New to Kindle (former Kobo user)

[melovesflying]

Hi. So I'm getting the latest Paperwhite soon (w/ special offers) and some kind folks told me about the Kindle Collections plugin. My primary concern is having the series names and numbers displayed in each book and I know that it can be done using the plugboards without jailbreaking. However, I've heard the plugin is highly recommended here so I'm thinking of trying it out.

I've read that for it to work, I have to jailbreak it (and I'm a bit scared to do it as I've never jailbroken any device). I don't have the PW yet but I've a couple of questions that I hope you can help me out so that I can do it immediately once I get my device.

1. I get quite confused with the instructions on how to jailbreak here so I found this tutorial. Does the instructions posted there still work for the latest PW?

2. Should I do the jailbreaking with the device fresh out of the box?

3. After jailbreaking, is it possible to update the device over the air? And do I need to repeat jailbreaking everytime I update the device's firmware or will the jailbreak support future firmwares?

4. Is there a way to backup the contents and all data in the PW in Calibre, similar to the backup function of KoboUtilities?

I'm using a Mac but I can do it in Windows if it's necessary. Thanks in advance to those who will answer!

[HarryT]

1-3: Please ask questions about jailbreaking in the "Developer" sub-forum, not here.

4: To back up the Kindle's contents, simply copy the "documents" sub-folder from the USB-mounted drive. Everything is in there. There's no database, such as the Kobo uses.

[melovesflying]

Got it. Thank you! You can exterminate this thread now.

[dimm]

probably you would want to backup highlights that you are doing in magazines and/or books. To do this you should copy 'My clippings.txt' file.

Regarding 1. - if you jailbreak you will need to repeat this procedure after each update. Why you need such pain in the ass? Just read and enjoy.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by dimm

Regarding 1. - if you jailbreak you will need to repeat this procedure after each update. Why you need such pain in ass? Just read and enjoy.

The 'jailbreak bridge' carries the jailbreak across updates except in the decidedly rare, not-really-worth-worrying-about case when an update turns up that is new to the devs in this forum *and* breaks the bridge.

[melovesflying]

Originally Posted by dimm

probably you would want to backup highlights that you are doing in magazines and/or books. To do this you should copy 'My clippings.txt' file.

Regarding 1. - if you jailbreak you will need to repeat this procedure after each update. Why you need such pain in the ass? Just read and enjoy.

I'm honestly still thinking about it since my primary concern is adding the series names and number to books.

Also, does the Kindle have a sorting system like in Kobo where books are automatically sorted into 'Read, Reading, and Unread' categories, e.g. sideloaded books automatically get sorted into the Unread list and finished books to Read? If not, is there a plugin I can use or would Kindle Collections be the only way for me to do so? I have a lot of books I like to store in my reader and I'd like them to be as organised as possible.

@NullNix thanks for the clarification on that part!

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by melovesflying

Hi. So I'm getting the latest Paperwhite soon (w/ special offers) and some kind folks told me about the Kindle Collections plugin. My primary concern is having the series names and numbers displayed in each book and I know that it can be done using the plugboards without jailbreaking. However, I've heard the plugin is highly recommended here so I'm thinking of trying it out.

I've read that for it to work, I have to jailbreak it (and I'm a bit scared to do it as I've never jailbroken any device). I don't have the PW yet but I've a couple of questions that I hope you can help me out so that I can do it immediately once I get my device.

1. I get quite confused with the instructions on how to jailbreak here so I found this tutorial. Does the instructions posted there still work for the latest PW?

Always follow the latest directions posted inthe Developer's Corner. See the sticky thread with @Branch Delay's jailbreak.

2. Should I do the jailbreaking with the device fresh out of the box?

YES!!!
And for the love of jailbreaking, keep the WiFi off!

3. After jailbreaking, is it possible to update the device over the air? And do I need to repeat jailbreaking everytime I update the device's firmware or will the jailbreak support future firmwares?

Once sucessfully jailbroken, you can leave the WiFi on to receive OTA updates, and the jailbreak will automatically bridge itself across any firmware update.

That being said, not everyone likes unknown updates with potentially annoying changes. Hence the existence of the BackDoorLock hack.

4. Is there a way to backup the contents and all data in the PW in Calibre, similar to the backup function of KoboUtilities?

While it is true you only need to backup the userstore (specifically the "documents" folder), you can also backup or modify the file /var/local/cc.db
It is the Content Catalog, stored safely in the system partition, and contains all kinds of interesting things that you probably don't need to mess around with. The Kindle is not as dependent on a central database as the Kobo is.

[melovesflying]

Now everything's clearer to me. Thanks a lot! also, is there a way to sort books into read and unread groups without jailbreaking? I'm sideloading all my books so the one on Kindle/Amazon's website is useless to me.

[eschwartz]

No -- the Kindle only tracks reading position, via the progress dots (some new firmwares use numbers now -- cue complaints).
Newly added books will have a "New" banner until they get opened.

...

I use a TBR collection that tells me if I haven't read a book yet. It is set from a #readstatus custom column in calibre.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I use a TBR collection that tells me if I haven't read a book yet. It is set from a #readstatus custom column in calibre.

Meanwhile, I use the Kindle the way Amazon intended -- while I use Calibre extensively for sucking periodicals down and emailing them to the Kindle, I've always found its plugboard and custom column scheme horrifically confusing (and don't want to plug the Kindle into the computer whenever I make any collection-related changes), so I just use normal built-in-to-Kindle collections.

It's scaling fine for me at the moment, with a thousand-odd books on there: I have collections for unread stuff, read stuff (periodically deleted to free up room), stuff I'm reading now, and the rest are groups for things like specific series, particular types of nonfiction books, anthologies, etc etc etc. Combining that with searches by recency, author, and textual content mean I can usually find any book I'm looking for in a few seconds -- certainly faster than I could find a book in the real world.

Really, hierarchy is overrated for this application. Most things you might want to group books into are *not* hierarchical: the only hierarchy I can think of is author -> series, and the first level of that is redundant unless you have series with the same name by multiple different authors. If you really have that problem, name your collections something like "Series (Author)".

[shamanNS]

Different people need (or don't really need but "just" want) different levels of organisation. There are no valid excuses for not having nested collection/nested tags support... and even less of not having device display series info in non retarded way (= sticking it in the title field without consistency of its placement and format of that info itself).

[shalym]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

Different people need (or don't really need but "just" want) different levels of organisation. There are no valid excuses for not having nested collection/nested tags support... and even less of not having device display series info in non retarded way (= sticking it in the title field without consistency of its placement and format of that info itself).

Which device allows nested collections/tags natively??

Shari

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by NullNix

Meanwhile, I use the Kindle the way Amazon intended -- while I use Calibre extensively for sucking periodicals down and emailing them to the Kindle, I've always found its plugboard and custom column scheme horrifically confusing

Plugboards are dead easy and have nothing whatsoever to do with custom columns (which I don't personally use). Really nothing to be scared of.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by shalym

Which device allows nested collections/tags natively??

Shari

None that I know of. Although the Kindle pre-fw5.4.2 could do it using a hack due to the way Amazon implemented collections.

[melovesflying]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I use a TBR collection that tells me if I haven't read a book yet. It is set from a #readstatus custom column in calibre.

Is there a way to sync that kind of custom reading status column to the device or is Kindle Collections the way to go?

My books are all epub. Which format do you recommend I use to convert them to make it work with the Kindle, mobi or azw3?