Kindle Colorsoft - no cover art in library

[spl237]

Having been using a Kindle Oasis for 8 years, managed by Calibre, I pre-ordered a Colorsoft, which arrived today.

I updated Calibre to 7.20 (running on Windows 10), plugged in the Colorsoft and told Calibre to sync my 600 or so books to it. The sync worked fine, and all my MOBIs were transferred to the Colorsoft - but none of them have cover art thumbnails in the library. (They all have cover art in their metadata.)

In fact, there isn't even the usual amazon-cover-bug folder visible on the Kindle. I tried copying the folder from my Oasis to the Colorsoft, but it made no difference. I have tried deleting everything and re-syncing, I've tried switching to AZW instead of MOBI - no joy.

I saw in another thread on here that someone had got covers syncing from Calibre to a 2024 Paperwhite, which I had assumed would be the same, but I can't get them to work.

Is there some setting I need to make somewhere in Calibre? It's so long since I set this up on my Oasis I can't remember.

Given the only real reason for getting a colour Kindle was so the library would show my cover art in colour, if the Kindle won't show cover art anyway, it'll be going back for a refund and I'll get a Kobo Libra Colour instead...

[DNSB]

There was some discussion about this when the Scribe switched to using MTP rather than USBMS for it's connection. One Mobileread user weto91 wrote a program to transfer the cover thumbnails from a calibre library to a Scribe (and multiple other Kindles). It might be worth checking to see if it will work with your Colorsoft. See this message for the link to the GitHub site.

[kovidgoyal]

amazon-cover-bug is created for MTP based kindle Scribes at the least. I don't have any 2024 kindles to test with so I cant say whether it will work for them, but as far as I know, it should and other people have reported it does. As long has the device has a vendor id of 0x1949 calibre assumes its a kindle and creates the amazon-cover-bug folder and puts the cover cache in there automatically.

[spl237]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

amazon-cover-bug is created for MTP based kindle Scribes at the least. I don't have any 2024 kindles to test with so I cant say whether it will work for them, but as far as I know, it should and other people have reported it does. As long has the device has a vendor id of 0x1949 calibre assumes its a kindle and creates the amazon-cover-bug folder and puts the cover cache in there automatically.

Hmmm. I definitely wasn't getting an amazon-cover-bug folder, or at least not visible in the directory with all the content that you can see via MTP.

Is there some way to check the vendor ID? Or to force Calibre to treat the Colorsoft as a Kindle in case it isn't by default?

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by spl237

Is there some way to check the vendor ID?

If you're using Windows, you can launch the Device Manager by searching for "Device Manager" in the search bar, and expand the "Portable Devices" section; your Kindle should be listed there.

By right-clicking on it and selecting "Properties", then the "Details" tab, you can select "Hardware Ids" in the dropdown list. The device ID is identified by VID_XXXX.

See the example attached; this is what I see for my Scribe: USB\VID_1949.

[spl237]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

If you're using Windows, you can launch the Device Manager by searching for "Device Manager" in the search bar, and expand the "Portable Devices" section; your Kindle should be listed there.

By right-clicking on it and selecting "Properties", then the "Details" tab, you can select "Hardware Ids" in the dropdown list. The device ID is identified by VID_XXXX.

See the example attached; this is what I see for my Scribe: USB\VID_1949.

OK, thanks for that - yes, the Colorsoft is definitely reporting itself as 1949.

Should I be able to see the amazon-cover-bug directory somewhere on the Kindle? If I browse its contents in Windows Explorer, the root directory only contains the usual documents / audible / fonts and screenshots folders, the .active_content_sandbox folder and Calibre's driveinfo and metadata files; no amazon-cover-bug directory, so it seems not to be created for some reason.

[kovidgoyal]

You can run calibre in debug mode and then send a book you will get lots of output telling you what it is doing.

[spl237]

Ran in debug mode; all looked ok except for this message, which looks relevant:

Failed to upload cover thumbnail to system/thumbnails with error: Failed to create the folder: system in ('Internal Storage',) with error: C:\r\src\src\calibre\devices\mtp\windows\content_e numeration.cpp:619:Failed to create folder:[hr=0x80070013 wCode=0] The media is write protected.

[spl237]

In spite of it claiming the media is write-protected, I can certainly drag and drop arbitrary files and folders into the Kindle's storage via Windows Explorer. Perhaps some specific location is write-protected on the Colorsoft?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by spl237

In spite of it claiming the media is write-protected, I can certainly drag and drop arbitrary files and folders into the Kindle's storage via Windows Explorer. Perhaps some specific location is write-protected on the Colorsoft?

Try drag and drop to the system\thumbnails folder on the device.

[spl237]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Try drag and drop to the system\thumbnails folder on the device.

Ah - should I be able to see the system/thumbnails folder? Because that isn't visible via Windows Explorer - I can see documents, audible, fonts and screenshots folders in the root, but no system folder.

Is it possible that the system folder and subfolders are not exposed via MTP?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by spl237

Ah - should I be able to see the system/thumbnails folder? Because that isn't visible via Windows Explorer - I can see documents, audible, fonts and screenshots folders in the root, but no system folder.

Is it possible that the system folder and subfolders are not exposed via MTP?

It is a hidden, but accessible, folder on older Kindle models. Try the file explorer option to display hidden items.

[alexstaravoitau]

I have the same issue with Colorsoft—I've tried running Calibre in debug mode, this is a (potentially) relevant bit from the logs:

Failed to upload cover thumbnail to system/thumbnails with error: Failed to create folder named system in ('Internal Storage',) with error: 2:PTP Layer error 200d: LIBMTP_Create_Folder: Could not send object info.

I'm running Calibre 7.20 on macOS Sonoma (14.5).

[kovidgoyal]

And is there a folder named system on your colorsoft? perhaps with different capitalisation?

[librosconmaria]

im having the exact issue while running the latest update of calibre. i got the kindle because i didnt love the grainy screen of the kobo but now i feel the same way if i cant get the covers on it then ill be returning. hopefully calibre will patch or create a plugin soon