Calibre only sending some books to device

[raenedaz]

Tried the debug tonight. I've even swapped memory cards to see if that was causing the problem. Sent 47 books to the memory card and the main memory. Both only show 15 of those books as being transferred.

Debug says "Job 22 Upload 47 books to device: list of book titles....finished.
No details available." Job 23 sends the metadata.

It looks like everything is transferring over, according to Calibre. For some reason, it's not making it. This makes me think it's a prs600 software issue.

[chaley]

I have a sony pocket (prs-300) that does not support cards, so I need your help to diagnose what is going on.

To try to isolate what is happening, three experiments. However, before trying them, I suggest that you do a filesystem check of the card. How you do this depends on which version of windows you are running. On W7, you right-click on the 'drive', select tools, and then 'check drive for errors'. If errors are found, unplug the device and see if books magically appear. My guess is that they won't.

First experiment: Find a calibre-transferred book that does not appear, and transfer it again from calibre by itself. Does it then appear? My guess (hope, actually) is that it does not.

Second experiment:
1) After sending the books, are the files in fact on the card? If not, then no need to go further. Something is wrong with either calibre or the card.
2) If 1 is yes, what is the path to the first folder created by calibre? That first folder should have the name of an author.
3) If 1 is yes, then there should be folders for the books that appear and folders for the books that do not appear. Is there any obvious difference between them, such as the not-working ones having punctuation and working ones not? Note that you will need to check any sub-folders (are there any?) and file names for the books as well.
4) There should be a file called cache.xml on the card. From the code, it seems that the file should be in DRIVE_LETTER:/Sony Reader/database/cache.xml. Is it there? If not, is it somewhere else? This file is Sony's database of books on the card. Is there another file somewhere on the card named anything.xml (search for *.xml on the card)?

Third experiment: You said in an earlier post that you can copy books using Windows explorer and have them appear on the reader.

1) Where do you put the books on the card?
2) Are there significant differences between the folder and file names that you choose and the ones that calibre uses? I imagine that the ones you choose are much shorter.
3) Find a file transferred by Calibre (assuming that the files are really on the card) and rename the folders to have simple names. For example, rename the author folder to '1' and the file to 'my_book.epub' or some such. Eject the reader. Does the book now appear?

[raenedaz]

Originally Posted by chaley

To try to isolate what is happening, three experiments. However, before trying them, I suggest that you do a filesystem check of the card. How you do this depends on which version of windows you are running. On W7, you right-click on the 'drive', select tools, and then 'check drive for errors'. If errors are found, unplug the device and see if books magically appear. My guess is that they won't.

First experiment: Find a calibre-transferred book that does not appear, and transfer it again from calibre by itself. Does it then appear? My guess (hope, actually) is that it does not.

Second experiment:
1) After sending the books, are the files in fact on the card? If not, then no need to go further. Something is wrong with either calibre or the card.
2) If 1 is yes, what is the path to the first folder created by calibre? That first folder should have the name of an author.
3) If 1 is yes, then there should be folders for the books that appear and folders for the books that do not appear. Is there any obvious difference between them, such as the not-working ones having punctuation and working ones not? Note that you will need to check any sub-folders (are there any?) and file names for the books as well.
4) There should be a file called cache.xml on the card. From the code, it seems that the file should be in DRIVE_LETTER:/Sony Reader/database/cache.xml. Is it there? If not, is it somewhere else? This file is Sony's database of books on the card. Is there another file somewhere on the card named anything.xml (search for *.xml on the card)?

Third experiment: You said in an earlier post that you can copy books using Windows explorer and have them appear on the reader.

1) Where do you put the books on the card?
2) Are there significant differences between the folder and file names that you choose and the ones that calibre uses? I imagine that the ones you choose are much shorter.
3) Find a file transferred by Calibre (assuming that the files are really on the card) and rename the folders to have simple names. For example, rename the author folder to '1' and the file to 'my_book.epub' or some such. Eject the reader. Does the book now appear?

Check device ran fine. No errors found. Books not there.

Experiment 1 & 2: I've uploaded 8 files. The first 5 do fine. The last three (Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys) only Little women transferred. I retransferred Little Men. In Calibre, my memory card shows LIttle Men appearing where LIttle Women was and Little Women is now gone. In windows explorer, Little Women in the only file showing of the two. When I eject my reader, Little Men comes up. Little Women is not on there. I checked all of that before resending Little Men and Little Women were on the card via windows explorer, Calibre, and when I opened the book.

Experiment #3: I keep a backup of all my book files on an external hd. Libary > For Library > author - series # - title.format.
When I've just sent the cards to the memory card via windows explorer and opened them on my reader, I tried it both using my backup files and using the Calibre Library (just copying them over to the memory card). Both ways brought up the right number of books on my reader.

