Kobo Aura HD restored itself suddenly

[omnimodis78]

This has never happened before since I've been a Kobo owner (~4 years) but yesterday the weirdest thing happened, so weird that I feel compelled to documented it - even though after searching up on it, I see this exact same issue used to haunt Vox owners.

I updated to the 3.3.0 (8eb9c1f8b2) software version (allowed the device to update normally through a sync, not a forced or "hacked" update). Used it without any apparent problems for days, 2 or 3 days, and then last night I went to the browser and typed in a web-address hit 'go' and right away, without any freezing or weird glitchiness, it just popped over to the "restoring" screen. Lost everything! I mean I know the browser is a beta feature but, come on, a full restore without any warning? Why not just a device restart? Should I (we) be worried? Was it just a one-in-a-million fluke?

[jackastor]

Sounds like you got hit with the Kindle Revenge Virus. That's where you open a web page and are forced into a full restore.

Actually just kidding, but not sure why you would have that happen unless there was corruption. Even then its hard to say how that would happen.

regards

Jack

[omnimodis78]

Ha! Well, corruption or not, I still don't feel comfortable with the situation. I mean a full restore before the system even attempts to restart? I'm not exaggerating, I pressed "go" on the onscreen keyboard, and the next screen was the restoring screen. Yes I get fatal error stuff, but wouldn't the programmers at least try to force a full restart to attempt to reload the OS before some code initiates a full restore and wipe all user data. It's funny in a way, but not really once you think about it. If it happens to anyone, please report it, because with the Vox, it seems to have been software related, and I hope the Aura HD isn't going down that same road.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by omnimodis78

I'm not exaggerating, I pressed "go" on the onscreen keyboard, and the next screen was the restoring screen.

I am just curious. Did you navigate to this page with another device and look what is happening?

[omnimodis78]

Originally Posted by tshering

I am just curious. Did you navigate to this page with another device and look what is happening?

It was a Chinese website where they have classic Chinese writings, my boyfriend was reading a book on that site on his Sony e-reader, but it wasn't spacing right so I wanted to see if the Aura HD could render it better - well, I guess I got the answer. The site works fine on my Nexus 5, works fine (less the minor rendering issues) on his 3 year old Sony e-reader, and it works fine with Firefox 30 Beta 1. The site is also not shady or anything like that.

Don't shoot me for repeating myself, but why not a mere restart if something went bananas? What device automatically reverts to a full restore without even inasmuch an attempt to restart first, or at a minimum a hint that it's about to arbitrarily wipe everything.

[6charlong]

Originally Posted by omnimodis78

This has never happened before since I've been a Kobo owner (~4 years) but yesterday the weirdest thing happened, so weird that I feel compelled to documented it - even though after searching up on it, I see this exact same issue used to haunt Vox owners.

I updated to the 3.3.0 (8eb9c1f8b2) software version (allowed the device to update normally through a sync, not a forced or "hacked" update). Used it without any apparent problems for days, 2 or 3 days, and then last night I went to the browser and typed in a web-address hit 'go' and right away, without any freezing or weird glitchiness, it just popped over to the "restoring" screen. Lost everything! I mean I know the browser is a beta feature but, come on, a full restore without any warning? Why not just a device restart? Should I (we) be worried? Was it just a one-in-a-million fluke?

I had this happen once. I had recently loaded a couple hundred ebooks on an SD card directly from my computer. They came from ADE and Calibre. Plus I had another hundred or so I downloaded from Kobo.

Later I learned that the Kobo FW loads books to the Main memory first, then when (and if) it fills up Main memory it starts using the SD card. One of my basic rules for working with digital technology is to do things the way the device thinks they should be done, not the way I think they ought to work ("Never argue with a computer" is fundamental).

I don't know if following my little rule fixed it but the problem hasn't occurred again since then.

[TechniSol]

Once, when upgrading my Touch, it locked up completely and required several attempts to start a full reset/restore, so I can commiserate with the sense of how disturbing it can be until everything gets working again. I hope it doesn't happen again, but try thinking about it this way... Obviously something got a bit messed up, or you ran into a heretofore undiscovered bug, but the device did what it's supposed to if things get badly fouled up and did a restore. It would have been a lot bigger issue if it failed to restore and start working again. As long as it restored and you can upgrade again think of it as a glitch. Apparently, it got messed up enough that it could not restart and/or files got trashed and it had to restore.

