Looking to improve my Kobo Sage experience

[atjb]

Hi all,

I've read this forum for a while - I started doing so while thinking about ways I wish my Kobo Sage was better. I'm about to start making some changes, and before I do so would like to check my assumptions and what I'm about to do with the community.

The first issue I find with the Kobo Sage, is that I cannot add books to the Rakutan Kobo app on macOS, other than if I purchase them through the store itself. The workaround I have here is using Calibre + the KoboUtilities plugin. I then came across the issue where the internal database would brick itself fairly often, which I fixed using the logout/login workaround. This removed my reading history, so after a few cycles of this I figured out syncing this to Calibre, so that it can be re-synced to the Sage next time it bricks. I think this is all currently best practise, and would appreciate confirmation.

The second issue that I find is slow loading times with epubs that contain code blocks - say 20/40 seconds to turn a page. Looking into this, it looks like I have 2 options:

1: Convert any problematic books to KEPUB format
2: Try KOReader
3: Something else?

It's here that I'd like to check the way forwards. Could someone please recommend:

- the best way to convert to KEPUB? Looking at the options I have in Calibre, I can't actually see anything in the 'convert books' options that will output KEPUB. In particular, when looking at the KoboUtilities plugin, the driver appears to be KoboTouch and not KoboTouchExtended - which I cannot find any options to work with. I'd appreciate any links or advise that could straighten me out here.

- re: KOReader, it looks fairly straightforward, and since I'm going to be installing my first 3rd party launcher, I should basically just follow the Github instructions + wiki. Again, I'd appreciate someone confirming that this is correct, and that this is likely to have an effect upon the page-turn speed when viewing code-blocks.

I'd also appreciate any thoughts as to whether I'm missing something entirely, and should be doing something completely different.

Any help greatly appreciated!

[Sirtel]

To use the KoboTouch Extended Driver, you must install it first. It's listed in the plugins. After that you can see the option to swap between the ordinary and the extended driver.

As to the database bricking itself... yeah, that's an issue with several recent firmware versions. The solutions are
1) go back to version 4.34 - 4.35
2) reboot your Sage before connecting it to your computer

[atjb]

Thanks - I was searching the list of installed/available plugins, not the plugin repo.

I had a play with the convert formats with the KoboTouch Extended driver, but still couldn't see the option to convert to Kepub from inside Calibre.

However, I ran a test book through the kepubify tool (https://pgaskin.net/kepubify/), merged the two books in my local library and then deleted the book from the Sage and re-uploaded in kepub. Absolutely night and day - page turns onto pages with code blocks have gone from 40seconds to instant. With this result, I'm going to hold off installing KOreader.

Thanks for your help!

[Sirtel]

With the Extended Driver, you don't convert anything. When the extended driver is enabled, it will send your epubs to your Kobo automatically as kepubs. The kepub format will exist only on your Kobo, not in your Calibre library.

[Aleron Ives]

Regarding the database corruptions, you may wish to install NickelMenu so you can add a "Restart" menu option to easily prevent the database from corrupting. If you downgrade the firmware, you can avoid the corruptions entirely, as Sirtel said.

[atjb]

Thanks - I'm still unable to convert KEPUBs from EPUBs via the Extended driver, however performing the conversion on disk, importing the kepubs to calibre, merging the KEPUB with the existing EPUB and then deleting the ebook from the Sage and sending the KEPUB from Calibre is working fine.

Moving forwards, I'll simply perform a conversion on any EPUBs I buy before sending to the device.

Thanks for all help!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by atjb

Thanks - I'm still unable to convert KEPUBs from EPUBs via the Extended driver, however performing the conversion on disk, importing the kepubs to calibre, merging the KEPUB with the existing EPUB and then deleting the ebook from the Sage and sending the KEPUB from Calibre is working fine.

Moving forwards, I'll simply perform a conversion on any EPUBs I buy before sending to the device.

Thanks for all help!

As I said, you don't convert with the Extended Driver. It does the conversion automatically while sending the file to your Kobo. The kepub will be sent directly to the device, you won't see it in your library.

1) enable the extended driver via the Kobo Utlities plugin
2) after Calibre has restarted, connect your Kobo and send the epub to the device. It will be sent as kepub.

That's all there is to it. No need to convert anything.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Regarding the database corruptions, you may wish to install NickelMenu so you can add a "Restart" menu option to easily prevent the database from corrupting. If you downgrade the firmware, you can avoid the corruptions entirely, as Sirtel said.

Though regularly updating two Sage ereaders* I'm not having corruptions:
1) Open Calibre
2) Go to MyBooks
3) Connect cable, wait a bit and then tap.
4) When done eject from Calibre. (No Jobs running)
5) Wait for black screen, importing and books visible in My Books Unread
6) Disconnect cable.
7) After a few seconds reconnect cable, wait a little and tap connect.
8) Update Metadata (such as series, subtitle etc).
9) Eject from Calibre when no jobs running
10) Wait for unread books to update and disconnect cable.

Make sure no AV, Cloud Sync etc.

I've no added menu or patches.
About 7,000 ebooks.
No kepubs, all epub and PDF.

OS is Linux Mint 21.3 with Mate desktop.

I rsync (backup) with all programs that access the backed up files closed, not just Calibre.

I periodically also check Kobo database and backup database.

No issues with Libra, Libra 2 or Elipsa, but they aren't connected so often.

* All Kobos are on 4.38.21908. Most are in SideloadedMode, but two are not. WiFi not on.

I did have an issue ages ago if I connected while an eBook was open.

[deleted2]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

As I said, you don't convert with the Extended Driver. It does the conversion automatically while sending the file to your Kobo. The kepub will be sent directly to the device, you won't see it in your library.

1) enable the extended driver via the Kobo Utlities plugin
2) after Calibre has restarted, connect your Kobo and send the epub to the device. It will be sent as kepub.

That's all there is to it. No need to convert anything.

EDIT : Wrong plugin... Do not consider this post. Unless you need a good laugh.

You also have to set something up in Calibre Preferences. (Sorry, in French, but you get the idea, I hope.)

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Claude_C

You also have to set something up in Calibre Preferences. (Sorry, in French, but you get the idea, I hope.)

Attachment 207679

Attachment 207683

No, that's not necessary. I've never had KEPUB there.

[deleted2]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

No, that's not necessary. I've never had KEPUB there.

EDIT : Again, no good information is provided by this post. Sorry...

From the plugin official page here :

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=220565

Usage
To use this plugin after installing:
Select the book(s) you want to convert.
Select the KEPUB output format
Choose your settings

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Claude_C

If not there, you have to indicate which format first when you send the ebook to your device, no?

Just epub in the device settings, nothing else. The extended driver doesn't need the kepub specified somewhere (except in the driver settings - check the option "send books as kepubs"). If you don't use the extended driver and convert/send your kepubs in some other way, then yes, you'll need to specifiy that kepub should be sent.

[deleted2]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Just epub in the device settings, nothing else. The extended driver doesn't need the kepub specified somewhere. If you don't use the extended driver and convert/send your kepubs in some other way, then yes, you'll need to specifiy that kepub should be sent.

I edited my post above.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Claude_C

I edited my post above.

That's not the extended driver you linked to. That's the kepub output plugin which is needed for regular conversion to kepub (if you prefer to use that), but not for the extended driver.

[deleted2]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

That's not the extended driver you linked to. That's the kepub output plugin which is needed for regular conversion to kepub (if you prefer to use that), but not for the extended driver.

My wife says that I’m sometimes a bit lost... I never believed her. But maybe she's sometimes right.

That said, I always had both plugins.