Intermittant Problem Connecting Fire HD to Calibre

[pjmpjm]

I've used Calibre for nearly two years now, with an earlier Kindle and an earlier Fire, with absolutely no problems connecting them. Calibre has become an important part of my book-reading life. And, when I received my new Fire HD 10 for Christmas, I had no trouble with that either.

Now, however, most of the time (but not always) when I 'plug in' my HD 10 to my Windows 10 Satellite laptop, Calibre (newest version) doesn't show signs that it's connected . . . doesn't show the extra 'device' column nor the 'add to device button.'

Strangely, when I go into Explorer and check which devices are connected to my laptop, I often (but not always) see the Fire icon, but when I click on it, I usually (but not always) get the 'This folder is empty' message. But sometimes I see no icon at all.

Here's what I've tried over the past ten days . . .

1. Experimenting with four different USB to micro port cables.

2. Trying all three USB ports. (Doesn't seem to make a difference.)

3. Trying the two earlier Kindles in all combinations. (They work fine.)

4. Re-installing (the same) newest version of Calibre.

5. Regularly re-booting Calibre.

6. Regularly re-booting the Fire.

7. Rebooting the Windows 10 OS (very time-consuming).

Eventually, after repeatedly trying all possible combinations and rebooting many times, I can usually get Calibre to talk to the computer again, but I'm so far unable to replicate what it is I'm doing that makes the difference.

My guesses, so far, are:

1. Faulty micro port on the Fire HD 10.

2. Conflict with the new Android OS (not used by my older Fire).

3. Conflict with other software on my laptop.

Can anyone help, or point me in the right direction?

Any assistance would be very much appreciated.

[kovidgoyal]

Have you tried resetting your Fire?

[pjmpjm]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Have you tried resetting your Fire?

No. Would this involve clearing all data, books and apps?

[kovidgoyal]

Yes . Or use one of the wireless connection methods described here: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....kindle-fire-hd

[pjmpjm]

Thanks, kovidgoyal . . . very much appreciated.

[pjmpjm]

Thanks to kovid's advice, I've now enabled a Calibre wi-fi link to my Fire's Silk browser, allowing me to access all of Calibre's books there. As well, I've installed Calibre Companion, so I can transfer Calibre books directly to my Fire to read on that app. Am very pleased with these new options. Now, what I'd really like, is to be able to transfer my Calibre books straight into my Fire HD's regular 'Books' section directly, like I could do with my USB cable. Any chance that's possible?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by pjmpjm

Thanks to kovid's advice, I've now enabled a Calibre wi-fi link to my Fire's Silk browser, allowing me to access all of Calibre's books there. As well, I've installed Calibre Companion, so I can transfer Calibre books directly to my Fire to read on that app. Am very pleased with these new options. Now, what I'd really like, is to be able to transfer my Calibre books straight into my Fire HD's regular 'Books' section directly, like I could do with my USB cable. Any chance that's possible?

If you use Calibre Companion's (CC's) wireless device connection then it behaves much like using a USB cable. Books are transferred to wherever you specify in CC's settings, which on Amazon devices by default is "Books". How does this differ from what you are asking for?

[pjmpjm]

Originally Posted by chaley

If you use Calibre Companion's (CC's) wireless device connection then it behaves much like using a USB cable. Books are transferred to wherever you specify in CC's settings, which on Amazon devices by default is "Books". How does this differ from what you are asking for?

"then it behaves much like using a USB cable"

Chaley . . . yours is the absolutely golden reply I was hoping for! As far as I can see now, CC only sets up its own 'reading place' on the Fire, a whole new area on your Kindle Fire. You can transfer books from your Calibre Library to your heart's content but you can only read them on the special CC 'page' and can't integrate them with the rest of your books in 'Books.' Which is what I want. I want to duplicate what I was doing so nicely, for two years, using the USB cable.

So I'll go back now and study this further. I'm very, very grateful to hear this advice from you, because I've almost been pulling my hair out . . .

[chaley]

Originally Posted by pjmpjm

So I'll go back now and study this further. I'm very, very grateful to hear this advice from you, because I've almost been pulling my hair out . . .

I have a Fire 7" (new gen) that I use to test CC. If I use CC to transfer an amazon-format book (mobi, azw3) to my Fire into the default folder (Books in main memory) then I see the books on the Fire's books page (the replacement for the carousel).

You can use CC's library manager if you want, but doing so isn't required. Some users use CC in the way you are describing -- only as a transport (a cable replacement). If you do use CC as a manager then it will launch the built-in reader app on amazon-format books.

If you transfer epub books then you must side-load an epub reader (e.g. FBReader) onto the Fire.

Note that the new Fire OS (Android 5) has problems if you put your books on an SD card. You won't see the books on the books page. This is not a CC issue, but is instead a limitation of the current Fire 5 OS.

[pjmpjm]

Thanks again, Chaley. Much appreciated. The first thing I noticed this evening is that by default CC puts my transferred books into the Fire 'Books' directory in the main memory . . . or so says my 'ES File Explorer' (or whatever the Android equivalent of 'File Explorer' is called) but that's NOT where all my other Kindle books have gone by default. And the books there in 'Books' do NOT show up on the new equivalent of the old 'carousel.' (This seems to be at odds with what you reported about your own Fire.)

Anyhow, searching the main directory, I found, quite unexpected, that all of my Fire books of all formats were clustered in the 'Documents' directory together with all the genuine documents. I then naively reasoned that 'Documents' is where books need to go, if they're to show up 'normally' on the Fire. (Mind you, I didn't put the books into 'Documents' manually . . . that's where all my Kindle books went automatically.

So I carefully changed all my 'transfer settings' in CC to that 'Documents' directory. However, when I then re-connected CC to my computer, a flurry of book transfers started taking place (I have 16,000 ebooks in my Calibre Library) so I stopped it immediately. As you wrote at first, you'd think that CC would drop the books by default into the correct directory, so that they'd show up on the device.

Before I do serious damage to my Fire I thought I'd ask you for more feedback to what I've just written. I hate to trouble you, but this would really, really help me solve my problem without 'resetting' my Kindle Fire. And it would be a joy indeed to be able to use CC to transfer books exactly like I transferred them for nearly two years with the USB cable.

Originally Posted by chaley

I have a Fire 7" (new gen) that I use to test CC. If I use CC to transfer an amazon-format book (mobi, azw3) to my Fire into the default folder (Books in main memory) then I see the books on the Fire's books page (the replacement for the carousel).

You can use CC's library manager if you want, but doing so isn't required. Some users use CC in the way you are describing -- only as a transport (a cable replacement). If you do use CC as a manager then it will launch the built-in reader app on amazon-format books.

If you transfer epub books then you must side-load an epub reader (e.g. FBReader) onto the Fire.

Note that the new Fire OS (Android 5) has problems if you put your books on an SD card. You won't see the books on the books page. This is not a CC issue, but is instead a limitation of the current Fire 5 OS.

[chaley]

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