Okay, so I was trying to use Calibre with my Kindle, as usual, to transfer some e-books. I plugged in my Kindle, opened up Calibre, and… nothing. Calibre wasn’t seeing my Kindle at all. I was like, “What the heck?” I’ve used Calibre with my Kindle for ages, and I’ve never had this issue before.
I tried unplugging the Kindle and plugging it back in. Still nothing. I checked my Windows Explorer, and I could see the Kindle there, no problem. So, the computer was recognizing it, but Calibre wasn’t. This was really getting on my nerves.
I went through my usual routine. I opened up Calibre’s library and looked for the book I wanted to transfer. It wasn’t marked as “On Device”, which was obvious since Calibre wasn’t seeing my Kindle. Then, I switched to the Device view, and of course, it was empty. Nada.
I even got an error message from Calibre at one point, something like, “Error communicating with Device.” I mean, that’s pretty self-explanatory, right? Calibre was having a tough time talking to my Kindle. I started to wonder if the books I was trying to send had some sort of DRM protection, but that couldn’t be it, I always make sure they don’t.
Then I started to worry if maybe I needed a special app on my Kindle to read the books I was transferring, but that didn’t make any sense. I’ve always just sent books to my Kindle through Calibre without any extra steps.
I was getting pretty frustrated at this point. I usually convert my e-books to MOBI or AZW3 format in Calibre before sending them over, and that’s always worked fine. But now, even after doing that, Calibre just refused to acknowledge my Kindle’s existence. I even used my file manager to check the books’ format, and they were all correct. It’s not like these books would magically appear on my Kindle account, I know that, but they should at least show up on the device itself. I have a Kindle Paperwhite 10th Generation, by the way, in case that matters.
- I tried restarting Calibre.
- I tried restarting my computer.
- I even checked for updates for both Calibre and my Kindle’s firmware.
No luck. I was pulling my hair out! But then, I had a thought, I opened up the “Preferences” in Calibre, went to “Ignored devices,” and there it was! My Kindle was on the list of ignored devices. How it got there, I have no idea. Maybe I accidentally clicked something one day. After I realized it, I unchecked the box next to it, restarted Calibre, and bam! There was my Kindle, showing up in Calibre like it should.
Finally, after all that hassle, I could finally see my Kindle in Calibre. All I had to do was unignore it in the settings. I guess sometimes the solution is simpler than you think. It’s always those little things that trip you up. Anyway, I hope this helps someone else who might run into the same problem. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some reading to catch up on!