Missing Table of Contents

hmf · 03-29-2011, 02:58 PM

I've got some epubs with working Table of Contents. When I add them to Calibre the TOC is not present . If I drag it directly to my E-reader the TOC is present. Why does Calibre seem to delete the TOC without any action on my part...just adding it to Calibre deletes it. It does the same thing with Mobis. Is there a setting I enabled that makes this happen?

Manichean · 03-29-2011, 03:04 PM

How exactly did you determine that they have no TOC after you've added them to Calibre? Did you do anything except import them, an ePub->ePub conversion maybe?
The only thing Calibre does when adding a file to the library is copying that file into the folder and reading its metadata, so I highly doubt that only adding would cause this, except if something is horribly broken.

hmf · 03-29-2011, 03:11 PM

I've opened them in Sigil, and loaded them on my e-reader. Neither show the TOC after simply adding the book to Calibre. As noted earlier dragging and dropping the file to my reader the TOC shows up. This is on a Kindle and the Chapter markings are not present on the Progress bar when using Calibre.

Moderator Notice
Oops, accidental edit removed

itimpi · 03-29-2011, 03:48 PM

The moment you open the file is Sigil it will attempt to rebuild your table of contents. Your test would only be valid if you added the book to Calibre and then tried it on your device.

The TOC should be unchanged as when you add an epub book to calibre it simply copies it into its library area and makes no change to it.

kovidgoyal · 03-29-2011, 03:50 PM

Umm, in any case how are you adding epubs directly to a Kindle?

Manichean · 03-29-2011, 03:51 PM

There's some discontinuity there- you're saying that you've opened the book in Sigil, and next you're talking about chapter marks on the Kindle. Sigil only opens ePub books, and the Kindle only opens MOBI books. What happened between those two steps?

hmf · 03-29-2011, 04:03 PM

Sorry for not being precise.
Kovid-I dragged and dropped the file to the Documents folder on the Kindle.
Manichean-If I open the file directly from Sigil the TOC shows up on the left side as well as in the TOC Editor. Then if I add the file to Calibre and then open the file in my Calibre library with Sigil the TOC is gone from the left side as well as any entries in the TOC Editor.
Converting the epub to mobi does nothing with the TOC. In other words its not there.
Very strange behavior to say the least.

Manichean · 03-29-2011, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hmf

Kovid-I dragged and dropped the file to the Documents folder on the Kindle.

It shouldn't be possible to open the file if you're talking about the original ePub format book here. The Kindle isn't able to read ePubs.
(The original format is ePub, right?)

Quote:

Manichean-If I open the file directly from Sigil the TOC shows up on the left side as well as in the TOC Editor. Then if I add the file to Calibre and then open the file in my Calibre library with Sigil the TOC is gone from the left side as well as any entries in the TOC Editor.

I don't know enough about Sigil to comment on that, but I still highly doubt that importing the file into Calibre could somehow wipe out the TOC. Importing the file is really all you do? After you've opened the file in Sigil the first time, do you, by any chance, save it before closing and importing?

Quote:

Converting the epub to mobi does nothing with the TOC. In other words its not there.

This is rather unsurprising, depending on the XPath expressions you set in chapter detection- if there is no TOC in the file, it can, of course, not be converted.

hmf · 03-29-2011, 04:13 PM

Oops sorry...I have 2 versions of the book..in epub and mobi. If I drag the mobi version to my kindle the TOC markings are there. If I add the mobi to Calibre the TOC markings disappear when adding the mobi from Calibre (without any further conversion). Hope that's clear.
The same behavior as with the epub version.

theducks · 03-29-2011, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hmf

I've opened them in Sigil, and loaded them on my e-reader. Neither show the TOC after simply adding the book to Calibre. As noted earlier dragging and dropping the file to my reader the TOC shows up. This is on a Kindle and the Chapter markings are not present on the Progress bar when using Calibre.

Sigil 3.x trashes TOC's that are not built solely from H# tags
Sigil 4 (now on beta) will allow existing TOC to be maintain (but you will have to do the edit yourself if you re-arrange the files in the EPUB)

ldolse · 03-29-2011, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hmf

Oops sorry...I have 2 versions of the book..in epub and mobi. If I drag the mobi version to my kindle the TOC markings are there. If I add the mobi to Calibre the TOC markings disappear when adding the mobi from Calibre (without any further conversion). Hope that's clear.
The same behavior as with the epub version.

