08-23-2012, 10:33 AM | #1 |
Wizard
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[Android App] getting started with Calibre Companion
I'm very non-technical, so please be patient with me.
I want to try to use the Calibre Companion. I understand that I have to download the app from Google Play - that's no problem. But I think I also have to set up calibre on my computer as a content server, and I'm having trouble finding the directions on how to do that. I've looked through the user manual but while I find various items on customizing the content server, I don't see anything on how to actually set that up. (I remember vaguely seeing something about how to determine your IP address for this process, but I can't find that either.) Can somebody either point me to the right place in the user's manual, or hold my hand and walk me through the process? |
08-23-2012, 10:53 AM | #2 |
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On the calibre menu bar you should have an item "Connect/share".
Click on that and a drop down should include "Start wireless device connection". Click that and after a few moments the item should change to "Stop wireless device connection" followed by the IP address of your system. In most cases that's enough. When you click on CC's "Connect", CC will find calibre and establish a session with calibre. The Device column will appear in calibre and you can select books and send them to your device. Note that once you have books on your device, the initial sync between starting the Connect and the device column appearing in calibre will take a while, since CC has to exchange all of the metadata is has with calibre to determine which books are present on the device. If you get a "Cannot find calibre" message, try to connect again. Occasionally you may have to go into CC's settings and set calibre's IP address and port, but that's rare. Note that unless you've made changes in calibre, the port is 9090. |
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08-23-2012, 11:27 AM | #3 |
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ok, the next step I think is to figure out how to enter my house's wifi password into my phone.
While I'm figuring that out, I notice people are using a reader called Moon. Do I have to use that reader, or can I use Mantano, which is what I have been using. |
08-23-2012, 11:40 AM | #4 |
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OK, I got that - and wow, it works! This is sooooo coool!
one question: I side-loaded a book using calibre connected to my phone via usb, and when I look at the Device icon, I see the book I just loaded, but not the one I side-loaded (which I think went onto the usb card). Is there any way to see all the books I've got on my phone when I'm connected via CC? or are they put in two separate spots, so it's like I have two separate libraries on my phone? I'm using a Droid Razr, but I assume that all android phones will work roughly the same way. |
08-23-2012, 05:53 PM | #5 |
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If you're nontechnical maybe I should introduce you to the term metadata. That's all the information calibre is so good at displaying and manipulating; the publisher, the series name and volume number, the cover thumbnail etc. Metadata is everything about the book that isn't the book itself.
Unlike when you load a book by copying it manually, cc retrieves the metadata for each book as calibre transfers the book, and cc builds its own database so it can show you the metadata, let you sort by series, etc. So if cc doesn't get the book from calibre, it doesn't get the metadata, doesn't make an entry in it's data base and doesn't know the book is on the device. If the book you manually loaded is already in calibre, just select it and send it to device using calibre. You can delete the copy you transferred manually. And I'm sure you've figured it out already, but you can use virtually any ebook reader that supports the ebook file types you have. You could even have one app open epub files and another open pdf files. |
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08-23-2012, 06:05 PM | #6 |
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I understand metadata, I just don't understand servers. But thanks for the information about how CC works. That helps a lot
The more I learn about calibre and CC, the cooler the whole thing is. I'm not a programmer, so I'm in awe at the skills (mad skilz I think my kids would say) in the calibre community. |
08-23-2012, 06:17 PM | #7 |
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I'm in awe at how fast Charles and son are rolling out the updates. They must be coding maniacs!. Gotta go turn on my phone to get the latest goodies.
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08-23-2012, 06:29 PM | #8 |
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As Steven pointed out (and I didn't because I forgot), the connection performance improvements won't be apparent until you get calibre 0.8.66. It will probably be released tomorrow (Friday). The startup and grouping performance improvements don't require the calibre update.
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08-23-2012, 07:01 PM | #9 |
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Adding a dilithium drive tomorrow?! All I can say is "Engage!"
But as of today I'm sending over 100 books at a shot to my Nook Color, with no little memory booboos, so much goodness has already occurred. |
08-27-2012, 05:11 PM | #10 |
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calibre companion
i have downloaded calibre app and calibre companion all my books are on calibre app and i can download books wirelessly to my A1CS FUSION 5.
One small problem how do i read them. nothing appears in kindle app Last edited by innisduff; 08-27-2012 at 05:14 PM. |
08-27-2012, 05:20 PM | #11 | |
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Quote:
Because of amazon's decision to not play with other android apps, to have anything approaching "automatic import" you must change the storage folder for kndle books (azw, azw3, mobi) to the kindle app's folder, as described in FAQ #14 in the thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=188899. Did you do what is described in that section? |
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