Calibre error, cannot communicate with Kobo

[Joliet Jake]

This only happened to me today. Yesterday there were no issues. The Kobo is up to date. Calibre 4.23.

Error message:

calibre, version 4.23.0
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device

CorruptError: database disk image is malformed

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 90, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 513, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 1981, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 1852, in get_bookshelvesforbook
File "c:\t\t\apsw-w7591s5i\src\cursor.c", line 236, in resetcursor
CorruptError: CorruptError: database disk image is malformed

A bit earlier today, I was able to sideload books. They appeared in the correct collection but had no series info attached. (Normally the series name matches the collection name.) Furthermore a bunch of books disappeared, but reappeared when I reconnected the Kobo.

I am currently using Kobo Touch Extended, and wonder if I should switch back to Kobo Touch.

[JSWolf]

The error means that the database has been corrupted. If you have a recent backup of the database, you can copy that over the existing database.

If not, you'll have ti log out of your Kobo and log back in. That will recreate the database. You will lose everything on your Kobo and you'll have to put all of the eBooks back on. Before you do that, you can copy all of the eBooks to your computer and once the database is fixed, you can copy them back and then once the eBooks are populated in the database, you can plug your Kobo into the computer with Calibre running to fix your collections/series/metadata.

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The error means that the database has been corrupted. If you have a recent backup of the database, you can copy that over the existing database.

I didn't know how to do that. It's a bit late, but not terrible. I had backed up the books about a week ago by manually coping them from the Kobo to a directory on my computer. I would still like to know how to do that with Kobo: I had effectively been using Calibre *as* the backup.

If not, you'll have ti log out of your Kobo and log back in. That will recreate the database. You will lose everything on your Kobo and you'll have to put all of the eBooks back on. Before you do that, you can copy all of the eBooks to your computer and once the database is fixed, you can copy them back and then once the eBooks are populated in the database, you can plug your Kobo into the computer with Calibre running to fix your collections/series/metadata.

Do you mean log in while connected to Kobo Desktop?

So I tried that. I logged into Desktop, connected the Kobo, synced it, logged out. I'm still getting the same error. Also very few books disappeared.

Some poking showed me the error: I had to log out on the Kobo itself. So far the problem seems to be fixed, but there's a decent chance I lost some covers or even a few entire books. I made a manual list (ow, my wrist) of all the books on the Kobo so I'll go through the list and resend any missing books.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

I didn't know how to do that. It's a bit late, but not terrible. I had backed up the books about a week ago by manually coping them from the Kobo to a directory on my computer. I would still like to know how to do that with Kobo: I had effectively been using Calibre *as* the backup.

Do you mean log in while connected to Kobo Desktop?

We are not talking about the books. The Kobo devices use a database of the details in the book. When you add a book to the device, it extracts details of the book and put them in the database. When you are using the devices UI, the information displayed is from the database. The database also contains the collections, reading status and any annotations you make.

When calibre sees a Kobo device, it reads the database to get the list of books on the device. Unfortunately, the database can get corrupted and you will see an error like this. The fix for this is to sign out of the Kobo account on the device, and then sign in again. That will build a new database of the books on the device. But, you will lose the reading status, collections and annotations. If you take a backup of the database, it can be restored and you will only lose the changes made since the last backup. As you are a calibre user, you can automate the backup using my Kobo Utilities. That can be set to make a backup of the database each time the device is connected.

Unfortunately, the database can become corrupted. One way is to not safely eject the device from the PC. Depending on what is happening, this can lead to a corrupt database. There are almost definitely other ways for the database corruption to happen, but, I do not know what they are.

So I tried that. I logged into Desktop, connected the Kobo, synced it, logged out. I'm still getting the same error. Also very few books disappeared.

Did you connect the device while using the Kobo desktop application? If so, I would have expected an error or a prompt to do the setup. That would rebuild the database.

[Joliet Jake]

As noted above, I was able to fix the issue. I didn't get it to work with Kobo Desktop, but I signed out on the physical Kobo and signed back in.

I didn't know I could use Kobo Utilities and Kobo Touch (Extended) at the same time, so now I'm going to back up the database regularly that way. (Previously I had just backed up the library.)