Calibre and iOS 4 Sync

[HaoleKai]

Originally Posted by itimpi

A question - is it possible to have the option to send to iTunes even if the Apple Device driver is disabled? This could be a desireable option if it is not already there. I am tending to send my books to iTunes at the moment when my device is not connected and syncing later. It would be convenient if the iPad and/or iPhone was never recognised by Calibre so that I can still use my Sony Reader at the same time even if I have the iPad/ iPhone connected in a dock most of the time.

I agree, that's a great question and would have been my preferred solution to my iPod issue, but I was happy with just disabling it too. I realized that it could be nice to throw some articles onto the iPod to take with me when I choose to, instead of it just auto-synching everything.

Have you tried to do this? I might give it a shot this morning and see what happens.

[GRiker]

itimpi - even though it's not intuitively obvious, disabling the device driver only affects calibre's ability to recognize the iDevice, not iTunes. The 'Connect to iTunes' option is always available, even when the driver is disabled.

The presence of both connection styles at this point is an artifact of the implementation history. Initially I thought it would be better to connect directly to the device, but it turns out that connecting to iTunes is far less error prone. I believe you were one of the first users to request the iTunes connection style. It was a good call.

In your scenario, disable the Apple driver and leave it disabled. You can then connect your iDevice at will and it will never be detected by calibre, and you will always be able to use 'Connect to iTunes'. And again, in the "not so intuitively obvious" department, you can still tweak the customization options even though the driver is disabled.

This will be resolved at some point in the future. For now it's awkward.

G

[HaoleKai]

GRiker,
Thanks for the info. That works great. I was able to open the connection to iTunes even with the Apple plugin disabled as stated. I sent a book to iTunes with no effort.

I like this method very much.

The book isn't transferring over to my iPod Touch, but I'm sure that's an issue on my end which I'll figure out, but the Calibre interface works great, thanks. Hmm, unless it's a format issue...

Edited:
Yup, it was an issue on my end. All fixed. Thanks.

[itimpi]

Good - that is what I was hoping you would say!

I could have just done some tests but it was easier to ask, and I knew others might be interested in the answer

On that basis I wonder if it is better for the Apple device to be disabled by default? Many people will tend to leave their iPad/iPhone docked a lot of the time so that it is charging. However if that WAS done you would want a way to remind the user they can interact directly with the iPad. Perhaps a dialog could be popped up the first time they try and interact with iTunes telling them about this?

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by HaoleKai

GRiker,
Thanks for the info. That works great. I was able to open the connection to iTunes even with the Apple plugin disabled as stated. I sent a book to iTunes with no effort.

I like this method very much.

The book isn't transferring over to my iPod Touch, but I'm sure that's an issue on my end which I'll figure out, but the Calibre interface works great, thanks. Hmm, unless it's a format issue...

Do you have iBooks installed on your Touch?

G

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by HaoleKai

The book isn't transferring over to my iPod Touch, but I'm sure that's an issue on my end which I'll figure out, but the Calibre interface works great, thanks. Hmm, unless it's a format issue...

There is a setting in iTunes at the device level as to whether books are automatically synced or have to be done manually. Sounds as if yours might be set to manual?

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Good - that is what I was hoping you would say!

I could have just done some tests but it was easier to ask, and I knew others might be interested in the answer

On that basis I wonder if it is better for the Apple device to be disabled by default? Many people will tend to leave their iPad/iPhone docked a lot of the time so that it is charging. However if that WAS done you would want a way to remind the user they can interact directly with the iPad. Perhaps a dialog could be popped up the first time they try and interact with iTunes telling them about this?

Kovid and I discussed this, and we decided that we would get a flood of tickets if we simply disabled the iDevice driver, so we agreed to come up with a more elegant solution that will detect a connected iDevice, but connect to iTunes instead. That's going to take some re-design of the driver, and I'm about to go away for awhile, so it has to wait.

G

[HaoleKai]

Originally Posted by GRiker

Do you have iBooks installed on your Touch?

G

;-)

Gotta ask the obvious don't you...
No. That was the issue.
I had book synching disabled. Once I enabled it, I was told I needed iBooks. I guess I was assuming it might work with my Kindle reader on the ipod.

I'm not sure I'll actually use this much, as I prefer reading on my kindle, but it's great to be able to do this so easily. I'm sure I'll come up with some good ways to use it.

thanks again.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by GRiker

Kovid and I discussed this, and we decided that we would get a flood of tickets if we simply disabled the iDevice driver, so we agreed to come up with a more elegant solution that will detect a connected iDevice, but connect to iTunes instead. That's going to take some re-design of the driver, and I'm about to go away for awhile, so it has to wait.
G

I could see a case for both modes of interaction depending on how the user operates. I think there is an issue at the moment if you have not disabled the apple driver, have an iDevice polugged in, and then connect a different eReader device. The iDevice already plugged in and seen by Calibre stops the eReader just plugged in from being seen (or at least I thought i had seen that behavior)? The same problem could occur where the iTunes device "masks" the other eReader device?

For me most of this discussion in theoretical as the base functionality I want is already implemented .

[HaoleKai]

Originally Posted by GRiker

Kovid and I discussed this, and we decided that we would get a flood of tickets if we simply disabled the iDevice driver, so we agreed to come up with a more elegant solution that will detect a connected iDevice, but connect to iTunes instead. That's going to take some re-design of the driver, and I'm about to go away for awhile, so it has to wait.

G

Honestly, I think the better solution to this is to add a Devices tab to the preferences window. It's far more obvious there than in the plugins section (you could leave it in plugins too, and make them work together).

The other thing to do, and I know it's more work, is to have everything disabled at first, and to have a device recognized immediately the first time it's attached while Calibre is running. Have Calibre ask the user, "Do you want to enable synching with this device?" If they answer Yes, do it. If they answer No, set a flag so they're not asked again, but also give them a short message telling them where to enable the device.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by HaoleKai

The other thing to do, and I know it's more work, is to have everything disabled at first, and to have a device recognized immediately the first time it's attached while Calibre is running. Have Calibre ask the user, "Do you want to enable synching with this device?" If they answer Yes, do it. If they answer No, set a flag so they're not asked again, but also give them a short message telling them where to enable the device.

I do not believe that the current plugin architecture allows for this, but it woulld be a nice enhancement if it did.