Content Restoring your Kindle content won't restore everything

ntamas · 05-12-2019, 06:50 PM

Hi! I've just recently resetted my Kindle and then restored my content saved by ImageUSB by Passmark.

The process was the following:

1. After resetting I typed my wifi password in order to "register" the device with my account.

2. I was waiting for a while and let it resync my content + I also used the menu option for this.

3. I restored the whole content with ImageUSB.

But several data hadn't been restored. Although I restored "everything", it forgot the contents of my collections. It showed my collections with their names but none of them had any items in it. So I manually had to add the contents to my collections. (annoying)

It also forgot the browser bookmarks, the correct time and default dictionary. (and I guess all the other settings in Settings)

So my question is: Where are all these data stored? I'm totally sure: at least not on its main partition.

But I think this would be the situation with other Kindles as well. (I mean: some information can't be backed up by simply imaging the content of Kindle's main partition) Why can't you restore everything as it was? (or at least the collections)

ilovejedd · 05-12-2019, 08:14 PM

The Kindle's flash storage is actually divided into multiple partitions. The only partition visible via USB is a FAT32 partition mounted to /mnt/us/.

Collections data for sideloaded books are stored in /var/local/cc.db (iirc) which is inaccessible to us unless the device is jailbroken or have serial port/hardware access.

Two options if you want to be able to restore collections:

Send/email books to Kindle so you can make use of Amazon cloud syncing
Jailbreak and use Calibre + Kindle Collections plugin + LibrarianSync (JB may not be possible depending on model and firmware version)

ntamas · 05-12-2019, 10:04 PM

Sorry, I forgot to mention that those books were bought from Kindle Store, so they are not sideloaded.

ilovejedd · 05-12-2019, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ntamas

Sorry, I forgot to mention that those books were bought from Kindle Store, so they are not sideloaded.

Are the collections downloaded to device (starred)? If yes, just leave it plugged in and give it time to sync. Process isn't exactly instantaneous and there are occasional glitches (sometimes server related). The glitches have always resolved themselves eventually for me. Patience is the key (unfortunately).

Note, I don't think the Kindles like collections with more than 999 books. To be safe, I try to keep them well below 990.

ntamas · 05-13-2019, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Are the collections downloaded to device (starred)? If yes,

Yes, but as far as I know there is no full support for collections on Kindle Keyboard.

It's weird because it recognized my collections directly from the cloud, but wasn't able to assign the books/items to the right collections.

Downloading took just a few minutes, but collections remained with 0 counters. So it was like: collection1 (0), collection2 (0), collection3 (0) ; item1, item2, item3 etc...
Not like this: collection1 (inside: 3: item1, item2, item3), collection2 (inside: 4: item4, item5, item6, item7) etc...

Quote:

collections with more than 999 books

LOL I have only 8 collections. But yeah there must be a limitation for the number of collections too.

ilovejedd · 05-13-2019, 01:28 AM

Does the Kindle Keyboard even support Cloud Collections? On the upside, I believe there are various tools available for managing collections on that and given firmware hasn't been updated in ages, likely guaranteed jailbreakable.

What you're describing is normal (at least on PW3 with cloud collections). It's kinda like covers - takes a while to populate. Not much you can do except wait. That is unless you want to go through the effort of manually adding the books to the collection again on the Kindle.

Note, the 999 is books inside a collection.

ntamas · 05-13-2019, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Note, the 999 is books inside a collection

Yes I got it. That's why I wrote: "too". implying that there is also a limit for the number of books inside a collection.

Quote:

Does the Kindle Keyboard even support Cloud Collections?

I'm not sure now.

Little.Egret · 05-13-2019, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Does the Kindle Keyboard even support Cloud Collections?

No it doesn't. you can copy from another old Kindle but it knows nothing of the cloud collections on my Fires.

Little.Egret · 05-13-2019, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ntamas

Sorry, I forgot to mention that those books were bought from Kindle Store, so they are not sideloaded.

