KOReader Home list showing author folders instead of books

[turnroot]

Hi!

I've just installed KOReader and watched a YouTube video on the different settings. My problem is that in the video, all the books are neatly organized according to title, and have thumbnails. No matter what settings I try, I can't achieve the same look in the Home directory.

In my case, all books are in their individual author folders. Why? Within the folders, everything looks like I want it to. Am I missing something?

What I want: https://imgur.com/a/p82iohs


What I have: https://imgur.com/a/3vEBZX6


I import my books with Calibre.

[Quoth]

By default that's what you get with KOReader. The default interface is a file browser, not a library.
That's why I only use it on my Android eInk, not on a Kobo. I did use it for a while with the Elipsa for PDFs till Kobo updated the FW to do PDF cropping with page turns.

[NiLuJe]

It won't ever be truly flat (because it's still a FM), but @poire-z has been working on plugging in more metadata views into the FM; this might be ready sometime this summer.

[turnroot]

Thanks for the clarification guys! Looking forward to the summer project by @poire-z!

[Tzar]

Originally Posted by turnroot

Hi!

I've just installed KOReader and watched a YouTube video on the different settings. My problem is that in the video, all the books are neatly organized according to title, and have thumbnails. No matter what settings I try, I can't achieve the same look in the Home directory.

In my case, all books are in their individual author folders. Why? Within the folders, everything looks like I want it to. Am I missing something?

I import my books with Calibre.

I had the same issue (well, not a real issue in the sense that this file folder view is how KOReader has been designed), but what made me realize what is the real problem is when you mentioned that you import your books with Calibre.

I am also importing all my books on my Kobo Sage with Calibre. By default, Calibre exports books to your reader by creating a folder with the author's name and putting the book inside that folder. So, this is why KOReader doesn't show you a nice, clean-looking library view with book covers as we are used to see when using the original Kobo firmware.

Now, this Calibre default can be easily modified. You can tell Calibre to just drop the EPUB or KEPUB file straight on your Kobo and don't bother creating an author folder.

To do so, in Calibre, when your Kobo is plugged in, right-click on the device and select "Configure this device":

http://ibb.co/dc8n8dQ

A new window will pop up like so:

http://ibb.co/6PYq9D2

In the "Save template" command line, write what I have highlighted in yellow which is:
{title} - {authors}

This tells Calibre to simply export the book file straight onto Kobo, and have that book file named with its title and author. That's it.

Then, after ejecting your Kobo, your home view in KOReader will now display the thumbnail covers of all your books, as desired.

Since my Kobo Sage had only a few books with no markings or highlights, I just deleted them all from my Kobo in the Device view in Calibre, deleted all the leftover author folders on the Kobo in Windows Explorer (it seems Calibre removes the books inside the folders but doesn't delete the actual folders), and then re-exported all the books I wanted on my Kobo, but this time Calibre didn't create author folders.

Worked pretty well for me.

[DNSB]

Storing books directly in the root directory is not a good idea. A FAT32 root directory has a maximum of 65,535 entries and any file or directory name that exceeds 11 characters will use extra entries to store the LFN information at 13 characters (26 bytes of UCS-2) per entry to a maximum of 21 entries for a single file.

[Quoth]

Agree with what DNSB writes ^^^^

Make top level folder for ebooks and one for pdfs if using KOReader and not wanting a list of authors. Maybe one for other stuff.

[Tzar]

Ah! Thanks for pointing out it isn't the best option to put books straight on the root. I was wondering if it could eventually be problematic.

I'm finding out other weird issues running calibre and KOReader, like not being able to see in Calibre books I have transferred to Kobo. Seems you need to deactivate the Kobo device reader in Calibre and simply use the Connect to folder option if you do USB transfers. Haven't tried the wireless option available in KOReader for Calibre, maybe that's the better choice.

[NiLuJe]

Check the KOReader subforum, I went over that in more details a couple of times.

(Basically, either keep using the Kobo driver, and let Nickel index the books after each batch; or stop using the Kobo driver altogether. We don't touch the Nickel db, but that's what the Kobo driver relies on to match books).

[Vonsid]

I'm sorry if i'm about to ask a dumb question, but i'm facing the same issue than OP and found out that simply removing the epubs from the author folder Calibre creates and placing them into the 'books' folder solves the issue. I'm directly on my books covers when i click the books folder, which is exactly what i want. Is there any potential issues in proceeding like this?

I just acquired a Pocketbook reader and while enjoying it, their reading app is way too much barebones for my taste, so Koreader seems to be a good alternative.

Thanks for your work.

[shamanNS]

IIRC on Pocketbook readers it's possible to use that stock homescreen UI to browse through your book library and then open a book in KOReader and read if there.

[JSWolf]

This thread belongs in the KOReader forum.