How to backup books loaded into stanza

Glaurung-quena · 01-17-2012, 01:55 PM

ETA: look at the bottom of this post for my solution.

I have about 500 epubs (and more every week) loaded on Stanza on my Ipad 2. (using the latest version on IOS 5.0.1)

However, when I go into Itunes to attempt to back up my library by using the "file sharing" panel on Itunes to save them to my computer, Itunes can only see about 220 epubs loaded into stanza.

a) Is there something wrong, or is this just more evidence that Itunes is crap?

b) Is there any way to backup ALL the books I have loaded into stanza without using Itunes?

I made a backup of the data on the Ipad using Itunes but there doesn't seem to be a way to extract the data from the backup - I saw a reference to a program put out by the Stanza software developers to extract your books from an Itunes backup, but could not find a live link to it.

Thanks in advance!

===

Edit: I found a solution.

Lexcycle's stanza backup java app, which has become difficult to find, did not work for me (the best place to get it appears to be the internet archive's wayback machine).

Here's how I got my books out:
1. I installed a program that lets me bypass Itunes and look at the files loaded on the Ipad directly. Macroplant.com has several, including some that are free.
2. I found the stanza app folder in User\applications. App folders have cryptic and random names, but usually there's a file or folder inside them that is clearly named so you know what it is - the Stanza folder has a subfolder called Stanza, so that was easy.
3. Inside the stanza app folder, I copied the contents of the Documents folder, and its hidden .Stanza subfolder, to my computer.
4. The Documents folder contained a few .epub files, but not anywhere near all of them. The hidden .Stanza subfolder contained 10 numbered subfolders, which contained a lot of files with just numbers for names and no extension. My google searching told me that these files were my books, renamed this way for my inconvenience.
5. I did a search on the copy of the documents folder, for files named *.* (ie, all files), then sorted the search results by file type - this let me easily select out all the files without extensions and copy them to a new folder. There were exactly as many of these as I had books loaded into the Ipad, so I knew I was on the right track.
6. I mass renamed all the number-no extension files to .epub, and drag-dropped them into Calibre. Calibre kindly creates copies of everything with sensible file names in its library.

Fortunately I only had epubs loaded into Stanza. If I'd had a mix of file types, I guess I would have repeated step 6 for each possible file type until I got Calibre to recognize and load all the books.

kyteflyer · 01-18-2012, 05:22 PM

Try iexplorer instead, the developers application is no longer available since Amazon killed off the site.
http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/

Clytie · 01-24-2012, 03:13 AM

You can also download a copy of each book to your laptop/desktop computer, then drag it into Calibre, which creates a separate library for you. This is a large task if you have quite a few books on your device, but once you get it done, it's easy to download each book as you acquire it. The larger retailers provide a bookshelf or account page where you can do this, and smaller ones will email you download links.

Calibre does a great job of collating your ebook collection, using tags and following series. It keeps all your ebooks separately from the shifting sands of directories like My Kindle Content (from which Amazon can delete your ebooks without your permission). So it's a good backup, and a big help in remembering which ebooks you have. It's search is excellent.

NETLOLA · 02-08-2012, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glaurung-quena

I have about 500 epubs (and more every week) loaded on Stanza on my Ipad 2. (using the latest version on IOS 5.0.1)

However, when I go into Itunes to attempt to back up my library by using the "file sharing" panel on Itunes to save them to my computer, Itunes can only see about 220 epubs loaded into stanza.

a) Is there something wrong, or is this just more evidence that Itunes is crap?

b) Is there any way to backup ALL the books I have loaded into stanza without using Itunes?

I made a backup of the data on the Ipad using Itunes but there doesn't seem to be a way to extract the data from the backup - I saw a reference to a program put out by the Stanza software developers to extract your books from an Itunes backup, but could not find a live link to it.

Thanks in advance!

I thought I would post a reply because Stanza has been so crippled by Amazon. There is an application that will retrieve all your Stanza ebooks from your Itunes backup of your iPad. Quote:

"Download the app, called “Stanza Book Restore Tool”, from Lexcycle, the developers of Stanza. Point it at your backup folder (on the Mac you’ll find it in Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup), choose a destination and hit “Recover Books”. All the books will be copied to your computer."

