Kobo Clara BW + Calibre setting up

[ayylmayo]

I just got my Kobo Clara BW and tried to use Calibre but it gave me an error popup saying it doesn't recognize the firmware.
Can someone tell me if I did something wrong or how to set Calibre up so that it can actually read the database of the Kobo Clara BW?

calibre, version 7.9.0
WARNING: Failed: Kobo database version unsupported - See details

Your Kobo is running an updated firmware/database version. As calibre does not know about this updated firmware, database editing is disabled, to prevent corruption. You can still send books to your Kobo with calibre, but deleting books and managing collections is disabled. If you are willing to experiment and know how to reset your Kobo to Factory defaults, you can override this check by right clicking the device icon in calibre and selecting "Configure this device" and then the "Attempt to support newer firmware" option. Doing so may require you to perform a Factory reset of your Kobo.

Discussion of any new Kobo firmware can be found in the Kobo forum at MobileRead. This is at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=223.

Device database version: 175.
Device firmware version: 4.39.22861

[Sirtel]

Do as the message tells you to do - instructions are pretty clear here.

[jlinear]

I just received a Kobo Clara BW. It automatically updated during activation and Calibre recognized it just fine. I could also add and delete books in Calibre seemingly without issue. NickelMenu seems to work fine. KOReader (latest nightly) with the latest KFMon tries to launch but just returns to the Home screen. BW page turns are significantly faster than the Libra 2 probably partly to the smaller screen size. Disappointingly, at least to my eyes, blacks (text and covers) don't seem any blacker than on the Libra 2 using approximately the same font & settings. And the white background of the Libra 2 gets significantly whiter and brighter causing text to seem more contrasty than the BW. My initial impression: outside of the smaller size I don't really see any significant advantage to getting the BW if you already have a Libra 2.

[breaktwister]

Can I ask how you are connecting Clara BW to Calibre? I am new to ereaders and considering the Clara BW, it is important to me to be able to use my Calibre library easily.

[slantybard]

Originally Posted by breaktwister

Can I ask how you are connecting Clara BW to Calibre? I am new to ereaders and considering the Clara BW, it is important to me to be able to use my Calibre library easily.

I plug my BW into my Mac running Calibre software using a USB C cable. If your Mac is a M1/2/3.... model, there may be some issues with the reader being ejected randomly. This is solved by using a USB hub that has a USB 2.0 connector for the kobo cable to be plugged into (For some reason, the USB 3 ports on the Mac don't always work well with a kobo reader).

The kobo should show up in Calibre and you can use one of 2 plugins to send books to your kobo - the kobotouch plugin (will send epubs of your books to the kobo) or the kobotouch extended plugin (will send kepubs conversions of your books to the kobo. The KoboUtilities plug in can be used to update metadata, fix the database, alter the covers on your kobo books and other optimizations.

It's pretty easy to use calibre with Kobo devices.

[breaktwister]

Thanks Slanty.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by breaktwister

Thanks Slanty.

You will need at least calibre 7.10 for the Clara BW.

[mullse01]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You will need at least calibre 7.10 for the Clara BW.

Is there a way to work around this if upgrading to 7.10 isn't possible? The Mac I'm using is still on Monterey...

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by mullse01

Is there a way to work around this if upgrading to 7.10 isn't possible? The Mac I'm using is still on Monterey...

No. You can sideload your books to your Kobo without connecting to Calibre, of course - use the Save to Disk feature in Calibre to save the books to your computer drive outside Calibre and from there you can drag/drop them to your Clara. You'll lose the automatic series and collections sorting, though.

[Aleron Ives]

You can install VirtualBox with a small Linux distro so you can get the latest Calibre.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mullse01

Is there a way to work around this if upgrading to 7.10 isn't possible? The Mac I'm using is still on Monterey...

There are some options.

• You can use Bootcamp to dual-boot Windows 10 64-bit.
• If the latest MacOS will work with calibre 7, you can install it even though it's not supported. There are ways of doing this.
• You can buy a new computer that supports the latest MacOS.
• You can buy a new computer that runs Windows 11 and forgo Apple.

[rashkae]

You can add the Kobo device to your calibre as a generic USB Device. I forget the exact steps, but it does work.. Under Settings, Miscellaneous, "Get Information to Setup User Defined Device". After getting the info from there, you can install the User Defined Device plugin. There is also a Connect to Folder plugin that should achieve the same thing.

Note that Extended Kobo Driver will not work with these. If you want to use Kepub, you will need to install Kepub Output plugin, convert your books to Kepub, then send the Kepub to your generic USB device or Folder. It's probably easier, and get more consistent results, to use the standalone Kepub converter and just copy over the book files over file explorer at this point.

[mullse01]

Thanks for the advice, all! For now, I’m using the User Defined Device plugin to sideload books, and when I get the time, I’ll install Ventura via OCLP on my 2013 Mac Pro.

(I’ve been meaning to do it anyway; the Clara BW gives me a convenient excuse!)

[.tycho]

OCLP is a godsend. Saved me from having to buy a new Mac when my 2013 MBP was running just fine

[mullse01]

Originally Posted by .tycho

OCLP is a godsend. Saved me from having to buy a new Mac when my 2013 MBP was running just fine

Right?! my little TrashCan Pro might not be as powerful as one of the Apple silicon chips, but it still has eight cores and 64GB of RAM--I'm not throwing away a perfectly good media server because the mothership decided to stop supporting it!