Conversion Job Stuck at 47% (ePUB file)

[WriteEditProof]

I’m hoping someone can explain to me what I’m doing wrong here. If more information than provided below is needed, please let me know.

The problem I am having is that calibre is not converting my ePUB file. It’s a fixed layout ePUB file. I am using calibre to insert the cover (by using the “Change cover image:” box), and I am converting the original ePUB file to another ePUB file. I was able to recreate this with an identical ePUB (reflowable) file.

When I try to instead convert the ePUB (fixed layout) file to a mobi file, the same problem occurs, though the problem did not occur with the ePUB (reflowable) file.

There are no error messages.

The file size is 0.9 MB.

The last few lines of the conversion log are…:

Parsing OEBPS/9781610983921-45.xhtml ...
Parsing OEBPS/9781610983921-78.xhtml ...
Parsing OEBPS/9781610983921-8.xhtml ...
Parsing OEBPS/9781610983921-46.xhtml ...
Parsing OEBPS/9781610983921-79.xhtml ...
Parsing OEBPS/9781610983921-84.xhtml ...
Generating default TOC from spine...
Merging user specified metadata...
Detecting structure...
Auto generated TOC with 20 entries.
Flattening CSS and remapping font sizes...
Source base font size is 158.40000pt

The book already has a TOC, and I have no idea if “Source base font size is 158.40000pt” (a huge font size if I understand correctly) is a part of the problem?

Does calibre not convert fixed layout ePUB files?

To my knowledge, I did not change any of the default conversion options.

[kovidgoyal]

Just let it run. Pathological markup has been known to take 48 hours to convert. And note that calibre does not support fixed layout anything. That does not mean the conversion wont complete, it means that the output may or may not be useable depending on the input and what you want the output for.

[WriteEditProof]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Just let it run. Pathological markup has been known to take 48 hours to convert.

I tried this last night (converting the ePUB to a mobi file). My laptop just went into sleep mode and, when I turned it back on, calibre had shut off (which I guess is to be expected once the laptop goes into sleep mode for a long time).

... the output may or may not be useable depending on the input and what you want the output for.

The output (of the mobi file) is going to Amazon. In order to (hopefully) speed things up, I decided to just put the cover in the InDesign file and use the first page as the cover for the exported ePUB.

[eschwartz]

Why are you not using kindlegen?

• kindlegen supports Fixed-Format IIRC.
• kindlegen produces dual-MOBI which means people who buy the book will get AZW3 if their device supports it. (There is an option buried in calibre's conversion settings to do the same.)
• kindlegen is blessed by Amazon -- by which I mean, people have reported their files being rejected on the grounds that calibre created them.