Help needed: Detailed set up of Libra 2 - including calibre and plugins

[candyland550]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to ereaders and new to this forum as well, so forgive me if what I am posting is inappropriate for this section.

I just purchased a Kobo libra 2 and I was wondering if there was a detailed step-by-step guide on how to completely set up your kobo. I have no background in coding/programming and have been overwhelmed by what I am supposed to do and how to install the different programs people have provided on here (not sure if all of them need to installed to get the best experience). It's amazing seeing how many options there are but I am confused on what the main steps should be for those looking to set up their kobos for the first time.

I have downloaded calibre, but not sure what to do from there? I picked the 'kobo and kobo touch readers' option as I was unsure which of the two options would be the correct one (if they matter); do I just upload my epubs on there and transfer them to my kobo? or is there more to do?

How do I install things on my kobo exactly? What are plugins and how do I download them?

Just looking for direction as this is all very confusing. Appreciate the help!

[Deobulakenyo]

Originally Posted by candyland550

Hi everyone,

I'm new to ereaders and new to this forum as well, so forgive me if what I am posting is inappropriate for this section.

I just purchased a Kobo libra 2 and I was wondering if there was a detailed step-by-step guide on how to completely set up your kobo. I have no background in coding/programming and have been overwhelmed by what I am supposed to do and how to install the different programs people have provided on here (not sure if all of them need to installed to get the best experience). It's amazing seeing how many options there are but I am confused on what the main steps should be for those looking to set up their kobos for the first time.

I have downloaded calibre, but not sure what to do from there? I picked the 'kobo and kobo touch readers' option as I was unsure which of the two options would be the correct one (if they matter); do I just upload my epubs on there and transfer them to my kobo? or is there more to do?

How do I install things on my kobo exactly? What are plugins and how do I download them?

Just looking for direction as this is all very confusing. Appreciate the help!

Most started like you. I have been here for six months probably and still I grasp in the dark with some settings that need to be set up.

My advice would be to start like most people: just use the ereader like most people do. and when you experience something in your reading like "Hmmm, is it possible to put a clock on the page while i am reading" then you tackle that problem by looking for the solution here; or "Is it possible for my ebooks to fill up the screensaver page without the black vertical borders?" then that's the time that you ask for the Calibre setting to do it.

So, solve the problem after you meet one.

After all our individual settings might not be to your liking.

and don't be deceived by my Guru rank in my profile, most posts i did here are posts bugging other members asking them to explain to me in laymen's terms processes and concepts i do not understand.


as for Calibre. Basically it helps you manage your book collection so you can transfer them to you ereader a little bit better. Example, I have 10 epubs that i want to read, I can either transfer them as is, or I can use Calibre to improve it by downloading metadata and editing/changing their metadata including tags, publication info, series, etc.

You can also use Calibre to convert epubs to kepubs if you want to so you can use the reading stats in the ereader to reflect your reading uhmmm "stats"

There are many other ways by which Calibre can improve your reading experience and collection management but start with the basics and the other things will come to you eventually.

[rashkae]

The advice I would give depends largely on what you are reading. Or more specifically, where what you are reading comes from.

Books bought from the Kobo Store should work more or less automagically.. No software or setup needed. Not even Calibre.

Next is books borrowed from Library, if supported in your region, might need a bit more setup or software.

After that is are books you already own or acquired from other various sources. You could just copy those books directly on the Kobo, but here something like Calibre would be very useful.

And finally would be books purchased from Amazon you want to read on Kobo. There you need Calibre and a few add-on plugins.

When you are reading up on posts in this forum, plugins refer to things that are added to Calibre. (Look in Preferences, scroll down to Advanced, there is a button for Plugins.) Patches refers to software you can install on on the Kobo itself to change how it functions for subjective preferences.


The most hardcore of us will buy a book on the Kobo Store, download it, decrypt it, make changes to the book formatting by hand, then send the book back to our Kobo reading device. A sane person would back away slowly while nodding politely.

[candyland550]

Thank you, that's reassuring to know. I will most likely follow-suit and ask questions on here as I work out the basics! I've been spending time trying to understand how Calibre works as I think it will be super helpful to use it for managing.

[candyland550]

Originally Posted by rashkae

When you are reading up on posts in this forum, plugins refer to things that are added to Calibre. (Look in Preferences, scroll down to Advanced, there is a button for Plugins.) Patches refers to software you can install on on the Kobo itself to change how it functions for subjective preferences.


.

I will most likely be reading books I already have downloaded on my computer (I got this kobo because I got tired from reading on my tablet) and thanks for explaining where I can find these plugins.

