Transferring books from Kobo Aura H2O to Kobo Libra H20

[gfeps]

I currently have a Kobo Aura H20. The charging port is being temperamental so I am considering buying the Kobo Libra H2O just to stop my fustrations.

I use Calibre to transfer and organise my books on my reader.

Is there a way that I can transfer everything that is already set up on my current ereader to the new one?
I'm wanting to ideally transfer not only the books, but their collection details, whether they're read/unread, reading statistics etc. Basically, I'm hoping to "pick up where I left off" on the new device.

The majority of my books are not bought through the Kobo Store.

Is this possible? And how would I do this? Specific instructions would be great as although Im fairly competent in my way around a computer, I'm probably nowhere near the level of some of you and may be confused by what you say

Thank you so much.

[davidfor]

As you use calibre, transferring a the books is fairly simple. Connect one device, select all the books that are shown as on the device, disconnect the device and connect the new device. Then send the selected books to the new device.

If a lot of books are involved (thousands, not hundreds), you might want to send the in smaller groups. In that case, when you select the books, you might want to mark the in some way to be able to select them. You could do this by adding a tag to all the books. Or use the Reading List plugin. With that, you can create a list that is automatically populated when the device is connected. Then you can send the books from that list.

The collections part should be automatic. That's if you are using calibre to do the collection management. When you add the books to the new device, the books will be put in the collections. But, before doing this, I turn off the option to delete empty collections. That will save a bit of confusion. If you don't use calibre for collection management, this can be done in a couple of steps, but, I won't go into that until I know you need it.

For the reading status, this can be handled via my Kobo Utilities plugin. It has function to fetch and store the reading status from the device. And then restore it later. You need to configure the plugin, do the fetch from the current device and when you have the books on the new device, you can do a restore.


Alternatively, you can try copying everything from books partition of the old device to the new device. And when you disconnect, shut the device down. This can work. But, it doesn't always. If you try this, you can also try copying the contents of the "user" table in the database from the database on the new device to the database you copy from the old database.


I've done the first method a few times over the years. It's works well if you don't want an identical copy, but, are not going to send finished books or book you no longer plan to read. People have reported success with the second method, but, I think there have been as many failures.

[gfeps]

Originally Posted by davidfor

For the reading status, this can be handled via my Kobo Utilities plugin. It has function to fetch and store the reading status from the device. And then restore it later. You need to configure the plugin, do the fetch from the current device and when you have the books on the new device, you can do a restore.


Alternatively, you can try copying everything from books partition of the old device to the new device. And when you disconnect, shut the device down. This can work. But, it doesn't always. If you try this, you can also try copying the contents of the "user" table in the database from the database on the new device to the database you copy from the old database.


I've done the first method a few times over the years. It's works well if you don't want an identical copy, but, are not going to send finished books or book you no longer plan to read. People have reported success with the second method, but, I think there have been as many failures.

Thank you so much for your detailed reply.

I use Calibre for Collection Management but I should have mentioned that while I use Calibre, our computer was reformatted and I only have a limited number of books on it since then. Approximately 50 out of the 1100 on my ereader. So this isnt going to work when transferring books, unless I can somehow first transfer data from my old device to Calibre first, and then transfer to my new device?

Which Kobo Utilities plugin would I need in order to transfer my reading stats? I should be able to manage this if I can find instructions, I managed to set up the plugin for Collection Management.

If I were to try the second method, is there a possibility that I may accidentally do irreversible damage if I get it wrong?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by gfeps

Thank you so much for your detailed reply.

I use Calibre for Collection Management but I should have mentioned that while I use Calibre, our computer was reformatted and I only have a limited number of books on it since then. Approximately 50 out of the 1100 on my ereader. So this isnt going to work when transferring books, unless I can somehow first transfer data from my old device to Calibre first, and then transfer to my new device?

That's a pretty important thing to leave out. But, that is basically what you need to do. And have a stern word to whoever reformatted the computer.

Firstly, in calibre, go to the driver configuration and turn off the collection management. This is either in the KoboTouch driver, or the KoboTouchExtended driver. I generally recommend doing it when the device is connected to you can find it by right-clicking the device button.

Then go to the device list. Select the books in the list and right-click on them. Choose the option to add the books to the library. As with all these type of things, do it in a small batch to see how it goes.

Alternatively, you can copy the books using OS tools and then add them to calibre.

Which Kobo Utilities plugin would I need in order to transfer my reading stats?

The function you want to use is the "Store/Restore current bookmark". You need to configure the custom columns to be used first. There are details of how to do this in the help (the link in the top right of most dialogs in the plugin).

You need to get the books into calibre before you can do this. You can run it from the menu for selected books, or set it to run automatically when the device connects.

I should be able to manage this if I can find instructions, I managed to set up the plugin for Collection Management.

But for the moment, turn it off.

If I were to try the second method, is there a possibility that I may accidentally do irreversible damage if I get it wrong?

No. If something goes wrong, you do a factory reset and the device will be like new and you can start again.

[JSWolf]

If anyone reformatted the computer without first letting me know ahead of time, there would be holy hell.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If anyone reformatted the computer without first letting me know ahead of time, there would be holy hell.

I've had that happen a couple of times when a computer has been sent in for servicing. HP and Dell seem to love restoring the hard drive to factory just to ensure that your issue is not due to software. So now I swap in a spare blank HD before shipping any device out for service and swap the old HD back in after servicing.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I've had that happen a couple of times when a computer has been sent in for servicing. HP and Dell seem to love restoring the hard drive to factory just to ensure that your issue is not due to software. So now I swap in a spare blank HD before shipping any device out for service and swap the old HD back in after servicing.

