Can't open Kindle in Kindle?

[SigilBear]

I created an epub in Sigil. Then I opened it in Calibre and converted it to a MOBI.

I then discovered that I can't open it with my Kindle for Mac. If I right-click on the icon and choose "open with," Kindle is grayed out.

If I open Kindle for Mac, then it isn't even clear how I'm support to import a book. I can click File > Add/Remove Book from Collection, but that doesn't accomplish anything. There is a more intuitice choice: File > Import PDF. But I don't see File > Import Epub, or File > Import MOBI.

So what's the magic trick for importing a Kindle epub into a Kindle reader?

Related question: How can I verify that an epub has in fact been successfully converted to a MOBI?

I have the original epub and the MOBI conversion side by side. They both look the same, except the cover picture doesn't display on the original. If I double-click on them, both open by default in Apple Reader. They look and function the same in the reader.

So it isn't clear to me if Calibre actually converted it to a MOBI or not.

Thank you.

[Deskisamess]

If the book is opening in the Apple Book app, it's not a mobi.

[SigilBear]

Hmmm...I guess that means Calibre isn't working. I'll look for an online converter.

Thank you.

[jhowell]

Calibre can definitely convert to MOBI. You are doing something wrong.

Actually this highlights something I wanted to mention about your plan to sell books from your own website. Doing that cuts out the middle man, but leaves you responsible for supporting your customers and getting your book to work for them on their devices. You may wind up with some very dissatisfied customers.

Most Kindle users buy a book and it just shows up on their device for them to read. Most of them don't know any more than you do about how to read a book not supplied by Amazon on their Kindle device.

[Quoth]

Test on phones and tablets with 3rd party apps, not Kindle or Kobo app.

[Mikou]

It doesn't make sense to me. As Deskisamess implied, the Apple app doesn't open mobi files (assuming that you're talking about iBooks. Please say if you are something other than iBooks to look at the files). I would have expected an error message if something went wrong with the process.

If you haven't tried to do it before, you could delete the mobi and reattempt the conversion of the epub to mobi.

Or, before re-converting, you can, within Calibre, choose edit book. On the top right of the edit page you can click "run check". It should find any errors in your epub and you have the option to let Calibre fix them or you can fix them yourself. Once it is error-free, save it, close the editor and convert the book to mobi.

Once Calibre has created the mobi, select it by clicking once on it book so that you can see the summary page (where you see the cover, author names, tags, et cetera. On that panel, under formats, you should see epub, mobi. Right click on mobi, choose "Open mobi with..." If Kindle for Mac is not listed as an option, click browse computer for program.

Browse for Kindle for Mac and select it.

I hope you figure it out. I have converted hundreds of books to various formats and rarely have any issues.

[SigilBear]

I got it converted to a MOBI. However, it doesn't look as nice as the original epub. There's no cover picture, and some of the CSS styles don't appear to be working.

Is there some website where you can hire people to take an epub, convert it to the most popular formats (e.g. MOBI) and do a quick check to make sure they're working in the appropriate devices?

I'm selling this particular book only on my website, so I can't use Amazon.com's converter. Someone told me about SmashWords, and I'll go that route for a second book I'm about to publish that will be sold via Amazon and Apple.

Thanks again for the tips.

[Quoth]

Try BookNook
I've no connection, but their top Guru posts here as Hitch and writes much sense.

A basic Mobi (real old mobi) is very basic compared to epub2. That's why all Kindles that aren't ancient actually uses KF8, in the .azw file ending package, which is sort of Amazon's wrapper and DRM (optionally) on ePub2. There is a special kind of mobi file for when you don't know what model of kindle someone has, it's the old mobi and the newer KF8 used in azw in a "mobi" file. All touch models of kindles, some earlier ones, the Amazon tablet (Fire), the Kindle apps/programs for Mac, PC, iOS and Android all use the azw (KF8) and many can use KFX.
EVERYTHING ELSE in the last ten years is epub. Even Amazon convert epub to the mobi, azw or kfx depending on the model of Kindle.
On iOS (iPhone or iPad) you either use Apple's app with books from their store (which are really epub), or install a 3rd party app, which include Kindle (only really for ebooks from Amazon) or an ePub app.

The only use for actual mobi is for ancient Kindles. The only use for dual Mobi is when you don't know what model Kindle someone has, then you get Calibre to produce a Dual Mobi that has old mobi and KF8 (azw) in it, the only current use case for that is Kindle downloads from Smashwords.

Everything else is epub2. The epub3 is really only needed to simulate PDFs and few of its features are implemented by anything.

[SigilBear]

Wow, lots of choices. Thanks for the tip.

[Deskisamess]

On iOS (iPhone or iPad) you either use Apple's app with books from their store (which are really epub), or install a 3rd party app, which include Kindle (only really for ebooks from Amazon) or an ePub app.

The only use for actual mobi is for ancient Kindles.

I side load books from other sources to my iPad Pro and read them in the Kindle app all the time. I also sometimes just covert to mobi, and also read those books on various Kindles and Kindle apps.

Your comments makes it sound as if mobi can't be used on newer Kindle models, and that only Amazon books can be read in the iOS Kindle app. Neither is correct.

[DiapDealer]

I was under the impression that ebooks sideloaded via itunes to the Mac Kindle reading app had to be in the AZK format. That's why the ability of generating an AZK with KindlePreviewer was added: so that kindle books could be previewed in the Kindle reading app on iOS by sideloading. Has that changed?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I was under the impression that ebooks sideloaded via itunes to the Mac Kindle reading app had to be in the AZK format. That's why the ability of generating an AZK with KindlePreviewer was added: so that kindle books could be previewed in the Kindle reading app on iOS by sideloading. Has that changed?

Still the same.

The Kindle for iOS app supports the original MOBI format and the latest KFX format. It does not support KF8 (AZW3) and so AZK is used to provide an equivalent to that.

[DiapDealer]

Ah... OK, thanks. I knew AZK was the only option for something, I just didn't remember it was specifically for previewing KF8.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Your comments makes it sound as if mobi can't be used on newer Kindle models, and that only Amazon books can be read in the iOS Kindle app. Neither is correct.

That wasn't my intent. The older Kindles can only read the old mobi, or the old part of a dual mobi. The iOS Kindle app is more limited than a real kindle or a third party epub app.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by SigilBear

I created an epub in Sigil. Then I opened it in Calibre and converted it to a MOBI.

I then discovered that I can't open it with my Kindle for Mac. If I right-click on the icon and choose "open with," Kindle is grayed out.

If I open Kindle for Mac, then it isn't even clear how I'm support to import a book. I can click File > Add/Remove Book from Collection, but that doesn't accomplish anything. There is a more intuitice choice: File > Import PDF. But I don't see File > Import Epub, or File > Import MOBI.

So what's the magic trick for importing a Kindle epub into a Kindle reader?

Related question: How can I verify that an epub has in fact been successfully converted to a MOBI?

I have the original epub and the MOBI conversion side by side. They both look the same, except the cover picture doesn't display on the original. If I double-click on them, both open by default in Apple Reader. They look and function the same in the reader.

So it isn't clear to me if Calibre actually converted it to a MOBI or not.

Thank you.

Convert to KF8 (AZW3) instead of Mobi and see if that works.