Sync books not downloading covers

peekpoke · 09-07-2015, 08:44 PM

I had my SD card fail where all my CC books were stored.

I put in a new card, and did a Wireless Connect with Sync Books.

It downloaded all the missing book files, but only downloaded about 10% of the covers.

On all the titles with missing covers, the title and author are now shown as upper case only with the author shown as LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME. All in upper case.

When I select a book to view details, on the details page the author name is mixed case, and all the meta data is shown, except the cover.

I've tried repairing the database. I've tried doing the sync over and over. I tried changing the maximum cover size to 480. None forced it to download the missing covers, or correct the all uppercase display.

If I manually redownload a book using the connect to Content Server, then I get the cover and mixed case title/author.

I'm on Build 4.2.2 (184)

theducks · 09-07-2015, 09:15 PM

If your card failed, what are you syncing against.
To me sync, means compare, then update.
You no longer have one end of that compare

peekpoke · 09-07-2015, 11:50 PM

When I lost my SD card, I did not lose data stored on the phone.
So the database, and thumbnails were still there, only the book files on the SD card were lost.

When I put in a fresh SD Card, it still had that database of books to sync against.
It did download all the books, although a couple times it timed out forcing me to restart it. But in this process it lost the prior thumbnails for about 90% of the books, and shows those with missing thumbnails in all uppercase, both title and author.

I cannot find any way to force it to download all the missing thumbnails, and fix the all uppercase list display.

chaley · 09-08-2015, 02:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peekpoke

I cannot find any way to force it to download all the missing thumbnails, and fix the all uppercase list display.

It sounds like there were already book files on the new SD card that have different file names than stored in CC's database. In this case:

if the "Scan on connect" wireless device option is set
the books on the SD card are not epub or did not come from a calibre library

CC sends the books or a metadata extract to calibre in hopes that calibre can identify the books and match them to what is in the library. If you are seeing uppercase titles then calibre failed to match the books.

CC's FAQ I have books calibre shows as "On Device" but not as "In Library". What do I do? describes how to fix this.

peekpoke · 09-08-2015, 05:21 PM

The replacement SD card was completely blank/empty. I formatted it FAT32 before inserting it.

The only book files on that card now were downloaded by CC as part of a sync.

Scan on connect is enabled. But again the only books on the SD card are ones that CC downloaded since I put in a new empty card yesterday. I just tried turning off Scan on connect, and did a sync again. No difference.

The sync read status does work, when I finished a book, marked it as read, and did a sync, it now shows up as read in Calibre.

peekpoke · 09-08-2015, 07:36 PM

As an experiment, I copied my entire Calibre library onto the SD card, and used the local cloud option. Download all books does nothing, since it knows it has all the books. While I am connected the books show their covers and title in mixed case, but won't download it to CC. As soon as I disconnect from local cloud, it's back to no cover, and all uppercase titles.

chaley · 09-09-2015, 03:46 AM

First: some questions:

Are all the books epub? I suspect that the ones with the missing covers are probably mobi, although the fact that the local library cloud connection identifies the books as already in the library argues against that.
Do you have any plugboards defined?

Now to the main issue: as far as I can tell this situation can happen only if calibre is not matching the books in CC's database to books in its library. To check this:

Connect as a wireless device
Let the connection stabilize
In calibre, click on the device view icon
Sort by "In Library"
Check if all the books have the green check mark

My guess is that the books without covers will not have this check. If this is the case then the FAQ answer I referenced in post 4 tells you how to fix it.

If the books are marked as "In Library" then (probably) somehow CC's database was changed and CC's "last modified" date set to whatever is in calibre. In this case calibre and CC will believe that everything is OK. One way to force the last modified date in calibre to change is to create a custom column of any type, restart calibre (as it says), delete the custom column, restart calibre, then connect as a wireless device.

If you know which books in your library are supposed to be on your device then probably the fastest way to fix the problem is to resend the books. Connect as a wireless device, then in the calibre library view select the books that are supposed to be on your device and send them.

peekpoke · 09-09-2015, 02:18 PM

Most of the books are EPUB.
Some are PDF, but most of the PDF have covers.
All the books have green checkmarks.
Manually downloading each book with a missing cover again is not practical since we are talking about a couple thousand books. I did it manually for the books I'm actively reading or soon to read, but for the whole library it would be crazy.

I tried adding a custom column called "Extra". Then removed the custom column. Then did a connect with sync books.
It took a long time because it re-downloaded all the meta data.

That fixed it, it now has covers for all books.

If you ever want to investigate, I can probably reproduce it by erasing the SD card, and doing a database clean and book sync.

chaley · 09-09-2015, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peekpoke

If you ever want to investigate, I can probably reproduce it by erasing the SD card, and doing a database clean and book sync.

Not necessary.

I have done the erase/resync multiple times. Usually it works. Unfortunately. a problem can arise if the connection breaks during the download (sync) of the books. The books that had already arrived had slightly broken metadata, which would have been fixed if the connection lasted to the end.

I *think* have I have fixed it. At least the 3 times I did the experiment, killing calibre in the middle of the download, CC recovered. The fix requires a calibre change.

chaley · 09-10-2015, 05:34 AM

Followup ...

First, thanks for reporting the problem.

