Why doesn't eBook library 3.0 work?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Fungelstein

I just got my Sony-Prs600 today and it works very well so far.

Except, the eBook Library is driving me batty! For some reason whenever I put books on it, it sometimes changes it titles to something else. At first, I thought it was just grabbing the first sentence in the book to use as its title, so I edited a couple of ebooks to check it. Which didn't work.

I have noticed, txt files will use the file name as the title. While rtf or PDF appear to be making up some sort of title for itself. I'm assuming its some sort of internal file title within the file, since the titles are somewhat related to the e-books. For example, I got 2 PDF files called, "DiaryofNathanAdler1" and "DiaryofNathanAdler2", when I import them into the ebook library, the titles change to "Diary of Nathan Adler1.rtf" and "Diary of Nathan Adler 02.rtf". And a Discworld e-book I got has its title changed to just Terry Pratchett.

Although, oddly enough, the poetry PDFs I got from my class have the correct titles attached to them.

And its even more annoying since I can't change the titles in the eBook Library program! You'd think they would have that option in the program. Or maybe it does and I'm not using the program correctly.

It's extremely annoying, I agree.
You legally purchase eBooks. You even purchase them from the very same source. But still, sometimes what you get is way worse than anything you could download from the darknet.
For example, I've bought an official bundle of books: The "James Patterson collection".
Within 5 or 6 books (don't remember exactly, don't use them out of frustration), I found 3 different author's names: "James Patterson, "Patterson, James" and "JAMES PATTERSON".
In other eBooks, instead of author's name I even found "funny" comments like 24/7 or other strange things.
My only explanation: Cheap labor. eBooks being prepared by non-experts.

The book title or author's name are extracted from the metadata.
You can change them in some applications, for example "calibre". Sometimes that's even possible for DRMed (protected) eBooks.
But most of the time, you have to strip the eBook from DRM and then either convert it or change metadata.

In the beginning, I was deleting such eBooks from my library. But after some time, I found myself robbed of about 1/3 of my eBooks.
So, for the moment, I have two libraries:
- The original one, for example in Sony's eBook library or Adobe Digital Editions. Here I keep ALL the eBooks of the respective format, even the "annoying" ones. But I only copy the "correct" ones to my eBook readers.
- The "annoying" eBooks I strip of DRM and put them into calibre. Within calibre, I manage my second library and convert the "annoying" eBooks into 3 target formats: .epub and .lrf for my Sony readers, .mobi for the other readers. Either Mobipocket or ePUB usually can be used on any of my units.

But I really wonder:
- Why isn't there a "standard" naming convention?
Mobipocket for example uses "Patterson, James". Others use "James Patterson".
- Why is the quality of legally purchased eBooks very often that bad? It doesn't seem to be the eBook stores problem, I found it more or less in all the stores. Obviously, the eBook stores only host them, but they're prepared centrally. Probably by the publishers themselves. But it's really strange, how semi-professionally eBooks still are handled. Proofing and other quality instruments don't seem to apply.
But I've found similar in Apple's iTunes as well. As far as I remeber, the guy's name isn't "Schwartzenegger"!

[igorsk]

New item added to eBook Store support pages...
How do I downgrade to version 2.5

[Grandma Aubbie]

My library seems to do fine for about a week ... then it quits again.
I am using Windows 64 bit.

Recently, I found VIPRE (antivirus) was doing a scan while I was trying to load my books, and the sync feature froze. Eventually, windows shut the reader down.

I have disabled the sync feature, and am individually dragging books and notes - that way I can tell when something is a problem. Larger texts freeze for a couple of minutes, but eventually transfer ... patience is NOT my long suit.

Just an observation - a few weeks ago, my Windows program stopped recognizing Vipre. When I contacted Vipre, they said that Microsoft had made an unanticipated and unannounced change in windows programming, and that things should straighten out in the future.

This leaves me wondering ... if an antiviral program is having difficulties communicating with Microsoft so that they can protect the computer, what chance does Sony have? You write the programming, and some "wonderful person " over at Microsoft writes code that conflicts.

Anyway - that's my 2 cents ... which is about what my opinion is worth.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I do it like you see on the snapshot.

I have Visa Home Premium on our laptop and we have the first DEP option checked and eBook Library works fine here. Give that a try.

That would be Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only.

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have Visa Home Premium on our laptop and we have the first DEP option checked and eBook Library works fine here. Give that a try.

That would be Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only.

Being lazy, I'm not going to go back and read all the pages of posts here, so if this has been reported forgive me. I am having the worst time with EBL 3.0. To be honest, my problems occurred before with EBL 2.5 but I had hoped that upgrading to the newest release would fix them. If I use the software with out connecting my reader to the computer, it works just fine. However, whenever I connect the reader, do whatever I need to with my libraries and then depress the Eject arrow for the reader, the EBL software freezes. The reader ejects okay, but the software hangs and becomes non-responsive no matter how long I wait. I have to use the Task Manager to kill the software but even after that, the problems with EBL continue to effect my system so that I can't even run Shutdown. I have to do a hard shutdown and reboot to get everything working again. I have already changed the DEP as per Jon's above suggestion, something I did a while ago. I've contacted Sony through email and they told me that it would be better if I give them a call. I HATE calling support centers! Anybody here have any suggestions?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have Visa Home Premium on our laptop and we have the first DEP option checked and eBook Library works fine here. Give that a try.

