Possible bug I noticed if a chapter has a title page on a separate text file

dibster · 07-04-2019, 12:23 PM

I'm currently reading It by Stephen King, and for anyone who has read the book, you know there are Derry Interludes between each Part. Now the way the ebook is formatted, the Derry Interlude title page is its own separate text file, while the actual text of the chapter is on its own file. The internal TOC in the ebook points to the title page when one navigates to each interlude. So the problem is that the actual text of the interlude itself is not linked to at all in the TOC, and it seems that the Kobo Clara HD doesn't recognize the text as being part of the Interlude chapter. So if I'm reading the interlude, the navigation bar will think that I'm in the "Cover" chapter, and if I use the navigation buttons to skip around, it will jump me back to the cover page. Furthermore, if I close the book while i'm in the middle of one of these interludes and open another book, and then open It again, the reader won't remember my spot and jump back to the cover page.

I can reproduce this problem in other non-linked pages (such as "More from this author"-type pages, though it's not as much of an issue for these pages). This also happens in the last Harry Potter book where the Epilogue in the TOC links to the "Nineteen Years Later" title page, and the text of the epilogue itself isn't linked to in the TOC.

I haven't noticed this behavior in other readers, so I'm thinking it's mostly a Kobo issue, and I'm curious to see if other people have encountered this. I assume it could be corrected by editing the epub and merging the title page with the text with a page break in between, but I'd prefer not to have to do that for every book.

rashkae · 07-04-2019, 03:01 PM

The navigation buttons not working is new (to me,), and the conditions to replicate not saving current page are different than the one I already identified. I would suggest using the Calibre ScrambleEbook plugin to create a copy of the affected books you can post here for further analysis.

Since bugs affecting Epub navigation like this were introduced with the recent 4.15 firmware, I suggest either downgrading your firmware, (links to the manually installed firmware files can be found in the developer forum)., or use the KoboTouchExtended Calibre plugin to load the books on Kobo in it's native Kepub format. (Note, in Kepub, books formatted like these will have misbehaving page number, but as far as I know, navigation through the book will work perfectly.)

DNSB · 07-04-2019, 06:24 PM

If it's any help, I think that is an issue that has been reported to Kobo. Could you check the attached epub and let me know if it matches your symptoms.

dibster · 07-05-2019, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

If it's any help, I think that is an issue that has been reported to Kobo. Could you check the attached epub and let me know if it matches your symptoms.

Just loaded this on my Kobo and the issue does occur! Glad to know its been reported (It was difficult to search for such a specific issue so I couldn't find any other threads about it lol), and hopefully it'll be fixed. I am on the latest 4.15.12920 firmware. I'm not sure if it's limited to this firmware or to all of them as I only noticed it once I read this particular book.

davidfor · 07-05-2019, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dibster

Just loaded this on my Kobo and the issue does occur! Glad to know its been reported (It was difficult to search for such a specific issue so I couldn't find any other threads about it lol), and hopefully it'll be fixed. I am on the latest 4.15.12920 firmware. I'm not sure if it's limited to this firmware or to all of them as I only noticed it once I read this particular book.

A problem related to this is discussed in the 4.15.12920 firmware thread. I can't remember if exactly this scenario came up. But, I'm pretty sure they have the same root cause.

And yes, it has been reported to Kobo. But, I encourage everyone who has a problem to report them. And development team has prioritise the fixes and other changes being made. If a problem gets reported by a customer, it will always be seen as more important than something a developer finds. And the more reports, the more important fixing the problem will be.

rashkae · 07-05-2019, 08:21 AM

If only there were a way for us mere mortals to report bugs that doesn't involve doing the reset device dance with tier-1 support.

davidfor · 07-05-2019, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rashkae

If only there were a way for us mere mortals to report bugs that doesn't involve doing the reset device dance with tier-1 support.

Tell them that you have already done it.

07-04-2019, 12:23 PM	#1
dibster Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2019 Device: Kobo Clara HD	Possible bug I noticed if a chapter has a title page on a separate text file I'm currently reading It by Stephen King, and for anyone who has read the book, you know there are Derry Interludes between each Part. Now the way the ebook is formatted, the Derry Interlude title page is its own separate text file, while the actual text of the chapter is on its own file. The internal TOC in the ebook points to the title page when one navigates to each interlude. So the problem is that the actual text of the interlude itself is not linked to at all in the TOC, and it seems that the Kobo Clara HD doesn't recognize the text as being part of the Interlude chapter. So if I'm reading the interlude, the navigation bar will think that I'm in the "Cover" chapter, and if I use the navigation buttons to skip around, it will jump me back to the cover page. Furthermore, if I close the book while i'm in the middle of one of these interludes and open another book, and then open It again, the reader won't remember my spot and jump back to the cover page. I can reproduce this problem in other non-linked pages (such as "More from this author"-type pages, though it's not as much of an issue for these pages). This also happens in the last Harry Potter book where the Epilogue in the TOC links to the "Nineteen Years Later" title page, and the text of the epilogue itself isn't linked to in the TOC. I haven't noticed this behavior in other readers, so I'm thinking it's mostly a Kobo issue, and I'm curious to see if other people have encountered this. I assume it could be corrected by editing the epub and merging the title page with the text with a page break in between, but I'd prefer not to have to do that for every book.

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07-04-2019, 03:01 PM	#2
rashkae Wizard Posts: 1,147 Karma: 5061953 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo Aura HD	The navigation buttons not working is new (to me,), and the conditions to replicate not saving current page are different than the one I already identified. I would suggest using the Calibre ScrambleEbook plugin to create a copy of the affected books you can post here for further analysis. Since bugs affecting Epub navigation like this were introduced with the recent 4.15 firmware, I suggest either downgrading your firmware, (links to the manually installed firmware files can be found in the developer forum)., or use the KoboTouchExtended Calibre plugin to load the books on Kobo in it's native Kepub format. (Note, in Kepub, books formatted like these will have misbehaving page number, but as far as I know, navigation through the book will work perfectly.)

07-05-2019, 08:21 AM	#6
rashkae Wizard Posts: 1,147 Karma: 5061953 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo Aura HD	If only there were a way for us mere mortals to report bugs that doesn't involve doing the reset device dance with tier-1 support.

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