Latest iOS version of CC problem HELP!

[gjohn4317]

chaley - I have to apologize first off if I have messed up this message. I've never posted a thread in a forum before, and I don't even know how to properly address it so Charles Haley sees it.

Three days ago I downloaded the latest available CC version available for iOS. This replaced the previous version, I think it was 1.0.3. Using wireless connection, I began transferring ebooks. When I had transferred approx. 2600 books, my iPad screen abruptly turned black then came back to the CC start page. None of the books I had transferred were retained. After several attempts with the same results, I was able to get all 3700 books transferred by sending only 20 to 30 at a time. Now it's 3 hours later and I opened CC and NOTHING is there. I get the CC startup screen again. What can I do? Can I download the old version that I had no problems with? Help!

[gjohn4317]

If I have posted this and Charles Haley isn't the right person to address this problem, would someone let me know so I can get it to the right person? Thank you.

[Steve_Haley]

Originally Posted by gjohn4317

If I have posted this and Charles Haley isn't the right person to address this problem, would someone let me know so I can get it to the right person? Thank you.

Who the right person to contact at the moment regarding the iOS app is a bit complicated right now. Technically I'm the one to contact, but my wife had a baby very recently and I'm taking time off to help her with that. Charles wasn't actually involved in the iOS app, but since it's heavily based on the Android one, he's usually able to help people regardless.

Anyway, for this issue, can you send a debug log? Go to the bottom of the settings menu, and there's a button to do so. Please include in the email that you created this post on MobileRead so that I know it's from you.

[gjohn4317]

Ok, I'll send it right away. Congratulations on your new baby, that's great. You'll be able to sleep again in 18 years.

[Steve_Haley]

Yeah, not sleeping for 18 years doesn't sound fun...

As for this bug, this is something I've run into before but don't have a great solution. Short version: I think if you uninstall CC completely and then reinstall it, it should work for you again.

Longer version, with some technical detail: what's happening is that the database CC uses is complaining that's too large. For some reason, the database thinks it needs to read nearly 3 gigabytes of data about your books, and that's causing it to crash. In turn, that makes CC think there aren't any books left. I don't know exactly why it thinks your 3000 books require nearly 3 gigabytes of data, but this seems to be a known problem with the database as they list some potential solutions on their website. I know the app can store more than 3000 books as I've used it with about 5000 and have reports from others of them having more.

Anyway, after this issue, I think the database isn't getting properly deleted and recreated when it's crashing due to getting too big. Thus the database is slowly growing in size every time you re-send your books. The hope is that by deleting the app and reinstalling, the database will reset itself to correctly being much smaller again.

In the longer term, I'll try to figure out how to make the database fix this kind of problem automatically, or at least warn people of what's happening.

[gjohn4317]

Ok, thanks so much. I don't know offhand how to completely uninstall CC from an iOS tablet, but I'll figure it out. The short method is to touch an app shortcut until it twitches, then sweep it to the trash. Since I've done that a few times with no luck, I will see if there's a more complete way.

[gjohn4317]

Steve, I uninstalled and then reinstalled CC, then began transferring ebooks. When I got to around 3100, the same thing happened again. Black screen then everything gone.

I did copy the error message that Calibre gave me when CC abruptly stopped. Don't know if it'll help but here it is.

Device responded with incorrect information

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/device.py", line 88, in run
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/device.py", line 587, in _upload_books
File "site-packages/calibre/devices/smart_device_app/driver.py", line 51, in _synchronizer
File "site-packages/calibre/devices/smart_device_app/driver.py", line 1454, in upload_books
File "site-packages/calibre/devices/smart_device_app/driver.py", line 677, in _put_file
File "site-packages/calibre/devices/smart_device_app/driver.py", line 51, in _synchronizer
File "site-packages/calibre/devices/smart_device_app/driver.py", line 615, in _call_client
File "site-packages/calibre/devices/smart_device_app/driver.py", line 657, in _receive_from_client
ControlError: Device responded with incorrect information

[Steve_Haley]

Originally Posted by gjohn4317

Steve, I uninstalled and then reinstalled CC, then began transferring ebooks. When I got to around 3100, the same thing happened again. Black screen then everything gone.