This article gives detailed instructions, and the link to the Application:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/...ooks-for-ipad/

kyteflyer · 02-10-2012, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NETLOLA

I thought I would post a reply because Stanza has been so crippled by Amazon. There is an application that will retrieve all your Stanza ebooks from your Itunes backup of your iPad. Quote:

"Download the app, called “Stanza Book Restore Tool”, from Lexcycle, the developers of Stanza. Point it at your backup folder (on the Mac you’ll find it in Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup), choose a destination and hit “Recover Books”. All the books will be copied to your computer."

This won't help. Lexcycle no longer exists, nor does the tool. Perhaps someone who has used it could upload it for everyone to a file sharing service. If I can find my copy (and I think I deleted it) I'll do that, myself.

[Edit] Actually I do still have it. I'll upload it somewhere and come back with the link in a minute. Its a .jar file and should work in all operating systems. I've zipped it for the upload. Doubleclick and it ought to extract your Stanza books from your itunes backup. If you dont have an itunes backup, this will not help at all. It does NOT work on the phone, only on the backup. Also its only 21k so should be quick.

kyteflyer · 02-10-2012, 10:10 PM

... sorry, not allowed to distribute the tool here.

Glaurung-quena · 02-11-2012, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NETLOLA

I thought I would post a reply because Stanza has been so crippled by Amazon. There is an application that will retrieve all your Stanza ebooks from your Itunes backup of your iPad. Quote:

"Download the app, called “Stanza Book Restore Tool”, from Lexcycle, the developers of Stanza. Point it at your backup folder (on the Mac you’ll find it in Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup), choose a destination and hit “Recover Books”. All the books will be copied to your computer."

This article gives detailed instructions, and the link to the Application:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/...ooks-for-ipad/

Sadly, the lexcycle website has been offline for at least a month now, and I cannot find any other place to download the java app in question.

kyteflyer · 02-11-2012, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glaurung-quena

Sadly, the lexcycle website has been offline for at least a month now, and I cannot find any other place to download the java app in question.

Unfortunately thats the way of the world. Amazon's voracious appetite for killing the opposition is well known here, but sadly its likely that in a few years we wont even be able to buy a book unless its via Amazon or one of its subsidiaries. They want to control all of it.

adjuster · 02-15-2012, 12:48 AM

The Wayback Machine at The Internet Archive (archive.org) has a copy of the .jar file from Lexcycle.

NETLOLA · 02-17-2012, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

Unfortunately thats the way of the world. Amazon's voracious appetite for killing the opposition is well known here, but sadly its likely that in a few years we wont even be able to buy a book unless its via Amazon or one of its subsidiaries. They want to control all of it.

That is why, on my iPad with all the other eBook Reader App choices, I will NEVER purchase a Kindle format book from Amazon. It makes me so mad, that they took simply the best eBook App, and crippled it.
For those interested in still trying the “Stanza Book Restore Tool”, I did find this article, where the Author points to a new tool he rewrote:
http://blog.riskythinking.com/2011/1...ur-ebooks.html
I have not tried it yet, but might do so as I am unable to find my original application.

kyteflyer · 02-17-2012, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adjuster

The Wayback Machine at The Internet Archive (archive.org) has a copy of the .jar file from Lexcycle.

Nice find!! Well done, never thought of that

kyteflyer · 02-17-2012, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NETLOLA

That is why, on my iPad with all the other eBook Reader App choices, I will NEVER purchase a Kindle format book from Amazon. It makes me so mad, that they took simply the best eBook App, and crippled it.
For those interested in still trying the “Stanza Book Restore Tool”, I did find this article, where the Author points to a new tool he rewrote:
http://blog.riskythinking.com/2011/1...ur-ebooks.html
I have not tried it yet, but might do so as I am unable to find my original application.

Seems like he's taken the original code from lexcycle and rewritten it. Worth trying, or else get that original from the wayback machine.

Glaurung-quena · 02-18-2012, 12:34 PM

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

1. The stanzabookrestore.jar app does not work for me -- same problem reported by the Risky Thinking Blogger - it throws an error that it can't find the backup directory on my XP machine, and no, I don't have a vista or 7 machine to try it on.

