Libra 2 How do I best use calibre and KoboTouchExtender?

[.tycho]

Hi everyone,

So after using a 2018 Paperwhite since it came out, I decided to buy a new Libra 2 last week before they went out of stock, and after having used it since then, I am loving the experience! I should have made the change years ago. (I do have one stuck black pixel on the screen, but it's fairly well hidden, and I'm worried a replacement might have the same issue, so I'm willing to ignore it for now...)

I do have a few questions about how to best sideload my books onto the device. All my books are now in calibre 7.10 as epubs. I've installed KoboTouchExtender 3.6.7, and enabled "Send books as kepubs". And I know it's working because, on my Kobo, it says "KOBO EPUB" next to the book name. I do have a few questions, and while I've searched the forums, I can't quite find what I'm looking for.

My questions are:

1.) When I use calibre to "send to device", is there a way for calibre to both run a conversion on the epub using what I have set in the Common options in addition to converting it to kepub on the fly, and then sending that to the Kobo?

2.) If that's not possible, and I have a book with both the ORIGINAL_EPUB as well as the modified EPUB with my conversion options applied, when I "send to device", how do I tell calibre and the KTE plug-in which file to use? When I tried it, it seemed to send the original epub and not my modified epub.

I hope all this makes sense. Or maybe the approach I'm taking in calibre is all wrong, in which case, please kindly let me know!

Thanks so much for all your help!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by .tycho

My questions are:

1.) When I use calibre to "send to device", is there a way for calibre to both run a conversion on the epub using what I have set in the Common options in addition to converting it to kepub on the fly, and then sending that to the Kobo?

As far as I know, what you want is not possible in calibre without help. You could check the Action Chains plugin thread which should be able to run those actions.

Once you have converted a file, it has a stored list of the conversion options and you will need to remove those before any changes will be applied. You can do this from the Edit metadata in bulk dialog. See the Remove stored conversion settings for the selected books item in the attached image. Every so often, I will select all the books in my library and apply that action.

Originally Posted by .tycho

2.) If that's not possible, and I have a book with both the ORIGINAL_EPUB as well as the modified EPUB with my conversion options applied, when I "send to device", how do I tell calibre and the KTE plug-in which file to use? When I tried it, it seemed to send the original epub and not my modified epub.

The ePub version should be the one that is sent. AFAIR, original_epub is not even an option in the file formats list. See the first page of the KTE configuration dialog for that list. The original_epub will be used by Polish, ModifyEpub, etc.

Personally, I remove the original_epub file after I check the modified file and am happy with it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The ePub version should be the one that is sent. AFAIR, original_epub is not even an option in the file formats list. See the first page of the KTE configuration dialog for that list. The original_epub will be used by Polish, ModifyEpub, etc.

Modify ePub will create an original_epub. But if one exists, it won't use it. That is good. Because I can sometimes do a Modify 2 or 3 times before it says there is nothing left to modify.

I do whish there was an option to do the original_epub the way Modify ePub does it because there are situations where you may want to polish multiple times and if you have the original_epub, that gets used when you don't want it to be used. If you want it to be used, you just restore it.

[khalleron]

You can set up a separate library and move your original epubs to it, so you still have them but they're not in your working library.

I do this for books I've finished reading, so they're available to reread but aren't cluttering up my TBR pile.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by khalleron

You can set up a separate library and move your original epubs to it, so you still have them but they're not in your working library.

I do this for books I've finished reading, so they're available to reread but aren't cluttering up my TBR pile.

I think what the thread is about is that some calibre tools to modify an epub, results in the original file being renamed as filename.original_epub. Say I have a book stored in a file called Idle Thoughts.epub and decide to run Polish on it. After Polish runs, I now have a file called Idle Thoughts.epub and a file called Idle Thoughts.original_epub. Oddly, when you run Polish again, it will use the original_epub file as the input.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I think what the thread is about is that some calibre tools to modify an epub, results in the original file being renamed as filename.original_epub. Say I have a book stored in a file called Idle Thoughts.epub and decide to run Polish on it. After Polish runs, I now have a file called Idle Thoughts.epub and a file called Idle Thoughts.original_epub. Oddly, when you run Polish again, it will use the original_epub file as the input.

I find it annoying to use the original_epub. That means that what was done before will be lost unless you do it in addition to what you are now doing. But you may not be able to do that. So I do wish there was an option to not use original_epub and just let us restore it if we want it used.

[Quoth]

I keep the originals I add to Calibre and remove any "original_epub" in Calibre after edit/conversion. Thus I can reimport if needed and any later change uses the changed version unless I add the original (which can be added as a separate title or to current title).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I keep the originals I add to Calibre and remove any "original_epub" in Calibre after edit/conversion. Thus I can reimport if needed and any later change uses the changed version unless I add the original (which can be added as a separate title or to current title).

I have two libraries. My active library and my library of unedited versions. That way if I ever want to go back to the original version for any reason, I can.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have two libraries. My active library and my library of unedited versions. That way if I ever want to go back to the original version for any reason, I can.

I'd do that too if I needed to go back often. Can't remember when I last needed to. But at least I do have them, and backed up.

[.tycho]

Hey everyone!

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses. Sorry, it's been a crazy week and this is the earliest I was able to futz around with Calibre.

So I tried looking into Action Chains, and quickly realized I was in over my head. �� So that's a no go. And I'm not really wanting to keep two different Calibre libraries -- I like having everything together in one place right now.

I'll just stick with having converted/modified versions of my epubs in addition to the original_epub. I did send some more to my Kobo, and it does seem to be sending the modified version, which is exactly what I want. For some reason, I feel like KTE was sending the original_epub as a kepub, but I'm pretty sure I was just mistaken at the time.

So, I think I've found a solution that works for me! On an unrelated note, Amazon got more new Libra 2s in stock, so I've requested a replacement and I'll look to see if the new one has any dead pixels -- whichever one looks better is the one I'll keep!

Thanks again for all the help!