12-09-2011, 05:34 PM | #1 |
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Important Update for iOS 5 Users
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12-09-2011, 06:39 PM | #2 |
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I don't have an iOS device, but I have been following the developers on this. I believe it is necessary because of a change that Apple made that is resulting in deletions of data on their devices. It's not just Kobo or a Kobo problem.
They have been looking for some sort of workaround for awhile. I'm glad that have it, though from my perspective as a non-iOS user, the Apple policies that make third party apps less functional are unfortunate. My understanding is that when data from their own products/services/apps get deleted, the data lives on in their servers. Last edited by taming; 12-09-2011 at 06:41 PM. |
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12-10-2011, 06:45 AM | #3 |
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been using this version for a couple of days
with previous version i lost many items (totally from library) 3 times in 2 weeks with this new one, instead of it deleting them totally, it removes them from iOS only and leaves them in the library and just gives a message in iOS of tap to download so far this update is looking good. have mine set to always keep the latest 5 (seems to store about 15 before it auto removes from device) |
12-10-2011, 05:10 PM | #4 |
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Here's the skinny on the changes.
iOS5 has iCloud, which will backup data from an app to your iCloud account, everyone gets 5GB for free, you want more, you can pay for it. Typically apps store data in the Documents folder within the application, and yes, books were being stored there. Apple had new data storage guidelines for iOS 5 which state that only user generated data can remain in the Documents folder, and downloaded books are not seen as user generated data and so have to be relocated elsewhere, usually the Caches folder within the Library folder of the app. The problem with the caches folder is, and this is another iOS5 new feature, if you are running low on "disk" space (note this is storage space, not the memory capacity) on your device then the OS will decided to delete data from an application. What this means is your books would be deleted, and you would need to download them again, obviously not a good user experience. Many developers were in this position and somewhat annoyed that user's data would be deleted. The Kobo app had to be modified to meet these new Guidelines, and version 5.0 did do so. In iOS 5.0.1 Apple introduced a "do not back up" flag, which allowed developers to store content in the Caches folder, and set this flag on a file / folder and therefore when disk space was low, the OS would not remove those items. Therefore users books would not be deleted. The blog post is there to explain to users what is going on and what the changes are, and, if they are on iOS 5.0, they should upgrade to iOS 5.0.1 for the best user experience. |
12-10-2011, 05:19 PM | #5 |
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12-10-2011, 07:33 PM | #6 |
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But it is so slow. I ended up turning off all the alerts and comments etc. Page turns remind me of eink,tap the button and a second later a new page. Oh when oh when will an updated android version with full text justification be released?
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12-11-2011, 04:49 AM | #7 |
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thanks for the update on how it works, it makes sense what has been happening now, just wish apps where allowed to make use of more available space, I have a 64 GB touch with plenty of free space so don't know why apple prevent the apps from using it
out of interest, how much space are apps allowed to use ? |
12-11-2011, 05:02 AM | #8 | |
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Quote:
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12-11-2011, 05:28 AM | #9 |
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thanks for update, but, I am getting confused now over this
I have about 10 GB free on my iPod Kobo app is using about 200 MB This should easily allow my full library to be stored on the device (only 24 books at the moment), it has currently removed 5 books from device due to not enough space this new update is much better as its only removed the books from the device and not my library, just can't see how it only stores so few not a complaint, fairly happy with new version, just trying to understand it sorry if these are dumb questions or would be more suited to an apple forum |
12-11-2011, 07:16 AM | #10 |
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Books are stored in a "cache" area; not the regular storage. So the question has to be ... How much of that 10 GB is CACHE and how much is considered DOCUMENTS (for user created data).
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12-11-2011, 04:21 PM | #11 | |
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So, we'll take it we are running iOS 5.0.1 and Kobo app version 5.1 There are options in the setting for the app for how many current reads will we keep: 10 most recent items 5 most recent items my current read no items What this actually means is that we will set X number of books with the "do not back up" flag. What this actually does is a) tell iOS that these items should not be backed up to your iCloud account, if they are in a folder where this would happen, and b) when the device is in a low storage situation do NOT delete these X items. Given the above, if iOS 5 detects low disk space the following will happen if you have a library with 30 books. 10 most recent reads selected Up to 10 most recent books will be preserved all other books will be deleted by the OS. 5 most recent reads selected Up to 5 most recent books will be preserved all other books will be deleted by the OS. my current read Your current read will be preserved all other books will be deleted by the OS no items all books in your library will be deleted by the OS One thing to note is that the OS might not delete all other books, it will delete enough items to free up a certain amount of disk space. I guess we could have an option to keep all your books, and I will mention that as there might be a technical reason we don't do this, beyond Apple not wanting apps to store lots of data on device, however, in our case, we find a lot of users will load up their device with all their books and then go offline, so if the OS decides, on it's own, to delete your books and you're offline, you cannot download them until you have a network connection. Last edited by Sharkus; 12-11-2011 at 04:57 PM. |
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12-12-2011, 02:11 PM | #12 |
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Many thanks for the detailed explanation
I understand what its doing now and why with previous version I was losing books |
12-12-2011, 03:06 PM | #13 | |
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I did ask about simply marking all books with this flag and the response was that it's not likely, due to the app possibly being rejected by Apple, as they may not take kindly to us explicitly storing ≥200 MB of data on the device, when, technically the user can obtain it again. |
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12-13-2011, 02:06 PM | #14 |
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thanks
can you clarify a bit more on the possible to lose books bit on previous version, it removed books from device and also removed them from my library with the current one it seems to just remove from device (get a message of tap to download after it has deleted some) is this new version likely to affect my library at all or just books on the device? Thanks |
12-13-2011, 04:57 PM | #15 |
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The deletion from your Library was due to a) a server issue and b) an app issue. The app issue was fixed with version 5.1 of the app, so it should not happen any longer.
If you manually delete a book then it is basically just removed from your "I'm Reading" list, you can add it back in by going into either the Purchases or Trash lists and using the Undelete option. |
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