[Solved] Can't send selected pirated ebooks through the Send-To-Kindle service to my Kindle. Is it some kind of background piracy detection? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by trimmerfrost@lemm.ee to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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I usually download ebooks from Anna's Archive and transfer it to my Kindle through the service. But 1/10 times it fails, with no apparent reason. The particular ebook in question is https://annas-archive.org/md5/e310a253a9d85992129cc2b8dd351556. What's the way out?

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[-] zephyrvs@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Can confirm, though it's unlikely to be some piracy check. The epub just has a couple of errors that might make it difficult for Amazon's server-side epub parsing implemention:

$ epubcheck ~/Downloads/nietzsche-a-guide-for-the-perplexed-r-kevin-hill--annas-archive.epub
[...]
ERROR(RSC-005): ./Downloads/nietzsche-a-guide-for-the-perplexed-r-kevin-hill--annas-archive.epub/index_split_003.html(172,403): Error while parsing file: element "blockquote" incomplete; expected element "address", "blockquote", "del", "div", "dl", "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6", "hr", "ins", "noscript", "ns:svg", "ol", "p", "pre", "script", "table" or "ul" (with xmlns:ns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg")
ERROR(RSC-005): ./Downloads/nietzsche-a-guide-for-the-perplexed-r-kevin-hill--annas-archive.epub/toc.ncx(62,42): Error while parsing file: playOrder sequence has gaps
Check finished with errors
Messages: 0 fatals / 69 errors / 0 warnings / 0 infos

Unfortunately I couldn't find any other epub versions. Though I just discovered the Kindle ePub fix project and converted the ePub to a fixed version using the en language tag. That seems to work because the book just showed up in my Kindle library. :)

[-] trimmerfrost@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago

Can confirm, it worked! Although I don't understand the niche technicalities myself

There's always someone on the internet who has had the issue. I will mark this as solved. Thanks for your time!

[-] teft@startrek.website 8 points 1 year ago

I've never had a problem sending books to my kindle via the email regardless of provenance but if you are having issues could you download and install calibre, load the book up in calibre then move it to your device?

[-] stu@lemmy.pit.ninja 12 points 1 year ago

Calibre is a fantastic and underrated tool.

[-] trimmerfrost@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

I have heard about this calibre thing. Never tried because it's such a hassle to go physical with the cables and shit. Seems like there's no other way rn. Thanks

[-] MorrisonMotel6@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Calibre has a server component too, so you can access the files locally via a web address

[-] AphoticDev@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

Caliber lets you click a button to email something to your kindle.

[-] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

hassle to go physical with the cables and shit

*cable. Literally just a single cable and avoids figuring out the other problem.

[-] Luvon@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

With Calibre you can set it up to email your kindle email address as well and have it auto convert anything that isn’t kindle format to kindle format

[-] Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

It's more reliable to copy the file across to the kindle via usb connection. You will need to run the download through an epub -> mobi convertor first since it's in epub format. There are plenty of free ones online, e.g., https://convertio.co/epub-mobi/

[-] trimmerfrost@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I tried it before, but it didn't work. Didn't knew you had to convert into mobi. Sweet. Thanks

[-] zephyrvs@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

You don't have to convert to mobi anymore. The Kindle backend supports epub for a couple of months already. I've also read reports that Kindle's can now convert ePub by themselves if you copy ePub files via cable but I haven't verified that myself.

[-] Luvon@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

It supports attempting to convert them to their own format, it doesn’t natively actually read the file as is so sometimes still easier and less opaquely buggy to locally convert, where you can easily check the output then riffle through the depths of amazons website to find out why a auto conversion failed.

[-] Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Oh that's good to know!

[-] AphoticDev@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Kindle supports epub now, and if you try to send a mobi formated book through email to your kindle, then Amazon will send you an email telling you that that format has been depreciated.

[-] gwi1785@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

AFAIK epub is not universally supported and def. not by any kindle.

best dl, run through calibre (convert to mobi/azw) and transfer this via usb to kindle.

best

[-] trimmerfrost@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The service does support and automatically converts it into the required format. The kindle itself doesn't

Yeah, I like to keep the usb as the last resort because I have to open my bulky computer, connect my dangling micro usb cable and shit like that

The issue is solved now. You can see the other comment. It was some kind of EPUB internal format error

[-] st3ph3n@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Amazon added epub support to Kindles a while back, and deprecated mobi. It still has some issues with epub formatting though, I've had to tweak some files using a Calibre plugin to make them render properly on the kindle.

[-] AphoticDev@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

That's pretty funny, because I've been loading epubs on my Kindle for awhile now, both via cable if I'm at home, and over email if I am not. Amazon recommends epubs over mobi, in fact, and threw a fit when I emailed a mobi.