MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - [Kindle + Calibre] Covers not showing when sideloaded via USB

edr · 02-14-2022, 12:34 PM

I'm having similar/related missing cover issues with multiple .mobi books.

Used Calibre Win x64 (calibre-64bit-5.36.0.msi) to send unmodified .mobi's to the Kindle (PPW 2018).

Covers initially appear on the Kindle, and a few seconds later are replaced with generic blank covers. Kindle contains the "amazon-cover-bug" directory, so Calibre is doing "its thing" to try to fix the covers, but it is not resolving the issue.

What I think is going on: J. Bezos has taken time off from his party yacht to check every .mobi on people's devices, and if he notices that a .mobi is not "genuine" (i.e. it's sideloaded), the Kindle removes the cover and displays its standard <blank> cover to annoy readers who care about seeing nice covers (that would be 99% of all readers).

What I've already tried - "everything".

Tried setting tags, for example:
isbn:1234567890, mobi-asin:B012345567, asin:B012345567
Left the original asin as it was, AND also tried using the asin from the Amazon.com store

Tried using Amazon's Kindle Previewer 3 tool hoping to "re-write" the mobi, but the tool doesn't have this feature - can only work with .epubs.

Looked for python and other CLI tools on github and elsewhere. Nope - everyone and everything recommends Calibre (which is great), but when Calibre fails to do the thing you need, there are no other options.

There's a tool https://github.com/kevinhendricks/KindleUnpack that claims to unpack mobis, but then you need different tool (MobiPocket) to attempt to re-pack the mobi, and that tool is dead and the site equally deceased. Other tools/scripts have not been updated in a few decades.

One hint that some fix is possible: Amazon's Kindle Previewer 3 correctly writes out a persistent book cover for mobis when I use it to convert epub -> mobi, even random epubs I've authored that don't have any asin or any other magic tag-tags. So something is possible to fix the issue, but I don't know what that speecial magic is yet.

Thanks ia for any hints. So far Amazon seems to be winning the war to <BLANK> out people's covers if they haven't personally put a few silver coins into Beeezos' pocket for each and every single mobi.

02-14-2022, 12:34 PM	#4
edr Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2022 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2018	I'm having similar/related missing cover issues with multiple .mobi books. Used Calibre Win x64 (calibre-64bit-5.36.0.msi) to send unmodified .mobi's to the Kindle (PPW 2018). Covers initially appear on the Kindle, and a few seconds later are replaced with generic blank covers. Kindle contains the "amazon-cover-bug" directory, so Calibre is doing "its thing" to try to fix the covers, but it is not resolving the issue. What I think is going on: J. Bezos has taken time off from his party yacht to check every .mobi on people's devices, and if he notices that a .mobi is not "genuine" (i.e. it's sideloaded), the Kindle removes the cover and displays its standard <blank> cover to annoy readers who care about seeing nice covers (that would be 99% of all readers). What I've already tried - "everything". Tried setting tags, for example: isbn:1234567890, mobi-asin:B012345567, asin:B012345567 Left the original asin as it was, AND also tried using the asin from the Amazon.com store Tried using Amazon's Kindle Previewer 3 tool hoping to "re-write" the mobi, but the tool doesn't have this feature - can only work with .epubs. Looked for python and other CLI tools on github and elsewhere. Nope - everyone and everything recommends Calibre (which is great), but when Calibre fails to do the thing you need, there are no other options. There's a tool https://github.com/kevinhendricks/KindleUnpack that claims to unpack mobis, but then you need different tool (MobiPocket) to attempt to re-pack the mobi, and that tool is dead and the site equally deceased. Other tools/scripts have not been updated in a few decades. One hint that some fix is possible: Amazon's Kindle Previewer 3 correctly writes out a persistent book cover for mobis when I use it to convert epub -> mobi, even random epubs I've authored that don't have any asin or any other magic tag-tags. So something is possible to fix the issue, but I don't know what that speecial magic is yet. Thanks ia for any hints. So far Amazon seems to be winning the war to <BLANK> out people's covers if they haven't personally put a few silver coins into Beeezos' pocket for each and every single mobi.