Desktop and WiFi update vers. 1.9

[ltr]

I downloaded both the new desktop and wi-fi reader version 1.9 and it's just as confusing as every other time they upgrade with respect to bookmarks.

When I Update Library on the desktop it loads all my books each and every time I click Update Library and it places bookmarks in about half the books and marks New in the other half.

When I sync my ereader it's a mess. I like to keep my new unread books in the I'm Reading list, but now it's full of all my books with various forms of Open, New, incorrect bookmarks, etc.

No amount of playing around will get the desktop and ereader to play nice together.

I wish they would have an option to remove the bookmark function from the desktop completely. It's nothing but a bother to me. I just don't get it I'm afraid.

I do like the the GoTo function to re-establish the bookmark in the reader for the book I'm presently reading, and I like the Close Book function to close all the books that the new desktop messed up and put in my Reading list.

Others may have more luck than me with all this...

How do I get the desktop and reader to match?

ltr

[taming]

Hold on a bit before you reach a firm conclusion. The syncing between reader-desktop app-and the android mobile app was working beautifully until this AM. The update efforts are not supposed to effect the rest of the server system.

I have not done a sync since this AM, but when I was checking it, the sync was working in only one direction--from the servers in the sky to the reader. I would guess this is a temporary glitch.

[ltr]

Yeah, even if I delete all my books from my Kobo web site library "I'm Reading" page and then do an Update Library from the Desktop app, all my books download to the app, and they're all bookmarked. Repetative Update Library requests download them all each and every time.

That just isn't supposed to happen.

[taming]

Hang in there ltr. I know what a PITA that can be--at least there is a close book option now.

[ltr]

Originally Posted by taming

Hang in there ltr. I know what a PITA that can be--at least there is a close book option now.

Not on the desktop application.

There doesn't appear to be any way to clear the bookmark symbol (close book) on the desktop. You can temporarily clear it by advancing past the last page of a book, but then the bookmark reappears when you do an Update Library function. This will then force that book to download to the reader when sync'd - something you don't want if you've already downloaded and read the book on the reader.

ltr

[ltr]

Hopefully Kobo has stopped making the desktop vers 1.9 update available until they issue a fix for it.

I can't imagine anyone with a lot of books would be too happy having every one of them bookmarked in the desktop application so that when they sync their reader it downloads every book they own.

Or am I the only one using the desktop?

[digiSara]

Originally Posted by ltr

Or am I the only one using the desktop?

I've stopped using it to sync my books - the couple times I used it, bad things happened and I ended up having to do a hard reset. I tend to buy my books on the website and then sync over the wi-fi. For everything else I use ADE or Calibre.

[siraks]

Originally Posted by digiSara

I've stopped using it to sync my books - the couple times I used it, bad things happened and I ended up having to do a hard reset. I tend to buy my books on the website and then sync over the wi-fi. For everything else I use ADE or Calibre.

i just found out that the desktop ap messed up one of my books and added the first chapter as their own books and when i try to delete on the kobo it says book not found. will try again with calibre but i see another reset coming lol.

strictly sticking to calibre and ade from now on.

[Corby]

Hi ltr,

I'm an employee at Kobo and trying to get to the bottom of these issues you are describing.

The way bookmarking works is when you read on a device, it updates the database with the time that book was last read. When we do a sync, we compare the local date last read with the date last read on the server. If the local time is newer than the server time, then we update the server time and the bookmark location on the server with your local bookmark and time. If the server time is newer than the local time, then we update the local bookmark and time with what the server had.

There are a few times this can get a bit out of whack. If you had a device with a date and time set to the future, and bookmarked a book, it would show up as the newest bookmark until something newer is bookmarked on that book. If your date and time on a device are in the past, then you will often see the book you just read doesn't become the newest item in your library, because you're reading "in the past" and there are items with bookmarks in the present.

Additionally, there is a "finished" and a "closed" status on books, which is stored locally, but that status is not synced. When you finish a book on a device, it will reset the bookmark to the first page. So if you sync to a new device, that book will end up being new and unread. This is something we are working on.

When a new book downloads which wasnt there before, it will get a "new" status. Once newer books download, the "new" status on the older content goes away since its not the newest anymore.

I'm hoping that by explaining how it works, it will give some insight into what you are seeing, and help identify where the problem is happening. We need more details as to what exactly is not showing up as it should.

There is another problem you described, though, about books redownloading which already downloaded. The only time a book should download is if its a new book which you hadnt downloaded before, or if a newer edition has been published (we compare the file size of what you have with the file size of the current file). Can you describe the behavior you are seeing? Is it redownloading all of the books each time? Some of the books some of the time? Is it always the same books which redownload?

The information you provide will help us a lot to troubleshoot this, and we thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Thanks,
Corby

[ltr]

Originally Posted by Corby

The information you provide will help us a lot to troubleshoot this, and we thank you for bringing this to our attention.

OK great.

