.mobi conversion problems - cover art not showing in K4A & K4Mac, Personal on device

[pi_formance]

Hi all,

I got my first eReader two days ago, a Kindle Paperwhite and have ran into a couple of problems with sideloaded .mobi files that I sent to the Paperwhite, Kindle Android app and opened in Kindle Mac.

I have converted a couple of my epub books using Calibre to the mobi format. I then sent the files to my Paperwhite and my Android phone using the 'Send to Kindle' app on my Mac. The Paperwhite shows the cover art, however categorises the book as a 'document' and puts the 'Personal' banner on it. The Kindle Android app doesn't show the cover art and neither does the Kindle Mac app when opening the .mobi file. I have spent hours on the internet (google/amazon.com form/mobileread.com forum) and found a number of workaround and supposedly solutions. Unfortunately, none of them solved my problems.
FYI: I have tried the following:
-) Cleared the 'Personal Doc tag' field in the conversion settings.
-) Used '[EBOK]' in the 'Personal Doc tag' field
-) Converted the epub to a mobi file and then converted the mobi file to another mobi file
-) Sent the mobi file directly to the Paperwhite using the 'Connect/share' - 'Email to' function in Calibre.
-) Tried both unticking and ticking the 'Use cover from source file' box in the Conversion screen in Calibre

I have not used Mobi2Mobi and, to be honest, I would prefer not having to.

I am using the latest version of all apps.
Calibre: 0.9.22
Send to Kindle: 1.0.0.218
Kindle Mac: 1.10.5
Kindle for Android: 3.8.2.4 (on a Galaxy Note 2 - non-rooted/non-custom ROM)

Does anyone know what could cause the Paperwhite still classifying the sideloaded .mobi's as personal documents and K4Android and K4MAC not showing cover arts?

Thanks heaps in advance!

[kovidgoyal]

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....droid-ipad-etc

[pi_formance]

Thanks kovidgoyal!

I found a way for covers to show up on Kindle for Android and on the Kindle Mac application:
-) Convert epub to mobi (Enable sharing.. un-ticked)
-) Edit the exported mobi file with a Java tool I found somewhere here on the forum - MobiMetaEditorV0.16) - Modify the EXTH record 113 to ensure it is set to the ASIN as per Amazon.com

Now if you open the mobi file with Kindle Mac or send it to your Android using the 'Send to Kindle' app, you'll have the cover showing.
Using this way, you don't have to set the 'Enable sharing' option. The problem remains that the book shows up under 'Personal documents' on my Paperwhite when I send the mobi file to the device using the 'Send to Kindle' app. However, I tried opening one of the mobi files that I sent to my Kindle, went to page 10, synced, opened the same book on my Android phone and it remembered that I was on page 10.

So, I guess I found a workaround to have covers in both Kindle for Android and Kindle Mac which allows syncing of last reads. The only problem is that the books show up as 'Personal' on my Paperwhite.
I tried copying mobi files using a USB cable and Calibre -> If I do that, they are NOT listed as 'Pesonal'. However, they are obviously not stored in the Amazon cloud which means I can't sync my reading status across different devices.

[pi_formance]

It seems that I have sorted out how to fix the cover issue while maintainig the sync functionality across multiple platforms (K4Android and Paperwhite).

What I am still struggling with is to upload/send the mobi files to my Paperwhite and have them listed as books as opposed to personal documents.
I am now thinking that it was a conscious decision of Amazon.com to have all mobi files categorised as 'personal' that were either
-uploaded to your device using the 'Send to Kindle' app or
-sent to your device via your amazon email address

I start doubting that there is a way to circumvent that. People online who have been successful getting their mobi files onto their devices and having them listed as books seem to have used the USB cable to copy the files. I was able to reproduce that but as mentioned before, that way you lose the ability to sync books across your Phone and device. It also doesn't store the book in the Amazon cloud.

If anyone was able to get mobi files onto their Paperwhite using the Amazon cloud (through send to kindle or email), please let me know.

Cheers

[kovidgoyal]

Amazon marks all documents sent by email as personal, there is no way around that.

[pi_formance]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Amazon marks all documents sent by email as personal, there is no way around that.

What about documents sent using the 'Send to Kindle' app? Is there a way around that?

[kovidgoyal]

I have no idea, never used it, but since those are also processed by amazon's servers, I would assume not.

[pi_formance]

Ok, thanks.

Do you think it's possible to consider the following for a future release/update of Calibre:
1) When downloading metadata for an epub -> download the ASIN
2) Converting an epub to mobi should then automatically add EXTH meta data record 113 with the correct ASIN

It seems that Calibre doesn't do this properly as I need to manually modify the EXTH record 113 after the mobi file was converted with Calibre.

Cheers

[kovidgoyal]

No, and I have explained why many, many times before.

[pi_formance]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

No, and I have explained why many, many times before.

Fair enough