Are the plugins that are on Calibre safe? I've been having issues downloading the metadata for my books (it keeps saying "ERROR: No matches found") even though I can quickly find the books myself when I try to search for it on google; and I saw someone recommending to download the goodreads/kobobooks plugins as that may help - but when I went to download them it gave me a message saying it can contain maleware.

Is there a list here with safe plugins vs harmful ones?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by candyland550

I will most likely be reading books I already have downloaded on my computer (I got this kobo because I got tired from reading on my tablet) and thanks for explaining where I can find these plugins.

Are the plugins that are on Calibre safe? I've been having issues downloading the metadata for my books (it keeps saying "ERROR: No matches found") even though I can quickly find the books myself when I try to search for it on google; and I saw someone recommending to download the goodreads/kobobooks plugins as that may help - but when I went to download them it gave me a message saying it can contain maleware.

Is there a list here with safe plugins vs harmful ones?

They're all safe, to my knowledge. I've got a lot of them installed and have never had a problem in more than 10 years.

Once you're a bit more comfortable with both the Kobo and Calibre, I suggest installing Kobo Utilities and the KoboTouch Extended Driver plugins. The latter converts your epubs to kepubs on the fly when sending books to the Kobo (kepub has some features epub doesn't, like zooming images and reading stats; it's also a bit faster). But there's no hurry, take your time.

[meeera]

To my mind the thing to get set up on Calibre earlier rather than later is collections management (formerly known as shelves), if you think you might want to use them. Setting them all up on your Kobo for sideloaded books means you lose all that organisation if you need to factory reset your device. If you set Calibre to manage them automatically, that's all smooth and very easy to restore.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by meeera

To my mind the thing to get set up on Calibre earlier rather than later is collections management (formerly known as shelves), if you think you might want to use them. Setting them all up on your Kobo for sideloaded books means you lose all that organisation if you need to factory reset your device. If you set Calibre to manage them automatically, that's all smooth and very easy to restore.

And series management. But most important of all (IMHO) is setting up Kobo Utilities to backup the database and config. Also useful is creating a custom Y/N Column to keep track of what eBooks you have loaded using the Reading List plugin.

[BookCat]

Originally Posted by candyland550

I've been having issues downloading the metadata for my books (it keeps saying "ERROR: No matches found") even though I can quickly find the books myself when I try to search for it on google; and I saw someone recommending to download the goodreads/kobobooks plugins as that may help - but when I went to download them it gave me a message saying it can contain maleware.

I've often found that if Calibre can't find any metadata it's usually because the information has been entered wrongly. Check the title and author; cut the isbn, then try again. If Calibre still can't find any metadata, you'll have to search for it yourself. This sometimes happens.

[candyland550]

Originally Posted by meeera

To my mind the thing to get set up on Calibre earlier rather than later is collections management (formerly known as shelves), if you think you might want to use them. Setting them all up on your Kobo for sideloaded books means you lose all that organisation if you need to factory reset your device. If you set Calibre to manage them automatically, that's all smooth and very easy to restore.

Where can I get collections management? It wasn't there when I looked for it under plugins?

[candyland550]

Also when I tried to upload some books using Calibre I got this error message, what should I do?

calibre, version 6.1.0
WARNING: Failed: Kobo database version unsupported - See details

Your Kobo is running an updated firmware/database version. As calibre does not know about this updated firmware, database editing is disabled, to prevent corruption. You can still send books to your Kobo with calibre, but deleting books and managing collections is disabled. If you are willing to experiment and know how to reset your Kobo to Factory defaults, you can override this check by right clicking the device icon in calibre and selecting "Configure this device" and then the "Attempt to support newer firmware" option. Doing so may require you to perform a Factory reset of your Kobo.

Discussion of any new Kobo firmware can be found in the Kobo forum at MobileRead. This is at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=223.

Device database version: 171.
Device firmware version: 4.33.19759

[PeterT]

It doesn't need a plugin; it's built into the Kobo driver. See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=193184

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PeterT

It doesn't need a plugin; it's built into the Kobo driver. See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=193184

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

Series management is also built into the Kobo driver.

[PeterT]

Deleted

[meeera]

Originally Posted by candyland550

Also when I tried to upload some books using Calibre I got this error message, what should I do?

calibre, version 6.1.0
WARNING: Failed: Kobo database version unsupported - See details
[...] you can override this check by right clicking the device icon in calibre and selecting "Configure this device" and then the "Attempt to support newer firmware" option.

Override the check.