The problem was more basic than the scenario you found. As far as I can tell, any time a book was sent because of "sync books" the cover thumbnail was removed. It is replaced in a later connection step. Unfortunately, if the connection is interrupted after a book is "synced" but before the connection stabilizes then the cover thumb is lost until the metadata for the book (last modified) is changed.

The fix is in calibre and will be in the next release.

09-07-2015, 08:44 PM	#1
peekpoke Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: Kindle/Android	Sync books not downloading covers I had my SD card fail where all my CC books were stored. I put in a new card, and did a Wireless Connect with Sync Books. It downloaded all the missing book files, but only downloaded about 10% of the covers. On all the titles with missing covers, the title and author are now shown as upper case only with the author shown as LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME. All in upper case. When I select a book to view details, on the details page the author name is mixed case, and all the meta data is shown, except the cover. I've tried repairing the database. I've tried doing the sync over and over. I tried changing the maximum cover size to 480. None forced it to download the missing covers, or correct the all uppercase display. If I manually redownload a book using the connect to Content Server, then I get the cover and mixed case title/author. I'm on Build 4.2.2 (184)

09-09-2015, 03:46 AM	#7
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,779 Karma: 7029971 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	First: some questions: Are all the books epub? I suspect that the ones with the missing covers are probably mobi, although the fact that the local library cloud connection identifies the books as already in the library argues against that. Do you have any plugboards defined? Now to the main issue: as far as I can tell this situation can happen only if calibre is not matching the books in CC's database to books in its library. To check this: Connect as a wireless device Let the connection stabilize In calibre, click on the device view icon Sort by "In Library" Check if all the books have the green check mark My guess is that the books without covers will not have this check. If this is the case then the FAQ answer I referenced in post 4 tells you how to fix it. If the books are marked as "In Library" then (probably) somehow CC's database was changed and CC's "last modified" date set to whatever is in calibre. In this case calibre and CC will believe that everything is OK. One way to force the last modified date in calibre to change is to create a custom column of any type, restart calibre (as it says), delete the custom column, restart calibre, then connect as a wireless device. If you know which books in your library are supposed to be on your device then probably the fastest way to fix the problem is to resend the books. Connect as a wireless device, then in the calibre library view select the books that are supposed to be on your device and send them.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Error when downloading covers...	Gena	Library Management	9	03-24-2011 02:49 PM
v7.46 not downloading covers from Amazon	CRussel	Calibre	2	02-19-2011 03:39 AM
0.7.45 not downloading covers?	setherd	Calibre	5	02-13-2011 06:32 PM
Help with downloading covers, please.	Dullahir	Calibre	11	11-10-2010 04:47 PM
Downloading Covers	Lady Fitzgerald	Calibre	2	05-09-2010 01:21 AM

09-07-2015, 09:15 PM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,969 Karma: 55705602 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	If your card failed, what are you syncing against. To me sync, means compare, then update. You no longer have one end of that compare

09-07-2015, 11:50 PM	#3
peekpoke Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: Kindle/Android	When I lost my SD card, I did not lose data stored on the phone. So the database, and thumbnails were still there, only the book files on the SD card were lost. When I put in a fresh SD Card, it still had that database of books to sync against. It did download all the books, although a couple times it timed out forcing me to restart it. But in this process it lost the prior thumbnails for about 90% of the books, and shows those with missing thumbnails in all uppercase, both title and author. I cannot find any way to force it to download all the missing thumbnails, and fix the all uppercase list display.

09-08-2015, 05:21 PM	#5
peekpoke Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: Kindle/Android	The replacement SD card was completely blank/empty. I formatted it FAT32 before inserting it. The only book files on that card now were downloaded by CC as part of a sync. Scan on connect is enabled. But again the only books on the SD card are ones that CC downloaded since I put in a new empty card yesterday. I just tried turning off Scan on connect, and did a sync again. No difference. The sync read status does work, when I finished a book, marked it as read, and did a sync, it now shows up as read in Calibre.

09-08-2015, 07:36 PM	#6
peekpoke Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: Kindle/Android	As an experiment, I copied my entire Calibre library onto the SD card, and used the local cloud option. Download all books does nothing, since it knows it has all the books. While I am connected the books show their covers and title in mixed case, but won't download it to CC. As soon as I disconnect from local cloud, it's back to no cover, and all uppercase titles.

09-09-2015, 02:18 PM	#8
peekpoke Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: Kindle/Android	Most of the books are EPUB. Some are PDF, but most of the PDF have covers. All the books have green checkmarks. Manually downloading each book with a missing cover again is not practical since we are talking about a couple thousand books. I did it manually for the books I'm actively reading or soon to read, but for the whole library it would be crazy. I tried adding a custom column called "Extra". Then removed the custom column. Then did a connect with sync books. It took a long time because it re-downloaded all the meta data. That fixed it, it now has covers for all books. If you ever want to investigate, I can probably reproduce it by erasing the SD card, and doing a database clean and book sync.

09-10-2015, 05:34 AM	#10
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,779 Karma: 7029971 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	Followup ... First, thanks for reporting the problem. The problem was more basic than the scenario you found. As far as I can tell, any time a book was sent because of "sync books" the cover thumbnail was removed. It is replaced in a later connection step. Unfortunately, if the connection is interrupted after a book is "synced" but before the connection stabilizes then the cover thumb is lost until the metadata for the book (last modified) is changed. The fix is in calibre and will be in the next release.

Advert

Advert