Kindle does not recognize language setting

[bk1]

Hi,
I bought a German book on Amazon in Germany with my German Amazon account, converted it with Calibre to mobi and loaded it unto my Kindle paperwhite bought on Amazon.com. My Kindle has a German dictionary bought on Amazon.com. During the conversion of my book, I specifically set the language to German in Calibre.

Despite this, Kindle looks up the wrong dictionary (English) . what have I done wrong.

[Doitsu]

Kindles select dictionaries based on the language metadata of the book. Most likely your book has the wrong language metadata.

You can easily check this in Calibre.
Click the Edit Metadata icon in the toolbar or right-click the book and select Edit metadata > Edit metadata individually.

BTW, MR has a large selection of German books.

[bk1]

thanks for your reply, but as I wrote in my mail, I have already done so. And it says German in the Language field in the metadata. So, what can I do then?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by bk1

thanks for your reply, but as I wrote in my mail, I have already done so. And it says German in the Language field in the metadata. So, what can I do then?

Each time you change metadata entries with Calibre, the file doesn't actually get updated, even though Calibre displays the updated metadata information.
In order to make the changes permanent you'll have to select Save to disk or transfer the file to a Kindle connected via USB.
(This bug feature is one of the reasons why I don't use Calibre to manage my books.)

BTW, you can check the actual metadata information of your book with Java Mobi Metadata Editor.

If you're 100% sure that your book has the correct language metadata, you might have to define a different default dictionary for German.

[bk1]

This is what I did after first discovering that it did not work.I deleted the book on Kindle. Made sure the LAnguage meta setting was German in Calibre, redid the Kindle to Mobi conversion, copied the newly created mobi file to the "document" directory on the Kindle. Restartet the kindle. And found that nothing had changed.

The German dictionary works well with all the german books bought in amazon.com.

I ran the mobieditor. It reports: Language De(7) and Dictionary input and output is unknown. Would it help to change it to De as well?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by bk1

This is what I did after first discovering that it did not work.I deleted the book on Kindle. Made sure the LAnguage meta setting was German in Calibre, redid the Kindle to Mobi conversion, copied the newly created mobi file to the "document" directory on the Kindle. Restartet the kindle. And found that nothing had changed.

Kindles also create .sdr (sidecar) directories for each book in the document folder. Make sure to delete them as well.
Also it couldn't hurt to connect your Kindle to your PC via USB and to check the metadata information of the book on the Kindle with Java Mobi Metadata Editor.

Originally Posted by bk1

I ran the mobieditor. It reports: Language De(7) and Dictionary input and output is unknown. Would it help to change it to De as well?

No, these entries are only for Kindle dictionaries.

[bk1]

Very strange. I went in and deleted everything that contained the title "Momo" via the pc. Then put the mobi file back into "documents" directory on kindle and restarted.

Now it shows Michel Ende as title and Momo as author (this is not the case in Calibre) - and when I try to activate Kindle wants to connect with Kindle centrally and wants to turn on the network. The same thing happened when I tried to delete the book. It is like a "ghost link" is left somehow? It says "DOC" under the author (that in this case actually is the title.

Now I see that the dictionary says de(1031) whereas the book is de(7). Could that have something to do with it?


And I cannot activate the real book (mobi file), which is in the document dreictory.

[bk1]

I got it working. Here is what I did. First I changed the language to De 1031 as was specified in the German English Dictionary. Then I went in on my mange my Kindle page on the web and deleted the DOC (the book is registered like that since I uploaded it).

It turned out that this was important, because despite me (above) having changed the language settings several times, my Kindle has somehow registered the book as being synched with the website. And that had an old German version in AZW file format. apparently, buying the book in German Amazon somehow made my US Kindle recognize the file. I discovered this by checking the time stamps of the files. They were older than my newest Mobi. Then I deleted everything that had either MOmo or Michael Ende in the file name from the Kindle (use the search feature in the explorer). Then I restarted and made sure nothing had sneaked its way in. then I copied over the 1031 file. Of course, now the book did not show up. I would like to know why. Apparently it is a doc and does not get converted to a book. But using Kindle Search I found it and put it in my UNREAD collection so I can find it again. And now it worked.

I have no idea if it would have worked with de(7) as well. I will ty that in a nother book I have had the same trouble with.

DOITSU: THANKS A MILLION for pointing me in the right direction.

And I would really like to know how the Kindle works, how it stores docs, when a mobi is converted into a real ebook or just stays as a document. So if anyone knows this - please tell me.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by bk1

And I would really like to know how the Kindle works, how it stores docs, when a mobi is converted into a real ebook or just stays as a document. So if anyone knows this - please tell me.

In case you're wondering why some converted books show up as personal docs and others as "real books." That, too, is controlled by metadata entries.

If you buy a book from Amazon, it'll add ASIN metadata entries and download a cover thumbnail to the device. If you convert an epub, it won't have these ASIN metadata entries and the book will show up with a personal banner.

If you manage your books with Calibre, Calibre will automatically add fake ASINS and generate cover thumbnails when you synchronize your books.

For more information, see this thread.

BTW, enjoy Momo, it's a great read.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Each time you change metadata entries with Calibre, the file doesn't actually get updated, even though Calibre displays the updated metadata information.
In order to make the changes permanent you'll have to select Save to disk or transfer the file to a Kindle connected via USB.
(This bug feature is one of the reasons why I don't use Calibre to manage my books.)

Why do you not just use Polish Book (works for EPUB/AZW3) or the newer Embed Metadata (all formats)? Both will update any metadata which a Send-to-Device is capable of updating, but in the in-library copy.

...

On the mystery of the missing language metadata, it is possible for an ebook to specify override languages via the lang attribute for individual pages/paragraphs/words. Which takes precedence over the language specified in the book-level metadata.

I don't read non-English books, so I have no reason to have tested it, but I am pretty sure the Kindle is supposed to properly recognize that.

And since ebook producers often include a lot of extraneous junk, that might include messes of language overrides.


Granted, the solution instead turned out to be "hey, wrong book file". But the theory is what matters.