Sideloaded AZW3 showing no cover with send-to-kindle (Kindle PW3)

gabrielscunha · 07-06-2018, 10:05 AM

Hello everyone,

I'm having a problem that afflicts my very fastidious and borderline obsessive nature.

You see, every time I send a converted AZW3 book to my Kindle PW3 using calibre's send-to-device the book loads normally and it does show the cover thumbnail in library view. However, a few seconds after, the Kindle automatically replaces my embedded cover with a default one, displaying only the book's title and author.

I gathered that this has probably to do with the more recent Kindle OS.

Does anyone have a workaround for this?

Mobi is not an option for me because of all its anachronism (no pagination, no embedded fonts, etc.).

It does really bother one not to have my handpicked cover images replaced by that lame amazon cover.

Thank you all in advance.

kovidgoyal · 07-06-2018, 10:20 AM

As long as you dont set an ASIN in the metadata of the book, the Kindle does not replace covers. That is the default in calibre. So you liekly changed something to get the behavior you are seeing.

gabrielscunha · 07-06-2018, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

As long as you dont set an ASIN in the metadata of the book, the Kindle does not replace covers. That is the default in calibre. So you liekly changed something to get the behavior you are seeing.

Already tried clearing the ID and publication date fields, converting to AZW3 then sending-to-device via Calibre, to no avail, unfortunately. I have no clue as to why this is happening.

kovidgoyal · 07-06-2018, 10:26 AM

Well amazon's devices are black boxes, so it hard to say. I can tell you that it doesn't happen with azws on my up-to-date paperwhite.

Just to confirm, when you say send to device you mean the send to device button in calibre, correct?

gabrielscunha · 07-06-2018, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Well amazon's devices are black boxes, so it hard to say. I can tell you that it doesn't happen with azws on my up-to-date paperwhite.

Just to confirm, when you say send to device you mean the send to device button in calibre, correct?

That's correct.

gabrielscunha · 07-06-2018, 10:28 AM

Also, I already tried resetting it, changing language and restarting.

I also tried going into system/thumbnails and making calibre's exported thumbnail "read-only". That didn't cut it as well.

willboliva · 07-07-2018, 11:52 AM

I'm experiencig a similar problem that might be related:

the covers of the AZW3's I've sent to my kindle with calibre in the past 3 weeks are replaced by the default one with book's title and author only after I turn the wifi on, the covers of other books sent before this time keep showing normally.

kovidgoyal · 07-07-2018, 01:09 PM

That's strange if you are not setting the ASIN then how does the kindle know which cover to download?

Try setting a totally incorrect title/author/other emtadata on a abook and send it to the kindle and see what cover it downloads.

gabrielscunha · 07-07-2018, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willboliva

I'm experiencig a similar problem that might be related:

the covers of the AZW3's I've sent to my kindle with calibre in the past 3 weeks are replaced by the default one with book's title and author only after I turn the wifi on, the covers of other books sent before this time keep showing normally.

This didn't work for me. After turning the wi-fi back on and opening the book, my Kindle automatically replaces its cover with Amazon's blank one.

gabrielscunha · 07-07-2018, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That's strange if you are not setting the ASIN then how does the kindle know which cover to download?

Try setting a totally incorrect title/author/other emtadata on a abook and send it to the kindle and see what cover it downloads.

Actually, my Kindle doesn't download any cover at all. It only replaces my embedded cover with a white frame showing the book's title and author.

willboliva · 07-07-2018, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gabrielscunha

This didn't work for me. After turning the wi-fi back on and opening the book, my Kindle automatically replaces its cover with Amazon's blank one.

You misunderstood me, I wasn't presenting a solution

I was saying that I'm having a problem similar to yours, but the covers only dissapear after I turn the wifi on, and this happens only with the books I've sent to kindle via calibre in the past 3 weeks, all the other books are fine, that's why I think it might have something to do with the current calibre version.

gabrielscunha · 07-07-2018, 02:48 PM

Ok. I have found some form of a workaround. What I did was converting the book to Mobi while changing its filetype to "both" and checking the "Enable sharing of book content via facebook..." option.

This preserves AZW3 functionalities and prevents the Kindle replacing the embedded cover.

The only downsides that I found are that the file ends up bigger and the book is tagged as a PDOC file. Not much of a hindrance, I think.

gabrielscunha · 07-09-2018, 08:27 PM

Another downside: word builder won't work with these dual Mobi files sent by calibre

gabrielscunha · 07-09-2018, 09:56 PM

Ok, something odd is definitely happening.

As I stated, I found something that worked for me as a workaround for this whole cover issue: I converted my epubs to mobi, and in calibre's mobi conversion output I chose "both" under "Mobi file type" and also checked "Enable sharing of book content via Facebook, etc". This made tagged the files as PDOCs by my Kindle while preserving the covers; pagination and other AZW3 features.

However, as I found out today, since the Kindle tags the file as a PDOC, the word builder feature which I use extensively doesn't work.

So I tried something else. I picked up these Mobi files I converted in the way described above and further converted them to AZW3 files. I tried this with two books, and it did work. They rest in my Kindle tagged as ebooks, with the embedded cover preserved and with all AZW3 features, including Kindle's word builder function, working sound.

Nonetheless, further tries were unsuccessful. I kept trying doing the same process with other ebooks, but my Kindle kept replacing the covers. Why would it work with some books and not with others? Maybe it has something to do with embedded metadata? I found that one of the books for which this procedure didn't work has some UUID identifier. Maybe is this related?