2. The edited version of the app posted by the Risky Thinking blogger doesn't work for me either, and I don't know why.

3. OK, so we have to do this the old fashioned way. Using Macroplant.com's Phone Disk I was able to find the stanza app directory on the Ipad. (User\applications and then go through the GUIDs - ie, long random letter-number folder names - until you find the one with a subfolder named Stanza.app). Using google, I found someone talking about how Stanza likes to rename your books to a number without a file extension.

So, Inside the stanza app folder, we have Documents, which contains a few .epub files with sensible names, but nowhere near all my books. But there's also a hidden folder, Documents\.stanza\library which contains ten numbered subfolders. Each subfolder contains, in addition to some other stuff, many files with numbers for names and no extension. I copied a couple off, gave them an .epub extension, and loaded them in my epub reader to check - yep, these are my books.

So I copied them to an empty folder on my hard drive (sort by type and select all with no type listed, then wait a LOONG time for Phone Disk to sluggishly do its work), then opened a command shell, CD'd to the folder and typed "ren *.* *.epub". And now I have a bunch of cryptically named book files that I can drag and drop into Calibre.

I'm going to edit the first post to include my solution in a little bit.

kyteflyer · 02-18-2012, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glaurung-quena

I'm going to edit the first post to include my solution in a little bit.

Well done! I'm sure others will find this very helpful.

NETLOLA · 02-21-2012, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glaurung-quena

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

1. The stanzabookrestore.jar app does not work for me -- same problem reported by the Risky Thinking Blogger - it throws an error that it can't find the backup directory on my XP machine, and no, I don't have a vista or 7 machine to try it on.

2. The edited version of the app posted by the Risky Thinking blogger doesn't work for me either, and I don't know why.

3. OK, so we have to do this the old fashioned way. Using Macroplant.com's Phone Disk I was able to find the stanza app directory on the Ipad. (User\applications and then go through the GUIDs - ie, long random letter-number folder names - until you find the one with a subfolder named Stanza.app). Using google, I found someone talking about how Stanza likes to rename your books to a number without a file extension.

So, Inside the stanza app folder, we have Documents, which contains a few .epub files with sensible names, but nowhere near all my books. But there's also a hidden folder, Documents\.stanza\library which contains ten numbered subfolders. Each subfolder contains, in addition to some other stuff, many files with numbers for names and no extension. I copied a couple off, gave them an .epub extension, and loaded them in my epub reader to check - yep, these are my books.

So I copied them to an empty folder on my hard drive (sort by type and select all with no type listed, then wait a LOONG time for Phone Disk to sluggishly do its work), then opened a command shell, CD'd to the folder and typed "ren *.* *.epub". And now I have a bunch of cryptically named book files that I can drag and drop into Calibre.

I'm going to edit the first post to include my solution in a little bit.

Great info, thank you!

01-17-2012, 01:55 PM	#1
Glaurung-quena Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Toronto Device: ipad	[solved] How to backup books loaded into stanza ETA: look at the bottom of this post for my solution. I have about 500 epubs (and more every week) loaded on Stanza on my Ipad 2. (using the latest version on IOS 5.0.1) However, when I go into Itunes to attempt to back up my library by using the "file sharing" panel on Itunes to save them to my computer, Itunes can only see about 220 epubs loaded into stanza. a) Is there something wrong, or is this just more evidence that Itunes is crap? b) Is there any way to backup ALL the books I have loaded into stanza without using Itunes? I made a backup of the data on the Ipad using Itunes but there doesn't seem to be a way to extract the data from the backup - I saw a reference to a program put out by the Stanza software developers to extract your books from an Itunes backup, but could not find a live link to it. Thanks in advance! === Edit: I found a solution. Lexcycle's stanza backup java app, which has become difficult to find, did not work for me (the best place to get it appears to be the internet archive's wayback machine). Here's how I got my books out: 1. I installed a program that lets me bypass Itunes and look at the files loaded on the Ipad directly. Macroplant.com has several, including some that are free. 2. I found the stanza app folder in User\applications. App folders have cryptic and random names, but usually there's a file or folder inside them that is clearly named so you know what it is - the Stanza folder has a subfolder called Stanza, so that was easy. 3. Inside the stanza app folder, I copied the contents of the Documents folder, and its hidden .Stanza subfolder, to my computer. 4. The Documents folder contained a few .epub files, but not anywhere near all of them. The hidden .Stanza subfolder contained 10 numbered subfolders, which contained a lot of files with just numbers for names and no extension. My google searching told me that these files were my books, renamed this way for my inconvenience. 5. I did a search on the copy of the documents folder, for files named . (ie, all files), then sorted the search results by file type - this let me easily select out all the files without extensions and copy them to a new folder. There were exactly as many of these as I had books loaded into the Ipad, so I knew I was on the right track. 6. I mass renamed all the number-no extension files to .epub, and drag-dropped them into Calibre. Calibre kindly creates copies of everything with sensible file names in its library. Fortunately I only had epubs loaded into Stanza. If I'd had a mix of file types, I guess I would have repeated step 6 for each possible file type until I got Calibre to recognize and load all the books. Last edited by Glaurung-quena; 02-18-2012 at 02:36 PM.

