Kobo SD card problem

[figgs22]

calibre, version 0.7.49
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device

[Errno 13] Permission denied

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 64, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 382, in _upload_books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\usbms\driver.py", line 240, in upload_books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\usbms\cli.py", line 60, in put_file
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied


im trying to use calibre to add some ebooks and pdf manga onto the SD card but it refuses to work and keeps doing this....what do i do? i tried allowing access to the downloads for all users like someone suggested on another post and it did nothing please help

[zoran]

It says you have permission problem.
Linux or win? I do not load my books the way you do,
but I assume the card is properly mounted. On some
operating system only root might do that.
On the other side, I just recall people posting that they
have to connect device first and then fire Calibre. Or
vice versa.
My best bet is that card is not mounted to the system.

[figgs22]

im on windows and calibre recognizes the card like it shows the card and lets me choose it to be part of be sent but it wont send

[figgs22]

calibre, version 0.7.49
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device

[Errno 13] Permission denied: 'F:\\driveinfo.calibre'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 64, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 297, in _get_device_information
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\usbms\driver.py", line 97, in get_device_information
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\usbms\driver.py", line 83, in _update_driveinfo_file
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'F:\\driveinfo.calibre'


got that when i replugged it in i guess it wont recognize the card...how do i make it do so?

[46jimbo]

So what happens if you just manually load the books on to the card using Windows Explorer and then pop it into the Kobo? Can the Kobo see them?

[The Terminator]

They aren't library books are they?

[carlb]

What size is the memory card?

If it's more than 2Gb, I'd expect problems as the external SDHC card support in the wifi Kobo is bugware and has already been observed to fail in exactly the manner you describe.

The internal microSD support is a little better (it still stops locating any new books as soon as one damaged *.epub is found, but at least it doesn't give the SDHC card write errors on 4+Gb cards and doesn't go into an endless loop resetting itself and displaying "Kobo eReader is locating new content" upon hitting one bad file - both of which are known issues with Kobo wi-fi 1.7.4 and external SD/SDHC).

The easiest solution? Use 2Gb external SD cards instead of larger cards. They're the largest available size not to require the device actually properly support SDHC and they can often be had for under-$10 in local computer stores.

If you must use an external SDHC card, install a USB SD/SDHC card reader on your computer and use it (not the Kobo device) to copy the *.epub's to the big cards.

[taming]

I've used 4 & 8 GB cards without problems from either the Kobo-WiFi or Calibre. It may be a faulty port on the Kobo itself--that has happened to other folks.

[moffattm]

Is it possible the SD cards that are failing aren't properly formatted? From what I've read it is best to use a special format program rather than the one built into Windows. See http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free...tting-sd-card/ for more info on why this is so and to get the special formatter program.

Another possibility is that there are lots of fake SD cards floating around, especially on eBay, even for brand-name cards such as Sandisk. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcTYRblCfPg for a video about the fake cards or http://fightflashfraud.wordpress.com...-32gb-sd-card/ for more discussion.

[siraks]

did you delete any folders from the actual kobo itself?
there were a couple of empty folders left on mine from books i removed so i deleted those folders then got errors with calibre that it couldn't communicate with my device. i couldn't add or delete books, i tried a bunch of different things, then i just went to the home menu and did a factory reset and everything plays nice now.

luckily though i was only reading 1 book and had 10 loaded on there so it wasn't too much of a problem getting it back on.

[carlb]

Originally Posted by taming

I've used 4 & 8 GB cards without problems from either the Kobo-WiFi or Calibre. It may be a faulty port on the Kobo itself--that has happened to other folks.

I'd tried this with an external 16Gb card (a microSDHC in an SD-card adapter) and received the same sort of disk write error messages described by the original poster. The card was writable without issues if placed in a standard USB SD card reader on a desktop PC.

Oddly, the same 16Gb card, removed from the adapter, loaded with a mirror image of all Kobo wifi firmware partitions on the original 2Gb internal microSD card and installed internally did not display the same issues.

