Calibre failing to transfer books to Android device

[DMcCunney]

Calibre is the current 3.40.1 version, running under Win10 Pro v1803 with current patches.

The device is an Alcatel Fierce 4 phone, running Marshmallow 6.01. Transfer is via USB->MicroUSB cable.

Books are stored in the /Books directory in internal storage. They currently occupy1.3GB. The device claims there is 4.04GB storage free out of 11GB total.

Calibre connects to the device and returns existing volumes on device. Trying to add new ones returns

calibre, version 3.40.1
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device

Cannot write to file: hr=2147500037 facility=0 error_code=16389 description: Unspecified error


Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 87, in run
  File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 591, in _upload_books
  File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\driver.py", line 440, in upload_books
  File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\driver.py", line 37, in check_thread
  File "site-packages\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\driver.py", line 441, in put_file
WPDError: Cannot write to file: hr=2147500037 facility=0 error_code=16389 description: Unspecified error

I've rebooted the device, restarted Calibre, and tried several different USB cables and plugged into different USB ports with the same result.

I've also removed several large volumes from the device, in case I'm running into an odd out-of-space issue. (I doubt that. Available storage seems to be one large pool used by everything that can store to device. The built-in camera has no issues storing JPEGs under /DCIM.)

Any suggestions on how to further debug this? This used to work.
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Dennis

[BetterRed]

Dumb question: Can Windows File Explorer see the USB attached device and copy files to it?

BR

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Dumb question: Can Windows File Explorer see the USB attached device and copy files to it?

Yes. It's how I move photos off device to a local repository. (I'm not interested in storing them in the cloud. Few are anything I might wish to share.)

And I used Treesize Free under Windows to examine the device and determine where things were stored that took up space. It's were I got the total size of the Books directory.
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Dennis

[BetterRed]

But can File Explorer write (copy) a file to the phone. getting photos of the phone and obtaining directory sizes are read operations

BR

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

But can File Explorer write (copy) a file to the phone. getting photos of the phone and obtaining directory sizes are read operations

Yes. I just tried it.
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Dennis

[theducks]

By any chance is the device in PTP (photo transfer protocol) instead of MTP mode (media transfer protocol)?
Pictures would move fine... but

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by theducks

By any chance is the device in PTP (photo transfer protocol) instead of MTP mode (media transfer protocol)?
Pictures would move fine... but

I checked that too. Plug it in, and the Notification says "USB for File Transfer". Expand the notification, and Transfer files (MTP) is chdecked.

USB for file transfer is the default, and I've never had cause to use PTP.
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Dennis

[kovidgoyal]

That is an error communicating with the device. Usually, this kind of error can be fixed by
following the steps below in sequence. First:

1) Try rebooting both the device and your computer
2) If that does not work, find the files driveinfo.calibre and metadata.calibre on the device
and delete them (you can use Windows Explorer or a file manager on the device itself to do this)
3) Reset the device

If none of those work, you can use one of the wireless communication methods described here:
https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...kindle-fire-hd

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That is an error communicating with the device.

That much I knew. The error message said so. I was hoping for more insight into the cause. Just what kind of error did Calibre encounter?

Usually, this kind of error can be fixed by following the steps below in sequence. First:

1) Try rebooting both the device and your computer

Did both of those.

2) If that does not work, find the files driveinfo.calibre and metadata.calibre on the device and delete them (you can use Windows Explorer or a file manager on the device itself to do this)

I'll try that next. I've had to to it on other devices.

EDIT: And I did that, Calibre rebuilt the metadata, and I still got the mentioned error.

3) Reset the device

I really hope I don't have to do that.

If none of those work, you can use one of the wireless communication methods described here:
https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...kindle-fire-hd

I've considered that. We'll see.

EDIT: And I did that. Wireless device setup was done, and Calibre Content Server was started.

I could access the Content Server from device in Chrome and download a sample book.

