KOReader calibre plugin

A calibre plugin to synchronize metadata from KOReader to calibre.

KOReader creates sidecar files that hold read progress and annotations. This plugin reads the data from those sidecar files and updates calibre's metadata based on them. It is inspired by the Kobo Utilities plugin, that synchronizes reading progress between the original Kobo firmware ("Nickel") and custom columns in calibre.

Note that at the moment the sync is primarily one-way—from the KOReader device to calibre, and only works for USB and wireless devices. For best experience please use the latest KOReader release

Releases will also be uploaded to plugin thread on the MobileRead Forums. If you are on there as well, please let me know what you think of the plugin in that thread.

Using this plugin

Download and install

1. Go to your calibre's Preferences > Plugins > Get new plugins and search for KOReader Sync
2. Click Install
3. Restart calibre

Alternatively

1. Download the latest release from here.
2. Go to your calibre's Preferences > Plugins > Load plugin from file and point it to the downloaded ZIP file
3. Restart calibre

Setup

1. Pick and choose the metadata you would like to sync and create the appropriate columns in calibre. The plugin makes this easy, simply select the create new columns option in the config dropdowns.

   These are your options:

   • A Floating point numbers column to store the current percent read, with Format for numbers set to {:.0%}.
   • An Integers column to store the current percent read.
   • A regular Text column to store the location you last stopped reading at
   • A Rating column to store your rating of the book, as entered on the book's status page.
   • A Long text column to store your review of the book, as entered on the book's status page.
   • A regular Text column to store the reading status of the book, as entered on the book status page (Finished, Reading, On hold). Translates to complete, reading, and abandoned respectively in calibre.
   • A Yes/No column to store the reading status of the book, as a boolean (Yes = Finished, No = everything else).
   • A Long text column to store your bookmarks and highlights of the book, with Interpret this column as set to Plain text formatted using markdown. (Highlights are an unordered list with their metadata in an HTML comment.)
   • A regular Text column to store the MD5 hash KOReader uses to sync progress to a KOReader Sync Server (Progress sync in the KOReader app). This allows for syncing progress and location to calibre without having to connect your KOReader device.
   • A Date column to store when the last sync was performed.
   • A Date column to store when the sidecar file was last modified. Works for wired connection only, wireless will be always empty.
   • A Date column to store when the book status was first marked reading.
   • A Date column to store when the book status was first marked finished.
   • A Long text column to store the contents of the metadata sidecar as HTML, with Interpret this column as set to HTML.

   There are additional settings for:

   • Sync only if changes are more recent: Checks retrieved Last Sync Date against date on file.
   • No sync if book has already been finished: If percent read is 100 or if reading status is finished don't update data.
   • Automatic Sync on device connection: Silently sync's from KOReader when device is connected

2. Add KOReader Sync to main toolbar when a device is connected, if it isn't there already.

3. Right-click the KOReader Sync icon and Configure.

4. Map the metadata you want to sync to the newly created calibre columns.

5. Click OK to save your mapping.

6. From now on just click the KOReader Sync icon to sync all mapped metadata for all books on the connected device to calibre.

Note: Some field are depreciated and removed from plugin since they are changed/removed from sidecar_contents data structure:

• first_bookmark removed
• last_bookmark removed
• bookmarks renamed to annotations
• rating KOreader uses 5-point but calibre 10-point scale (whole starts, not half stars)
• date_sidecar_modified seems to be present in calculated only if connected via cable (not wireless)

ProgressSync

This plugin supports use of a KOReader Sync Server (Progress sync in the KOReader app) in order to update current percent read (both float and int) and location you last stopped reading at wirelessly.
You must also have the MD5 hash column enabled.
Add the server and user credentials in the plugin config to use this function. The user password is stored as a hash, not plain text.
You can have calibre fetch updated data on a daily schedule.

Things to consider

• The plugin overwrites existing metadata in Calibre without asking. That usually isn’t a problem, because you will probably only add to KOReader’s metadata. But be aware that you might lose data in calibre if you’re not careful.
• Pushing sidecars back to KOReader currently only happens for sidecars which are missing. For now, manually delete the <bookname>.sdr folder from the device before attempting to push the sidecars back to KOReader for any books you would like to overwrite the current metadata with Calibre's metadata.
• When pushing missing sidecars to the device, no attempt is made to convert Calibre's metadata to account for changes in KOReader's sidecar format. Old metadata may work unpredictably if it's from a different version of KOReader.

