Kindle Colorsoft - no cover art in library

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by axu2

Do you remember when exactly that happened? Was it a hardware change or a software version?

I believe that was added in firmware version 5.15.1, released about two years ago.

[DNSB]

The system folder on a Colorsoft is not accessible over MTP so the operating system does not matter.

[axu2]

Thanks for the PDOC cover info

Is there a list of differences between EBOK and PDOC?

[Shaardvark]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

At the moment I dont see a solution other than marking the books as PDOC which means you lose whispersync, etc. But I dont have access to this hardware so I cant be sure. It maybe that there is another filesystem location, that could work, but it seems unlikely to me. Over the years I have observed amazon gradually making it less and less convenient to side load. They do it in tiny incremental steps so no one gets too outraged, but the direction of travel is quite clear. I strongly encourage ditching amazon if owning your books and sideloading is important to you. Amazon very clearly want to force their users into their walled ecosystem.

KFX PDOC works as a workaround after getting the KFX Output Plugin AND Amazon's Kindle Previewer 3. But before going too far down that rabbit hole, using Calibre, having a backup of my original library in a different location is probably a good idea. So when you do, eventually, solve this problem, I won't have to convert everything back.

[JediRhymeTrix]

Commenting to follow this thread for updates.

Also, I've never seen the system folder on my Paperwhite 10th gen (pre-MTP). Hidden files are set to visible.

On the CS, as some others have mentioned, I can see covers for some books but not others. I'm guessing they're the ones with a valid ASIN in the metadata so the covers are being downloaded from Amazon.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JediRhymeTrix

Commenting to follow this thread for updates.

Also, I've never seen the system folder on my Paperwhite 10th gen (pre-MTP). Hidden files are set to visible.

On the CS, as some others have mentioned, I can see covers for some books but not others. I'm guessing they're the ones with a valid ASIN in the metadata so the covers are being downloaded from Amazon.

Under Windows, you need to remove the checkmark from Hide protected operating system files. See the attached images. The first two are the root of my Kindle Paperwhite 10th gen's storage with and without the Hide protected operating system files option disabled. The third is the contents of the system directory.

[JediRhymeTrix]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Under Windows, you need to remove the checkmark from Hide protected operating system files. See the attached images. The first two are the root of my Kindle Paperwhite 10th gen's storage with and without the Hide protected operating system files option disabled. The third is the contents of the system directory.

Ah, so just making hidden files visible is not enough, I need to make protected OS files visible as well. Got it. Thanks!

[JediRhymeTrix]

I have a bunch of comic books that I converted from CBZ to MOBI earlier. While trying to convert these to KFX PDOC, the KFX output plugin is throwing an error. Also, KFX isn't ideal for comic books. So, I tried MOBI with [PDOC] in the "tags" metadata field and transferred it to the Colorsoft via Send to device. However, the file still shows up as a book, not a doc.

I know I'm doing it wrong, but I'm not sure what the right way to do it would be.

[kovidgoyal]

Turn on the Enable sharing of book contents option in Preferences->Output options->MOBI output and then send the file to the kindle.

[JediRhymeTrix]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Turn on the Enable sharing of book contents option in Preferences->Output options->MOBI output and then send the file to the kindle.

That worked. Thank you!

That was much easier than converting everything again.

BTW, does this only modify the headers or does it use the MOBI conversion settings for the output (which might potentially mess with the KCC formatting)?

[kovidgoyal]

Only header field.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Under Windows, you need to remove the checkmark from Hide protected operating system files. See the attached images. The first two are the root of my Kindle Paperwhite 10th gen's storage with and without the Hide protected operating system files option disabled. The third is the contents of the system directory.

I wonder if anyone who looked at a 2024 Kindle under Windows for the system directory has turned on show hidden system files? If not, then we don't know if system is visible or not.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JediRhymeTrix

Ah, so just making hidden files visible is not enough, I need to make protected OS files visible as well. Got it. Thanks!

With hidden system files now visible, can you see system under Windows with your Colorsoft?

[CrazedEwok]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I wonder if anyone who looked at a 2024 Kindle under Windows for the system directory has turned on show hidden system files? If not, then we don't know if system is visible or not.

I'm not who you were replying to, but I have a new Colorsoft and am using Linux, avoiding any Windows idiosyncrasies. Using libmtp or android-file-transfer, I can confirm that the `system` folder is inaccessible through the MTP interface. I think `system` "really" exists on the underlying filesystem, but access is sabotaged on the Kindle's MTP interface.

Example using FUSE provided by `android-file-transfer`:

$ pwd
~/mnt/kindle/Internal Storage
$ ls -a1
./
../
.active_content_sandbox/
audible/
documents/
driveinfo.calibre
fonts/
metadata.calibre
screenshots/
$ cd system
cd: The directory 'system' does not exist
$ touch system
touch: cannot touch 'system': Input/output error
$ touch systema
# Works!

So Kovid's suspicions seem to track.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by CrazedEwok

I think `system` "really" exists on the underlying filesystem, but access is sabotaged on the Kindle's MTP interface.

I agree.

Under Windows you cannot create a file or folder with the name "system" in the root of the Colorsoft drive exposed over MTP.