You continue to be clear as mud. Calibre won't delete a TOC of an already created file using any basic library management function. You mention having an epub and a mobi, but you make no mention of how you got two different formats, or what Sigil has to do with the process, which you already mention using.

Here are the basics -

1. Calibre will use the existing TOC when doing a conversion from epub->mobi or mobi->epub. If the TOC has been trashed then Calibre may attempt to autodetect/auto-generate a new one, but this will often fail unless you've properly configured it. Based on this thread it's highly unlikely you've configured the detection.

2. Opening an epub in Sigil 0.3.x will destroy your existing TOC and build a new one. With many ebooks the automatically generated TOC that Sigil creates will have no content, i.e. Sigil destroys the TOC. Sigil beta will preserve the TOC as theducks mentioned.

If you used Sigil and this happened this brings you back to point 1.

hmf · 03-30-2011, 01:53 AM

Sorry for being so imprecise in my explanations but all I'm doing is adding the book to Calibre. Then opening the added book in Sigil 4 beta. No TOC...The same book if opened in Sigil without first adding to Calibre show the Chapters and TOC.
Just to check i've got a mobi file of the same book. (I downloaded two copies of the same book in different formats.) If I load it directly in my Kindle the Chapter markings are there. If I add the book to Calibre and then load it to the Kindle from Calibre the Chapter marklings disappear.
It seems the act of loading the book into Calibre affects the TOC despite what you say. Could it be a setting in Calibre I've overlooked or some interaction with a plugin I've added. I know this is grasping at straws but I can't seem to resolve this issue.

cybmole · 03-30-2011, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hmf

(I downloaded two copies of the same book in different formats.).

and there we have it - your 2 downloads are clearly not the same, even if they were bundled together, they may be of the same book text but features like TOC are not the same in both format downloads. not calibre's fault.

suggest you add only the epub version to calibre - fix it up with sigil or via an epub to epub conversion in calibre with various boxes ticked. once your epub is good to go with with all bells n whistles working, then convert it to mobi

hmf · 03-30-2011, 02:14 AM

Huh..?? They both show the TOC and Chapters...the epub in Sigil and the mobi on my Kindle. While they may not be exactly the same their basic character...showing the TOC and chapters in Sigil and the Kindle respectively speak to that. Intuitively I know that Calibre should not do what its doing but it is. (If someone has access to Demonoid I can direct you to the book in question. I hope this isn't improper.)

What's even stranger...If I save the book to Disk and open the saved book the TOC and Chapters suddenly reappear. The same file if (in the Calibre library, if opened in Sigil do not show the Chapters or TOC in the editor.

ldolse · 03-30-2011, 03:03 AM

You are confusing the issue and this forum's ability to support you if you are discussing epub files and Sigil if you're only reading original mobi files on your Kindle. Cybmole is correct that the two different formats are entirely unrelated to one another, it doesn't matter what you see that's 'similar'.

The only theory I can come up with is you bought a book on Amazon which contains a TOC. Possibly you didn't understand how to remove the DRM or get that into your local Calibre library so you downloaded epub and mobi copies from the Darknet. Darknet does not equal Retail - they are not the same thing at all in most cases. Of course I'm just making up theories since you still haven't provided any of this sort of detail.

If you want help you need to start describing what happens from A to Z (including how you got the books and steps taken to transfer them, etc), and leave out extraneous details like what alternative ebook downloads in other formats look like.

on a side note, based on your descriptions of Sigil's GUI it's fairly clear you don't have a good grasp of what an epub TOC is. The left hand side pane of Sigil is not a 'TOC' - an epub is made up of many files and the left hand side shows the file list.

03-29-2011, 02:58 PM	#1
hmf Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 108 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	Missing Table of Contents I've got some epubs with working Table of Contents. When I add them to Calibre the TOC is not present . If I drag it directly to my E-reader the TOC is present. Why does Calibre seem to delete the TOC without any action on my part...just adding it to Calibre deletes it. It does the same thing with Mobis. Is there a setting I enabled that makes this happen?

03-29-2011, 03:11 PM	#3
hmf Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 108 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	I've opened them in Sigil, and loaded them on my e-reader. Neither show the TOC after simply adding the book to Calibre. As noted earlier dragging and dropping the file to my reader the TOC shows up. This is on a Kindle and the Chapter markings are not present on the Progress bar when using Calibre. Moderator Notice Oops, accidental edit removed Last edited by theducks; 03-29-2011 at 08:35 PM.

