Aura HD epub deleted, but annotations retained?

[MacEachaidh]

Folks, I feel caught n a strange cycle. I'd be grateful for any observations or help. Bear with me, please, while I describe it:

I have an epub I've been formatting, that was ready for a final visual subbing. So I installed it to my Aura HD (F/W 3.12.1), and all went fine. A few corrections, which I marked with highlights, and then edited the project file on my PC from those annotations. Then I went to remove the epub from my Kobo, ready to connect and sideload the new version.

The Kobo registered the "remove" request, then locked up. Pinhole reset, try again ... this time the removal was successful. I shut down then rebooted my Kobo (it seemed reasonable after a lock-up), USBd it to my PC and copied the new file on.

But when I opened the new epub on my Kobo (yeah, I'm leaving out the bit about stopping the USB connection, but trust me, I did it) ... the annotations were still there, but in the new file.

Went into the Annotations option on the file and removed them manually, went to remove the file ... and repeat the cycle. Lock-up, pinhole reset, restart, remove the file, reboot, connect to my PC, put the new one on, eject from my PC, open the new epub ... and I have the new epub, but the annotations are back. Huh??!

How do I break this cycle?

I will say, I have no such issues with any other epub, but I also have no such issues with this same epub on my Kobo Touch.

Is there a way to manually remove any record of this file from my Aura HD, so I can start again?

[davidfor]

As well as the database, the annotations for epubs on the main memory are also stored in a file. This file is created by the RMSDK and is not deleted when you delete the book. That means that when you put a new copy of the book back on the device and open it, the annotations will be loaded from this file. I believe the lock-ups are caused by the locations the annotations in the file refer to not existing in the new file. When the book is opened to a page the annotation should be on, it hangs.

If you delete the annotations before deleting the book, the annotations will be removed from the file. Or you can delete the file when connected to the PC. The annotations are in "Digital Editions/Annotations". Within that, it matches the path to the book.

There is also a bug related to these files and reopening an epub. When you reopen an epub that has annotations, the chapters that are shown in the annotations list is changed to the current chapter. The annotation still go to the correct place, but the display is wrong. If the epub is on the SD card, the annotations file isn't created and neither of these problems happen.

[GeoffR]

To prevent the epub reader creating a second persistent copy of annotations for books in internal storage:

1. Go to the Digital Editions directory on the device and delete the Annotations subdirectory and everything in it (back up first if you are not sure.)
2. Create a normal file named Annotations in the same place as the deleted directory.

Thereafter epub annotations will still be saved in the database, but the epub reader will not be able to create the file in Digital Editions/Annotations/ containing the second persistent copy.

This also fixes the issue of the annotation chapter and location info being corrupted when an epub book is reopened. (It doesn't fix annotations that are already corrupted, but it will prevent future anotations from being corrupted).

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you delete the annotations before deleting the book, the annotations will be removed from the file.

That's what I was expecting, but as I said, that isn't what is happening. Even when I manually delete each annotation before removing the epub file, they're back when I sideload the new version of the book. I tried deleting the annotations manually, then adding new highlights in different spots, and after the book is replaced I get both sets of annotations being reinstalled.

At this point, the book isn't substantially changing, so I haven't come across the problem of the annotations being put back in the wrong place.

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Thereafter epub annotations will still be saved in the database, but the epub reader will not be able to create the file in Digital Editions/Annotations/ containing the second persistent copy.

Thanks for that, Geoff. I didn't know about the second register of annotations.

When you say to create an "ordinary file", is that like a TXT file? With or without a filetype extension?

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

When you say to create an "ordinary file", is that like a TXT file? With or without a filetype extension?

Any file, empty will do, but must be named exactly Annotations with no extension.

Typing "> Annotations" (without the quotes) in the Windows console should create an empty file.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

That's what I was expecting, but as I said, that isn't what is happening. Even when I manually delete each annotation before removing the epub file, they're back when I sideload the new version of the book. I tried deleting the annotations manually, then adding new highlights in different spots, and after the book is replaced I get both sets of annotations being reinstalled.

I do roughly what you are saying all the time and the annotations disappear. Usually, I'm only fixing spelling and styles, so simply replace the book. But, I recently had to fix the ToC and split some files, so I deleted it that time. The annotations didn't reappear after this.

Unfortunately, this sort of behaviour usually means the database is corrupt. But, as a last check, try restarting the device after deleting the book and before connecting. That will reread the database and might fix things or show more problems that will mean you need to create a new database.

At this point, the book isn't substantially changing, so I haven't come across the problem of the annotations being put back in the wrong place.

If you are just fixing spelling or styles, you shouldn't hit the problem. But, if you change the structure, or remove a section that a annotation is in, you might see the hang. From memory, the last time I saw it, I had highlighted the last couple of paragraphs in a section and then merged them together. In that case, the location for the end of the annotation didn't exist and that caused the problem.

[murg]

I like the annotation files and use them to clean up the ebooks I read.

I also put a version number in the file names, so I don't run into the problem described.