I have not tried 4Gb or 8Gb SDHC cards so don't know if this is an SDHC issue or a matter of larger cards taking more power. I've noticed that the big cards (32Gb as the largest commonly-used size) can actually make the green power LED on my desktop PC's card reader go out on an attempt to insert the card and not come back on until the card is removed. I haven't tried actually measuring how many milliampères are required to feed these beasts, but sometimes a valid 32Gb card will be unreadable or unreliable in a reader which is fine with 16Gb or other SDHC cards.

Another possibility is that you are running newer firmware? I'm on 1.7.4 now.

Originally Posted by moffattm

Is it possible the SD cards that are failing aren't properly formatted? From what I've read it is best to use a special format program rather than the one built into Windows.

Most new SDHC cards leave the factory pre-formatted to FAT32 and should not need to be reformatted unless you intend to install some other file system type. I'd expect NTFS is best avoided as Kobo is a Linux-based device, but simply leaving the FAT32 as-is should suffice when using the external SD card slot. (The internal card uses multiple partitions, one FAT32 and the rest Linux-native, but an externally-inserted card is best left as-is).

Originally Posted by moffattm

Another possibility is that there are lots of fake SD cards floating around, especially on eBay, even for brand-name cards such as Sandisk.

My 16Gb microSDHC card came from a local bricks-and-mortar compooper store (canadacomputers.com) and is not flotsam or jetsam retrieved from some polluted bay - be it the Bay of Pigs, eBay or even some pirate-infested cove of legend.

The write errors with this card only appear when it is in the external SD card slot on the Kobo. The same microSDHC card and SD adapter work fine on at least two desktop PC's (different readers, different OS'es) so the card itself is good.

I also note that a recent thread on this site had an individual user in Syracuse try external SDHC on Kobo wifi only to see it fail with the same issues; returning the unit to Kobo in North York for replacement fixed nothing.

Something is amiss; I have no idea whether it's hardware or firmware imposing the limitations but using the wi-fi Kobo to write to a 16Gb external SDHC card is failing with disk I/O errors where a 2Gb SD card would work fine.

[cutterjohn42]

Nope, cards are real. Bought 5 PNY 4GB class 4s from Staples for $10 apiece. Used a couple of them to write Nook Color custom fw images, one in my Archos A43IT, and another in my Viewsonic gTablet all fine.

I'm still thinking that this is a sw problem, but not am more likely suspecting the Kobo WiFi fw...

[nerys]

Its harder to find now but in the early days IT WAS possible to find NON SDHC 4gb SD cards. I have 4 of them (my tapwave zodiac's can read them so I got a bunch)

Did I read that right it has a MSD card inside? can I change that to something larger (say 2gb)

[carlb]

Originally Posted by nerys

Its harder to find now but in the early days IT WAS possible to find NON SDHC 4gb SD cards. I have 4 of them (my tapwave zodiac's can read them so I got a bunch)

Did I read that right it has a MSD card inside? can I change that to something larger (say 2gb)

The microSD card which comes with the Kobo wi-fi is 2Gb; it contains two Linux partitions for the Kobo firmware and the "factory reset" recovery image, leaving about 1Gb for your actual books.

As such, replacing it with another identical 2Gb microSD card would accomplish nothing.

Any upgrade path would therefore be microSDHC (using Linux 'dd' to make a bitwise-identical copy of everything which was on the old card and 'parted' to resize the FAT32 partition to use the rest of the new, larger card).

Even then, as the Kobo design is rather flimsy, there is some risk of damaging the device by taking it apart to swap the microSD card and then reassembling it after the upgrade.

[nerys]

ahhh I did not know it came with a 2gb card already and used a gig for itself. My bad.

yeah I have never seen a non sdhc 4gb MSD card - only Mini SD and Full SD.

is there any ROOM inside the device? you can get a MSD to FULL SD adapter. but its pretty thick I doubt there is sufficient room inside.