Calibre and Kobo are not liking each other anymore

[mareli]

This morning I had the bad bad bad idea to update my Kobo version, which is now 4.19.14123. Bad idea. My collections are disappeared Besides, as Calibre kept giving me errors on version Database on Kobo I decided to update my calibre too. Now I cannot even update any data on my Kobo using calibre, there is no way to update the title of the book on the device using Calibre (with the previous version I was able to do it). I used to get my collections done using a personal column called @auth_coll which had author-series and obviously that's not working anymore
I feel close this up to get rid of the horrible ereader. Please someone can help me? Thanks

[davidfor]

The only difference in the last few versions of calibre for Kobo devices is updating the supported firmware version. That was what you needed to do. Which you would have known if you had read the full details of the "error" on "version Database". Other than that, it should all be working fine. And is here with the three different Kobo devices I have plugged today.

Are you seeing any errors? Do you use the KoboTouchExtended driver? If so check that it is still installed. Sometimes, it gets an error after a calibre updated. Generally restarting calibre fixes that.

Otherwise, run calibre in debug mode, connect the device and let the device jobs run. Then close calibre and post the debug log displayed. Hopefully I will be able to see what is happening from that.

[mareli]

Thanks for your reply. I read the full error and infact I downloaded the last version of Calibre before going on. Infact the problem now is worse because after the installing of last Calibre version (4.8) I cannot modify anything on my device using calibre. Every column is in a sort of "protected mode" and that's a problem of the last version because with previous versions it does not happen. It seems that now Kobo "protects" its data from calibre and you cannot use it if not for upload/download books anymore. Sorry if I'm not so clear, I'm not English mothertoungue.

P.S. I don't have any errors, only collections are not uploaded anymore and I cannot update anything on my ebook on kobo using calibre.

[davidfor]

Where are the columns that are in "protected mode"? If you mean in the device list, then that is expected. This list is not editable, and, except for the collections column, never has been. The list represents what is on the device, so changing the title and author doesn't make sense.

For the collections column, it appears to now be non-editable. But, editing it has never really worked. You could change the values in the column, but they were never written to the device.

If you need to change the book metadata on the device, you need to configure the KoboTouch or KoboTouchExtended driver to do this. Or use my Kobo Utilities plugin. Collection management is done automatically by the driver.

None of this has change any time recently. And checking it on my device, it is working. One common reason for the updates to no happen is changing between the built-in KoboTouch driver and the KoboTouchExtended driver. These do not share the configuration. When changing from one to the other, you need to configure it.

[mareli]

Thank you for you reply. I never had KoboTouchExtended plugin installed. I can install it but if there's need to configure it, I will need you to point me where the rules are, if you can. I sent my log by PM. Thanks for every help

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by mareli

Thank you for you reply. I never had KoboTouchExtended plugin installed. I can install it but if there's need to configure it, I will need you to point me where the rules are, if you can. I sent my log by PM. Thanks for every help

Out of curiosity, what version of calibre were you running before you updated?

If you have davidfor's KoboUtilities plugin installed, have you tried running the check database option? The database would be reloaded from disk when you restarted after the firmware update which can expose database corruption issues.

Can you post a couple of screenshots of what your calibre send to device and KoboTouch configuration settings are? I've included some screenshots of my setup to give you an idea of what I am looking for.

[mareli]

Thank you for your reply

Originally Posted by DNSB

Out of curiosity, what version of calibre were you running before you updated?

Before the last update I had an old version 3.42.

Originally Posted by DNSB

If you have davidfor's KoboUtilities plugin installed, have you tried running the check database option? The database would be reloaded from disk when you restarted after the firmware update which can expose database corruption issues.

I don't have davidfor's KoboUtilities plugin installed. The only plugins I have are: epubmerge and epubsplit.
Which database are you talking about? calibre database or kobo database? I thought about deleting everything on my kobo and then put my books on it again, you think it could be useful?

Originally Posted by DNSB

Can you post a couple of screenshots of what your calibre send to device and KoboTouch configuration settings are? I've included some screenshots of my setup to give you an idea of what I am looking for.