On the card, in Sony > Database, I have three .xml files: cache and cacheExt. Both have the same date time stamp.

I called Sony Support this morning, they said it was a file that was jacking it up. I've done what they suggested, however, all of the books show as actually transferring to the device in the program. It's just that they don't actually go over. I've also checked the files through Calibre view. They all open fine. It's also not any one file. I can do the same thing mentioned in Experiment #2 with any book I choose. It'll choose a book to replace and now show up on Calibre, but not my memory card.
Last night I was doing it with another, 2GB, memory card and it was experiencing the same issues. So I don't believe it's the memory card, although it should be.

[edbro]

This might sound crazy but you might try to format the internal memory of the device. You will end up wiping it clean but you can always retransfer the books. I would start with a freshly formatted device and a freshly formatted SD card.

Settings - Advanced Settings - Format Internal Memory

[chaley]

Originally Posted by raenedaz

Experiment 1 & 2: I've uploaded 8 files. The first 5 do fine. The last three (Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys) only Little women transferred. I retransferred Little Men. In Calibre, my memory card shows LIttle Men appearing where LIttle Women was and Little Women is now gone. In windows explorer, Little Women in the only file showing of the two. When I eject my reader, Little Men comes up. Little Women is not on there. I checked all of that before resending Little Men and Little Women were on the card via windows explorer, Calibre, and when I opened the book.

Given that all three of those books have the same author, it sounds like calibre is using the same filenames for different books. This can happen if you have touched the device customization. For example, if you changed the filename string to be "{author_sort}/{authors}" or something similar, books would be overwritten. This would also happen if the metadata in calibre is incorrect, displaying 'unknown' for either the author or the title.

The default is '{author_sort}/{title}/{title} - {authors}'.

Please a) check calibre's author and title metadata to be sure it is right, and b) check your device parameters to be sure that enough information is included in the filename to disambiguate the books. You do this in preferences/add_save. To be sure, also check the setting under the PRS-600 device interface plugin.

I had a similar problem once (not filename, but something else), and solved it by removing the contents of the calibre configuration directory. If you do this, the next time you start calibre you will be asked for some information such as your default device and where the library is. You will also lose your saved searches, search history, and a few other things. In other words, this is a do-only-at-the-end action.

[raenedaz]

Originally Posted by chaley

Given that all three of those books have the same author, it sounds like calibre is using the same filenames for different books. This can happen if you have touched the device customization. For example, if you changed the filename string to be "{author_sort}/{authors}" or something similar, books would be overwritten. This would also happen if the metadata in calibre is incorrect, displaying 'unknown' for either the author or the title.

I was thinking this might be the problem. I'm currently reloading my library. I did have it author/series. I've put it back to the default and deleted my library and library files. Now almost done reloading.

I really hope this fixes it. We'll see. I will post if his solves it, just in case someone else comes across the same problem.

[raenedaz]

It appears that the new Calibre version, released tonight, fixes this issue.
Thank you everyone.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by raenedaz

I did have it author/series.

That was your problem. The same name was used for every book in the same series, because they all had the same author and the same series name. Only the last ebook written out was left, as all the earlier ones had been overwritten.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by chaley

This can happen if you have touched the device customization. For example, if you changed the filename string to be "{author_sort}/{authors}" or something similar, books would be overwritten.

I am glad you explained this. It was driving me crazy, I had concluded operator error was the cause but for the life of me I couldn't fathom exactly what could be causing this.

Originally Posted by raenedaz

It appears that the new Calibre version, released tonight, fixes this issue.
Thank you everyone.

Cause confirmed. Correcting this made all well again, not the new version.

[raenedaz]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I am glad you explained this. It was driving me crazy, I had concluded operator error was the cause but for the life of me I couldn't fathom exactly what could be causing this.

I figured it was me. Just couldn't figure out what it was.

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Cause confirmed. Correcting this made all well again, not the new version.

I just know I went outside with it reloading books, came back in and the new version was available. Updated the version and sent books to device. Worked perfect.
Some here (including me) are new to Calibre, ereaders, or both. It's not clear in the manual or on the boards that changing defaults (especially when the manual says you can) can cause 'quirks' in Calibre's operation. I'm glad it was a simple issue. I'm glad you all helped me figure it out. I'm also glad it's now posted on the boards in case anyone else experiences this.

Thanks again for the help! I was ready to throw the computer and reader. Everything works fine now and I'm loving my handy-dandy library all over again.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by raenedaz

I'm glad it was a simple issue. I'm glad you all helped me figure it out. I'm also glad it's now posted on the boards in case anyone else experiences this.

I'm glad it works now and I'm glad it was you because it could have just as easily been (and has been in the past) me.