Kobo Bug thread

[donnieparker]

I factory reset the device and re-uploaded the books with the latest Calibre (1.5), and that solved the problem. So odd! When I had uploaded with 1.4, that's when I ran into trouble.

[leftright]

K-Glo v2.8.1b

I downloaded books from Calibre to Glo's main library. (unplugged glo from PC).
I then deleted those books from Glo's library with Glo's delete menu.
I re-downloaded the same books with revised cover art but the Glo still shows the books with previous cover art.

[leftright]

K-Glo v2.8.1b

Library > View details > Delete > Delete book ? > "Yes"

Unable to delete book from library using above procedure.

(are so many confirmation dialogues really necessary ?).

Edit: thank you meeera, you are right.

I now understand that the book is deleted, but still displayed in the synopses page and that to confirm deletion one has to go back a level, *sigh*, That's weird, it could make a cat laugh.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by leftright

K-Glo v2.8.1b

Library > View details > Delete > Delete book ? > "Yes"

Unable to delete book from library using above procedure.

(are so many confirmation dialogues really necessary ?).

I just tested this on a Glo on 2.8.1a, and it works. However, immediately after pressing delete, it goes back to the book synopsis page, which might give the impression it hasn't been deleted. I then looked in Library and it was gone, and I went back to Home and did a search for that book, and it didn't show up, showing me that it was in fact deleted.

Is this a new bug in 2.8.1b? Can anyone else confirm?

[roger64]

The famous and shameful long paragraph bug can be fixed

Could somebody with relations to Kobo headquarters inform them that the "unsolvable" bug has been given a simple and efficient fix by the glorious Russian Kobo Patcher author Metazoa, at least for current version 2.8.1 ( ).

Just have a look here.

All it takes is modifying kpg.conf this way following the appropriate update procedure:

<Patch>
patch_name = `Fix page breaks bug`
patch_enable = `yes`
replace_bytes = C13B6E, E8 D0, E8 E7
#Alternative method
#replace_bytes = C13B6E, E8 D0, 00 46
</Patch>

Don't forget to provide him with a nice and deserved reward...

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by leftright

K-Glo v2.8.1b

I downloaded books from Calibre to Glo's main library. (unplugged glo from PC).
I then deleted those books from Glo's library with Glo's delete menu.
I re-downloaded the same books with revised cover art but the Glo still shows the books with previous cover art.

Workaround: Turn the Glo off, then back on. The correct cover art should show up after the reboot.

[glos]

Originally Posted by glos

I've been having something similar to what previously described... just adding what happens to my kobo.
With a sideloaded kepub (and it looks like it's only this book, BUT i'd been reading it for a while and it wasn't doing it from the start) via Calibre with the extended plugin, I stop reading on ch5, go to home, and the % is 0 and it reopens at the beginning. I then go to ch5 via TOC. If I put a bookmark on ch5 and go out again the % is still 0. It shows there's a bookmark but when I open it it tells me there is no bookmark and again it opens the book at the beginning.
I've tried first switching on/off and then a factory reset, this one book is still doing it (and it was working fine before... before I went 2.8.1 but even the first few days of 2.8.1 !) while another one I tried is not. Mah.

Originally Posted by davidfor

@glos: This sounds like the device can't work out and store the reading position. Or if it stores it, it can't be reoponed to that point. The main times I have seen that problem is after replacing a version of the book without deleting it first. But, as the book didn't work after a factory reset, that isn't the case.

