[Device Plugin] iOS reader applications (closed)

[hymie]

Originally Posted by Philantrop

usbmuxd is shipped with Calibre these days? Next Kovid will add the Linux kernel... :-(

Anyway, hymie, please install the usbmuxd that comes with your distro, then try again. Whatever is included with Calibre should be removed or at least not be used. Kovid has horrible ideas about how dependencies should be installed.

Updating my version of libusbmuxd did the trick. Thank you very much.

[Wyndham]

Error communicating with device

- - - Do let me know if there ism any further information I can give you - - -
After resetting, all is okay. Just thought you'd like to know.

calibre, version 1.0.0
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device



Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 85, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 557, in _upload_books
File "G:\Temp\calibre_cpsvfk\3b0nk4_ios_local_db\Marvin _overlays.py", line 1288, in upload_books
File "G:\Temp\calibre_cpsvfk\3b0nk4_ios_local_db\Marvin _overlays.py", line 1461, in _localize_database_path
File "calibre_plugins.ios_reader_apps.libimobiledevice" , line 259, in copy_from_idevice
File "calibre_plugins.ios_reader_apps.libimobiledevice" , line 541, in read
File "calibre_plugins.ios_reader_apps.libimobiledevice" , line 859, in _afc_file_read
MemoryError

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by Wyndham

Error communicating with device

- - - Do let me know if there ism any further information I can give you - - -
After resetting, all is okay. Just thought you'd like to know.

calibre, version 1.0.0
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device



Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 85, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 557, in _upload_books
File "G:\Temp\calibre_cpsvfk\3b0nk4_ios_local_db\Marvin _overlays.py", line 1288, in upload_books
File "G:\Temp\calibre_cpsvfk\3b0nk4_ios_local_db\Marvin _overlays.py", line 1461, in _localize_database_path
File "calibre_plugins.ios_reader_apps.libimobiledevice" , line 259, in copy_from_idevice
File "calibre_plugins.ios_reader_apps.libimobiledevice" , line 541, in read
File "calibre_plugins.ios_reader_apps.libimobiledevice" , line 859, in _afc_file_read
MemoryError

To clarify, after resetting, it's now working as expected?

How many books do you have in your Marvin library?

G

[jesscat]

I'm successfully using the driver with Calibre and Marvin, and it's great - thank you! But I have an issue/suggestion (hope it's not a repeat; I've read through this entire thread and didn't see it).

I have books on my device (in Marvin) that the driver doesn't show as "in library" when I'm connected to Calibre - even though those books are in fact in my Calibre library. But the driver is not making a link between the two - maybe because the metadata isn't the same? (Sometimes I download a book into Marvin first when I'm on the road, then later download same book into Calibre, fill in all my metadata according to my Calibre usage, etc.).

When that happens I'm stuck. There's no way to link the two that I can find. I have to delete one, usually the one in Marvin since I have so much metadata entered for the one in Calibre, and then re-send the book from Calibre to the device. Of course, then I lose my place in Marvin, as well as any other info I'd associated with the book in Marvin (like non-calibre collections, word count, whatever). This is very frustrating.

What I'm looking for is some way to manually match the two books so I don't have to do this. I know that the "Calibre Connector Android App" had such a feature - you could right-click on the book in the device view in Calibre and select "Match book to library," select the correct book from a list, and then they'd sync.

Does the Marvin Calibre driver have a similar feature that I'm missing? If not, I'd love to see one! Without it, there are features of the driver that can't reliably be taken advantage of, which is really a waste!

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by jesscat

I'm successfully using the driver with Calibre and Marvin, and it's great - thank you! But I have an issue/suggestion (hope it's not a repeat; I've read through this entire thread and didn't see it).

I have books on my device (in Marvin) that the driver doesn't show as "in library" when I'm connected to Calibre - even though those books are in fact in my Calibre library. But the driver is not making a link between the two - maybe because the metadata isn't the same? (Sometimes I download a book into Marvin first when I'm on the road, then later download same book into Calibre, fill in all my metadata according to my Calibre usage, etc.).