Hmm. OK, is there anything unusual about your books? From skimming the log file you sent me the other day it seemed like they were just ordinary novels. Do you have especially high resolution cover images? Currently the covers are stored in the database, and thus contribute towards its overall file size, but it's unusual that having only 3000 books are causing problems.

(And uninstalling by holding down the icon until it twitches and then tapping the X is fine. Clearly that's not the problem.)

[gjohn4317]

Nothing unusual, probably 80% novels, 20% nonfiction mostly history, few big books with maps, illustrations, etc. no "World History of Art" or anything like that. Does it make a difference if I disallow all formats except for mobi in CC setup? My library in Calibre stores 2 versions of each book, the original version and the mobi conversion. I don't have any indication that two versions of each book are being transferred.

[gjohn4317]

To answer your initial question, no, the cover images are small with a very few exceptions.

[gjohn4317]

Steve, I tried sorting all books by size, then loading only those that were less than about 4 MB. a few books were 30 or 40 MB, so I thought perhaps somehow they were "kicking" something off. No joy - when I had transferred approx. 2900 books, CC closed immediately, no black screen, no reverting to initial welcome page.

[gjohn4317]

Quick question: this CC problem only began when I downloaded the latest version from App Store. The earlier version that I was using since early December never gave me any problems. Can you send me the previous version app and instructions on how to load it? I could use that right away.

[Steve_Haley]

Originally Posted by gjohn4317

[Discussion about book size]

Steve, I tried sorting all books by size, then loading only those that were less than about 4 MB. a few books were 30 or 40 MB, so I thought perhaps somehow they were "kicking" something off. No joy - when I had transferred approx. 2900 books, CC closed immediately, no black screen, no reverting to initial welcome page.

I wish I could figure out why your database was coming out as being so large. I've got 4,000 books, and the entire folder, including the books themselves, is less than 1gb. The database in CC doesn't store the files, just the metadata, so it shouldn't be anywhere near as large as the overall folder.

Unfortunately I don't have anything great to suggest. All I can think of is just trying to keep a smaller library on CC for now. As written above, it's not the size of the book itself which matters, but rather what metadata is associated with the book. The metadata contains things like the authors, tags, custom columns, cover image and comments. Only the cover image and comments really should have the potential of getting large, but not usually under normal use. (I've heard stories of people storing the text of the book in the comments, which would certainly cause issues with making the metadata massive. Is this something you're doing? Unlikely, I realise...)

Can you send me the previous version app and instructions on how to load it? I could use that right away.

Apple makes it hard to do this kind of thing since they want people to use the App Store exclusively. I can't even revert the changes and publish a new version since this update is actually working better for most people. The number of crashes has gone down overall.

My current plan is to spend some time over the next couple of weeks rewriting part of the transfer and databasing process. This is where the crash is happening for you, and I assume it's the same place for others. We'll have to see how it goes after that update.

If I could just refund your order, I would; at least then you wouldn't feel tied to making this work.

[Dopedangel]

Maybe the OP is using a plugin that puts the whole book in the metadata description I recall sometime ago someone doing that and had a very large calibre metadata file. That would bloat up the database for calibre companion. He should check how large is the actual calibre metadata file is.

Sent from the mobile client - Forum Talker

[gjohn4317]

Ok Steve, I'll just put a small number of books in CC for now, until you can get a fix worked out. I don't want a refund, because up until this problem CC has worked beautifully on both my newer iPad Air 2 and my older Android tablet. I'm pretty confident that you will find a way to iron this one out. I worked 35 years for major food companies, and the rule of thumb for product complaints/problems was there's at least 100 more people with the same issue for every one that actually contacts the company. I can't be the only person having this issue.

I'll also take a look at the metadata for each ebook in Calibre, although I didn't run into this issue with previous versions of CC. Dopedangel - thanks for the suggestion. I'll look for that when I review the metadata.