Touch What is the microsd card limit (gb) for the Kobo Touch?

[eddie19]

16GB Kingston SD card - no problems.

[WS64]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

The 30,000 eBooks limit is exactly the sort of commercial lie I hate; this figure has been calculated this way: a 32 Mb SD-card can contain 32 MB, that is nearly 30,000 x 1 Mb e-book files!
But the Kobo is absolutely unable to parse as many files, and it has no room for as many books: for any book cover, it creates monochrome copies of the cover that often need about 200 KB for each book in the /.kobo/pictures/ directory. For 30,000 books the Kobo would need 6,000,000,000 bytes of main memory (6 GB).

That was for sure true for the older (1.9.x) firmware, but you would run with these into other problems way earlier since each subdirectory can just hold 7500 (or so) files, and Kobo stored up to 5(!) pictures per book.
With 2.0 it just creates the pictures it really needs, on the fly.
To reach the 7500 files limit you somehow have to create all these pictures (e.g. by stepping through the library).
But since Kobo creates them when needed you even can manually delete ALL pictures from time to time, and I am not sure if they even implemented another step that does that for you in case a picture can not be created.

With 2.0 Kobo can keep 30000 books. It probably cannot store pictures of all 30000 at once, but I don't think you will stumble accross a non-exeisting picture anymore.


And for the cards, I still think the key is the correct formatting of the SD card.
It has to be a linux partioning.
I could not get my 8GB card to work at all, I tried different programs (SD formatter and some other partioning software) to format the card, Kobo would not recognize it.
Then I formatted it with my Blackberry, and I have no problems with that card at all anymore.

[Francois_C]

Originally Posted by eddie19

16GB Kingston SD card - no problems.

But A 16 GB card could be more useful on a music player: if you consider the number of books the Kobo can really handle, say 800 1 MB books, that is 800 x 1,000,000 = 800,000,000 a 1 GB card is enough.

[Francois_C]

So this was a lie when the Kobo was released and when they sold it to me.
I wonder how many weeks the Kobo would need to parse 30,000 x 1 MB e-books...
As I still use SDFormatter on Windows, which creates FAT32 partitions, do you mean that an ext2, 3 or 4 or reiserfs partition would be more reliable? This would not be totally surprising, as fat32 has lots of inconveniences. Well, I reboot on Linux and I format a clone of my current card. Let's try!

[Later] I did it. Formatting on Linux is like using a steam hammer to drive a nail. As gnome-format was not working, I used gparted which threatened me to erase terabytes of photos and data on other USB devices. I formatted in ext2, which seamed reasonably compatible, of course I had no access on a partition formatted as root at first (I like Linux, but all these boy-scouts games with passwords and prohibited zones, I hate that). At last I could write on my partition, copied the contents of my fat32 card on the new ext2 one, the files were properly parsed (some books appeared as new, because they had possibly been neglected on the fat32 card. But the card is not reachable from Windows even through the Kobo cord...

Conclusion: Kobo is not faster with an ext2-formatted card than a fat32 one, its system can recognize this file system, Kobo seems to use it as well as the fat32, maybe a little bit better, surely not slower.
But don't chose this method: you will not be able to write on your Kobo card on Windows, neither to use Kobo desktop nor Calibre on Windows. Calibre Linux probably works. I didn't try yet. But Fat32 is still the proper format...

[Francois_C]

Originally Posted by WS64

With 2.0 Kobo can keep 30000 books. It probably cannot store pictures of all 30000 at once, but I don't think you will stumble accross a non-exeisting picture anymore.

To tell the truth, I have just discovered 2.0. Seems that my previous upgrade did not work properly, and I was still using 1.9.14!

You are right: this firmware is definitely better than the former one, and it brings very interesting improvements in speed and overall software conception. I also enjoy the new French dictionary, at last.

Of course some details remain to be improved, but this is a great step forward, and I don't understand why this new firmware did cause so many controversies.

[dioioib]

I took mine out and used "dd" to make a clone of the original then restored the clone to the new larger card then resized the KOBOeReader partition with "fdisk" reformatted and it all works. If you have content you might want to archive the data on the KOBOeReader partition.

You cannot clone the internal memory while it is in the reader as the OS partitions are masked by the i.MX processor.

I've never had an issue with reformatting the KOBOeReader partition just make sure you keep the volume name the same.

[Francois_C]

Originally Posted by dioioib

I took mine out and used "dd" to make a clone of the original then restored the clone to the new larger

I think you give yourself too much trouble (or I didn't understand): I just copy the contents of the card into a directory (or rather an archive like tar.bz2 or 7z that give a good compression for directory with many small files), format the card, then copy my saved contents, which causes a defragmentation of the card contents.
When I tried whether the Kobo would support an ext2 partition I did the same, copying the contents from my fat32 card to the newly formatted ext2, and the Kobo restarted properly, detecting some files that were not seen on the fat32 (?)
As for the contents of the Kobo, I already did the same with a previous save once when it seemed definitely frozen, and this worked also. Of course, the firmware and the Kobo system cannot be copied nor restored this way.