When that happens I'm stuck. There's no way to link the two that I can find. I have to delete one, usually the one in Marvin since I have so much metadata entered for the one in Calibre, and then re-send the book from Calibre to the device. Of course, then I lose my place in Marvin, as well as any other info I'd associated with the book in Marvin (like non-calibre collections, word count, whatever). This is very frustrating.

What I'm looking for is some way to manually match the two books so I don't have to do this. I know that the "Calibre Connector Android App" had such a feature - you could right-click on the book in the device view in Calibre and select "Match book to library," select the correct book from a list, and then they'd sync.

Does the Marvin Calibre driver have a similar feature that I'm missing? If not, I'd love to see one! Without it, there are features of the driver that can't reliably be taken advantage of, which is really a waste!

Start the calibre connector, then open the Device context menu by clicking the down arrow next to the Marvin icon. Then, click Configure this device.

On the Marvin options tab, enable Update metadata in the When sending books already in Marvin section.

If the books have the same author and title in both calibre and Marvin, the calibre metadata will be applied to Marvin when sending the book to Marvin. This will allow you to keep all of your Marvin assets while applying the current calibre metadata.

You can read more about how this works by opening the help file. Click the Help button to learn more (item #2, Marvin options).

G

[Wyndham]

Originally Posted by GRiker

To clarify, after resetting, it's now working as expected?

How many books do you have in your Marvin library?

G

The driver is mostly working as expected. By that I mean I can easily transfer books to Marvin, and update metadata when necessary. Sometimes, the cover doesn't transfer but I have usually assumed it was my fault. I delete the book(s) from within Marvin, run Polish on the books in Calibre (now using 64bit version), and send to Marvin again.

The other bits which don't always work as expected are that I still get occasional errors (not the same as the one I reported earlier, but similar). Each time I can carry on, even if I have to exit Calibre and restart. If you want me to report each I am happy to do so - I just wasn't sure if this was the right place)

The other thing which doesn't work as expected is that the books are not being assigned to the Reading List. Again, I am assuming it is my fault and need to read the instructions again. For reference, the "Collections in Marvin" column contains "General, NEW, READING LIST". The assignments to General (fanfiction, etc all work.

Is there perhaps an order in which these tags should be used?

I have 3183 Unread books (3183 in All my books), 1866 in General, and 13 in the Reading List - these have all been added manually from within Marvin. Incidentally why does Unread include a book I am part way through? Is this my fault for using the NEW tag?

Thanks once again for a fantastic product (Calibre) and now this very useful driver. Incidentally, I have now stopped using DropBox and online catalogues.

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by Wyndham

The other bits which don't always work as expected are that I still get occasional errors (not the same as the one I reported earlier, but similar). Each time I can carry on, even if I have to exit Calibre and restart. If you want me to report each I am happy to do so - I just wasn't sure if this was the right place)

If you can recreate an error, please create an issue at the issue tracker with a debug log. You can find instructions for creating a debug log in the first post in this thread.

Originally Posted by Wyndham

The other thing which doesn't work as expected is that the books are not being assigned to the Reading List. Again, I am assuming it is my fault and need to read the instructions again. For reference, the "Collections in Marvin" column contains "General, NEW, READING LIST". The assignments to General (fanfiction, etc all work.

Is there perhaps an order in which these tags should be used?

I have 3183 Unread books (3183 in All my books), 1866 in General, and 13 in the Reading List - these have all been added manually from within Marvin. Incidentally why does Unread include a book I am part way through? Is this my fault for using the NEW tag?

Thanks once again for a fantastic product (Calibre) and now this very useful driver. Incidentally, I have now stopped using DropBox and online catalogues.

There is a new version of the Marvin driver that will be released with Marvin 2.0 (sometime in September) which makes flag management much easier. Keep an eye on the Marvin forum for more information about Marvin 2.0. And of course, I will post information here when the update is available.

G

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by Wyndham

I have 3183 Unread books (3183 in All my books), 1866 in General, and 13 in the Reading List - these have all been added manually from within Marvin.

Upon further reflection, I have an idea of what might be causing the occasional failures that you're experiencing.

For Marvin, 3183 books is a very large library. That's not to say that Marvin (and this plugin) shouldn't be able to handle a library of this size, but I haven't done any testing with libraries of this size to find the failure points (I don't have that many books!).

