Anyone else have both Kobo and Literati?

[coinín]

This past Christmas, I was given one of each.

I invariably use my Kobo more- e-ink is just so much nicer to look at- but the Literati gets pretty steady use at bedtime, as the bf likes lights out right away but I like to read a bit then doze off. The backlit "night reading" mode means I can do that without disturbing him.

Since both readers are tied to my Kobo account, I can "update library" on my Kobo reader, then do the same on my Literati, and pick up where I left off.

Now, here's where the weird part comes in.
When I finish a book on either reader, next time I sync the Literati it shows in the "I'm Reading" menu as being 1% read. They won't close. I've even tried paging through to the end on the Literati (and it doesn't have the GOTO feature that was recently added to my Kobo, so it's a pain in the buttocks) and "finishing" the book, but it just comes back with 1% read every time i sync.

Now I'm also finding that the book I purchased yesterday, while it downloaded to the Literati without any trouble, didn't transfer the bookmarks. I had to skip chapters and then page through to get to my spot. When I updated both readers again, it didn't move them in my Kobo to pick up where I'd left off, either.

Has anyone else got both these readers, or has anyone else discovered bookmark communication problems between the Kobo reader and any of the smartphone apps?

<begin small rant>
(And when is the mythical firmware upgrade for my Literati that'll actually allow it to sync with the desktop gonna happen? I've been syncing with wifi since December, and kind of sick of it. I think Kobo support has completely forgotten about people who bought Kobo-powered readers other than the Kobo-branded reader itself.)
</end rant>

[siraks]

this thread may be able to help you

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...light=literati

i haven't read through it but in the first post they mention a firmware update.
good luck.

[digiSara]

The post in this thread by Corby which explains what the servers are doing when they sync might help:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=125755, specifically this bit

Additionally, there is a "finished" and a "closed" status on books, which is stored locally, but that status is not synced. When you finish a book on a device, it will reset the bookmark to the first page. So if you sync to a new device, that book will end up being new and unread. This is something we are working on.

[coinín]

Thanks for trying, guys.

Originally Posted by digiSara

The post in this thread by Corby which explains what the servers are doing when they sync might help:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=125755, specifically this bit

Goddamn. So really, this bit just ain't going away until Kobo fixes the minor glitch.
It's not the worst thing, but I do wish stuff I finished would stay finished, you know? You'd think that paging through to the end of the book so that it had "finished" status in both readers would work, but it doesn't.

Originally Posted by siraks

this thread may be able to help you

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...light=literati

i haven't read through it but in the first post they mention a firmware update.
good luck.

Read through the whole thing, and checked the Literatireader.com site for updates as well. Turns out, I have the most recent firmware... which still doesn't address the not syncing with the desktop problem. Looks like I'm still waiting for Kobo to write an update... which might never happen. I guess I just need to get over my irritation and accept that this reader is only sync-able via wifi for the duration of its natural life.

Sure would have been nice to be able to use the Kobo desktop for it the way you're supposed to be able to, though.

Bottom line- deal with it. Both problems are likely stayin' for some time, possibly permanently, as Kobo moves pretty damned slowly on firmware updates for its own branded reader, let alone other readers.

[siraks]

have you tried using adobe digital editions to get your books from kobo and to sync with that, or to get your books from kobo using ade then loading them on using calibre?
maybe that could work?

[taming]

ADE books do not sync--only kepub books do.

I don't by the way think Kobo updates software particularly slowly. The last update to Kobo-1 took forever because they worked very hard to make the reader do things they really had to squeeze into less than optimal hardware--to give Kobo-1 users the best they could do in order to match many of the features the WiFi one had at release.

The WiFi has been out about six months and had two biggish updates. They could have left it alone and issued Kobo-3 later instead. I have always felt that you pay for the reader with the features it has at purchase--anything other than bug fixes after that is a bonus. You want different/better features, then buy the tech toy that has them. True for phones, computers, and so much more...

[coinín]

Originally Posted by taming

ADE books do not sync--only kepub books do.

I don't by the way think Kobo updates software particularly slowly. The last update to Kobo-1 took forever because they worked very hard to make the reader do things they really had to squeeze into less than optimal hardware--to give Kobo-1 users the best they could do in order to match many of the features the WiFi one had at release.

The WiFi has been out about six months and had two biggish updates. They could have left it alone and issued Kobo-3 later instead. I have always felt that you pay for the reader with the features it has at purchase--anything other than bug fixes after that is a bonus. You want different/better features, then buy the tech toy that has them. True for phones, computers, and so much more...

Yes and no.
I've got no problem with accepting the limitations of a device as it it presented, but...

The Literati is still being advertised as having features that it doesn't, and having desktop software to sync with is a pretty basic feature.
If the good folks at Kobo want readers to continue to buy devices that tie to their store, they ought to be ensuring that those basic functions are indeed functional.

[taming]

Does your Literati sync over WiFi? I understand that Literati users are offered the new update in the same "some get it now some get it later" way that the Kobo WiFi users are getting it. Do you have a dedicated desktop application or do you use the general Kobo one which you can download (1.9 version) from the Kobo website?

[coinín]

Originally Posted by taming

Does your Literati sync over WiFi? I understand that Literati users are offered the new update in the same "some get it now some get it later" way that the Kobo WiFi users are getting it. Do you have a dedicated desktop application or do you use the general Kobo one which you can download (1.9 version) from the Kobo website?

It's supposed to sync both with desktop and wifi, but has only so far been coaxed into syncing with wifi. It uses the same Kobo desktop that Kobo reader does- the one downloaded from the website. I do have the most recent (1.9) from the site; I downloaded it and installed it hoping that it would have addressed the Literati problem, but no such luck.

[Meemo]

Once you've finished a book, why not just delete it from the reader? I do wish there were a simple way to mark a book as "Unread" so it goes back to the library instead of having so many books showing as opened, but once I've read a book, I delete it. (Of course I've got way too many books anyway, but that's a personal problem...)

I know that doesn't address the issue of things not working the way they're supposed to, but it's how I make it work for me.

[taming]

Originally Posted by coinín

It's supposed to sync both with desktop and wifi, but has only so far been coaxed into syncing with wifi. It uses the same Kobo desktop that Kobo reader does- the one downloaded from the website. I do have the most recent (1.9) from the site; I downloaded it and installed it hoping that it would have addressed the Literati problem, but no such luck.

I wonder if this is a Kobo problem, or a Literati problem? I have no idea what Kobo does other than produce the updates in terms of making sure that they work on devices like Literati.

[coinín]

Originally Posted by taming

I wonder if this is a Kobo problem, or a Literati problem? I have no idea what Kobo does other than produce the updates in terms of making sure that they work on devices like Literati.

All the programming and OS on the Literati is by Kobo. The hardware is made by some company I can't offhand remember the name of, and branded to The Sharper Image... but the "brains" of the device (so to speak) are all of Kobo breeding.
The manual says contact Literati Reader support for hardware problems, Kobo for software problems.

Digging through the help pages on Kobo's site indicates that the non-syncing issue is known, and should be fixed with future firmware... I guess I'd call it a Kobo for Literati problem. The desktop sees that the reader's there, they just don't wanna talk to each other.

I've had the damn thing for four months now, and that's a pretty long time to not have a key basic feature. You can see why I'd be a little annoyed.