That would be Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only.

This has been checked by default in my VISTA instance. I have no idea, how to turn off DEP entirely.
For me, it only has been working after choosing option 2 as shown on the snapshot. But since then it's working flawlessly.
Checking XP compatibility mode, as described in some threads, didn't make it though.
What I still wonder: EBL 3.0 only crashes on me, when copying to internal memory of the reader. Copying or syncing to both memory cards works without any problem.
Obviously, VISTA treats the internal memory differently??? Strange, as I've used EBL 2.x on the very same VISTA installation before without these problems.
Interesting would be, using a "blank" VISTA install, without any 3rd party applications or having had EBL 2.x installed before...

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by kazbates

Being lazy, I'm not going to go back and read all the pages of posts here, so if this has been reported forgive me. I am having the worst time with EBL 3.0. To be honest, my problems occurred before with EBL 2.5 but I had hoped that upgrading to the newest release would fix them. If I use the software with out connecting my reader to the computer, it works just fine. However, whenever I connect the reader, do whatever I need to with my libraries and then depress the Eject arrow for the reader, the EBL software freezes. The reader ejects okay, but the software hangs and becomes non-responsive no matter how long I wait. I have to use the Task Manager to kill the software but even after that, the problems with EBL continue to effect my system so that I can't even run Shutdown. I have to do a hard shutdown and reboot to get everything working again. I have already changed the DEP as per Jon's above suggestion, something I did a while ago. I've contacted Sony through email and they told me that it would be better if I give them a call. I HATE calling support centers! Anybody here have any suggestions?

In the beginning, I've lost all my collections about 4 times. Same as you: I've ejected the reader from EBL 2.x. Since then, I close EBL x.x and then simply disconnect the reader, not even ejecting it from VISTA. Haven't lost anything since then.
BTW: Jon's suggestion for DEP by default had been checked already on my system. I had to go for option 2. My guess: VISTA treats EBL as an essential service, so I manually have to exclude it. Now it's working perfectly. (Had to exclude my PDF driver as well, respectively have deleted it in the meantime. The PDF driver didn't crash EBL 3.0, but has caused problems with Outlook and other applications after having installed EBL 3.0.)

[kazbates]

An update on my EBL 3.0 disconnect problems:

According to the technician at Sony Support, do not use the eject arrow to disconnect your reader from your computer. Just unplugged the USB cable. They acknowledge that there is a problem with the Eject arrow. Instead of making me wait on the phone twice, maybe they should include that information in their frequently asked questions!

[JSWolf]

I use the eject arrow on my XP system and it seems to work fine.

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I use the eject arrow on my XP system and it seems to work fine.

I think it has something to do with Vista, although it used to work okay at one point. I don't know what caused it to stop working, but as long as I can just unplug it, I'm happy.

[Wetdogeared]

Originally Posted by kazbates

I think it has something to do with Vista, although it used to work okay at one point. I don't know what caused it to stop working, but as long as I can just unplug it, I'm happy.

The eject button works on my Vista using eBook Library 3.0, but I only have the PRS-505 and PRS-700.

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

The eject button works on my Vista using eBook Library 3.0, but I only have the PRS-505 and PRS-700.

It did work with my 700 for awhile and then just started giving me problems. I would love to know how to actually fix it, but can live with just unplugging the thing until that starts to be a problem, too.

[zazan]

it didn't work for me either on Win 7 RTM but after configuring to run in WinXP SP2 compatibility mode it works fine

[Wetdogeared]

eBook Library v3.0 was working fine for me using Vista until last night. I can no longer drag books (bought at the eBook Store) to my PRS-505 or PRS-700 without crashing the eBook Library. I must use Windows Explorer to transfer my eBooks.

The only thing I have done differently with the eBook Library recently was download an ePub, import to eBook Library and transfer to my PRS-700 to test, for another MR member, if the text was right aligned. This transfer worked with no problems, but was the last transfer that did, and shouldn't have affected the functionality of eBook library.

WDE.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

eBook Library v3.0 was working fine for me using Vista until last night. I can no longer drag books (bought at the eBook Store) to my PRS-505 or PRS-700 without crashing the eBook Library. I must use Windows Explorer to transfer my eBooks.

The only thing I have done differently with the eBook Library recently was download an ePub, import to eBook Library and transfer to my PRS-700 to test, for another MR member, if the text was right aligned. This transfer worked with no problems, but was the last transfer that did, and shouldn't have affected the functionality of eBook library.

WDE.

Can you still copy/drag to the memory cards? Does it only crash when using internal memory? Try DEP then: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56428