Open books are read only on Android

[dfr67]

Whenever I open a book from CC, it's always opened read only. No mater witch reader I use.
But I can open the same book and modify or annotate it from outside CC with no problems.
My books are on the SD card on an Android device.

Is there a way to open and annotate books from CC.?

Thanks

[stumped]

that may be an issue with only specific versions of android - what's yours
and what version of CC?

[stumped]

tetsing on huawei media tab. android 9, cc beta, latest moon reader
i downloaded a book from calibre content server, tapped read... book opened in MOon & I was able to add a bookmark and a highlight - no problem.
there is a recently added SD card but downloads are still set to go to internal memory. , my download directory is books/moonreader
as for the mechanics ( responding to another thread)
i now have 2 identically named folders MoonReader
same capitalisation. one has just this test book, the other has all my downloaded books including the test
looking more carefully using Moon's file explorer, there is nesting:
so I have books/Moonreader (23 books) then INSIDE that folder I have an attachments folder ( empty), ANOTHER MoonReader folder, and within that 2nd folder, another attachments folder ( where the new test book is)
and in edit book information , I see the path as
/sdcard/Books/Moonreader/MoonReader/attachements/book file name

i think I will stick to me previous workflow to avoid such confusion. I will download with CC, but I will open only with Moon - either from My Files or from My Shelf

maybe there's a way to trick android into working only with one folder and one copy of the book when book is OPENed from CC, but its not obvious how

TL: DR
it will be necessary to always open books from CC or always open from Moon file explorer/shelf. otherwise the user will have 2 copies of books in use, 2 storage loctations, 2 database entries, last page read, annotation etc.

[dfr67]

Mi CC version 5.4.3.3 (391)
OS: 7.1.1

When books are stored on the main memory, everything works ok, but when there are stored on an external SD can not be modified.

[stumped]

that's a storage permissions thing.
but a strange one.
with the new file provider system CC should be passing a copy of the book to moon when you use open, and moon should put that copy into its default /attachments folder
i think you need to go through the sort of testing i outlined above.
step 1
start with some book that is not anywhere on the device, have CC download it, then file explore and see exactly where that download is
step 2
now go back into CC, tell it to "read" the book - it should hand off a copy to moon , which will moon will then open- this is the copy that you think is read only - yes?
find out where that copy is... ( use the file explorer in moon and check the folder default settings in moon)... and so it goes. or , in moon , go to recents ( the book should be top left of the display, tap edit book details, scroll down, you will see the file path and file name

either that,or wait until someone else has & solves the same problem

[stumped]

Originally Posted by dfr67

Mi CC version 5.4.3.3 (391)
OS: 7.1.1

When books are stored on the main memory, everything works ok, but when there are stored on an external SD can not be modified.

just to be clear, what counts as " modified" ?
setting a bookmark, highlighting a word ? ( those are the two I tried) , or something else. What puzzles me is that AFAIK moon puts those things into additional little files, it does not change the actual .epub file

[dfr67]

I will try to clarify it.

I've tried moon and Xodo, epub and pdf. Ir's always the same. All the books are downloaded by CC from Calibre with no problems regardless of where they are stored, internal or SD.

When I open (from CC) a file I can't modify it if it is in SD, I can in main memory. The same file can be opened from moon or Xodo (without CC) and can be modified (from main memory or SD).

It has to be something about CC and SD permission, but but I don't know what.

Dfr

[stumped]

1. i think you are on the 2018 android version, not the new beta, so much I of what I wrote before works differently
2. you still have to trace exactly where is the book that something says is read only
3. it's moon that's complaining so it's moon that lacks access - but read on
4. despite point 3. there have been past cases where the fix was to open cc, go to change download folder in preferences, re-select the same folder as before, and poof, it works

FYI that scenario in point 4 was sometimes caused by android system upgrades affexrtign fiel permissions

[dfr67]

Originally Posted by stumped

1. i think you are on the 2018 android version, not the new beta, so much I of what I wrote before works differently
2. you still have to trace exactly where is the book that something says is read only
3. it's moon that's complaining so it's moon that lacks access - but read on
4. despite point 3. there have been past cases where the fix was to open cc, go to change download folder in preferences, re-select the same folder as before, and poof, it works

FYI that scenario in point 4 was sometimes caused by android system upgrades affexrtign fiel permissions

Thank you but no way.

Point 2: I¡ve tried in diferent locations and it's always the same.
Point 3: Its not moon, I've tried in almost 3 diferents readers and in diferents formats. If you open from CC it doesn't work, if you do directly, it works.
Point 4: I've already tried this, no way.

It never worked for me. I've even tried to format de SD card. I've end up moving my books to memory, but now I've no room left.

I'll try to format my SD card and reinstall CC.


Thanks

[stumped]

ok -
all i get suggest is that you post the exact sequence of actions that trigger the bug, and the exact error message, with a screenshot preferably
from your replies its not clear to me what app is displaying the error message, and when

don't do both of : format SD, reinstall CC at once. you need to one change & test, then the next change...

[dfr67]

Now It's worse than ever.
I uninstall CC and reinstall it. Now version 5.4.4.7 (398)

When books are in main memory, there are no problems at all.

When books are in SD card, you can download them from calibre, but you can not even open them. (PDF, EPUP, ...) It crashes.
Screenshots:





Outside CC everything works ok.

Thanks

[stumped]

other people are reporting similar crashes with that version. I guess you have to wait for a fix..
meanwhile , as a workaround, maybe you can use CC only to download, then open the books using your reader app

see/join this thread
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=329624

[dfr67]

Originally Posted by stumped

other people are reporting similar crashes with that version. I guess you have to wait for a fix..
meanwhile , as a workaround, maybe you can use CC only to download, then open the books using your reader app

see/join this thread
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=329624

Thank you for the workaround, but there are many easier ways to transfer files than that.
The good thing of CC is that you can carry many books with you with order, but if you have to find them outside CC for reading, what's the point of this program?, it's absolutely useless. I'm really disappointed.

By the way, How do you upload photos to the forum? I've tried with several links but they don't work. Maybe because they are https?

Thank you.

DFR

[dfr67]

Last update (5.4.4.8 (399)) solved the problem of opening books from SD cards but I can't annotate them yet.

I CAN annotate epup files with moon with no problem!!!! It works!

I've tried a PDF with moon and Xodo. Moon sems to work, but when you open the document you've already annotate, moon says that there is another version and if you want to overwrite it. What moon does is, it creates a copy and saves it, but this copy is inconsistent with the CC library.

Xodo asks you to do a copy if you want to modify it.

All is working ok on main memory.

Thank you

[stumped]

actually, CC creates a copy to hand off to moon, which goes into /moonreader/attachments. so moon has write access.
the calibrebox app does exactly the same . they are following google's spec for file sharing between apps.

but its going to get confusing unless you always open books the same way, v easy to end up with 2 versions in 2 places.... and by default the copies which moon uses are in internal memory not on SD card.
dunno if that is configurable