I'll just talk about the desktop app, web site library and Kobo reader.

Presume I've purchased a book and it shows in the I'm Reading tab of the web site library.

The Update Library function of the desktop app will cause the book to download to the app and show as New. That part is great.

Click that book on the desktop app and it will change from New and create a bookmark. That part is great.

Connect the reader and Sync and the book will download to the reader. That part is great.

At this point I use to be able to close that book on the desktop app by clicking past the last page and if I did an Update Library on the app it would reload the book from the web site library only that once and the book would show as closed. But now, it will download each and every time I invoke an Update Library function even though I don't touch the book on the app.

If I have 50 books with bookmarks on my desktop app that I have read and am finished with them I use to be able to close them all and then they would show on my desktop app but wouldn't download from the web site library each and every time I did an Update Library on the app. I still want to see my books on the app, but I don't want them all to download every time I do an Update Library. I only want the New book I have purchased in my web site library in the I'm Reading tab to download.

If I go to page 10 of a book on the desktop app and Update Library, it downloads from the Web Site. Subsequent clicking of the Update Library function should not continually download that book. I could click Update Library five times in a row at that point and it would download that book five times. It should not. It should check the Web site and not do any download after I've done it once (unless I reopened and changed pages on that book).

I do have a silly workaround that involves sequenced deleting of the book from the I'm Reading list and the app, and some Updating, etc., but it's convoluted and a bit ridiculous, and no one would want to do that with every book. I use to be able to close the book on the app and that was it.

Also note (and this may be the root of the problem), deleting a book from the Web site I'm Reading list requires 2 deletes now. It doesn't delete on the first delete, it takes 2 separate deletes to remove a book from the I'm Reading List.

ltr

[robko]

REDOWNLOADING: in my case it's all the BOOKS, but it DOES NOT redownload newspapers interestingly.

[Corby]

Originally Posted by ltr

But now, it will download each and every time I invoke an Update Library function even though I don't touch the book on the app.

Thanks for the extra information.

I tried to reproduce this under this scenario as well as a few others but it wasn't redownloading for me.

It would be a VERY big help to us if you could do one more thing. Download and unzup Microsoft's DebugView from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...rnals/bb896647

Start it, and then run the desktop. Do a sync where this redownloading is happening. Then please email me the captured data at cziesman@kobo.com

If you are on Mac, the same steps apply, but instead of DebugView, just run Console.app which is in the Applications/Utilities folder.

If you can do this it will go a long way to helping us figure out where the problem is so we can have a fix for it.

Thanks again,
Corby

[ltr]

Originally Posted by Corby

It would be a VERY big help to us if you could do one more thing.

Done.

ltr

[digiSara]

I'm on Desktop version 1.9 - my Kobo Wifi hasn't updated yet. My Desktop is experiencing the downloading issue. Everytime I click "Update Library", it redownloads every book - finding the corresponding files on my computer, the timestamp confirms they have been downloaded again.

No problem with the bookmarks on the books I've currently been reading - but the books I have finished are now marked as New. A book I have since finished on the Kobo is still bookmarked on the Desktop.

The behaviour of the books on the Kobo is fine though (e.g. these books marked as New on the Desktop are still marked as Closed on the Kobo).

[taming]

It took me a long time to actually figure out that whole desktop application thing. I'm not generally stupid, but I didn't get it.

Think of the desktop application as if it were the only way you read books. A book will be new until you open it and read it on the desktop. When sync works properly (and sync does not seem to be happening for me using WiFi 1.9 and desktop 1.9), a change in your reader will change the desktop application library to reflect what you have been doing on your reader. This is the same behaviour one sees if you use the iPad or Android apps on your phone/tablet etc.

When you update your library on the desktop application, it looks to the server and will reflect what you see on the kobobooks.com library in terms of books that are on (or not on) the desktop application. That is why removing books from "I'm Reading", or bookmarking books from the "Purchased" tab will, when you update your library on the desktop application, reflect those changes.

Sync is a whole 'nother thing. When your Kobo is plugged in, pressing sync on the desktop application opens the communication between your reader and the kobo servers. It doesn't really impact the desktop application in terms of what books are there or not. When working properly, changes will be reflected in the desktop application when you update your library from the desktop app. The sync changes should be reflected when you do that.

A new version of the desktop starts you from scratch and will load any books that are in the I'm Reading on the website if they have not been downloaded before. It also will put all those books onto your reader when you sync for the first time. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. 1.9 had some big (to me) and mostly unheralded changes to the way kepub books display on the reader. Kepub books are much better than they were previously. Replacing existing books with the new improved flavour makes a difference.

Folks who never use kepub books, preferring to use Adobe ePUB or books sideloaded through Calibre, will be mightily annoyed when the kepub books show up on their reader because sync is mandatory after a new version is released. The preventive measure is to go onto kobobooks.com and remove everything from I'm Reading, do your first (and probably only) sync, and then put them back if you sometimes want to use the desktop application.