Any suggestions?

gabrielscunha · 07-09-2018, 10:03 PM

I suspect this may be related to metadata. I found out that if I delete the Amazon identifier from an ebook using calibre and convert it to another format, if I add a new copy of this converted file to calibre's library it preserves the original file's metadata. That is, calibre, apparently, isn't actually changing the books' metadata.

So, maybe the Kindle's software is replacing the book covers because the Amazon identifier is still embedded into the file.

07-06-2018, 10:05 AM	#1
gabrielscunha Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2018 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3	Sideloaded AZW3 showing no cover with send-to-kindle (Kindle PW3) Hello everyone, I'm having a problem that afflicts my very fastidious and borderline obsessive nature. You see, every time I send a converted AZW3 book to my Kindle PW3 using calibre's send-to-device the book loads normally and it does show the cover thumbnail in library view. However, a few seconds after, the Kindle automatically replaces my embedded cover with a default one, displaying only the book's title and author. I gathered that this has probably to do with the more recent Kindle OS. Does anyone have a workaround for this? Mobi is not an option for me because of all its anachronism (no pagination, no embedded fonts, etc.). It does really bother one not to have my handpicked cover images replaced by that lame amazon cover. Thank you all in advance. Last edited by gabrielscunha; 07-06-2018 at 10:26 AM.

07-06-2018, 10:28 AM	#6
gabrielscunha Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2018 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3	Also, I already tried resetting it, changing language and restarting. I also tried going into system/thumbnails and making calibre's exported thumbnail "read-only". That didn't cut it as well. Last edited by gabrielscunha; 07-06-2018 at 10:33 AM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Kindle Not Showing Sideloaded Content	lindylex	Amazon Kindle	13	08-01-2017 12:26 AM
conversion to azw3 with cover showing in Kindle	schubi77	Conversion	6	01-14-2016 09:18 AM
Deleting new AZW3 after Send to Kindle	squeebook	Library Management	4	07-30-2015 11:12 PM
Cannot Send azw3 to Device (Kindle Touch)	saoir	Conversion	6	11-09-2014 12:45 AM
send azw3 from Calibre to Kindle Touch	janmo	Conversion	0	06-11-2013 09:18 AM

07-06-2018, 10:20 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,843 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	As long as you dont set an ASIN in the metadata of the book, the Kindle does not replace covers. That is the default in calibre. So you liekly changed something to get the behavior you are seeing.

07-06-2018, 10:26 AM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,843 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Well amazon's devices are black boxes, so it hard to say. I can tell you that it doesn't happen with azws on my up-to-date paperwhite. Just to confirm, when you say send to device you mean the send to device button in calibre, correct?

07-07-2018, 11:52 AM	#7
willboliva Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2018 Device: Kindle	I'm experiencig a similar problem that might be related: the covers of the AZW3's I've sent to my kindle with calibre in the past 3 weeks are replaced by the default one with book's title and author only after I turn the wifi on, the covers of other books sent before this time keep showing normally.

07-07-2018, 01:09 PM	#8
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,843 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	That's strange if you are not setting the ASIN then how does the kindle know which cover to download? Try setting a totally incorrect title/author/other emtadata on a abook and send it to the kindle and see what cover it downloads.

07-07-2018, 02:48 PM	#12
gabrielscunha Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2018 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3	Ok. I have found some form of a workaround. What I did was converting the book to Mobi while changing its filetype to "both" and checking the "Enable sharing of book content via facebook..." option. This preserves AZW3 functionalities and prevents the Kindle replacing the embedded cover. The only downsides that I found are that the file ends up bigger and the book is tagged as a PDOC file. Not much of a hindrance, I think.

07-09-2018, 08:27 PM	#13
gabrielscunha Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2018 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3	Another downside: word builder won't work with these dual Mobi files sent by calibre

07-09-2018, 09:56 PM	#14
gabrielscunha Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2018 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3	Ok, something odd is definitely happening. As I stated, I found something that worked for me as a workaround for this whole cover issue: I converted my epubs to mobi, and in calibre's mobi conversion output I chose "both" under "Mobi file type" and also checked "Enable sharing of book content via Facebook, etc". This made tagged the files as PDOCs by my Kindle while preserving the covers; pagination and other AZW3 features. However, as I found out today, since the Kindle tags the file as a PDOC, the word builder feature which I use extensively doesn't work. So I tried something else. I picked up these Mobi files I converted in the way described above and further converted them to AZW3 files. I tried this with two books, and it did work. They rest in my Kindle tagged as ebooks, with the embedded cover preserved and with all AZW3 features, including Kindle's word builder function, working sound. Nonetheless, further tries were unsuccessful. I kept trying doing the same process with other ebooks, but my Kindle kept replacing the covers. Why would it work with some books and not with others? Maybe it has something to do with embedded metadata? I found that one of the books for which this procedure didn't work has some UUID identifier. Maybe is this related? Any suggestions?

07-09-2018, 10:03 PM	#15
gabrielscunha Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2018 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 3	I suspect this may be related to metadata. I found out that if I delete the Amazon identifier from an ebook using calibre and convert it to another format, if I add a new copy of this converted file to calibre's library it preserves the original file's metadata. That is, calibre, apparently, isn't actually changing the books' metadata. So, maybe the Kindle's software is replacing the book covers because the Amazon identifier is still embedded into the file.

Advert

Advert