Touch Shelves multiplied after recent update

[Marbles]

I have been having the same problem. Did a factory reset. Still happening so will leave alone

[Aylalake]

I gave in and did a factory reset today. Twice.

First, though, I renamed the shelves on my iPhone, in case they were the problem, by putting the number 1 at the end of the name. I then did a sync which created shelves with the same name (including the number 1) on my Kobo Touch. I still had all the dozens of duplicated shelves with their original names (without the number 1) which I could not delete off the Kobo Touch.

I put the iPhone in airplane mode to prevent any synching between the iPhone and the KT.

I then did the factory reset which cleared some of the duplicated shelves but not all. So I redid the reset and ended up with no shelves at all which is what I wanted.

After reloading my books via the Kobo Desktop, I then put the iPhone back to normal mode, and synched the KT and the iPhone.

I ended up with one shelf duplicated on my KT which did not have a 1 at the end of the name, so I checked my iPhone and sure enough, I'd missed renaming that one. I deleted it completely off my iPhone and was then able to delete it off my KT (a solution I was not able to use prior to the reset).

Interestingly, although the shelves created on the iPhone synced to the KT, the books ON the shelves on the iPhone didn't. So I ended up with empty shelves on the KT.

I managed to clear the duplicated shelves which was the point of the exercise. Now I will have to manually refill the shelves on the KT!

Bottom line - it looks as if it's a problem between the iPhone and the KT, and not anything to do with the KT software as such.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Aylalake

Bottom line - it looks as if it's a problem between the iPhone and the KT, and not anything to do with the KT software as such.

From something said elsewhere by a Kobo person, there may have been a problem on the server. I think it hit people with multiple devices more than others. I suspect it is related to the server not handling different versions of the devices and apps properly. At least for myself and a couple of others I have talked to, this seemed to be the case.

[Urdu]

I've followed David's procedure but no luck so far...
I use fw 2.1.5 on a KoboGlo with the latest Calibre version and Kobo driver.
All my shelves keep duplicating.

[Aylalake]

Originally Posted by davidfor

From something said elsewhere by a Kobo person, there may have been a problem on the server. I think it hit people with multiple devices more than others. I suspect it is related to the server not handling different versions of the devices and apps properly. At least for myself and a couple of others I have talked to, this seemed to be the case.

That makes sense! It would confirm my feeling it is not a Kobo Touch software issue as such. I haven't synched my two devices since the factory reset, so I don't know if it's still happening.

[Corpsegoddess]

I did a synch early this morning, and it's still happening. In fact, I deleted the shelves that were the ones with multiples, and they came back--again with multiples--AFTER the synch.

So yeah. Not sure what to do except wait for them to fix it.

[jusmee]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

Among other things, a shelf has two fields, Name and InternalName
These must both contain the same value, which would be the name of the shelf, so if your shelf was called "My Shelf" then Name and InternalName should both be "My Shelf"

What is the point of having two fields if they MUST contain the same value?

[robko]

Originally Posted by jusmee

What is the point of having two fields if they MUST contain the same value?

This is purely a (semi) educated guess but probably one of the fields is legacy field that was used in either e-reader firmware or one of the IOS/Android apps. Sometimes its probably easier to just leave it (kinda like an appendix) than remove it and risk possible unexpected weirdness -- which would include both of them needing to be identical suggesting that both of them do get used somewhere/somehow.

[jusmee]

Originally Posted by robko

This is purely a (semi) educated guess but probably one of the fields is legacy field that was used in either e-reader firmware or one of the IOS/Android apps. Sometimes its probably easier to just leave it (kinda like an appendix) than remove it and risk possible unexpected weirdness -- which would include both of them needing to be identical suggesting that both of them do get used somewhere/somehow.

I agree that may be a reason why it is so, but then you would make one a calculated field set to be always equal to the other. A need to keep it hanging around just proves, once again, that kobo have some rather weak software development practices. If, say, the Touch only works properly when they are the same, then it should only read one of them, and use that value only. The very fact that it get's weird, as reported, means there is old code, within the Touch, reading the other one as well - and that shouldn't happen within the development on one platform.


btw: I am sure they recently found that a human appendix does have beneficial uses to you

[robko]

After syncing yesterday, my duplicated shelves have gone and didn't come back when I synced today. Hopefully this is fixed now.

[Corpsegoddess]

So I've noticed two new things with this wrinkle, but I'll sum up my experience so far so whoever's involved with trying to fix this has all my details.

I've been experiencing the multiple-shelf problem. When I first noticed it a couple of weeks ago, I deleted the offending shelves (note: I only had to delete one shelf; when I did that, all multiples of that particular shelf disappeared).

I've been trying to get the new software update, so for the past 5 days, I've updated my Kobo Touch via wi-fi. For the first three times, I got a software download, but my device said it was still 2.1.5; after each of these downloads and installs, I noticed that the multiple shelves I had deleted were recreated--in multiples again. Three times I deleted the shelves and did an update; three times I got a software download which doesn't appear to have changed my version (still 2.1.5 according to my device), and three times it replaced the multiple shelves.

(Note: not all shelves are made multiple, only some. I haven't figured out the rhyme or reason as to why some are and some aren't)

The last two updates, I didn't delete any shelves; I still got a software download and install, but again--no version change according to my device.

The two things I noticed tonight when I added some books to my multiplied shelves as an experiment:

1. The multiplied (and replaced) shelves do not have a "created on" date next to them like the regular ones do.

2. Each time I add a book to one of the multiplied shelves, it creates yet ANOTHER shelf. For each book added.

So--yeah. No idea what the heck is going on right now, but I figured I'd offer what data I have.

Edit: I did a factory reset, and that downloaded the new software and eliminated all my shelves. So, not sure what the initial problem was, but it seems to be gone now.

[Orn8one]

I started this thread and kept in touch with it. I am no clearer now than when I started the thread! My KT still has 6 or so shelves with the ame name and content. My iPad does not nor does my iPhone.
I am not sure what firmware is on all of them other than it will be the latest available in the UK. I always do updates and watch for them.
Confused yes! But I'll live with it, Happy Christmas.

[murg]

Originally Posted by jusmee

What is the point of having two fields if they MUST contain the same value?

Liek robco, this is just a guess. It's possible that the internal name was meant to be a guid. The previous 'shelf' system was the recommended/wishlist, which used pseudo-guids as internal keys. I can see this being the original intention for the formal implementation of the shelves.

Probably one of the developers changed the internal name to the human-readable name to assist with development, and it never got changed back before release.