Kindle book cover thumbnails disappearing

[ArjenVegt]

Originally Posted by pokeit

When the kindle is connected, right-click on the cover image of the book in the Calibre library and select 'Save cover to disk'. You will then have to navigate to the system/thumbnails directory on the kindle itself - this is a hidden directory so it may not be immediately visible - and overwrite the amazon 'no image found' icon. The files in the thumbnails directory are not named in any sensible way so you'll have to work out which one is the correct file - I have been doing this one book at a time, so the most recent thumbnail is the one.

It worked! Thanks

[jhowell]

I am curious to see whether this turns out to be a one-off thing when a new book is loaded or whether something can trigger the thumbnails to be replaced again later on.

[stumped]

A link to where else this is discussed, complained about would be helpful also

I very quickly looked for it in Amazon forums, did not find anything....

[Androzes]

Is there any possibility that Calibre prevent thumbnails from being altered like leaving thumbnails in a "read-only" state to prevent thumbnails from being altered by amazon? Lets say only Calibre have the permition change the thumbnails.

Thank You Kovid for the Calibre, best regards from Brazil.



I find this workaround on the kindle subreddit and worked for me:



" 1.Turn Airplane Mode On
2.Connect Kindle to PC. Send Book to Device through Calibre.
3.Disconnect Kindle from PC.
4.Connect Kindle to PC, navigate to Kindle/system/thumbnails
5.You will see file name "thumbnail_xxx_xxx_xx.jpg.partial" and exact same file name without ".partial" (this is your cover of your newly uploaded book)
6.Copy the book cover (s) to your PC somewhere.
7.Disconnect Kindle from PC
8.Enable WiFi on Kindle. After a few moments all your new book covers will blank out on the Kindle.
9.Connect Kindle to PC. Navigate to Kindle/system/thumbnails and then copy all of the covers from your PC to Kindle overwriting blanks
10.Disconnect from PC and enjoy your book covers again."

Ps.: Sorry in about my english

[pokeit]

Originally Posted by stumped

A link to where else this is discussed, complained about would be helpful also

I very quickly looked for it in Amazon forums, did not find anything....

my amazon uk forum query

[Joey77]

Can someone please help me find the system/thumbnail folder. I'm on a mac and when I connect my kindle all I can see is the documents and fonts folders. Anything specific to get the system folder to show up?

[Androzes]

Try to specify the address manually. When in the Kindle folder type "kindle\system" on the address bar, this should work.

[Joey77]

I got it to work. Open terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true ; killall Finder

this will now show hidden folders. Got all the cover art to work now. Pain you gotta do each one manually following the steps that Androzes stated. Thanks for this!

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Right so to work around this you would need to generate MOBI files of the joint type (i.e. containing KF8 and old MOBI) and send those to your kindle as PDOCs

Yes. That works as long as the joint MOBi/KF8 file does not have a CDETYPE/ASIN specified, as you get from calibre if the "Enable sharing of book content..." conversion option is used. A Master MOBI produced using kindlegen or Kindle Previewer will also work.

[hengyu]

Originally Posted by Androzes

Is there any possibility that Calibre prevent thumbnails from being altered like leaving thumbnails in a "read-only" state to prevent thumbnails from being altered by amazon? Lets say only Calibre have the permition change the thumbnails.

Thank You Kovid for the Calibre, best regards from Brazil.



I find this workaround on the kindle subreddit and worked for me:



" 1.Turn Airplane Mode On
2.Connect Kindle to PC. Send Book to Device through Calibre.
3.Disconnect Kindle from PC.
4.Connect Kindle to PC, navigate to Kindle/system/thumbnails
5.You will see file name "thumbnail_xxx_xxx_xx.jpg.partial" and exact same file name without ".partial" (this is your cover of your newly uploaded book)
6.Copy the book cover (s) to your PC somewhere.
7.Disconnect Kindle from PC
8.Enable WiFi on Kindle. After a few moments all your new book covers will blank out on the Kindle.
9.Connect Kindle to PC. Navigate to Kindle/system/thumbnails and then copy all of the covers from your PC to Kindle overwriting blanks
10.Disconnect from PC and enjoy your book covers again."

Ps.: Sorry in about my english

Can confirm that this works, but many steps are unnecessary.

Just do the following:

1. Sideload your book, you don't need airplane mode.
2. Cover will get replaced with a blank.
3. Replace the blanked cover with your Calibre cover in /system/thumbnails (sort by most recent, to make it easier). Copy paste the image you want and rename it accordingly.

Your Calibre cover should already be in your Calibre library to begin with, so there's no need to copy it to elsewhere. Click on the book's "Path: Click to open" to get to the book's folder and the cover should already be there.

[zaqxsw]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I am curious to see whether this turns out to be a one-off thing when a new book is loaded or whether something can trigger the thumbnails to be replaced again later on.

As was mentioned, putting the Kindle in Airplane mode allows the cover to stay after side loading. If you reconnect to Wi-Fi hours later, the cover will disappear.

I've only had this happen on one specific book so far. All the rest of my saved books on my Kindle Paperwhite have kept their covers.

[Androzes]

Originally Posted by Joey77

I got it to work. Open terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true ; killall Finder

this will now show hidden folders. Got all the cover art to work now. Pain you gotta do each one manually following the steps that Androzes stated. Thanks for this!

You can do this only one time, e.g: conect your device, pass "N" books to your kindle just copy the thumbnails for these "N" books to another folder, wait amazon mess your covers, plug the kindle again and paste the original book covers. And i can confirm there is no need to be in airplane mode since when the kindle is connected in the pc there no wifi signal.

[zaqxsw]

Amazon USA General Kindle forum:

https://www.amazonforum.com/s/global...r%20thumbnails

[MrSlow&Steady]

Originally Posted by hengyu

Can confirm that this works, but many steps are unnecessary.

Just do the following:

1. Sideload your book, you don't need airplane mode.
2. Cover will get replaced with a blank.
3. Replace the blanked cover with your Calibre cover in /system/thumbnails (sort by most recent, to make it easier). Copy paste the image you want and rename it accordingly.

Your Calibre cover should already be in your Calibre library to begin with, so there's no need to copy it to elsewhere. Click on the book's "Path: Click to open" to get to the book's folder and the cover should already be there.

How long did that process take you?

[MrSlow&Steady]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Or keep your kindle in airplane mode. That should prevent amazons latest attempt to discourage you from side loading.

How likely is this glitch Amazon's intentional doing? This is intriguing to me...