That's a good idea. But to be honest, if Dell and HP actually knew what they were doing, they would remove the system drive and put in hard drive to play with to check if the problem is software or hardware. Destroying the data on a user's hard drive is very bad practice since most people don't know about backups.

[Gone]

Originally Posted by gfeps

(...) our computer was reformatted and I only have a limited number of books on it since then. Approximately 50 out of the 1100 on my ereader.

I store all of my epub in Dropbox.

And I have an external hard drive for back up.

Do yourself a favor.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That's a good idea. But to be honest, if Dell and HP actually knew what they were doing, they would remove the system drive and put in hard drive to play with to check if the problem is software or hardware. Destroying the data on a user's hard drive is very bad practice since most people don't know about backups.

You know that and I know that but it seems many service departments are more about pushing the devices through rather than doing the job properly. I will admit that Lenovo has a big warning notice in the box they ship you to return the device for repair warning you to backup your hard drive before placing the device in the shipping box. The linked web page goes from you can still boot the device to removing the hard drive and making an image backup. Still people who would not read it but at least they tried.

[gfeps]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That's a pretty important thing to leave out. But, that is basically what you need to do. And have a stern word to whoever reformatted the computer.

Firstly, in calibre, go to the driver configuration and turn off the collection management. This is either in the KoboTouch driver, or the KoboTouchExtended driver. I generally recommend doing it when the device is connected to you can find it by right-clicking the device button.

Then go to the device list. Select the books in the list and right-click on them. Choose the option to add the books to the library. As with all these type of things, do it in a small batch to see how it goes.

Alternatively, you can copy the books using OS tools and then add them to calibre.

The function you want to use is the "Store/Restore current bookmark". You need to configure the custom columns to be used first. There are details of how to do this in the help (the link in the top right of most dialogs in the plugin).

You need to get the books into calibre before you can do this. You can run it from the menu for selected books, or set it to run automatically when the device connects.

But for the moment, turn it off.

No. If something goes wrong, you do a factory reset and the device will be like new and you can start again.

Thank you so much again for your reply. Apologies for my delay - busy few days at work.

I'm going to try and transfer all my books to Calibre and see how I go. Unfortunately, with the port playing up, I already anticipate the stress that this is going to cause me! It took about an hour to get the ereader to connect long enough to transfer three books.
I'll update on my progress as soon as I get a chance to block out a couple hours

As for reformatting the computer... it was my husband. But in all fairness, it is our children's computer and he didnt think about anything being on their that I may need. I have a work laptop that I use normally and only use the desktop for Calibre. So I'll forgive him this time

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by gfeps

Thank you so much again for your reply. Apologies for my delay - busy few days at work.

I'm going to try and transfer all my books to Calibre and see how I go. Unfortunately, with the port playing up, I already anticipate the stress that this is going to cause me! It took about an hour to get the ereader to connect long enough to transfer three books.
I'll update on my progress as soon as I get a chance to block out a couple hours

It's worthwhile trying different ports or cables. And my Glo HD won't stay connected to my main laptop. I have to use another machine any time I want to do anything serious with it.

As for reformatting the computer... it was my husband. But in all fairness, it is our children's computer and he didnt think about anything being on their that I may need. I have a work laptop that I use normally and only use the desktop for Calibre. So I'll forgive him this time

Did he enjoy his night on the couch?

[gfeps]

Ha! I dont think he's ever slept on the couch

I've transferred all the book across so will now do some research on "Store/Restore current bookmark" and see how I go

[gfeps]

Alright, so I dont think I have the Plugin. I use the plugboard I think. So I'm going to have a play around

[gfeps]

The function you want to use is the "Store/Restore current bookmark". You need to configure the custom columns to be used first. There are details of how to do this in the help (the link in the top right of most dialogs in the plugin).

You need to get the books into calibre before you can do this. You can run it from the menu for selected books, or set it to run automatically when the device connects.

I keep getting an error message. I think I've added the columns from what I could see via help - current read, percentage and I had date already. Not interested in rating

but the error message says

calibre 4.23 embedded-python: True is64bit: False
Windows-10-10.0.18362-SP0 Windows ('32bit', 'WindowsPE')
32bit process running on 64bit windows
('Windows', '10', '10.0.18362')
Python 2.7.16+
Windows: ('10', '10.0.18362', 'SP0', u'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: Kobo Utilities (2, 11, 4)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 984, in handle_bookmarks
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 1200, in store_current_bookmark
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 4077, in _store_current_bookmark
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 2429, in get_column_names
KeyError: u'customColumnOptions'

I'm officially stuck

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by gfeps

I keep getting an error message. I think I've added the columns from what I could see via help - current read, percentage and I had date already. Not interested in rating

but the error message says

calibre 4.23 embedded-python: True is64bit: False
Windows-10-10.0.18362-SP0 Windows ('32bit', 'WindowsPE')
32bit process running on 64bit windows
('Windows', '10', '10.0.18362')
Python 2.7.16+
Windows: ('10', '10.0.18362', 'SP0', u'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: Kobo Utilities (2, 11, 4)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 984, in handle_bookmarks
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 1200, in store_current_bookmark
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 4077, in _store_current_bookmark
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 2429, in get_column_names
KeyError: u'customColumnOptions'

I'm officially stuck

That looks like the configuration isn't complete. Or, not complete for the profile you have chosen. It doesn't seem to have saved the custom columns.

You should be able to fix this by on the configuration dialog, selecting the profile in the drop-down at the top, make sure something selected in the device (use "*Any Device" if you only have one device, or want to only use one profile), and make sure at least one custom column is selected. Then press the OK button.

I will do some testing as I can't think how you could get to the state you are in. But, there probably is a missing check when the OK button is pressed.