library ebook expires = lose all your annotations

[ebooker]

So I learned an important lesson today.
When my nypl library ebook expired, I lost a TON of annotations, notes, and bookmarks. Neither sony software, nor sony reader, nor adobe digital editions, allowed me ANY access to my own annotations and notes.

Doesnt seem right.

Lesson: dont let your e-library book expire without getting your notes and annotations off!

[SeaBookGuy]

Why would you expect to keep items linked to an item that no longer "exists"?

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by ebooker

So I learned an important lesson today.
When my nypl library ebook expired, I lost a TON of annotations, notes, and bookmarks. Neither sony software, nor sony reader, nor adobe digital editions, allowed me ANY access to my own annotations and notes.

Doesnt seem right.

Lesson: dont let your e-library book expire without getting your notes and annotations off!

ebooker,

can you check out the book again and replace the copy on the device with the new one to see if you gain the access to your items again? Don't delete the old book, just write over it (deleting will most likely remove all of the associated content).

[Xanthe]

Did you try going into windows exploree to see if you can dig out the notes files?

[ebooker]

Originally Posted by dmapr

ebooker,

can you check out the book again and replace the copy on the device with the new one to see if you gain the access to your items again? Don't delete the old book, just write over it (deleting will most likely remove all of the associated content).

hi -- i did precisely that in a vain attempt to recover my annotations. Here's what I tried (bottom line: nothing worked: they are gone for good):

1. I tried first checking out the same book again. I did not remove the old book first, since I wanted to see what would happen if I rechecked out a book. Would it simply re-activate the existing copy? or would it create a second copy? I did not want to delete the first (expired) copy because that was the copy associated with my annotations. I did not want to risk the annotations being wiped from the device memory once the associated book was removed.
So what happens if you recheck out a book?
answer: it creates a second copy. The first (expired) copy is still there and it still wont give you permission to read it. HOwever, the second newly checked out copy appears, and you can read it just fine. Of course your annotations from teh first copy DO NOT appear in the second copy. It is a brand new clean copy.

First off that doesnt make logical sense, if you compare with the analogy to a physical book. But that is how it is working for now.

2. Then I tried removing the expired copy, hoping the annotations would associate themselves with the good clean new copy. No luck. Removing the old copy changed nothing as far as the annotations go.

SO ya, annotations are GONE once the book expires. Let this be a lesson to everyone!

[ebooker]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

Did you try going into windows exploree to see if you can dig out the notes files?

I can see an annotations file created by ADE (which is what i used to take the book out). I have not yet tried to read the file (I did click on it, and of course it did not know how to open the file). But I will try to drop it into notepad and see what I can see. I will report my findings here.

However, I have an additional problem, and this basically will not work for me. My problem is that all the annotations I took were "notes" via the "stylus". Ie, they were not typed in using the onboard (painfully slow) keyboard. So I doubt that the annotation file will let me recover those "drawn-with-stylus" notes.

But it will be interesting to see what that file contains, and if it contains at least the highlighted text, and/or the page numbers of the bookmarks.

[ebooker]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

Why would you expect to keep items linked to an item that no longer "exists"?

because they were my notes, content created by ME.

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by ebooker

hi -- i did precisely that in a vain attempt to recover my annotations. Here's what I tried (bottom line: nothing worked: they are gone for good):

1. I tried first checking out the same book again. I did not remove the old book first, since I wanted to see what would happen if I rechecked out a book. Would it simply re-activate the existing copy? or would it create a second copy? I did not want to delete the first (expired) copy because that was the copy associated with my annotations. I did not want to risk the annotations being wiped from the device memory once the associated book was removed.
So what happens if you recheck out a book?
answer: it creates a second copy. The first (expired) copy is still there and it still wont give you permission to read it. HOwever, the second newly checked out copy appears, and you can read it just fine. Of course your annotations from teh first copy DO NOT appear in the second copy. It is a brand new clean copy.

First off that doesnt make logical sense, if you compare with the analogy to a physical book. But that is how it is working for now.

2. Then I tried removing the expired copy, hoping the annotations would associate themselves with the good clean new copy. No luck. Removing the old copy changed nothing as far as the annotations go.

SO ya, annotations are GONE once the book expires. Let this be a lesson to everyone!

Bummer Sorry to hear that.

[botrerta]

Originally Posted by ebooker

I can see an annotations file created by ADE (which is what i used to take the book out). I have not yet tried to read the file (I did click on it, and of course it did not know how to open the file). But I will try to drop it into notepad and see what I can see. I will report my findings here.

However, I have an additional problem, and this basically will not work for me. My problem is that all the annotations I took were "notes" via the "stylus". Ie, they were not typed in using the onboard (painfully slow) keyboard. So I doubt that the annotation file will let me recover those "drawn-with-stylus" notes.

But it will be interesting to see what that file contains, and if it contains at least the highlighted text, and/or the page numbers of the bookmarks.

From memory, the annotation file is in xml format and for each annotation contains the first 100 characters of the highlighted text, obscure references to the specific html file and the position of the text in that file, and all notes. In other words, you should be able to extract all of your notes from the file relatively easily. (I say 'should' as I have only mucked around with annotation files for DRM free epubs/pdfs). Good luck!

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by ebooker

2. Then I tried removing the expired copy, hoping the annotations would associate themselves with the good clean new copy. No luck. Removing the old copy changed nothing as far as the annotations go.

SO ya, annotations are GONE once the book expires. Let this be a lesson to everyone!

Hmmm... since you already deleted the copy, it's probably too late for this, but I would've gone into settings and changed the date & time to a much earlier date, then gone into Advance Settings and hit Device Shutdown! Reboot, and the expired copy may no longer be expired, but present itself with say, 365 days before expiration if you back dated your reader a year. As long as you still need that file, you can not plug the reader into the pc, but use SD or Sony's pro duo cards to add new books.

Anytime I see that I'm getting close to expiration and haven't finished a book I'd like to finish I have back dated my reader and it has worked out perfectly.


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PS: I really should not reply when half asleep. I can barely understand my fragmented reply. LOL...

[ebooker]

thanks guys, some good ideas here that I will try next time I face this dilemma.