Calibre sideload - Kobo Aura H20 Ed 2

[Avanindra500]

Bought the new Kobo Aura H20 Edition 2 because of the larger 8GB memory.

Sideloaded about 2000 books on it (I know, I know, treating it like an iPod classic for books instead of CDs...) and have 600MB free out of 6.7GB usable. I know that because the device mounts fine as a USB device and Windows tells me that - all in red.

However, when I fire up Calibre, it starts communicating with the device, saying "getting list of books on device" and after a few minutes it gives me an "unable to communicate with device" error. (Clipboard pasted below). Windows then tells me "USB device has a fault".

I then disconnect, reboot, Windows repairs the device - I've even deleted the file Calibre left on it and try again - but same thing happens. No joy in Calibre pulling the list of books on the device and displaying against the library on my PC.

I have the latest Calibre version, the Kobo says it's up to date.

Suggestions? Should I just start deleting books to see if there's a threshold of where it works? I'd hate to do that - this is why I bought the new device for the larger capacity. Thanks.

calibre, version 3.2.1
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device

IOError: disk I/O error

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 88, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 511, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 1856, in books
File "c:\t\t\apsw-j6gj96\apsw-3.13.0-r1\src\cursor.c", line 236, in resetcursor
IOError: IOError: disk I/O error

[JSWolf]

Delete all the book on the H2O2 and then put them back on in smaller chunks using Calibre. If that doesn't work, factory reset and then update the firmware and try again.

[icallaci]

I have the same issue with my KA1. It seems to be a random occurrence, not really related to how many books I'm trying to transfer, or how many books are on the device, or ... anything, really. Sometimes I'm not even transferring books--just checking the database. I have to disconnect the KA1, reboot the computer, reconnect the KA1, let Windows 8.1 repair the KA1, open Calibre again, and hope the stupid thing connects. Usually it does, but once I had to repeat the whole cycle FIVE times before I didn't get the "error communicating with device" message. I have started reading on my Samsung tablet lately because I am tired of fighting with the KA1 (including peeking under the sleep cover to see if the #@!% light turned off). Sorry I don't have an answer for you, but you're not alone in your frustration. I hope someone has an answer for you, because I sure would like to know what is going on. Good luck.

Oh, and edited to add: I don't think this is a Calibre problem. I think it's a Kobo problem.

And another edit to add: My original H20 never has this problem, even if I connect it (using the same cable) before or after the KA1 displays "error communicating with device." I believe the original H20 is a Mark 5 device, while the KA1 and the H20 2nd edition are Mark 6 devices, so maybe the issue has something to do with Mark 6 devices.

[Avanindra500]

Originally Posted by icallaci

I have the same issue with my KA1. It seems to be a random occurrence, not really related to how many books I'm trying to transfer, or how many books are on the device, or ... anything, really. Sometimes I'm not even transferring books--just checking the database. I have to disconnect the KA1, reboot the computer, reconnect the KA1, let Windows 8.1 repair the KA1, open Calibre again, and hope the stupid thing connects. Usually it does, but once I had to repeat the whole cycle FIVE times before I didn't get the "error communicating with device" message. I have started reading on my Samsung tablet lately because I am tired of fighting with the KA1 (including peeking under the sleep cover to see if the #@!% light turned off). Sorry I don't have an answer for you, but you're not alone in your frustration. I hope someone has an answer for you, because I sure would like to know what is going on. Good luck.

Oh, and edited to add: I don't think this is a Calibre problem. I think it's a Kobo problem.

And another edit to add: My original H20 never has this problem, even if I connect it (using the same cable) before or after the KA1 displays "error communicating with device." I believe the original H20 is a Mark 5 device, while the KA1 and the H20 2nd edition are Mark 6 devices, so maybe the issue has something to do with Mark 6 devices.

Thanks for the input. The "try it till it works" option doesn't work for me. The sucker refuses to communicate with Calibre. The Calibre help has a section describing this as a Kobo firmware issue, and also suggests a trial and error approach. So that's what I'll do, and hopefully someone from Kobo is watching all this and a firmware update will come along.....

Thanks.

[JSWolf]

If any of these 2000 books are not retail and any are gotten from other sources, then you have to run them through epubcheck 4.0.2 and fix any found errors. The problem could be due to errors in the eBooks.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Avanindra500

Thanks for the input. The "try it till it works" option doesn't work for me. The sucker refuses to communicate with Calibre. The Calibre help has a section describing this as a Kobo firmware issue, and also suggests a trial and error approach. So that's what I'll do, and hopefully someone from Kobo is watching all this and a firmware update will come along.....

What you have reported is something that has been reported occasionally. I haven't been able to work out if it is a fault with the device or the PC. The PC sees the device OK, but, when the connection is exercised a bit, it drops out. The way calibre reads the database on the device seems to trigger this. It does seem to be related to the number of books on the device. But, I think that is simply that the more books, the bigger the database and more access is being done over the USB connection.

I would test the other USB ports on the computer and if possible another computer. If it is consistent, then it's probably the device. I would also suggest trying the Kobo desktop application. If it fails with that, then you can report this to Kobo and get the device replaced. If you say "doesn't work with calibre", they can answer that calibre isn't supported and ignore the report.

Jon: The only relationship with the books there could be is the number of books. The first post states the 2000 books have been sideloaded and implies they are processed into the device database. The problem is happening when calibre is reconnecting to the device. At that point it won't matter if the books are bad or not. If they are not in the database, then calibre won't look for them.

[PeterT]

You might like to make sure the Kobo is not being scanned by any antivirus / malware detection tool.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by PeterT

You might like to make sure the Kobo is not being scanned by any antivirus / malware detection tool.

Good point. Or that Windows hasn't decide to use it for Readyboost or whatever it is called.

[JWalkerMR]

Originally Posted by Avanindra500

Bought the new Kobo Aura H20 Edition 2 because of the larger 8GB memory.

But... the "old" Kobo Aura H2O has a sd card reader, whereas Edition 2 hasn't. So I made sure to buy the "old" edition. I use ist with a 32GB sd card and so have 36GB of memory