As it is one book that this is a problem for, then it probably is something about the book. And as you are sending it as a kepub via the extended driver, it might be something in how the kepub is created. I would recommend discussing this in the extended driver thread or raising a bug and supplying the original epub to the developer.

remember this, david?
I think it was/is a problem to the TOC of that book (possibly only with that chapter, idk!). I've been trying the same procedure on other chapters *btw,, I always was trying to bookmark on the first page of a chapter* and it works, I can now bookmark (and I then see the bookmarks), when I re-open the book it opens on the page I was reading and on the home the tile for the book shows the right reading %.
Idk what it is, the only weird thing is that when I go to the TOC of the book, wherever I am, it indicates I'm always on the first chapter.
When I was getting it ready to be transferred to the device I used the edit TOC function in calibre to ONLY rename the TOC titles, because the first 20 or so were "chapter 1, chapter 2, etc" while the others had the chapter title. So I adjusted the entries to have them all similar with the titles of the chapters. Maybe only that ch. 5 has a problem...I'm now around ch 8, and I'm sure I also modified its toc title, still, it works. Anyway, all seems to be normal now (and I didn't do a thing, I was waiting to run out of battery first).

- sorry for the long post/hijacking the topic with this, seems now unrelated to kobo and more a book problem -

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by glos

remember this, david?
I think it was/is a problem to the TOC of that book (possibly only with that chapter, idk!). I've been trying the same procedure on other chapters *btw,, I always was trying to bookmark on the first page of a chapter* and it works, I can now bookmark (and I then see the bookmarks), when I re-open the book it opens on the page I was reading and on the home the tile for the book shows the right reading %.
Idk what it is, the only weird thing is that when I go to the TOC of the book, wherever I am, it indicates I'm always on the first chapter.
When I was getting it ready to be transferred to the device I used the edit TOC function in calibre to ONLY rename the TOC titles, because the first 20 or so were "chapter 1, chapter 2, etc" while the others had the chapter title. So I adjusted the entries to have them all similar with the titles of the chapters. Maybe only that ch. 5 has a problem...I'm now around ch 8, and I'm sure I also modified its toc title, still, it works. Anyway, all seems to be normal now (and I didn't do a thing, I was waiting to run out of battery first).

- sorry for the long post/hijacking the topic with this, seems now unrelated to kobo and more a book problem -

It sort of sounds like the TOC in the book doesn't match the actual book. And then when the device loads it, everything gets even more confused. I would think that editing the TOC in calibre would fix this. But, maybe there is a way to mess it up. Any chance of seeing the book?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by glos

remember this, david?
I think it was/is a problem to the TOC of that book (possibly only with that chapter, idk!). I've been trying the same procedure on other chapters *btw,, I always was trying to bookmark on the first page of a chapter* and it works, I can now bookmark (and I then see the bookmarks), when I re-open the book it opens on the page I was reading and on the home the tile for the book shows the right reading %.
Idk what it is, the only weird thing is that when I go to the TOC of the book, wherever I am, it indicates I'm always on the first chapter.
When I was getting it ready to be transferred to the device I used the edit TOC function in calibre to ONLY rename the TOC titles, because the first 20 or so were "chapter 1, chapter 2, etc" while the others had the chapter title. So I adjusted the entries to have them all similar with the titles of the chapters. Maybe only that ch. 5 has a problem...I'm now around ch 8, and I'm sure I also modified its toc title, still, it works. Anyway, all seems to be normal now (and I didn't do a thing, I was waiting to run out of battery first).

- sorry for the long post/hijacking the topic with this, seems now unrelated to kobo and more a book problem -

I had a play with the files you send me, and had the same problem with the kepub. I ran epubcheck over both versions and there were warnings about spaces in the internal file names. Which triggered a memory and some testing showed what was happening.

The problem is the spaces in the file names. This is because in some places that refer to the files the names are escaped, and in others they are not. Unfortunately, when the book is first processed by the Kobo devices, it doesn't handle that properly. It appears to be expecting the names without escaping anywhere. When I changed the file names to remove spaces and fixed the references, it worked. When I removed the escaping it also works.

What are the solutions to this:

- It would be best if Kobo handled this. I'll report it on the beta group. It will be a low priority as they don't really support sideloaded kepubs.
- It is possible the extended driver could fix this. This has been discussed before but I don't remember if jgoguen was involved. Or if the driver was around at the time.
- Get the tool that produced the epub to not use spaces in the internal file names. As this was fan fiction, the ffdl plugin already seems to do this. Someone would need to suggest a change to the web downloader you use.
- Manually edit and fix the files. That's only practical if it happens rarely or you edit your epubs for other reasons. Doing this in Sigil is fairly easy as you can select a group of files and rename them with a sequence number. That should automatically fix the TOC and OPF references. But rebuilding the TOC is one button.

