# New EASIEST way to manage collections using a computer



## bastil (Apr 21, 2011)

Hi there,

I just replaced my Kindle 2 with a new Kindle 3 yesterday. So I had the issue that I had a lot of books that needed to be put in collections.
As doing this on the Kindle takes forever I looked for a faster way, using a computer and found one that only needs 10 steps.

_Note 1: This tutorial is based on a MAC but I don't see any difference for Windows users, except for the text editor application's name.

Note 2: Apparently some users can not see the folder "system" that is referred to later when the Kindle is in USB mode. This is because the folder is hidden then. You have to enable "show hidden folders and files" for your system then.

Note 3: At the moment this is verified to work with bought Amazon eBooks. I will later today check how this works with non-Amazon eBooks._

OK, here we go.

*Step 1:*
Create the Collections you would like to use on your Kindle. Put one book into each to simplify later steps.

*Step 2:*
Plug your Kindle into your computer via USB.

*Step 3:*
You are now able to access the Kindle as an USB drive via the Finder (Explorer in Windows).
Navigate to the "system" folder. In there you will find a file called "collections.json". If you can not see this file see Note 2.










Copy 2 copies of "collections.json" to your Computer (one to have a backup - edit it's name to be able to distinguish them, one for editing).

*Step 4:*
Open the copied "collections.json" in a text editor. Use "TextEdit" on a Mac (on a Windows computer I guess maybe "Notepad").

It will look like this now:










You will see the name(s) of your collection(s) and their content (see the picture).
I for example have two collections, one called "Englisch" and the other called "Deutsch" and one book in each.
Ignore the other numbers, they are used by the Kindle for last access monitoring.

Each book is named like this:
"#B0036DEB7Q^EBOK"
The combination of letters and numbers corresponds to a book on your Kindle.

*Step 5:*
Now navigate to the "documents" folder on your Kindle device (still via USB).










Open a new Text Document and copy paste the letter/number combinations of the books (see picture) you want to have in one collection into this new text document, one per line.










Now paste:
,"#
in front of each line and:
^EBOK"
at the end of each line.

_I only have ebooks, that have the EBOK filetype. I don't know how other filetypes would behave._










Then undo the line jumps by positioning the mouse cursor at the beginning of the lines and pressing the backspace button once.
Now it should look like this:










*Step 6:*

Now select all from the text document and copy past it into the "collections.json" text window right after the book that already is in the collection (the highlighted text is the pasted text in the picture).
All these books will now be in the "Englisch" collection.










*Step 7:*
Now repeat Steps 5 and 6 for the other collections.

*Step 8:*
When you are done save the "collections.json" text window.

*Step 9:*
Copy the edited "collections.json" file from your computer into the "system" folder on your Kindle. It replaces the one on the Kindle.

*Step 10: *
Eject your Kindle from the computer.
Restart your Kindle for the Changes to take effect.
_To restart go to it's Homescreen, press "Menu", go to "Settings", press "Menu" again, then select "Restart"._

You are done!


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

I don't want to see the hard, time-consuming way.


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## bastil (Apr 21, 2011)

Hehe, I know it looks a little freakish 
But it is quite simple to do, basically it's only text editing


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## palaran (Dec 29, 2010)

Alternatively use Calibre and install the Collections plug in......


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

OK, I've done due diligence and tried to find anything about a collections plugin at the Calibre website. Can you give some help here? Where do I download it and how do I use it?

Thanks!


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## palaran (Dec 29, 2010)

The FAQs on the Calibre site have a link to it;

http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual/faq.html#why-does-app-not-support-collections-on-the-kindle-or-shelves-on-the-nook


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

All right!!! This is going to save me hours!


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

bastil said:


> Hehe, I know it looks a little freakish
> But it is quite simple to do, basically it's only text editing


Very true.

Thank you for posting - excellent, clear instructions.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

Using the Calibre plug in - should this put the books into the correct category on the Kindle when I upload books to it from Calibre (assuming I've put them into categories in Calibre)?


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## chilady1 (Jun 9, 2009)

This is what it will look like after organizing Collections - keep in mind, you can customize based on how you want to see the Collections. This was done using the new Kindle Collections plugin through Calibre. I am now using Calibre to manage ALL functions of my ebook library.

*Shot #1: Name of Series followed by Author Name*









*Shot #2: Inside the Collection, you can see the books are organized by chronological order which makes it easy to know the next one to read.*









Hope this helps!


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

OK, I've got my collections on the Kindle, uploaded automatically from Calibre. But when I upload books from Calibre to my Kindle, they're not going into their collection, they're all being listed after the collections list. With the Calibre plug in do I still have to assign each book to the correct collection on the Kindle? Or is there a way to do this automatically? I guess what I'm asking is, now that I have the plug-in installed, what are the steps to getting books into collections on my Kindle?


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## palaran (Dec 29, 2010)

HappyGuy said:


> OK, I've got my collections on the Kindle, uploaded automatically from Calibre. But when I upload books from Calibre to my Kindle, they're not going into their collection, they're all being listed after the collections list. With the Calibre plug in do I still have to assign each book to the correct collection on the Kindle? Or is there a way to do this automatically? I guess what I'm asking is, now that I have the plug-in installed, what are the steps to getting books into collections on my Kindle?