Err, if you load from the Kindle Store using USB (which is allowed) that's sideloading.

Quoth · 05-14-2019, 07:35 PM

Where did the "sideloading" expression come from?

Camera, phone, tablet, ereaders, certain game gadgets, PMP etc all can or do use mass storage USB. You can either drag and drop using a filemanager or open a library program. There have always been stupid exceptions like the Sony Minidisk and Apple imposing their nasty programs to manage file transfer.

A lot of makers Apps for gadgets are barely better than spyware. I don't use Adobe, Sony, Amazon or Kobo apps to "talk" to my ereaders.

I never even read the term "Sideloading" before visiting this forum. You have to charge stuff anyway, so I've never found it a chore to plug in via USB and use file transfer.

Before USB we did the same thing with RS232 serial. Simply a fatter connector, slower and having to use a compatible file transfer program.

Some stuff (inc iPods long ago) uses Firewire. It was killed by its royalty costs.

There is also Serial via USB, Picture mode USB, Video streaming USB, USB HID and networking via USB. But for file transfer, like MP3, JPG, Mobi, epub, mp4 etc the Mass Storage USB is best.

I can sort of imagine why it's called "sideloading", but it's daft and suggests that something is being bypassed. The Cloud isn't reliable. Gadgets are not reliable. The ONLY sensible way to buy digital downloads is to download to a laptop/tablet/PC, make backups and use USB transfer to put stuff on the gadget/ereader.

jhowell · 05-14-2019, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Where did the "sideloading" expression come from?

Upload and download refer to transfers between a local and a remote device. Sideloading is a transfer between two local devices. See Wikipedia.

Quoth · 05-15-2019, 05:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

Upload and download refer to transfers between a local and a remote device. Sideloading is a transfer between two local devices. See Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is
A: Very USA biased.
C: Often inaccurate.

"Upload and download refer to transfers between a local and a remote device."

True. It's ALSO transfer between a local host and client. LAN or USB. USB is inherently Master/Slave aka Host and Client.

This Wikipedia sentence contradicts the usage of the term 'Sideloading' here:
"Sideloading typically refers to media file transfer to a mobile device via USB, Bluetooth, WiFi "
That's a nonsense article.

Sideloading is just a pointless USA neologism as far as I can see for USB transfer to an ereader. Stuff also gets copied OFF and ereader by the USB Mass Storage protocol, like annotations or making a backup. To me the term obfuscates the process and sort of implies that WiFi or 3G is somehow better or more official. USB Mass Storage protocol and file copies is the best way to manage books on an eReader. Also enhances battery life compared to WiFi or Mobile connections.

shalym · 05-15-2019, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Wikipedia is
A: Very USA biased.
C: Often inaccurate.

"Upload and download refer to transfers between a local and a remote device."

True. It's ALSO transfer between a local host and client. LAN or USB. USB is inherently Master/Slave aka Host and Client.

This Wikipedia sentence contradicts the usage of the term 'Sideloading' here:
"Sideloading typically refers to media file transfer to a mobile device via USB, Bluetooth, WiFi "
That's a nonsense article.

Sideloading is just a pointless USA neologism as far as I can see for USB transfer to an ereader. Stuff also gets copied OFF and ereader by the USB Mass Storage protocol, like annotations or making a backup. To me the term obfuscates the process and sort of implies that WiFi or 3G is somehow better or more official. USB Mass Storage protocol and file copies is the best way to manage books on an eReader. Also enhances battery life compared to WiFi or Mobile connections.