I installed Calibre Companion on device, which I bought a while back but never used because I normally use a USB connection, and it only sees stuff transferred via Wifi. I was able to select and add more books.

This is more of a PITA than I'd like, but that's not Calibre's fault. It's behaving fine.

The annoyance now is that I created a custom column in Calibre called Sync, where I marked books I wanted to transfer. What's on any of my devices is a small subset of the full Calibre library on my desktop. For instance, I normally don't try to read PDFs on small screens, so I have a Virtual Library with only ePub files I pick from to transfer. Sync applies to books I'll transfer to any device, so toggling it after transfer is not useful.

Calibre Companion doesn't see that column, and Calibre communicating by Wifi doesn't enumerate what's on device and fill in that column. Tracking what is marked in Sync that has been transferred is requires jumping through extra hoops, like connecting via USB to populate the On Device column, but actually sending books to device via Wifi. <grumble>


Thanks for responding.
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Dennis

[kovidgoyal]

It was an error writing to the file, see the last line in the traceback. Sadly windows gives us no information as to the cause.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

It was an error writing to the file, see the last line in the traceback. Sadly windows gives us no information as to the cause.

That was about what I thought. I'd like to know just which file it bombed on trying to write, but I don't suppose Windows can provide that either.

I've had various PITAs using USB to transfer Calibre volumes right along. On another device, I power down, pop out the microSD card where books live, put it into an adapter, and access it via Calibre as a removable drive. That works fine, and enumerates files on the card and does transfers much faster than using MTP. Put the card back in device, power up, tell FBReader to do a Rescan of what's on device, and I'm good to go.

The Alcatel phone doesn't have a microSD card and everything is in internal storage, so that approach isn't applicable.
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Dennis

[PeterT]

Any possibility that the issue might be the path that calibre is attempting to store the books it is attempting to send?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Any possibility that the issue might be the path that calibre is attempting to store the books it is attempting to send?

I doubt it. They are in writable internal storage in a Books directory Calibre has access to. The path Calibre should write to has not changed. This worked fine until the other day, then broke. I'm trying to discover why it suddenly broke, but the diagnostic information doesn't seem to exist. (Thanks, Windows...)
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Dennis

[stumped]

Try sending other stuff to that same path. But From a different application. Not calibre. That may give a clue?

And also try sending stuff from calibre but to a different device folder.for maybe another clue.

I forget exactly where in calibre you set that wired path , I use wireless, but could you have accidentally unset or reset it to something that does not work?

Also try another cable, or another port. If yo slightly damaged the cable or the cableend, that could cause intermittent failures

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by stumped

Try sending other stuff to that same path. But From a different application. Not calibre. That may give a clue?

And also try sending stuff from calibre but to a different device folder.for maybe another clue.

I forget exactly where in calibre you set that wired path , I use wireless, but could you have accidentally unset or reset it to something that does not work?

Nope. It was set when I fisrt started using this device with Calibre, and I've had no reason to change things.

Also try another cable, or another port. If you slightly damaged the cable or the cable end, that could cause intermittent failures

As I mentioned in my original post, I've already restarted Calibre, rebooted the device, and rebooted Windows. And I've already tried using several different USB ports, and different connecting cables.

I've been a IT professional for decades, with a lot of experience in trying to get this to talk to that, and finding out why when they don't. I am more familiar than I might wish with flaky hardware.

Since I now can transfer volumes to device with Wifi, my immediate problem of being unable to add new books is resolved.

What I'm left with is the all too familiar itch I can't scratch of not knowing why things suddenly failed when the worked before.

I may later try plugging in the device, connecting through MTP, and dropping an eBook file of two directly into the Books folder from Windows Explorer rather than using Calibre. I use FBReader on device, and telling ti to Rescan after will pick up the new volumes.

I may also try the suggestion of having Calibre send to a different location. That's a good thought.

Right now, things work enough to go on to other things.
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Dennis