo had had half a brain when they designed this stuff. Oh well....have to accept, it cant do what I want....and their half a brain is making them a helluva lot more money than I am so they must be something right Thanks!!

I have a question! This is in line with DNSB's comment, but are you trying to read books purchased from Kobo or sideloaded? Purchased books should sync correctly between platforms, but sideloaded never will (even if you have the same book in both places). Sometimes the trick is to initiate a sync after reading, and then sync on the other device when you want to start reading. Though as DNSB said, it should prompt on opening the book as long as you're connected to wifi.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by girlwithabook

I have a question! This is in line with DNSB's comment, but are you trying to read books purchased from Kobo or sideloaded? Purchased books should sync correctly between platforms, but sideloaded never will (even if you have the same book in both places). Sometimes the trick is to initiate a sync after reading, and then sync on the other device when you want to start reading. Though as DNSB said, it should prompt on opening the book as long as you're connected to wifi.

I suspect that quite a few people don't realize the difference in behaviour between downloading a Kobo purchased ebook and sideloading it to your ereader compared to synchronizing a Kobo purchased ebook to your ereader from a Kobo server.

[Celler6]

Hi....thanks guys...the books were all direct downloads from Kobo - that is why it surprises me that this cannot be done...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Celler6

Hi....thanks guys...the books were all direct downloads from Kobo - that is why it surprises me that this cannot be done...

I read a lot of books purchased and downloaded from Kobo. The reading position, and annotations are syncing between all my Kobo devices, the desktop application on Windows 10 and the Kobo apps on both my iPad and Android phones. For it to work, WiFi must be on and connected for all the devices.

Other than during a full sync, the status for a book is synced automatically, but is triggered by certain actions. On the devices, each time you open or close a book, let the device go to sleep while reading or wake the device, it will attempt to sync the reading status of that book. There might be other triggers, but these are the ones I know of. If you open the book or wake the device and it finds that the reading position was updated by another device or app, you will be prompted to go to the new page.

The desktop and other apps work roughly the same, but I think they have different trigger points. The desktop app might only sync when you open it. The iOS app has a rule to prevent it syncing to often.

If you open a new book on one device, it won't show as reading on the others or the apps until syncs have been done. Or you open the book on the other devices or apps. If you don't do the sync, the other devices and apps won't know about the status change.

Within the last month, I have tested this. I opened a book on a device, then closed the cover. Then I opened it on each of the other devices and apps and it either went directly to that page, or asked me to go to the new page. On one, I turned a few pages, closed the book and went back t the first device. When I opened the cover, after a few seconds, it prompted me to go to the new page. My son uses a Glo HD signed into my account, and I see the books he is reading appear on the home screen with changing reading percent.

For this to work, you must have a known WiFi network available. If you do not, or something goes wrong with the connection, then the status won't be synced to the server. No error will be displayed as this is a quiet background task. The sync isn't queued, it is skipped until the next time it is triggered by one of the above actions.

There is a deficiency in the reading status sync for pre-4.0 firmware. If you finish a book, that is synced, but when you sync the other devices, the books is marked as being 0% read. Later this gets synced back to the original device. This was fixed with 4.0, but if you have a mix of devices and versions, it can still happen.

From what I see, this just works. If it isn't for you, then you need to check the networking is OK. Then make sure everything is signed into the same Kobo account, and that syncs are actually happening.