CC, Calibre, Moon+ Reader Pro and Micro SD Card

[rainydaygirl]

Okay, bear with me please - I'm a bit of a technotard.

I have a tablet with limited storage capacity so I use an external SD Card to store ebooks sideloaded via usb from my pc's Calibre. Then they get imported into Moon+ reader pro. However, although all the actual epubs are on the sdcard, the covers all end up on the tablet's internal storage and are often as large as the epubs - which clogs up the internal storage and making Moonie use its generic covers (yuk) when the space is full.

I'm hoping Calibre Companion might be a better option of managing my library while keeping free space on my internal storage.

So I have some questions about Calibre Companion....
Can I still use the external sd card as the default folder/storage?
If yes, would it save my internal storage space (as in would it not drag all the covers into the internal storage)?

And since I don't have permanent wifi with my tablet - I do a wifi hotspot thingy whenever I need to connect it to the internet...
Do I have to delete all the ebooks off my sd card and reload them via wifi or can CC read/import/sideload (whatever the correct term is) from the sd card?
Do I have to wifi connect every time I want to load new books on the device or can I still do a USB transfer and get CC to import/read from the extSd?

Oh, my tablet is a "generic" Dxtreme D709B and runs android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Thanks in advance for any and all help - it'd be hugely appreciated.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by rainydaygirl

Okay, bear with me please - I'm a bit of a technotard.

I have a tablet with limited storage capacity so I use an external SD Card to store ebooks sideloaded via usb from my pc's Calibre. Then they get imported into Moon+ reader pro. However, although all the actual epubs are on the sdcard, the covers all end up on the tablet's internal storage and are often as large as the epubs - which clogs up the internal storage and making Moonie use its generic covers (yuk) when the space is full.

I'm hoping Calibre Companion might be a better option of managing my library while keeping free space on my internal storage.

So I have some questions about Calibre Companion....
Can I still use the external sd card as the default folder/storage?

Yes. See the end of the our FAQ How do I choose which formats calibre sends and where the books are stored?, ignoring the stuff about Kitkat because you don't have that.

If yes, would it save my internal storage space (as in would it not drag all the covers into the internal storage)?

Yes and no. CC would keep all the books on the SD card, but it keeps its database in main memory. The database isn't enormous. For around 250 books it is approximately 6MB. Someone reported that for 4600 books and minimum-sized cover thumbnails the database was 100MB, and with maximum-sized thumbnails it was 200MB

And since I don't have permanent wifi with my tablet - I do a wifi hotspot thingy whenever I need to connect it to the internet...
Do I have to delete all the ebooks off my sd card and reload them via wifi or can CC read/import/sideload (whatever the correct term is) from the sd card?
Do I have to wifi connect every time I want to load new books on the device or can I still do a USB transfer and get CC to import/read from the extSd?

You must use WiFi for everything with CC. It cannot see books transferred with a cable or manually placed on an SD card using a card reader/writer. It would be best to delete and resend the books.

Oh, my tablet is a "generic" Dxtreme D709B and runs android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Thanks in advance for any and all help - it'd be hugely appreciated.

You are welcome.

Do note that if you use Moon+ as your reader app (CC is not a reader) then it will create a cached cover for each book you read when you read it. Moon+ apparently does not clean up this cache, so from time to time you would want to clean it up manually. On my test device I simply delete the directory /Books/.MoonReader (the dot is important).

[rainydaygirl]

Chaley, thanks for the quick response. Makes things a little clearer. Looks like even with a bit of faffing around CC might be a good way to go.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by rainydaygirl

Chaley, thanks for the quick response. Makes things a little clearer. Looks like even with a bit of faffing around CC might be a good way to go.

Try the free demo version. It is limited to 20 books but is otherwise fully functional. That would be enough to tell you whether it does what you need and how it interacts with Moon+. And perhaps most important, it would tell you whether there are any network problems connecting CC to your computer using your "hotspot thingy".