I don't mean this as a defense, but as long as things are properly restored it's an inconvenience not a catastrophic loss. While I'd rather have a device that never messes up, one that fixes itself when it does isn't too bad a compromise. OTOH, it can be a pain setting everything up again. Good luck.

[omnimodis78]

@TechniSol - You are absolutely right, and I agree - better to have a weird restore than a bricked device, granted. If this was a fluke, OK, so be it - but if it wasn't, if there was some order to the madness, then I have to say it's a rather drastic first step from a programming perspective to resort to a full and immediate system wipe and restore. In my days of programming, a call would have been made for the OS to restart. This usually resolves any memory corruption, system hang or critical but not fatal errors. I saw something rather disturbing and boy I wish I could make you guys see it: just imagine it though, typing in something on the keyboard, pressing "go" and a restore starts. I mean it just didn't seem like there was even any time for things to go wrong, it just wiped data and restored. Anyways, yes, at least it's restored and all - now I just have to hope it's not a bad device, or that there's an issue with the firmware.

[speakingtohe]

I'd be looking around to see if the sky was falling if my Aura Hd did nothing weird for a day or two.

Yesterday, midway through a book it started:
Multiple page turns
Putting bookmarks every time I turned a page.
Going back to a certain page every page turn or so.
Partial screen refresh with multiple flashing.

I cleaned the screen to no avail.

Reset reader and back to sort of normal again so unlikely a problem with the book itself.

I envy those who say they have zero problems.

Helen

[TechniSol]

I'm guessing your reader tried to restart, detected damaged files and went to recovery. Or at least I hope that's what happened... In fairness, that could happen in far less than a second.

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

I'm guessing your reader tried to restart, detected damaged files and went to recovery. Or at least I hope that's what happened... In fairness, that could happen in far less than a second.

I think TechniSol is correct. However the only way to know for sure is to consult with Kobo tech Support and see what they say. Short of that perhaps returning the unit and getting a new one? Just incase its the hardware not the software.

regards

Jack

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I'd be looking around to see if the sky was falling if my Aura Hd did nothing weird for a day or two.

Yesterday, midway through a book it started:
Multiple page turns
Putting bookmarks every time I turned a page.
Going back to a certain page every page turn or so.
Partial screen refresh with multiple flashing.

I cleaned the screen to no avail.

Reset reader and back to sort of normal again so unlikely a problem with the book itself.

That sounds like a problem that was reported with 3.2.0. It was fixed with 3.3.0.

[samosa]

Originally Posted by omnimodis78

It was a Chinese website where they have classic Chinese writings, my boyfriend was reading a book on that site on his Sony e-reader, but it wasn't spacing right so I wanted to see if the Aura HD could render it better - well, I guess I got the answer. The site works fine on my Nexus 5, works fine (less the minor rendering issues) on his 3 year old Sony e-reader, and it works fine with Firefox 30 Beta 1. The site is also not shady or anything like that.

Don't shoot me for repeating myself, but why not a mere restart if something went bananas? What device automatically reverts to a full restore without even inasmuch an attempt to restart first, or at a minimum a hint that it's about to arbitrarily wipe everything.

May be it doesn't cope with Chinese very well? I'd never tried reading Chinese webpages on Kobo, I have enough problems reading Chinese epubs that I have now removed most Chinese books from the Kobos. I seldom put Chinese articles into my Pocket account either.

I'd been trying to read Chinese on my various Kobo but those files tend to make them crazy and made them reboot themselves too. Changing the font to a readable one after I'd open a book would tend to make them freeze. I usually have to open an English book and change to a Chinese font, then close it and open a Chinese book, then the Chinese book would open to a Chinese readable font. I tried to use Chinese fonts all the time but the English doesn't look right so I kept on switching between fonts.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That sounds like a problem that was reported with 3.2.0. It was fixed with 3.3.0.

Pretty sure I have 3.0.

Can't say I like the sounds of 3.3

No big deal as it is just my emergency reader these days.

I'm inclined to think it is memory leaks or unassigned pointers causing these glitches but who can say for sure.

Helen