Strange Clara BW load error and half-factory reset issue

[hamers]

I have a strange issue that came up when recently I was traveling without internet and wanted to see if anyone else had had it.

I turned on reader as usual, clicked on a book but the kobo said it couldn't load it, "try syncing online". I had zero internet (was camping in fact) and tried some other books and all had the same error.

Thinking it was some temporary bug, I held the power button til it power down, then powered up. Holy &*#&$, now it acted as if I had reset it and asked me to log into a wifi network to activate. Again, I am camping in the mountains and have no connection. I was mighty pissed let me tell you.

After trying to no avail, I connected the kobo to my phone and mounted it and lo and behold all my books are there, no issue. I copied a couple of my books to my android phone and luckily I had librera installed, and read there.. An inferior reading experience but thank god I had it for the 2 hours of pre-sleep inside the tent.

Then just got home, went through the kobo activation (again, it was as if it was a factory reset) and got back to the homescreen, and ALL MY CONTENT IS THERE, including settings (like dark mode)!

My questions.. What the hell happened here... How can I "re-activate" my kobo in the future if I'm totally offline but have an android phone where I can mount it (eg can I delete or add or edit a file on the reader that would kick it out of this stupid ass activation screen)?

Thanks for any input, insights or thoughts!

[Cootey]

There is a way to bypass registering which you could do on your Android phone, but it’s quite geeky: https://jacobalbano.com/2021/06/24/s...ut-logging-in/

There are other examples to be found on mobileread as well.

Since Kobo requires you to register online, you can usually register with a fake email address, then shut off Wi-Fi afterwards. So editing the SQL database and giving it bogus information is just an extension of that.

It looks like you just experienced a soft reset which leaves content on the Kobo intact. It could’ve been worse, but who wants to experience that while camping?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Cootey

There is a way to bypass registering which you could do on your Android phone, but it’s quite geeky: https://jacobalbano.com/2021/06/24/s...ut-logging-in/

There are other examples to be found on mobileread as well.

Since Kobo requires you to register online, you can usually register with a fake email address, then shut off Wi-Fi afterwards. So editing the SQL database and giving it bogus information is just an extension of that.

It looks like you just experienced a soft reset which leaves content on the Kobo intact. It could’ve been worse, but who wants to experience that while camping?

The problem i that something went wrong an there was no computer available.

The easiest solution is to create a hotpot on the phone and connect the Kobo to the phone's WiFi and go from there.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The easiest solution is to create a hotpot on the phone and connect the Kobo to the phone's WiFi and go from there.

I so enjoy electronic hotpot!

[John F]

One could also use nicklemenu?

One entry to backup/copy the database
Another entry to restore the database

[hamers]

excellent suggestions thank you. i don't suspect (hope) that this will happen often, maybe never again and was just a crazy bug, but i'd like to be ready. If this is my only reading device, being stuck for 6 days without it would be hell. i dont mind editing sql, i already have tools on my phone.

@JSWolf the hotspot (and hotpot!) idea is quite good, but i wonder if it would work if the phone also had no connection.

as to nicklemenu, John F, would that work if I couldn't even get in?

[PeterT]

My concern about NickleMenu doing a backup is that you really need the database closed by all other applications (ie Nickel itself) before taking a backup (and of course before restoring it).

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

[John F]

Originally Posted by hamers

...

as to nicklemenu, John F, would that work if I couldn't even get in?

I believe it wouldn't work if you couldn't get in.

[John F]

Originally Posted by PeterT

My concern about NickleMenu doing a backup is that you really need the database closed by all other applications (ie Nickel itself) before taking a backup (and of course before restoring it).

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

A shot in the dark, but maybe use one/some of the Nicklemenu commands have the side effect of closing it?