Forma Can I safely delete the ".kobo-images" folder? It's taking 500MB of space.

droopy · 10-11-2019, 11:54 AM

When I connect my Kobo Forma to my computer, I see that there's a folder called

Code:

.kobo-images

What's that for? Do I need to keep that folder? It's taking 500 MB of space.

NiLuJe · 10-11-2019, 11:56 AM

Surprisingly enough it's for... the thumbnail images shown in the Library, Details & Sleep screens.

There's a few knobs in the Calibre Kobo driver to tweak how they're encoded which may help (very slightly) reduce their size, but some of those of those knobs may not have made it to the KoboUtilities plugin, yet, see this post.

droopy · 10-11-2019, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Surprisingly enough it's for... the thumbnail images shown in the Library, Details & Sleep screens.

Hmmm... Unbelievable! Maybe I can get Calibre to just send thumbnail-sized images to my Kobo, rather than sending huge images to my Forma, and then my Kobo shrinking the images on the fly. Can I do this to save space?

Did enabling a patch that makes thumbnails bigger also a culprit?

NiLuJe · 10-11-2019, 12:00 PM

@droopy: You can disable that on Calibre's side. But even if you did, you'd only be delaying the inevitable, as Nickel itself will generate those on-demand, and they will generally take more space that way.

Patching has no effect on this.

droopy · 10-11-2019, 12:00 PM

Each folder contains 3 image files -- they're the same photograph/artwork, but in 3 different sizes. Yikes.

droopy · 10-11-2019, 12:01 PM

NiLuJe,
I'm curious... on your Forma, how big is your .kobo-images folder?

NiLuJe · 10-11-2019, 12:01 PM

Yes, as I said, Library, Details, Sleep.

Scaling is *expensive*, trust me, you *want* them cached, or navigating your Library would be even slower, and would murder your battery.

droopy · 10-11-2019, 12:03 PM

And wow, the

Quote:

.kobo

folder takes up 1.3GB of space. Aagh. Fewer space for ebooks.

UPDATE: the .kobo folder has a subfolder called Articles. I presume those are Pocket articles. This Articles subfolder takes 1.2GB of space. Must be all those high-res images.

Ooooooh! I have an idea... since our Kobos are all greyscale, why doesn't Calibre send greyscale images to our Kobo? That should save a lot of space since colored images take up more space than grayscale, right?

NiLuJe · 10-11-2019, 12:03 PM

It takes less space than my actual Library, IIRC, but that wouldn't mean much, as it depends chiefly on the amount of books you've got in there, and then to another large extent to how well each cover compresses.

NiLuJe · 10-11-2019, 12:04 PM

Err, .kobo is where all your Kobo-synced content happens to live. So, technically, books.

.

droopy · 10-11-2019, 12:07 PM

Ooooooh! I have an idea... since our Kobos are all greyscale, why doesn't Calibre send greyscale images to our Kobo? That should save a lot of space since colored images take up more space than grayscale, right?

NiLuJe · 10-11-2019, 12:07 PM

@droopy: It does. That was my first answer.

droopy · 10-11-2019, 12:15 PM

Gotcha.
I have the KoboTouchExtended Driver. When I go to Preferences >Plugins> KoboTouchExtended> Customize_Plugin> Collections_covers_&_uploads tab> Upload_covers section, I see "Upload black and white covers". Would this be what you recommend I do?

droopy · 10-11-2019, 12:21 PM

Also, what can I do for the 800 books that are now on my Forma. Is there a way to get all the colored pics on the device replaced with grayscaled ones? If so, how?

NiLuJe · 10-11-2019, 12:54 PM

@droopy: That's the settings yeah (i.e., on your screenshot, it's left to Nickel, calibre won't generate nor upload anything).

The Kobo Utilities plugin can re-process & re-send covers, but you'll want the patched version I linked to earlier, as the current release is missing some of the new options, which might lead to weird results.

FWIW, my own recommendation is to basically tick everything in there (i.e., Upload, B&W, Dither, PNG, Keep AR, Letterbox), but that's partly my personal preferences, so YMMV

.

10-11-2019, 11:54 AM	#1
droopy Guru Posts: 833 Karma: 2912460 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: Kobo Forma	Can I safely delete the ".kobo-images" folder? It's taking 500MB of space. When I connect my Kobo Forma to my computer, I see that there's a folder called Code: .kobo-images What's that for? Do I need to keep that folder? It's taking 500 MB of space. Last edited by droopy; 10-14-2019 at 02:47 AM.

10-11-2019, 11:56 AM	#2
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,478 Karma: 26012494 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	Surprisingly enough it's for... the thumbnail images shown in the Library, Details & Sleep screens. There's a few knobs in the Calibre Kobo driver to tweak how they're encoded which may help (very slightly) reduce their size, but some of those of those knobs may not have made it to the KoboUtilities plugin, yet, see this post. Last edited by NiLuJe; 10-11-2019 at 12:06 PM.

10-11-2019, 12:15 PM	#13
droopy Guru Posts: 833 Karma: 2912460 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: Kobo Forma	Gotcha. I have the KoboTouchExtended Driver. When I go to Preferences >Plugins> KoboTouchExtended> Customize_Plugin> Collections_covers_&_uploads tab> Upload_covers section, I see "Upload black and white covers". Would this be what you recommend I do? Attached Thumbnails

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10-11-2019, 12:00 PM	#4
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,478 Karma: 26012494 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@droopy: You can disable that on Calibre's side. But even if you did, you'd only be delaying the inevitable, as Nickel itself will generate those on-demand, and they will generally take more space that way. Patching has no effect on this.

10-11-2019, 12:01 PM	#6
droopy Guru Posts: 833 Karma: 2912460 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: Kobo Forma	NiLuJe, I'm curious... on your Forma, how big is your .kobo-images folder?

10-11-2019, 12:03 PM	#9
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,478 Karma: 26012494 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	It takes less space than my actual Library, IIRC, but that wouldn't mean much, as it depends chiefly on the amount of books you've got in there, and then to another large extent to how well each cover compresses.

10-11-2019, 12:04 PM	#10
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,478 Karma: 26012494 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	Err, .kobo is where all your Kobo-synced content happens to live. So, technically, books. .

10-11-2019, 12:07 PM	#11
droopy Guru Posts: 833 Karma: 2912460 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: Kobo Forma	Ooooooh! I have an idea... since our Kobos are all greyscale, why doesn't Calibre send greyscale images to our Kobo? That should save a lot of space since colored images take up more space than grayscale, right?

10-11-2019, 12:21 PM	#14
droopy Guru Posts: 833 Karma: 2912460 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: Kobo Forma	Also, what can I do for the 800 books that are now on my Forma. Is there a way to get all the colored pics on the device replaced with grayscaled ones? If so, how?

10-11-2019, 12:54 PM	#15
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,478 Karma: 26012494 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@droopy: That's the settings yeah (i.e., on your screenshot, it's left to Nickel, calibre won't generate nor upload anything). The Kobo Utilities plugin can re-process & re-send covers, but you'll want the patched version I linked to earlier, as the current release is missing some of the new options, which might lead to weird results. FWIW, my own recommendation is to basically tick everything in there (i.e., Upload, B&W, Dither, PNG, Keep AR, Letterbox), but that's partly my personal preferences, so YMMV .