copying annotations/highlights

[franklekens]

I have a Kobo Forma, Calibre, and the KoboUtilities extension.
With these, I can copy the annotations/higlights of any books I sideloaded onto the device.
But the function is greyed out on books that were downloaded on the device via the Kobo shop directly.
And books that i downloaded onto the device via the Kobo Plus subscription don't even show up in Calibre.

So is it categorically impossible to copy all the annotations/highlights I made in either of these two categories of books onto a PC?

(The Kobor Reader for PC may provide a way out, I don't know. But it's a piece of software I'd just as soon not use, it looked very sluggish and buggy the last time I used it.)

MTIA.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by franklekens

I have a Kobo Forma, Calibre, and the KoboUtilities extension.
With these, I can copy the annotations/higlights of any books I sideloaded onto the device.
But the function is greyed out on books that were downloaded on the device via the Kobo shop directly.

How is the function greyed out? There is no code in the plugin to differentiate between sideloaded or downloaded books. And, the function is only disabled if there is no device connected that it can work with. It works here for getting annotations from purchased books (I just checked).

And books that i downloaded onto the device via the Kobo Plus subscription don't even show up in Calibre.

This the the first time that I have been told that Kobo Plus books are not shown in calibre. In one way, it isn't that surprising as the database entries of them are likely to be different to other purchased books. But, from memory, there was no difference for Overdrive library books, which is probably why I haven't asked anyone about them.

But, do you mean they do not show in the device list when the book is connected? If they do not, then the above is the situation and I need to update the driver in calibre to support them. And to be able to do that, I need to see the database from a device that has Kobo Plus books. I don't live in a country that has Kobo Plus, so cannot sign up for it myself (and am not really interested in it). If you or someone else who has a subscription can supply me with a copy of the database from their device, I can look at fixing this. The database is the file "KoboReader.sqlite" in the ".kobo" directory on the device. If you can upload it somewhere and PM me a link to it, plus the titles of some Kobo Plus books you have, I can look at it and update the driver.

Or do they show in the device list, but do not match to a book in your library? For this, you need to add the book to your calibre library by other methods. For a Kobo Plus book, I would suggest that you add an empty book and fill out the metadata. On the next connection, it should match to the book on the device. If it doesn't, you will need to do a manual match using the device list. I find that the most common reason for this is that the book have multiple authors.

To do this, right-click on the book in the list and select the option to match the book. Then search for and select the book in your calibre library. After you have done this for all unmatched books, right click on the device icon and select the "Update cached metadata on device" option. This updates a file that calibre maintains on the device that is used to assist with matching the book on the device to the library.

Also, this could be the problem for your purchased books. The Annotation plugin will only retrieve annotations from the device for books that match with books in the library.

So is it categorically impossible to copy all the annotations/highlights I made in either of these two categories of books onto a PC?

It is categorically possible to get annotations/highlights for purchased books. It will probably be possible for books from Kobo Plus.

[franklekens]

Thanks for your explanation. I must have done something wrong when I tried copying annotations from a bought book the other day, because now it seems to work fine.

Books from Kobo Plus, however, do definitely not show up in my Calibre. I've just tried, and it's not there. Neither in the library nor in the device list.

So isn't that a limitation in Calibrer rather than in the Kobo Utilities plugin?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by franklekens

Thanks for your explanation. I must have done something wrong when I tried copying annotations from a bought book the other day, because now it seems to work fine.

Good to hear. But, I actually misread it earlier and was thinking you were using the Annotations plugin. But the rules for the annotations function in the Kobo Utilities plugin are basically the same.

Books from Kobo Plus, however, do definitely not show up in my Calibre. I've just tried, and it's not there. Neither in the library nor in the device list.

So isn't that a limitation in Calibrer rather than in the Kobo Utilities plugin?

It is a limitation of the KoboTouch driver, which is why I was asking for a copy of the database. I maintain the driver, and with a copy of a database with Kobo Plus books in it, I can probably add support.

[Quoth]

The Kobo Utilities is really fast excellent way to read annotations. Far superior to anything Kindle related, the old Sony PRS nnn series application or anything else for Kobo.

There is also a hidden menu that can be enabled in reader.conf to export the annotations etc for a selected book for those that don't have Calibre and Kobo Utilities. It's better than Kindle "myclippings.text".

I'm editing a book at the minute which I re-read to halfway making nearly 2400 notes. I'm 2/3rds of the way through those. I copy & paste the annotations in to KATE (like Windows Notepad++) and reformat them. I have a narrow tabbed KATE window beside the LO Writer window, I use a page size of about 5" x 7" for Source document editing so as to have a similar size to an eReader and an easier to manage window. I edit in odt format, but do an extra "save as" docx format for Calibre to make a fresh ebook each time an edit/rewrite is complete.

If I need to edit a PD text I export it as an RTF from Calibre and then edit in odt format to fix styles, spelling, formatting, headings etc.

[DNSB]

Attached is a database from an Aura One with a couple of KoboPlus books.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Attached is a database from an Aura One with a couple of KoboPlus books.

Thanks. I can see two books that probably fit. It won't be hard to show them.