trouble downloading from AO3

[dragonfly]

So, I have a shiny new Pandigital Novel eBook reader. It reads .pdf and .epub, but whenever I try to download fanfic from the AO3 it tells me it doesn't support the format. Has anyone else had trouble downloading epubs from AO3?

Comments

[samvara]

I can download epubs but I'm using an iPad - have you contacted support?

[dragonfly]

I'm holding off until I can be sure it's not my device or something I'm doing wrong. AO3 has obviously been operating smoothly for some time. I bet it's something else.

[samvara]

I understand! If you're up for posting a screen shot of your error message there are awake AO3 coders in the coder chatroom that I can point to it...

[dragonfly]

Oh thank you. But somehow I doubt this is an Ao3 issue. I was hoping someone else might chime in with, "Oh, on a Pandigital you have to do XXXX first," or something. *g*

[samvara]

Are you downloading direct from the AO3 to the reader?

I'm told some readers don't recognise the AO3 'mimetype' but that there's a fix for it waiting on the next deploy.

In which case, since the fix is on the test Archive, would you be interested in trying to download an epub from Test and letting us know if it works for you? I can give you the address...

*grins* we like finding people who can text test exotic problems for us

[dragonfly]

Why, yes, I was trying to download directly to the reader. I'm having a different issue with the driver allowing the reader to connect to my PC, so downloading directly seemed the quick solution.

I would be happy to text test the fix. I'm on AIM as nvoctober or email is dragonfly [at] mojavedragonfly [dot] org.

[samvara]

wh00t!

It's not some big sekrit: http://testarchive.transformativeworks.org - find yourself a work and try to download it and then me know how it goes :) If it doesn't work we'll give that info back to the person who did the fix and they'll keep working on it.

[dragonfly]

Cool beans. Will do.

[dragonfly]

No luck, I'm afraid. My error message, fwiw, is "Cannot download. The content is not supported on this device." I tried three works, and I rebooted my ereader in between.

Now, this is a new toy for me, but I have successfully downloaded one other epub file today, one not on the AO3.

I'll see about downloading the files onto my PC and running them through Calibre, as others have suggested. Not that that's any help to the coders.

[samvara]

Darn and thank you for looking! I'll feed that back to rebecca (who is working on it) and thank you again for the feedback, it's very useful for us.

May I list you as a contact for testing on a Pandigital Novel eBook reader? It would involve doing exactly what you just did and we would use whatever contact method you prefer (email, DW comment etc.)

[dragonfly]

Oh sure.

[samvara]

Thank you - is dragonfly [at] mojavedragonfly [dot] org OK?

[dragonfly]

Yep. That's fine.

[stormcloude]

Sometimes they download as zips and you have to rename them to epub?

[dragonfly]

Eee. I'll check that. Thanks.

[teafeather]

Sometimes scripts that automatically generate .epub files end up creating files that make ebook readers cranky.

Are you comfortable using Calibre? Sometimes converting the ePub file to another format, deleting the original ePub and converting back to ePub will fix the problem.

I haven't had this issue with AO3 files but have had it with files that were initially converted to ePub from DAISY. Darn things kept crashing my Sony until I tried running them through Calibre.

[dragonfly]

I do have Calibre! Thanks, I'll try that.

[zvi]

You don't necessarily have to convert to another file format in the middle. You may be able to just convert epub to epub.

[jumpuphigh]

This is what I do when my ereader gets cranky with AO3 epubs.

[dragonfly]

epub to epub. Got it. Thanks.

[samjohnsson]

The way the epub module is set currently, the headers get set to mimetype/octet-stream instead of /epub - technically accurate, since an epub is pretty much an overspecified zip folder. Depending on what you're using to download from the site, the file gets downloaded as work.zip (especially mobile browsers and IE), which leaves most ereaders confused.

The coders are aware of the issue, and there's a fix on Github for the testers to play with, so hopefully it'll be addressed soon!

[dragonfly]

Cool. Assuming that's my hangup, it's good to know there's a fix coming. Thanks.

[adonnchaid]

I don't have any trouble as long as I use Calibre, I never thought to load directly to my e-reader *g* I like using Calibre, if only for the "fixing the metadata and sorting stuff around so I know what I've got" features.

[dragonfly]

Okay!

I'm new to this. I do have Calibre, but I needed it for getting my mom's book and short stories into ebook formats for her website. I haven't thought much about using it for my own library of ebooks.

[adonnchaid]

Silly me, when I got my Sony e-reader, Deanna said "get Calibre" and I assumed that meant I had to use it for loading the device, and I've used it ever since. I never read enough instructions to see if you even *could* load directly to the device *g*

Anyway, Calibre makes it easy-peasy, and I've never even read the instructions.

[blueswan]

I have a Pandigital and download epubs from Ao3 frequently. But, my wireless network is sometimes cranky so I download to my desktop and then to Zhaan from it. I've never had any problems with epubs, but my reader doesn't like pdf files for some reason.