Calibre shows errors in uploading metadata on KOBO devices after restart

[Robin]

Calibre is locked out of my KOBO memory after restarts while the device is connected - ie. device configuration.

Calibre disconnects from the device by default when it shuts down, but when it restarts the KOBO memory is locked since the device requires a new "connect" selection from the device home-screen. The device is still plugged into the computer, but it is technically unplugged and stays that way until a manual eject and reconnect.

 The only way to get through this is to physically eject the device, wait until it stops showing that it is "connected and charging", reconnect the device and then select "connect".

Also selecting to not update metadata in the device configuration settings doesn't remain after a restart. The update metadata is always ticked.

Finally, it seems that until the "scan device for errors" and "open device folders to see files" alerts from Windows each time the device has been connected need to be resolved before Calibre needs access to the device memory. Not resolving them (maybe the user doesn't notice the flashing "folder" icon in the menu bar) means the library will be locked and will show as an error.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

Changing the component for this bug.

 assignee davidfor
 tag kobo-driver
 status triaged

[David Forrester (davidfor)]

Sorry, I am not quite sure what you are saying here.

Firstly, to clear up some things: Which Kobo device and firmware? Which version of Windows and is it up to date for all fixes? Which version of calibre?

I think you are saying that you can start calibre, connect the device and everything works OK. But if you close calibre, the device gets ejected. Is that correct? If so, that is very unusual. I've never seen calibre eject the device except by using the options in calibre. And I frequently close and restart calibre without ejecting or disconnecting my Kobo devices and calibre continues to see them properly.

If the device does get ejected, you will need to unplug and plug the device in again. And press the connect button on the device before the PC will see it. That is simply how these devices work.

If the device configuration is not being saved, that suggests there is a problem with the configuration. I made a big change to the configuration dialog and how the configuration was last year. Unfortunately, I made a mistake in migrating the configuration if the configuration hadn't been changed for a long time. I fixed these problems for most circumstances, but there are probably some that cannot be fixed. If this is the problem, there should be an error displayed when opening or saving the driver configuration. At this point, the best thing to do is to delete the configuration file and redo it. To do this, open the calibre preferences and go to the "Miscellaneous" page. On this, click the "Open calibre configuration directory" button. Close calibre before doing anything else. In the open directory, find the file "device_drivers_KOBOTOUCH.py" and delete it. When you open calibre, the KoboTouch driver configuration will be set to the default. You will need to change it to what you need.

Calibre should be able to connect to the device as soon as it is connected. But, if there are errors on the file system, these should be fixed before doing anything with the connected device. If you see the "scan device for errors", you should get Windows to search for an fix any errors before using the device. If you are constantly seeing this, it usually means the device is not being ejected properly. If you are sure it is, it might mean internal storage is failing. If this is a Kobo device with an internal SD card, it can be replaced.