Apple Transporter Problems with Calibre Files

[JoseWriter]

Hello all,

I have completed an epub file, ran it through Calibre to convert it to epub for iPad, then ran epubcheck 1.2. It was perfect, no errors. Then, I sent it to a company to upload it to iBooks. They sent it back and said the following error popped up:

Errors and/or warnings returned from transporter: 9780983999599.epub, ERROR ITMS-9000: Unmanifested file found : elsxo3ok.ezi.epub:\META-INF\calibre_bookmarks.txt

I exploded the epub via Calibre and looked at the Meta-INF folder and there the bookmarks file was. The OPF file does not show this file, or the container file in this folder either for that matter, that I could detect anyway. I am tempted to just delete the bookmarks file and send it back for another try, but not sure, and I don't want to waste time trying stuff without knowing the cause of the problem.

Has anyone had experience with this problem before? How did you solve it? Can I delete the bookmark file without epubcheck going into hysterics? Apple transporter is a royal pain.

[JoseWriter]

UPDATE: On a separate thread, Kovid posted the following:
"When you view an EPUB file using calibre's viewer it will insert that file into the EPUB. Apparently, the good folks at Apple have even less of a clue as to how to validate EPUB files, so they complain about it. If you want to use the calibre viewer to check your EPUB files before submission, I suggest doing it on a copy of the EPUB. "

So, I believe the answer is as follows: re-import the file into Calibre, run the conversion, but DO NOT view it. Just grab it and run. It worked! Thanks Kovid. Sending another donation soon.

[Toxaris]

Just a question, why run an ePUB through Calibre to create an ePUB? Isn't it better just to validate it and correct the errors?

[JoseWriter]

The question is why did I run my ebook file through Calibre to create an epub?

Well, I didn't do it just to create an epub. I created the epub file out of Indesign CS5.5, then I ran epucheck 1.2 and it passed with flying colors. I pulled it into Calibre to create an epub file that is supposedly optimized for the ipad, i.e. using better resolution, or not sure what exactly it does, but it seemed like a good idea. The resulting file looked great on my iPad, and it passed epubcheck again. Next, I had to upload it to Apple iBooks. That is where the problems began.

Apple uses a program called Transporter, that essentially checks the file again. Lots of things that were fine with epubcheck were NOT fine with Transporter. For example, it kicked out every image file I had linked into my epub if it had a space in the file name for the image. It also kicked out over a hundred index files because my Indesign file name I used to create the epub had a space in the name. Rather than tweak and edit the epub file, I went back to Indesign, renamed all my images and other file names, and generated the epub again. Everything was great, except for the bookmark file that Calibre inserts. And thanks to the Forums, I was able to find a fix from Kovid.

If anyone can straighten me out on an easier way to do any of this, I would appreciate it as I will have a lot of iBooks uploads in the next few months.

[st_albert]

Originally Posted by JoseWriter

If anyone can straighten me out on an easier way to do any of this, I would appreciate it as I will have a lot of iBooks uploads in the next few months.

For one thing, don't use spaces in filenames, whether internal to the epub or the name of the epub itself. iBooks is not the only reader software that may have problems with spaces in filenames.

[wannabee]

iTunes does the same thing. It also adds a file which isn't in the manifest which causes it to fail Apple's validation process. I always make a copy of the final ePub on the desktop to use on the iPad and Calibre. If they look OK I upload the original.