Troubleshooting Books not showing up on library (but they are on device)

[doedeer]

Over the years I have sent hundreds of books to my kindle using Calibre. Usually download .epub, add it to my calibre library, connect my kindle via USB and then convert and send to device. Lately, when I send a book it doesnt show on my kindle's library. If I use the search function, I can find them and read it, so the conversion and connection went fine, it just doesn't appear in the libary.

Some things I tried:
1. restarting my kindle.
2. converting to azw instead of mobi.
3. many different files.
4. deleting files that show on my library, and then re-sending them again (they don't show).


I'm using Calibre 6.7.1. I have a 6th gen kindle paperwhite (Firmware 5.12.2.2), it's been on airplane mode for many months now.

[Frogm4n]

There's no need to use MOBI on anything except a very, very, old Kindle. Your default format should be AZW3, and/or KFX if you add the KFX Output plugin. I'd go into the device settings and uncheck MOBI. (Plug in Kindle, let Calibre detect it, click dropdown next to the icon in the tool bar, select configure this device, uncheck MOBI from the formats listing) AZW is just MOBI with Amazon's early DRM. AZW3/KF8 is a newer and much better format, and KFX is even newer.

[doedeer]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

There's no need to use MOBI on anything except a very, very, old Kindle. Your default format should be AZW3, and/or KFX if you add the KFX Output plugin. I'd go into the device settings and uncheck MOBI. (Plug in Kindle, let Calibre detect it, click dropdown next to the icon in the tool bar, select configure this device, uncheck MOBI from the formats listing) AZW is just MOBI with Amazon's early DRM. AZW3/KF8 is a newer and much better format, and KFX is even newer.

Thanks I think that partially fixed it. Now the books are showing in my library, but when I sort by recent (my preferred method) they are not on the top of the list, as it used to be. I have to sort by author and find them on the author.

[jhowell]

If your device has been in airplane mode for a long period the internal clock may have drifted significantly. That can affect the order in which books appear in the library.

Also be aware that enabling WiFi after a long period offline may cause sideloaded books to be deleted from the device.

[Elaine T]

When I've had that problem it has seemed to be an indexing issue. Sometimes just waiting long enough (often 24 hrs) gets them to appear. If that doesn't work, the restart where you hold the start button down till it restarts usually works. As a last resort I remove the index file just before bedtime, and plug in the device to let it re-index everything over night without draining the battery. And that has always worked.

This is on a 2024 paperwhite - I hope the device wouldn't make a difference, but who knows?

I have approximately 700 sideloaded books on at the moment, I've been doing it for years and seeing the 'doesn't appear' problem for the last , oh, four or so.

[Elaine T]

Actually the very last resort of last resorts I've done (successfully) is robocopy everything on the device to someplace else - usually my hard drive); reset to factory settings; reload everything by reversing the robocopy operation.

Yeah, it's a pain. It has also solved the problem. And by using robocopy to get absolutely everything I don't have to redo putting (most) of the stuff back in collections. Just do this when you won't want the device for a while, to let it work.

[jackm8]

Robocopy?

[DNSB]

Windows command line copy utility with decent options. I made quite a bit of use of it when copying from an old server to a new server.

See robocopy on Microsoft Learn.