I have only put books into collections manually, but there are examples of how to assign automatically in the thread that has the plug in;

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118635

And remember, you have to restart the Kindle once you have done it for them to take effect.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

HappyGuy said:


> . . . when I upload books from Calibre to my Kindle, they're not going into their collection, they're all being listed after the collections list.


This sounds like you have your sort set to 'by title' or 'by author' instead of 'by collections'.

Or maybe none of your books _are_ actually in the collections.  But I can't address the connection between that and Calibre -- I just do it on the Kindle. Tedious to load them all the first time, but now I just 'collect' the titles as I purchase them.


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## chilady1 (Jun 9, 2009)

HappyGuy said:


> OK, I've got my collections on the Kindle, uploaded automatically from Calibre. But when I upload books from Calibre to my Kindle, they're not going into their collection, they're all being listed after the collections list. With the Calibre plug in do I still have to assign each book to the correct collection on the Kindle? Or is there a way to do this automatically? I guess what I'm asking is, now that I have the plug-in installed, what are the steps to getting books into collections on my Kindle?


First, after running the Collections Manager in Calibre, your Kindle should have already re-started. They built that into the plug-in to automatically have the Kindle restart for the changes to take effect.

Make sure you are sorting by Collections.


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## palaran (Dec 29, 2010)

chilady1 said:


> They built that into the plug-in to automatically have the Kindle restart for the changes to take effect.
> 
> Make sure you are sorting by Collections.


On the version I have you are required to restart. Just downloading the latest version to see if that has changed, but certainly on the version I have you are required to restart, adn it even has a pop up to tell you that in Calibre.

**ETA**

Just updated to both latest version of plugin and Calibre and still prompts me for manual restart for changes to take effect, and when I check the Kindle nothing had changed and it did not automatically restart.


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## chilady1 (Jun 9, 2009)

Ok - couple of things.

1.  Make sure you have Calibre version 7.57 - this is the latest version of Calibre
2.  Make sure you have Kindle Collections plug-in 1.57 - the lastest plug-in
3.  I have never been prompted for a manual re-start.  As soon as I eject my Kindle, the plug-in has functionality that makes it automatically reboot my Kindle.

Now, you have sent the books to your Kindle right?  Are you including the series name as part of the metadata.  For example, I highlight 4 books in a series and do a bulk update that allows me to create the series name across all of the books.  I highlight them in series order and click automatically number the series starting with #1.  Are you doing this?

Once that is done, I click "Preview the Collections".  For any new series not on my Kindle, it shows me that that series has been created.  For any other series already done - it just show recreated the collection.

Once I confirm everything looks good, I hit Create Collections.  This makes sure all Collections have been created/replaced, then it brings up an option to see the report.  After this, I eject the Kindle and it automatically reboots.


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## palaran (Dec 29, 2010)

Well, I have just updated to the latest versions that you mention and can see no functionality as you describe - when you create a collection a pop up box reminds me of the need to restart the Kindle, which seems a bit strange if it was going to do it itself. Either way, the important part is that the Kindle needs to be restarted, either manually or automatically as seems to happen with yours.


**ETA**

Having looked into this more deeply it will only trigger a fast reboot if you have hacks installed, which I and I expect others do not necessarily have. Mystery solved.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

Have the latest version of Calibre installed. Have the latest version of the plugin installed. Exited Calibre and restarted. Installed collections from Calibre (they look correct). Ejected and restarted K3. This moved all of the books that were in the collections out of the collections! Now I have all of my collections and 8 pages of book titles    

This CERTAINLY DOESN'T seem to be the EASIEST way to manage collections!

Is this plugin supposed to put books into the correct collection when they're uploaded to the K or just create collections and that's all it does?

Unless someone can give me step by step instructions, I'm not seeing where this is worth the effort!


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## palaran (Dec 29, 2010)

Is it possible that you have somehow moved onto sort by author rather than sort by collections?


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

Not gonna let this thing spoil my day but ...

Uploaded "1632" which is a .mobi file. Ran the plugin. Restarted Kindle - MY GOODNESS it put the book into the correct collection. "Great", thinks I!
Uploaded "1633" another .mobi file and "Paid In Blood, an .AZW file. Ran the plugin. Restarted Kindle - MY GOODNESS ... nothing. The files were still listed after the collections and were NOT added into the collection. Deleted those two books.
Uploaded "1633" and "32 Caliber" both .mobi files. Ran the plugin. Restarted Kindle - MY GOODNESS ... ALL of my books have been pulled OUT of the collections and are listed AFTER the collections list (All 9 collections are showing (0) books in them!!!

So, I guess for me this plugin is a bust. Unless someone can suggest something else to try. I'd really like to get this to work, but I'm rather tired of reloading books then adding them back into their collections.


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## palaran (Dec 29, 2010)

Well, that doesn't happen to me at all. I would suggest that you have a read of the actual plugin thread to see if anyone has reported anything similar and if not then to post there;

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118635


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