Hmmm...A lot of people from other countries around the world use the term, which leads me to believe that it's not "just a pointless USA neologism"

Shari

05-12-2019, 06:50 PM	#1
ntamas Zealot Posts: 106 Karma: 875040 Join Date: May 2016 Location: Hungary Device: Kindle paperwhite 3 + Kindle keyboard	Restoring your Kindle content won't restore everything Hi! I've just recently resetted my Kindle and then restored my content saved by ImageUSB by Passmark. The process was the following: 1. After resetting I typed my wifi password in order to "register" the device with my account. 2. I was waiting for a while and let it resync my content + I also used the menu option for this. 3. I restored the whole content with ImageUSB. But several data hadn't been restored. Although I restored "everything", it forgot the contents of my collections. It showed my collections with their names but none of them had any items in it. So I manually had to add the contents to my collections. (annoying) It also forgot the browser bookmarks, the correct time and default dictionary. (and I guess all the other settings in Settings) So my question is: Where are all these data stored? I'm totally sure: at least not on its main partition. But I think this would be the situation with other Kindles as well. (I mean: some information can't be backed up by simply imaging the content of Kindle's main partition) Why can't you restore everything as it was? (or at least the collections)

05-12-2019, 08:14 PM	#2
ilovejedd hopeless n00b Posts: 5,110 Karma: 19597086 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: in the middle of nowhere Device: PW4, PW3, Libra H2O, iPad 10.5, iPad 11, iPad 12.9	The Kindle's flash storage is actually divided into multiple partitions. The only partition visible via USB is a FAT32 partition mounted to /mnt/us/. Collections data for sideloaded books are stored in /var/local/cc.db (iirc) which is inaccessible to us unless the device is jailbroken or have serial port/hardware access. Two options if you want to be able to restore collections: Send/email books to Kindle so you can make use of Amazon cloud syncing Jailbreak and use Calibre + Kindle Collections plugin + LibrarianSync (JB may not be possible depending on model and firmware version)

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05-12-2019, 10:04 PM	#3
ntamas Zealot Posts: 106 Karma: 875040 Join Date: May 2016 Location: Hungary Device: Kindle paperwhite 3 + Kindle keyboard	Sorry, I forgot to mention that those books were bought from Kindle Store, so they are not sideloaded.

05-13-2019, 01:28 AM	#6
ilovejedd hopeless n00b Posts: 5,110 Karma: 19597086 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: in the middle of nowhere Device: PW4, PW3, Libra H2O, iPad 10.5, iPad 11, iPad 12.9	Does the Kindle Keyboard even support Cloud Collections? On the upside, I believe there are various tools available for managing collections on that and given firmware hasn't been updated in ages, likely guaranteed jailbreakable. What you're describing is normal (at least on PW3 with cloud collections). It's kinda like covers - takes a while to populate. Not much you can do except wait. That is unless you want to go through the effort of manually adding the books to the collection again on the Kindle. Note, the 999 is books inside a collection.

05-14-2019, 07:35 PM	#10
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,018 Karma: 105092227 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	Where did the "sideloading" expression come from? Camera, phone, tablet, ereaders, certain game gadgets, PMP etc all can or do use mass storage USB. You can either drag and drop using a filemanager or open a library program. There have always been stupid exceptions like the Sony Minidisk and Apple imposing their nasty programs to manage file transfer. A lot of makers Apps for gadgets are barely better than spyware. I don't use Adobe, Sony, Amazon or Kobo apps to "talk" to my ereaders. I never even read the term "Sideloading" before visiting this forum. You have to charge stuff anyway, so I've never found it a chore to plug in via USB and use file transfer. Before USB we did the same thing with RS232 serial. Simply a fatter connector, slower and having to use a compatible file transfer program. Some stuff (inc iPods long ago) uses Firewire. It was killed by its royalty costs. There is also Serial via USB, Picture mode USB, Video streaming USB, USB HID and networking via USB. But for file transfer, like MP3, JPG, Mobi, epub, mp4 etc the Mass Storage USB is best. I can sort of imagine why it's called "sideloading", but it's daft and suggests that something is being bypassed. The Cloud isn't reliable. Gadgets are not reliable. The ONLY sensible way to buy digital downloads is to download to a laptop/tablet/PC, make backups and use USB transfer to put stuff on the gadget/ereader.

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