[dioioib]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

I think you give yourself too much trouble (or I didn't understand): I just copy the contents of the card into a directory (or rather an archive like tar.bz2 or 7z that give a good compression for directory with many small files), format the card, then copy my saved contents, which causes a defragmentation of the card contents.
When I tried whether the Kobo would support an ext2 partition I did the same, copying the contents from my fat32 card to the newly formatted ext2, and the Kobo restarted properly, detecting some files that were not seen on the fat32 (?)
As for the contents of the Kobo, I already did the same with a previous save once when it seemed definitely frozen, and this worked also. Of course, the firmware and the Kobo system cannot be copied nor restored this way.

Not really that much trouble just takes a long time to do the dd. But it ensures I get a perfect copy of the OS and Backup OS partitions from the internal 2GB card.

I have to say since the upgrade I am now 100% happy with this device.

It seems like a lot of work as been done to take customers considerations into account. I am impressed.

[leezer3]

Just as a mildly contrary note, I had massive issues with a 2gb Sandisk card. Not sure exactly what class it is, but it's certainly not SDHC or anything fancily fast. (This card actually came with a HTC Hero nearly three years ago so I'm sure it's genuine)
Primary issues were:
* Random hangs. Basically stuck on the last page you turned, with the end of book icon in the top right corner. Pressing the Home button dropped back to the main menu, but the SD card contents then vanished until a hard poweroff was performed.
* Loosing content. Sometimes decided to loose all the content on the SD card until a hard reboot was performed.

Tried this on several firmwares from 1.9.10 to the ill-fated 2.0.0 release, and never saw much improvement. When it worked it was fine, but I never knew when it was going to drop out.

I'd be interested in comparing our good/ problem SD card lists to that of the Raspberry Pi, as I suspect there's probably a controller issue somewhere as opposed to a size issue.

I'm (almost) tempted to try a custom kernel update with the Kobo GPL sources we have available to see if updated low-level drivers do anything for us

-Leezer-

[Howlingwolf]

Hi everyone,

It seems that while I was away someone gained access to my account and left a nasty message aimed at someone taking part in this thread.

This was done without my knowledge or permission and I apologise to anyone who was offended by it.

I have discussed the matter with one of the moderators and have taken steps which I hope will prevent a repetition.

[coldfox]

I have a Kobo wireless e reader, and I would like to know what size SD card is okay for that version, so I won't have any problems. I am new to the e reading format. I have always just bought the actual book. Also I would like to know what firmware is, that everyone is talking about, and if I really need it for my e reader? Where do I find the version of the e reader? I have seen some people say theirs is a 2.0 etc.

[filmo]

Kobo wireless e reader?

This thread is about Kobo Touch reader which has wifi.

Kobo once made Kobo Wifi model without touch screen.
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo_Wireless_eReader
All Kobo eink readers are rated for (Kobo Wifi) High Capacity SD card or (Kobo Touch) Micro High Capacity SD card, with Maximum of 32gig. Larger SD cards can be used up to 64gig with different than stock formatting. Have not heard of larger than 64gig SD cards being used yet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by filmo

Kobo wireless e reader?

This thread is about Kobo Touch reader which has wifi.

Hmmm... there is no recent thread for SD cards in the Kobo or Kobo Wifi ereaders, this may be the only thread where any discussion of such was found.

Originally Posted by coldfox

I have a Kobo wireless e reader, and I would like to know what size SD card is okay for that version, so I won't have any problems. I am new to the e reading format. I have always just bought the actual book. Also I would like to know what firmware is, that everyone is talking about, and if I really need it for my e reader? Where do I find the version of the e reader? I have seen some people say theirs is a 2.0 etc.

In response to coldfox's question, you can try any card from 2GB to 23GB. As suggested in the thread, sticking with a brand name SD card is generally a good idea.

There was a fairly recent update for the Kobo WiFi ereader to 1.9.11. The touch screen models have been where Kobo have concentrated their efforts. I'm not sure at this point in time but I seem to remember that there is a menu item for device information to see the firmware version.

Regards,
David

[filmo]

I just talked to person that bought one of my 2 Kobo Wifi readers. Only complaint, bought a book from Amazon that would not work on the Kobo Wifi. I gave instructions telling how to convert Kindle book to epub and load that book onto the Kobo. Still a happy reader.

[coldfox]

My reader has the black button on the bottom right hand side. It is an older version so you can touch the screen to change the page.