03-29-2011, 04:13 PM	#9
hmf Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 108 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	Oops sorry...I have 2 versions of the book..in epub and mobi. If I drag the mobi version to my kindle the TOC markings are there. If I add the mobi to Calibre the TOC markings disappear when adding the mobi from Calibre (without any further conversion). Hope that's clear. The same behavior as with the epub version. Last edited by hmf; 03-29-2011 at 04:17 PM.

03-30-2011, 01:53 AM	#12
hmf Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 108 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	Sorry for being so imprecise in my explanations but all I'm doing is adding the book to Calibre. Then opening the added book in Sigil 4 beta. No TOC...The same book if opened in Sigil without first adding to Calibre show the Chapters and TOC. Just to check i've got a mobi file of the same book. (I downloaded two copies of the same book in different formats.) If I load it directly in my Kindle the Chapter markings are there. If I add the book to Calibre and then load it to the Kindle from Calibre the Chapter marklings disappear. It seems the act of loading the book into Calibre affects the TOC despite what you say. Could it be a setting in Calibre I've overlooked or some interaction with a plugin I've added. I know this is grasping at straws but I can't seem to resolve this issue. Last edited by hmf; 03-30-2011 at 02:19 AM.

03-30-2011, 02:14 AM	#14
hmf Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 108 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	Huh..?? They both show the TOC and Chapters...the epub in Sigil and the mobi on my Kindle. While they may not be exactly the same their basic character...showing the TOC and chapters in Sigil and the Kindle respectively speak to that. Intuitively I know that Calibre should not do what its doing but it is. (If someone has access to Demonoid I can direct you to the book in question. I hope this isn't improper.) What's even stranger...If I save the book to Disk and open the saved book the TOC and Chapters suddenly reappear. The same file if (in the Calibre library, if opened in Sigil do not show the Chapters or TOC in the editor. Last edited by hmf; 03-30-2011 at 02:28 AM.

03-29-2011, 03:04 PM	#2
Manichean Wizard Posts: 3,130 Karma: 91256 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Germany Device: Cybook Gen3	How exactly did you determine that they have no TOC after you've added them to Calibre? Did you do anything except import them, an ePub->ePub conversion maybe? The only thing Calibre does when adding a file to the library is copying that file into the folder and reading its metadata, so I highly doubt that only adding would cause this, except if something is horribly broken.

03-29-2011, 03:48 PM	#4
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	The moment you open the file is Sigil it will attempt to rebuild your table of contents. Your test would only be valid if you added the book to Calibre and then tried it on your device. The TOC should be unchanged as when you add an epub book to calibre it simply copies it into its library area and makes no change to it.

03-29-2011, 03:50 PM	#5
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,170 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Umm, in any case how are you adding epubs directly to a Kindle?

03-29-2011, 03:51 PM	#6
Manichean Wizard Posts: 3,130 Karma: 91256 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Germany Device: Cybook Gen3	There's some discontinuity there- you're saying that you've opened the book in Sigil, and next you're talking about chapter marks on the Kindle. Sigil only opens ePub books, and the Kindle only opens MOBI books. What happened between those two steps?

03-29-2011, 04:03 PM	#7
hmf Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 108 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	Sorry for not being precise. Kovid-I dragged and dropped the file to the Documents folder on the Kindle. Manichean-If I open the file directly from Sigil the TOC shows up on the left side as well as in the TOC Editor. Then if I add the file to Calibre and then open the file in my Calibre library with Sigil the TOC is gone from the left side as well as any entries in the TOC Editor. Converting the epub to mobi does nothing with the TOC. In other words its not there. Very strange behavior to say the least.

03-30-2011, 03:03 AM	#15
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	You are confusing the issue and this forum's ability to support you if you are discussing epub files and Sigil if you're only reading original mobi files on your Kindle. Cybmole is correct that the two different formats are entirely unrelated to one another, it doesn't matter what you see that's 'similar'. The only theory I can come up with is you bought a book on Amazon which contains a TOC. Possibly you didn't understand how to remove the DRM or get that into your local Calibre library so you downloaded epub and mobi copies from the Darknet. Darknet does not equal Retail - they are not the same thing at all in most cases. Of course I'm just making up theories since you still haven't provided any of this sort of detail. If you want help you need to start describing what happens from A to Z (including how you got the books and steps taken to transfer them, etc), and leave out extraneous details like what alternative ebook downloads in other formats look like. on a side note, based on your descriptions of Sigil's GUI it's fairly clear you don't have a good grasp of what an epub TOC is. The left hand side pane of Sigil is not a 'TOC' - an epub is made up of many files and the left hand side shows the file list.

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