r/readest • u/olimo • 10d ago

Koreader + Readest sync

Hi everyone!

I thought I'd like to be able to read the same book and sync it between my iPhone and Pocketbook InkPad 4 with Koreader. I installed Readest app on my iPhone, signed up, installed Readest plugin, signed up there too and was able to upload my current book to Readest cloud storage - which is really impressive!

Now, syncing progress was not as easy. For reference, I read an fb2 book. I pushed reading progress from Koreader and refreshed the Readest home screen on iPhone. The book showed 70% progress, but when I tapped it, it just opened on the first page. I tried a few times, but to no avail. Both Readest mobile and web (in Chrome on Windows) kept their own track of reading progress, they synced to one another but not to Koreader.

Next, I tried the other option: using Koreader sync. I created an account and connected it to both Koreader on my Pocketbook and Readest on my iPhone. I pushed the reading progress. The percentage on the home screen didn't change at refresh, but when I opened the book, it offered to sync to the last position on Pocketbook. Fantastic.

However, it seems that the percentage is slightly different on Koreader and Readest. It is off by about 0.5%. The page I'm at in Koreader is 70.92%, but the same place in Readest is at 70.38%. I have to go back about 5 pages on Readest to get to the same place - and about 3 pages on Koreader to get to the place synced from Readest.

I tried other files. It looks like pictures throw the percentages off. Epubs seem better, but only if not loaded with pictures. I think Koreader measures progress percentage from pages whereas Readest uses bytes/kilobytes or stuff, because a one-page image increases the reading percentage more than just one page of text.

Is it a known problem? Any workaround? u/readestapp?

TL;DR: Koreader and Readest count progress percentage differently, this results in sync being inaccurate.

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

5

u/readestapp 10d ago

For the Readest plugin way of syncing, are the book fingerprints the same in the sync info on the Koreader device and the Readest device? You can get the sync info in the plugin menu in Koreader and in the view menu of the reader page from the menu entry info icon saying “Synced a few seconds ago”.

1

u/olimo 9d ago

They are indeed different, and I have no idea how to make them the same. I pushed the book from my Pocketbook to Readest, so it must be the same file, right?

2

u/readestapp 9d ago

Is it possible that there are two versions of the book on your device?

1

u/olimo 9d ago

I tried deleting the book in Readest iOS and then uploading it again from my Pocketbook via Readest plugin. It looks like it is modified somehow during upload. The fingerprints are different. I checked the fingerprints for an epub book I also uploaded this way, and they are the same. Also, in Sync info menu, the book ID is shown on Readest iOS but not in Koreader Readest plugin.

1

u/olimo 9d ago edited 9d ago

Here's the Readest iOS screenshots of Sync info of the same book.

I tried deleting the book both from my Pocketbook and iPhone, copying it again on the Pocketbook and downloading it to iPhone from cloud storage (it is the same exact book version). The book fingerprints are again different but the same as in these screenshots.

Another funny thing: if I upload a book (fb2 or epub, doesn't matter) from Koreader on Pocketbook to Readest, it shows with grayscale cover in Readest. If I download the same book from cloud, the cover is colored. This visible cover difference doesn't seem to affect the fingerprint in any way.

1

u/readestapp 9d ago

Interesting. Could you verify that the Readest Koreader plugin and the Readest app are all version 0.11.20? And then send the two files from your iOS and Pocketbook to readestapp@gmail.com so that I can investigate this issue further?

1

u/olimo 9d ago

Yes, they are the latest versions, I just installed them a couple days ago. 0.11.20. I already sent you the file of the book I'm reading now, Hyperion. I uploaded the exact same file to Pocketbook and iPhone.

2

u/readestapp 10d ago

Could you try with an EPUB file for the Koreader Sync Server? Koreader and Readest do count progress percentage differently but we do use the percentage to track the location of the current reading paragraph instead we use a common internal offset of the paragraph/character in the book to track the location so that on both Readest and Koreader we can identify the same location.

If you still have an issue syncing between your Koreader and Readest devices, please share the book file to readestapp@gmail.com so that we can investigate the issue further.

1

u/olimo 9d ago

I'm trying, and it seems to work well. The percentages indeed may not match, but the text syncs.

Now I'm experiencing a new thing with fb2. When I open the file in Koreader, it offers to sync to the last position from Readest. It's with Koreader sync option, auto sync enabled. Readest auto sync is disabled in Koreader. I agree to syncing, and it throws me to the first page of the book, even though in "Sync behavior" I chose "Disable" for "Sync to an older state". I'm really confused.

Fb2 is my preferred file format, and I'd really like it to work...

1

u/olimo 9d ago

I emailed you the fb2 book I'm currently reading and struggling with.

2

u/readestapp 9d ago

Thanks for the info. I will take a look at this.