[leftright]

K-Glo v2.8.1b
I have sideloaded additional books to my glo whose cover art does not display.

I have powered off and On several times (slowly) to no avail.
I have reloaded the books from Calibre, powered off and on, to no avail.
I have opened the books and browsed then return to home screen then power off and on, to no avail.

All cover art displays correctly in Calibre.
All books are the same format.
All books have embedded art as well as folder cover art.
All cover art is jpg

EDIT
ALL books are epub, , transferred using "send to main memory".
Max size of cover art is 800 pixels (most are ~400 X ~550).

EDIT 2

The Cover art of the "additional books" previously sideloaded to the Glo finally refreshed, this occurred after creating a new library in Calibre, adding some "new" books to this library, then I deleted the metadata file in this (Calibre) library, then sideloaded the new books to the Glo.

lo' and behold, the other stubborn cover art then magically appeared in the Glo's library.
*sigh* I'm so happy...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by leftright

K-Glo v2.8.1b
I have sideloaded additional books to my glo whose cover art does not display.

I have powered off and On several times (slowly) to no avail.
I have reloaded the books from Calibre, powered off and on, to no avail.
I have opened the books and browsed then return to home screen then power off and on, to no avail.

All cover art displays correctly in Calibre.
All books are the same format.
All books have embedded art as well as folder cover art.
All cover art is jpg

Are you using the extended driver and sending books as kepubs?

If you are, can you send an epub to the device? Make sure it displays the cover as the first page. Then use the "Save to disk" function in calibre to save the epub to the device. Check if that displays the cover correctly.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by leftright

K-Glo v2.8.1b
I have sideloaded additional books to my glo whose cover art does not display.

How large are the cover image files? I regularly have that sort of problem on my Glo, with standard epubs that have cover images bigger than about half a megabyte. (I just got such a book today; it had a 1600x2400 cover that was over a meg. I stripped out the color profile and resized it to 800x1200, and that worked fine.)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

How large are the cover image files? I regularly have that sort of problem on my Glo, with standard epubs that have cover images bigger than about half a megabyte. (I just got such a book today; it had a 1600x2400 cover that was over a meg. I stripped out the color profile and resized it to 800x1200, and that worked fine.)

I don't think I have seen a cover that big. Did the device display it correctly when reading the book?

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I don't think I have seen a cover that big. Did the device display it correctly when reading the book?

I didn't open the book to find out. Since it was DRM-free, I just downloaded it to my computer, resized the image to about 1200px tall, and fixed the problem that way. This is going to become a bigger problem, though; I'm hearing from several authors that they're being required to produce bigger covers to get into certain e-stores. As Apple keeps producing more Retina devices, that trend is only going to grow...

For reference, this Kobo book has an 1800x2700 cover image, which may well be the print cover. (At 300dpi, that's a standard 6"x9" size.)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

I didn't open the book to find out. Since it was DRM-free, I just downloaded it to my computer, resized the image to about 1200px tall, and fixed the problem that way. This is going to become a bigger problem, though; I'm hearing from several authors that they're being required to produce bigger covers to get into certain e-stores. As Apple keeps producing more Retina devices, that trend is only going to grow...

For reference, this Kobo book has an 1800x2700 cover image, which may well be the print cover. (At 300dpi, that's a standard 6"x9" size.)

The preview downloaded and worked with no problems. The preview was DRM free, so I took a copy of the file and added epub as the extension. On both the Glo and the Touch, this worked with no problem. The cover displays on the home page and lists and the book opens.

My first test didn't work. Or at least it didn't test what I wanted to. That was because I imported it into calibre which automatically resized the cover when it was extracted and then updated it on the send.