Does Calibre Understand When A Book is Read?

[American_Desi]

I use Calibre with Calibre Companion on my iPad.

While CC understands that a book is "read" or "not read," it appears to me that it is not sending this information to Calibre when I connect and sync via the Wireless Server.

In particular, I notice that when I remove books from CC after syncing, and then add them again, they again show up in CC as being unread, despite what I assume should have been adequate time for Calibre to import the "read" information from CC.

I found a tutorial on creating a custom column for read/unread status. But when I did it, the books all showed up with blank entries -- Calibre did not understand that some of those books had been read.

Is there a way to make this information available in the Columns in Calibre, and to ensure that Calibre is getting this information from CC?

[theducks]

1) You must Sync via the Wireless Device connection after setting the status in CC
2) You need to have configured CC (for the field type and name used). I use a date field. some use a Yes/no. they are different

I am not sure if you are in a chicken - egg condition here

The field is newer than the last sync. many of the Read status are even older.
Sync is about whats Newer than the other

[American_Desi]

Originally Posted by theducks

1) You must Sync via the Wireless Device connection after setting the status in CC
2) You need to have configured CC (for the field type and name used). I use a date field. some use a Yes/no. they are different

I am not sure if you are in a chicken - egg condition here

The field is newer than the last sync. many of the Read status are even older.
Sync is about whats Newer than the other

Hmmm, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, then. I didn't tinker much with CC when I got it - I assumed that transmitting read/unread status was a basic default function.

I am synching with wireless device connection after setting the status in CC, but evidently that's not enough.

I'm not sure what you meant by #2. Can you elaborate on that and on the steps for doing that? From what I can see, within the settings menu, and under "wireless connection," there is an option for "wireless/device connection/Sync new...." that I have turned on (switch turned to the right). There is another set of options under "Marking Books Read." Here there are several options - please tell me if I have any of these configured incorrectly:

"Update Date Read when read" - I have this turned off, because I mark the book read manually. Though even when I had it turned on, I had the same problem described above.

"Sync only form calibre to CC" - I have this turned off, because I understood that turning it on would only sync read information from Calibre to CC and what I wanted was two-way synching of said information

"Mark updates in calibre" - I have this turned off. Frankly I did not understand what this did.

"Sync column for Read" I don't have any options to adjust here. It says "current value: lookup name for a calibre yes/no custom column that CC's Read indicator is to be synced with" There is an arrow to the right which has "Don't sync" checked. I can't seem to uncheck that.

"Sync column for Date Read" Same as above, no option to change this. It again mentions a calibre date custom columnb that Date Read is to be synched with. Again the arrow to the right gets me an option that says "Don't sync" and that is checked. I can't uncheck it.

[Tanjamuse]

You need to have columns in calibre that Calibre Companion can sync to.

[chaley]

Moderator Notice
These are Calibre Companion questions. I am moving the thread to the CC forum

[chaley]

Originally Posted by American_Desi

"Mark updates in calibre" - I have this turned off. Frankly I did not understand what this did.

This causes calibre to put a "mark" (a calibre feature) on a book when read information is synced from CC to calibre. Marking a book causes a pushpin icon to be displayed in calibre on the book list.

"Sync column for Read" I don't have any options to adjust here. It says "current value: lookup name for a calibre yes/no custom column that CC's Read indicator is to be synced with" There is an arrow to the right which has "Don't sync" checked. I can't seem to uncheck that.

"Sync column for Date Read" Same as above, no option to change this. It again mentions a calibre date custom columnb that Date Read is to be synched with. Again the arrow to the right gets me an option that says "Don't sync" and that is checked. I can't uncheck it.

As Tanjamuse said, you must set this up. The first thing you must do is create the appropriate custom column(s) in calibre. You then tell CC which column(s) to use. See our FAQ Can I synchronize CC's Read and Date Read information with calibre?

[American_Desi]

Thanks!