02-10-2012, 10:10 PM	#6
kyteflyer Wizard Posts: 1,844 Karma: 9547754 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Newcastle, Australia Device: iPhone 12 Mini	... sorry, not allowed to distribute the tool here. Last edited by kyteflyer; 02-11-2012 at 10:14 AM.

02-15-2012, 12:48 AM	#9
adjuster Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2012 Device: iPhone 3GS, iPod	stanzabookrestore.jar file from Lexcycle The Wayback Machine at The Internet Archive (archive.org) has a copy of the .jar file from Lexcycle.

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01-18-2012, 05:22 PM	#2
kyteflyer Wizard Posts: 1,844 Karma: 9547754 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Newcastle, Australia Device: iPhone 12 Mini	Try iexplorer instead, the developers application is no longer available since Amazon killed off the site. http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/

01-24-2012, 03:13 AM	#3
Clytie Bookworm Posts: 62 Karma: 2200 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: South Australia Device: iPad2	You can also download a copy of each book to your laptop/desktop computer, then drag it into Calibre, which creates a separate library for you. This is a large task if you have quite a few books on your device, but once you get it done, it's easy to download each book as you acquire it. The larger retailers provide a bookshelf or account page where you can do this, and smaller ones will email you download links. Calibre does a great job of collating your ebook collection, using tags and following series. It keeps all your ebooks separately from the shifting sands of directories like My Kindle Content (from which Amazon can delete your ebooks without your permission). So it's a good backup, and a big help in remembering which ebooks you have. It's search is excellent.

02-18-2012, 12:34 PM	#13
Glaurung-quena Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Toronto Device: ipad	Thanks for the advice, everyone. 1. The stanzabookrestore.jar app does not work for me -- same problem reported by the Risky Thinking Blogger - it throws an error that it can't find the backup directory on my XP machine, and no, I don't have a vista or 7 machine to try it on. 2. The edited version of the app posted by the Risky Thinking blogger doesn't work for me either, and I don't know why. 3. OK, so we have to do this the old fashioned way. Using Macroplant.com's Phone Disk I was able to find the stanza app directory on the Ipad. (User\applications and then go through the GUIDs - ie, long random letter-number folder names - until you find the one with a subfolder named Stanza.app). Using google, I found someone talking about how Stanza likes to rename your books to a number without a file extension. So, Inside the stanza app folder, we have Documents, which contains a few .epub files with sensible names, but nowhere near all my books. But there's also a hidden folder, Documents\.stanza\library which contains ten numbered subfolders. Each subfolder contains, in addition to some other stuff, many files with numbers for names and no extension. I copied a couple off, gave them an .epub extension, and loaded them in my epub reader to check - yep, these are my books. So I copied them to an empty folder on my hard drive (sort by type and select all with no type listed, then wait a LOONG time for Phone Disk to sluggishly do its work), then opened a command shell, CD'd to the folder and typed "ren . *.epub". And now I have a bunch of cryptically named book files that I can drag and drop into Calibre. I'm going to edit the first post to include my solution in a little bit.

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