I don't know exactly how to put the screenshots on the thread. I wouldn't know where to upload them. Maybe I can send them to you?
Thanks again

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by mareli

Thank you for your reply


Before the last update I had an old version 3.42.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by mareli

I don't have davidfor's KoboUtilities plugin installed. The only plugins I have are: epubmerge and epubsplit.
Which database are you talking about? calibre database or kobo database? I thought about deleting everything on my kobo and then put my books on it again, you think it could be useful?

The KoboUtilities check is for the database on the device. I'm not completely certain but I think the Check library option under library maintenance will check the calibre database. If the Kobo database is corrupt, the easiest solution is to sign out of your account and then sign back in (Settings => Accounts => Kobo => Sign out.

Originally Posted by mareli

I don't know exactly how to put the screenshots on the thread. I wouldn't know where to upload them. Maybe I can send them to you?
Thanks again

If you look below the message entry window, you should see an additional options item. If you click on manage attachments, you can attach various file formats -- the attachments key section lists the formats and maximum file sizes for the supported formats.

[mareli]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The KoboUtilities check is for the database on the device. I'm not completely certain but I think the Check library option under library maintenance will check the calibre database. If the Kobo database is corrupt, the easiest solution is to sign out of your account and then sign back in (Settings => Accounts => Kobo => Sign out.

Ok, when I upgraded I had to sign out before because the old account was not working. It was very old and my husband mistyped the email address so I have to create a new account. I signed-in with this new account. Could it be this the problem? Frankly I'm in the darkness here. I'm wondering if I cannot touch my old books because they belong to my old account. As I didn't know the password and not being a correct email address I couldn't retrieve a new password, I had to create a new account. But if this the case it doesn't explain why it's not working on the new books I put on my ereader after I changed the account. The new books should be uploaded with the collection rule, right?

Originally Posted by DNSB

If you look below the message entry window, you should see an additional options item. If you click on manage attachments, you can attach various file formats -- the attachments key section lists the formats and maximum file sizes for the supported formats.

Thanks! I attached my configuration rules.

[mareli]

Ok I cancelled everything and I began from scratch but nothing changed. My collections are not be updated. Why did I that bad thing?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mareli

Ok I cancelled everything and I began from scratch but nothing changed. My collections are not be updated. Why did I that bad thing?

From the log files and the screenshots, almost everything looks good. You are using a custom column called "#auth_collez" for the collections. But, is there anything actually in that column for books on the device? The relevant part of the log is:

DEBUG: 148.0 KoboTouch:update_device_database_collections - set_debugging_title to ''
DEBUG: 148.0 KTCollectionsBookList:get_collections - start - collection_attributes= [u'#auth_collez']
DEBUG: 148.0 KTCollectionsBookList:get_collections - collection_attributes= [u'#auth_collez']
DEBUG: 148.0 KTCollectionsBookList:get_collections - end
DEBUG: 148.0 No Collections - reseting ReadStatus
DEBUG: 148.0 KoboTouch:update_device_database_collections - managing bookshelves and series.

Before the last line in the log snippet, there should two lines for each collection that is being added or changed on the device with the number of books in the collection. The fact there are none says that none of the books on the device that match with books in calibre have a value in the column "#auth_collez". The other reason would be that the column doesn't exist.

Does the column have any values?

[mareli]

Hi davidfor and thank you for your help.
I finally found a solution out of desperation yesterday night.
The problem was the custom column, but not how you're thinking. I always had this column built with author+series working for creating collections on my kobo. The field is full of contents, I assure you. The problem was another. I always used the name "#auth_collez" to create collections but it was just the column name, its lookup name was simply collez. Yesterday night, really out of desperation, while I was trying to create a new column from scratch, I noticed the discrepance between colum_name and lookup and I tried and used just the lookup name #collez. And it worked!!!!
I don't know why the column_name always worked before. I don't know if the problem is the new firmware on my kobo or the new calibre version or a combination of both!
I'm just happy!
I'm detailing this for further reference. I'm also putting screenshots.
Thanks to everyone