EDIT:
I found the likely point of failure when loading large Marvin libraries. I've submitted a patch which should be available in the next release of calibre (1.2).
G

[kguil]

Originally Posted by Wyndham

Incidentally why does Unread include a book I am part way through? Is this my fault for using the NEW tag?

Being half-way through a book still means it's unread. To mark a book as read, you have to explicitly mark it as so yourself. In the library, swipe the book to the left, choose "Actions" and mark it as read.

[jesscat]

Originally Posted by GRiker

Start the calibre connector, then open the Device context menu by clicking the down arrow next to the Marvin icon. Then, click Configure this device.

On the Marvin options tab, enable Update metadata in the When sending books already in Marvin section.

If the books have the same author and title in both calibre and Marvin, the calibre metadata will be applied to Marvin when sending the book to Marvin. This will allow you to keep all of your Marvin assets while applying the current calibre metadata.

You can read more about how this works by opening the help file. Click the Help button to learn more (item #2, Marvin options).

G

Thanks. I did in fact already have it set up that way, but what helped was your reference to "same author and title." I realized that the driver assumes that you never make changes to the author or title after downloading, or that if you're going to make changes in Calibre you first make the exact same changes in Marvin.

But I never bother to make changes to the metadata when I download a book to Marvin, because I know I'm going to do all necessary refining later in Calibre, which is my primary ebook "library." Specifically, in this case in Calibre I had added series names in brackets at the end of titles, which I always do. I just assumed I could send those metadata changes over to Marvin. But since the title fields have to match, I had to go into Marvin and change the titles so they too had the series names, to match the way I'd done in Calibre. And if I'd made any other such changes, like fixing an incorrect author name in Calibre, I'd have had to do the same thing.

So I do think there's still a need for a manual matching function. Without one, it will always be necessary to make a redundant edit in Marvin any time someone edits an author or title field in Calibre, and there are lots of reasons people do that. And since it's not always possible to remember all my various Calibre naming conventions (how did I name that series of which this is Book 14 - with or without a "the" at the beginning, have I been using the middle initial for that author, etc. etc.), that means I'll sometimes end up making those edits in Marvin while I'm sitting in front of the computer making the exact same changes in Calibre, which really feels redundant.

So it would be great someday to be able to just tell the driver which two books go together and then update the metadata in Marvin that way!


(Also, just as a note - the matching doesn't seem to be working with books that have two authors with an ampersand between them, even when the author fields look absolutely identical in Calibre and Marvin ("Author A & Author B"). When I did it, Calibre still always sent a second copy of the book to the device. I did notice that in the device list on Calibre, the author names showed up as having two ampersands between them ("Author A && Author B"), even though on Marvin, there was only one - don't know if that could be the source of the problem.)

[GRiker]

@jesscat, there will be a substantial update to the driver released when Marvin 2.0 is available. I believe it will do what you want, and quite a bit more.

G

[jesscat]

Originally Posted by GRiker

@jesscat, there will be a substantial update to the driver released when Marvin 2.0 is available. I believe it will do what you want, and quite a bit more.

G

That's great to hear, thank you! I'll look forward to it!

[Wyndham]

Thank you so much for the responses. I shall be looking forward to the update

[GRiker]

When the new iPhones are released later this week, I will need Debug device detection reports from users with the new iDevices. You can find instructions for generating this report in the first post in this thread in the My iDevice is still not recognized by calibre section.

Why is this necessary?

Every USB device that connects to your computer has a 'fingerprint' with information describing the manufacturer, model and version of the device. Calibre uses these fingerprints to decide which device plugin to load when it detects a supported device. Individual plugins supply a list of the fingerprints they support. When new hardware is released, the associated plugin needs to be updated.

I will monitor this thread, and update the plugin when new fingerprints are reported.

This affects any user of the iOS reader applications plugin, as well as Marvin XD users.

G

[GRiker]

Version 1.2.0 of the iOS reader applications plugin now supports Kindle for iOS. This is a very basic implementation that allows you to sideload books from calibre to the Kindle for iOS app on your iDevice.

Books displayed in the Device window are sideloaded books on your iDevice, not books downloaded from the Amazon cloud.

See the first post in this thread for information on configuring the plugin to select Kindle for iOS as your preferred reader application.

G