Sony problem - multiple books from series

[Perkin]

I've just sent a few new books to my mums Sony reader, which hasn't been sent new books for quite a while. (She has a lot of books on there (1700+), as she hasn't got a computer, and relies on me for her library updates)

Afterward, all the books from a series had the same title, and when reconnecting to calibre, one of the books from each of the series has multiple copies (On Device) and the rest aren't registered as being on the device at all.

Any books that weren't in a series are listed under possibly the last title and author of the last book that was sent to the device

In the last month I have acquired a iPad Min 2, and have installed the iOSreader plugin and the Marvin PI, I also have a couple of the Kobo PI's

The Kobo (Aura HD) and Marvin on the iPad don't have the problem, just my Sony readers

Looking at the Device' list the path/filename of any of the books are correct, but the Titles are all wrong, having the title from last book in series.


Any advice on how to recover the correct titles/counts.

Edit: I'm using OS X 10.10 - Yosemite. Calibre 2.10

[JSWolf]

What's the code for the format of the filenames going to the Sony?

[Perkin]

Sony device - Save template :

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}

Saving books to device - Save template :

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}

[chaley]

Do you have any plugboards defined? If so, post them.

[Perkin]

Nothing is coming up in plugboards area - but the Sony reader isn't available for connecting at present.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Perkin

Nothing is coming up in plugboards area - but the Sony reader isn't available for connecting at present.

Hmm...

It sounds like something in the send-to-device sequence is changing the metadata of the books to some constant values, one for series and one for non-series. This would (I think) cause the Sony to rebuild its database and find only one book of the set. I thought that a device_db plugboard might be the culprit, but apparently not. I wonder if it is one of the plugins you installed since the last successful transfer to the Sony. Try disabling the kobo and IOS plugins then send some books.

Another possibility is that the Sony reader is confused. Your post implies you have more than one Sony reader. Do they all behave like this? If not, then doing a factory reset on the failing one might help.

[Perkin]

Hmmm. Plugboards... I'm pretty sure I had one set up before, to include series index in filenames.

AHHHH!. I've just connected my iPad Mini 2 through Marvin and iOSReader PI (in Marvin on iPad - 'get books - calibre') and the same thing is happening - but not as consistently

Some series are still listed in entirety, whereas a few are all listed as one entry with #books on device - e.g. On Device: (3 books) - Author: Douglas Adams - Title: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

It may have been how they were sent to the device - Some were 'dragged' into iTunes-iPad-Apps-Marvin-Documents
But maybe not, as one series of 30 books all copied that way are listed as 24 books und one entry and 6 separate ones.

I'm just going to clear the docs and try sending them all though calibre-Marvin, rather than the 'drag to iTunes' route.

In device view all the listed entries are ticked as being 'In Library' and they are all there - 143 entries - listed correctly.

[Perkin]

Right, just wiped all the books in Marvin, connected to calibre and sent 3 books - Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently series, and got an error

calibre, version 2.11.0
Send to device: Warnings reported while sending to Marvin.
Click 'Show details' for a summary.


-2 book successfully added to Marvin.

The following books were rejected by Marvin:
 - 'The Salmon of Doubt' by Douglas Adams
 - 'The Salmon of Doubt' by Douglas Adams
 - 'The Salmon of Doubt' by Douglas Adams

The following books were replaced in Marvin:
 + 'The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul' by Douglas Adams
 + 'The Salmon of Doubt' by Douglas Adams

Replacement behavior may be changed in the Marvin options section of the Device configuration dialog.

On disconnect, only book 3 - 'Salmon of Doubt' has made it into Marvin.

If I then re-connect that book is not 'On Device', but book 2 is ticked.

Edit: I then re-sent just book 1, and it then replaced the book in Marvin, so now it's listed in Marvin and not book 3.
On reconnect again, Book 2 is listed as 'On Device'

[Perkin]

Right, I think I've sorted the iPad/Marvin problem, I haven't got access to my mums Sony at moment to check wether it's sorted as well, will be next tuesday at earliest.

I created a clean new Library, and recreated several of the columns I use - rather than duplicate whole library structure - I took the opportunity to adjust a couple of the columns.
(Original library is very old)

I then 'copied to library' all the books I wanted to test with, and then wiped Marvin again and resent the books, this time they all appeared correctly.

I also noticed that the filenames in iTunes-apps-marvin-documents now all appear as sort of '1dabc33c-e000-4387-a998-d663de1a2c96.epub' rather than 'title - author.pub'

[Perkin]

Was able to test the Sony again today, still got same problem.

Looking at the Device view in calibre, All the book entries are wrong. Several entries have the same titles (from a series), but looking at the actual path/filename, the files are o.k., just seem to be being listed incorrectly an thus matched to Library entries incorrectly too.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Perkin

Was able to test the Sony again today, still got same problem.

Looking at the Device view in calibre, All the book entries are wrong. Several entries have the same titles (from a series), but looking at the actual path/filename, the files are o.k., just seem to be being listed incorrectly an thus matched to Library entries incorrectly too.

Are you saying that the books in the device view are not matched to any book in the calibre library? There are no checkmarks? If so, then this sounds like the metadata that calibre associated with the book when it sent to book to the device was wrong. Given that the filenames are correct, that implies that the error happened between calibre's device driver and the Sony reading its database. The only thing on the calibre side I can think of that would cause this is plugboards, but you have already ruled that out.

If the books are matched but not correctly, then it could be that the metadata.calibre file on the device is corrupt. If you delete that and then connect the device to calibre, calibre will rescan the books themselves to rebuild it. That may be enough to fix the problem. Thinking about it, trying this really can't hurt anything at this point given how messed up the library is on the device. Do not that the rescan can take a long time.

It could be that the Sony is very confused. At this point I would consider doing a factory reset so that any previous corruption is removed, then sending one book. When you send that one book, run calibre in debug mode so that if the book arrives incorrectly you can share that log with us.

[Perkin]

As an example, in device view, All the Cadfael books, 21 of them, all get listed as Title: 'A rare Benedictine' which is the last of the series and are 'ticked', but clicking on each individually the path/filename is correct (the sizes in column do vary). In Library view only 'A rare benedictine' is matched (ticked) and is listed as Main (21 books), all the other 20 aren't matched.

I'll give the reset a try.

[chaley]

FWIW: I managed to talk my wife into letting me test with her PRS-300. I had no problems sending books in a series, and the books already on the device did not have their collections or metadata changed.

[Perkin]

I'm pretty sure this problem has only came up since installing Yosemite.
Also not having constant access to the device is a pita.

Mum is due over again this weekend, I'll try the full reset/wipe then.

[Perkin]

Just done a full wipe/reset.
Seems to be going well so far...

Sent just a few books to start with, then after multiple dis/re-connect cycles, still registered as correct books, so sent the full load she has - after a few cycles again - still correct matches.

I'm that that was all it needed and that I should've tried it before.

Thanks Chaley.