Supported devices

This plugin has been tested successfully with:

• Kobo Clara BW/Colour connected over USB or KOreader wireless driver
• Kobo Aura/Touch connected over USB (KOBO and KOBOTOUCH drivers)
• Kobo Aura H2O over USB (KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED driver)
• All devices connected wirelessly via the SMART_DEVICE_APP driver (e.g., KOReader wireless connection)
• PocketBook devices using POCKETBOOK_IMPROVED, POCKETBOOK632, POCKETBOOK626, or POCKETBOOK622 drivers
• Kindle Keyboard (KINDLE2)
• Tolino Vision 4 HD (TOLINO)
• A connected folder (FOLDER_DEVICE)
• Manually defined devices using the USER_DEFINED driver

This plugin is not compatible with:

• MTP_DEVICE (Android devices connected via MTP)

Star History

Issues

If you encounter any issues with the plugin, please submit them here.

Acknowledgements

• Multiple tweaks and bug fixes by Glen Sawyer
• Additional functionality by Charles Taylor
• Contains SirAnthony's SLPP to parse Lua in Python.
• Some code borrowed from--and heavily inspired by--the great Kobo Utilities calibre plugin.
• Some code borrowed from--and heavily inspired by--the great Goodreads Sync calibre plugin.

Contributing to this plugin

Notes & Tips

• My first attempt was actually to sync calibre with KOReader's read progress through the progress sync plugin and a sync server. Read here why that did not work. This plugin might actually make that possible now by allowing you to store KOReader's MD5 hash in calibre...
• calibre allows you to auto-connect to a folder device on boot, which greatly speeds up your workflow when testing. You can find this under " Preferences" > "Tweaks", search for auto_connect_to_folder. Point that to the dummy_device folder in this repository. (I have included royalty free EPUBs for your and my convenience.)
• If you're testing and don't actually want to update any metadata, set DRY_RUN to True in __init__.py.
• I work in PyCharm, which offers a remote debugging server. To enable that in this plugin, set PYDEVD to True in __init__.py.You might need to change sys.path.append in action.py.
• The supported device drivers can be found in the SUPPORTED_DEVICES list in config.py. Adding a new type here is the first step to adding support, but make sure all features are tested thoroughly before releasing a version with an added device

Testing in calibre

Use make to load the plugin into calibre and launch it:

make dev

For Linux users with a Flatpak installation of Calibre, use the FLATPAK=1 flag. This is necessary because Flatpak runs Calibre in a sandboxed environment, requiring specific commands to interact with it:

make dev FLATPAK=1

Note: FLATPAK=1 is only supported on Linux. On Windows and macOS, please install Calibre natively and run make without this flag.

Makefile Targets

Main

Extra

Development & Release Cycle

The project uses a structured workflow to ensure both rapid updates and stable releases:

1. Develop Branch (develop): This is the primary work-in-progress branch.
   • Experimental fixes and new features are merged here first.
   • Every push to this branch triggers an automated Pre-release build.
   • Users can download the latest community pre-release from the Upcoming Release page.
2. Main Branch (main): This branch contains the stable, production-ready code.
   • Only merge develop into main when a milestone is reached.
   • Running make release on this branch automatically cleans the version string, tags the commit, and triggers the official GitHub Release.

Quality Assurance

The project enforces high code quality standards through automated checks:

• Unit Testing: Run make test. We use pytest along with a mocking layer (tests/conftest.py) that simulates the Calibre environment. This allows you to test plugin logic without having Calibre installed.
• Linting: Run make lint. We use pylint with a custom configuration (.pylintrc).
  • Threshold: The project requires a minimum score of 9.5/10.
  • Strictness: The build will instantly fail if any Fatal (F) or Error (E) messages are found, regardless of the total score.

These checks run automatically on every Pull Request via GitHub Actions.

The project uses GitHub Actions to automate releases. When a tag v* is pushed, a GitHub Release is created automatically with the built plugin ZIP.

1. Prepare the version:
   • Manually edit .version OR run make bump-patch / make bump-minor.
2. Run preparation:
   • Run make prep-release. This creates a new branch (e.g., release-prep-x.x.x), updates all version strings in the code, and commits them.
3. Review and Merge:
   • Review the changes in the new branch, then merge it into main.
4. Publish:
   • On the main branch, run make release. This will tag the commit and push it.
   • The GitHub Action will pick up the tag, build the plugin, and create a GitHub Release with the ZIP attached.

Debugging a release

1. Download the required release from here
2. Add it to calibre by running this in your terminal: calibre-customize -a "KOReader_Sync_vX.X.X.zip", where X.X.X refers to the version you downloaded
3. Start calibre in debug mode with calibre-debug -g
4. Configure the KOReader plugin as described here
5. Connect your device
6. Run the sync by clicking the KOReader icon in your toolbar
7. Check the details of the message when it's done if any/all books have been synced correctly
8. Check your (custom) columns for one of those books to see if their contents are what they should be
9. Check the output in your terminal for lines containing koreader to see what it did