Alternative to Calibre Companion (non WIFI-based)?

[barn_owl]

Hello everyone =)

I've used Calibre Companion on my smartphone for a while now and it is a really great app. I love that it shows all the custumn columns and it really helps me to keep track if/when I read a book.

Sadly with our buggy WIFI at home the wireless connection with calibre often fails or gets disconnected shortly after the booklist began loading. Sometimes it 'only' takes a few tries to get the metadata synced or new books on my phone, sometimes it won't work even then and I can only try again at a later time. It is really frustrating and takes so much time, I could be reading instead.

So what I would like to find (but weren't able to myself) is an app for Android, that I can use on my phone, that has basically the same functions as CC, but is able to find/display books, that I sent to my phone using a cable connection.

Does anyone know anything similar that I just haven't managed to find?

[Deskisamess]

Why not fix the WiFi issue that makes it "buggy?" A new router perhaps?

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Why not fix the WiFi issue that makes it "buggy?" A new router perhaps?

Or just a cheap extended, booster close to 2here younl8k3 to use the phone

Or send books via usb and use a reader with a decent shelf, library system

[barn_owl]

Well great, I just wrote an answer, but needed to long and was logged out and now it is lost So, from the beginning again

Why not fix the WiFi issue that makes it "buggy?" A new router perhaps?

Mainly because it only really is a problem with CC. Everything else works fine. I really don't have the money right now to buy a new router. And assumedly an app (if there were one) would cost up to 10€, it would be at least twice that much for a new router, even if I'd buy a cheap one. Also the router belongs to our internet provider and we are "officially" required to use that one with the original cabling they provided (). So we never really looked into that.

Or just a cheap extended, booster close to 2here younl8k3 to use the phone

That is something I might do. I will ask around if someone has one and would be willing to lend it to me, so I can test if it helps before buying. I hadn't even thought about that option.
But I don't know what you mean with "2here younl8k3"? Is that a typo or something? Because I have no idea what that might mean and google didn't find any matches aside from your post

Or send books via usb and use a reader with a decent shelf, library system

Yeah, I will do that, if I don't get it to work reliably. The library system on my reader is actually really good and I already use Moon+ Reader Pro on my phone in combination with CC.
As I use a lot of custumn columns I just hoped there might be an alternative that would display them and allow to search them. But as you both directly suggested to fix the WIFI-problem, I suppose there really isn't and it isn't just a matter of me not finding it.:

Thank you for your quick answers :

[stumped]

There used to be other similar apps which copy books from cloud storage. Search play store. I had one once but the developer stopped maintaining it
Or put the books in Dropbox, g drive or pcloud , then use the free cloud storage apps to choose individual files hen needed. I would now avoid Dropbox because of the new silly three device limit but pcloud is free and works well.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by barn_owl

But I don't know what you mean with "2here younl8k3"? Is that a typo or something? Because I have no idea what that might mean and google didn't find any matches aside from your post

At a WEG, "where you like" so it should have read "close to where you like to use the phone". The 2, 3 and 8 are just above the w, e and i keys on my keyboard and the n is just above the space bar.

Takes me back to a Christmas job at the post office trying to decipher what someone meant when they wrote the To: address.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by barn_owl

Sadly with our buggy WIFI at home the wireless connection with calibre often fails or gets disconnected shortly after the booklist began loading.

I find this to usually be caused by devices going to sleep and loosing the wifi connection. Try to change the sleep time on your device out to an hour then connect to CC and see if it makes a difference. You can always change the setting back to 2 minutes after you are done with CC.