Libra Sync doesn't download Overdrive book anymore

[catsknit]

I've always had some trouble downloading Overdrive books that I've checked out through my computer. I'd usually have to hit sync 3-4 times and then it would finally appear. I haven't read any OD books in at least a month and yesterday I allowed the reader to update to the latest firmware 4.37.21586

Now, no matter how many times I sync, the book I just checked out is not appearing. My account is fine; I can see other books I have that are hold and browse OD books but can't see what I've already checked out.

any ideas? I don't know if it has anything to do with the FW update or not, as it wasn't smooth before but it did always eventually work.

[Parsley]

Have you tried rebooting? Rebooting has tended to work better for me than just trying to sync again.

If rebooting is no good, does sync work for non-overdrive books? If you're having general problems with sync, signing out of your account on your kobo and signing back in might fix things, but be aware that you'll have to set things up again (settings, customizations, downloaded books, possibly sideloaded books).

[catsknit]

Tried reboot, no change. Just tried syncing a new free book from Kobo and that came through fine.

[DNSB]

Is the book available on the Kobo store in the exact same version? The easiest check is to see if the ISBNs match.

[compurandom]

Try searching for the book in overdrive on the kobo. Then try checking it out there.
If the ISBN doesn't match the one your library has, it will say it can't find it.
If it does match and you try to check it out, it should say there is a problem (because you already have it checked out)... or maybe it will check it out and work.

The overdrive download seems fragile. It doesn't work:

• if you aren't logged into overdrive or your library...
• if your network is too slow or broken
• if your database is even slightly corrupt (including the encrypted database)
• if you have too many books in a single category (>100-120)
• if you don't wait long enough
• If the kobo goes to sleep while it is thinking about downloading it
• if there is a network glitch (or packet loss) during any of the multiple pre-download steps, it will hang and timeout...

I think also your kobo account can get out of sync with what is on the device somehow.
Sometimes if you hit the option under settings -> device information -> reapir your kobo account, it will fix this and then start downloading stuff.

[catsknit]

I went ahead yesterday and sideloaded it using ADE, so I can't tell whether the problem is still there. I did go ahead and have it repair my account. The rest of the causes above don't seem to be relevant in this case. I'll see what happens with my next OD checkout.

[compurandom]

So in the top row there is the sync icon...if you tap that it tells you what it is doing. On a successful sync, I see these messages: (I might have missed one)

• Starting sync
• Checking for updates
• Updating annotations
• Updating books
• Loading content

(I think I missed a message after updating books where it downloads books.)

It frequently gets stuck on the first two steps. If those don't complete in 30 seconds to a minute, they might not ever complete. After a while if it is still there, I cancel the sync, disable wifi, and wait for the sync to actually abort.

Then I re-enable wifi, wait for it to connect, and then retry the sync.
Sometimes I do that two or three times before I get a success.

Typically once it hits Updating annotations, it will eventually complete.
Updating books for me takes forever, but it doesn't seem to get stuck as often as the first two steps, so I usually let that run until the kobo falls asleep before I abort it and retry, but usually it takes less than 5 minutes.

Once updating books completes the book will show up under all books filtered with overdrive. If it fails to download the book after that, typically you can trigger a retry (after sync times out) by entering the My Books screen with wifi connected (which bypasses most of the steps above).

If you sideload the book with ADE and do the above steps, you might end up with two copies of the book on your device (one epub, one kepub).

[catsknit]

Mine does always go through updating annotations. Then it says Loading Content, then Loading Dictionaries, then Sync Complete. So it's not getting hung up, it just doesn't seem to see that a book is checked out and ready to download.

If I go to Overdrive on the Kobo it will show me the books I have put holds on but not any that are ready to check out or have been checked out. Also, if I search for the book that I have checked out, it finds it but the only choice is to put a hold on it.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by catsknit

Also, if I search for the book that I have checked out, it finds it but the only choice is to put a hold on it.

I see that too sometimes. Can't check it out 'cuz there's a waiting list, even though you already have it checked out. I think that's just overdrive goofiness, not kobo's fault. You should try putting a hold on it anyway and see if it adds a second copy to your holds list or if it gives an error.

I have had trouble getting books to show up. I think once I checked out an audio book and couldn't figure out why the kobo couldn't see it. Once I thought I had checked it out, but it turned out it was still on hold.

[DNSB]

I just tried both ways of setting up a library on my Sage. First I used my library number/pin to connect to my main library. I borrowed a book and it synced happily to my Sage. I then signed out and signed in to Overdrive and added a secondary library. Borrowed a book and it synced happily to my Sage.

I then tried with a book where Kobo did not show a match when I searched on the ISBN from the library site (it took a lot of tries to find one). I could borrow the book but it did not show up on my Sage when I synced.

Finally, I searched in Overdrive from my Sage's search interface. I picked a random book returned by my search and borrowed it. It synced to my Sage and also showed as borrowed in the library website.

[Mycale]

Literally just set up an account here because I have been experiencing the same problem. I have my device set to turn off after an hour, so it gets rebooted frequently. I have tried repairing my account. I have tried logging out of my Kobo account and back in. I have tried searching for the books directly on Kobo and checking them out (which I can't bc they are waitlisted). I hit sync and see the following:

Checking for Updates

Updating Annotations

Loading Content (with an empty progress bar)

Loading dictionaries

Loading Content (again, but with no progress bar this time)

Sync Complete

Very infrequently it works, but for the most part it does exactly what I've outlined above.

[catsknit]

Well, I don't know what changed but I just checked out a new book from my holds list that I was notified was ready and it successfully downloaded to my Libra the first time on Sync. I had not changed anything since last week when my previous book refused to download after at least 10 different tries so no idea what happened.
Mycale, the next thing I had planned to try was signing out of Overdrive on the Kobo and then back in but it ended up not be needed. Maybe that would work? I do think it is something buggy in Overdrive. For one thing, I somehow have 2 different passwords depending on whether I log in to OD from the library's site or through the app (even before Libby). No idea how to fix that either

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by catsknit

Well, I don't know what changed but I just checked out a new book from my holds list that I was notified was ready and it successfully downloaded to my Libra the first time on Sync.

I suspect there's a network stability issue involved in addition to all the kobo database instabilities. The sync process seems fragile in multiple ways including but not limited to packet loss both on your local network and in between the kobo and the overdrive servers.

If I'm right and a few lost packets can cause the sync process to stall, then this would account for the seeming randomness of sync working. But I'm sure that's not the only factor.