# Kindle organization a pain?



## Zithras (Dec 27, 2012)

Well, I bought my paperwhite 3g, and am on my 30 day trial! (see http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,137259.25.html but I didn't want to necro the thread)

Unsurprisingly, even though I did my research beforehand, now that I have my hands on the device, all new problems have popped up that I hope you could help me with!

The lighting on the Paperwhite is beautiful, the resolution and readability is great, I have no problems with ranbowing (yet?), and the battery life seems just fine. It's thin, portable, and I had no problems with initial setup. Organization, however, is driving me crazy. Here's the current problem list:

The memory is a bit low - I can fit maybe 2/3 of my personal books on there at any given time. This is fine, but with 1000+ books, organization becomes a REAL issue. HOW do I keep books organized? Amazon seems to not have built in any author sort, or, at best, sorts through each individual book by firstname, lastname. Calibre seems to have a few solutions on this issue in the form of plugboards: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126382 http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98470 which would work fine, but I've still got a list of 1000 books to page through whenever I want to browse for something to read. Collections seem like a potential answer, and I wouldn't mind taking the time to set them up (i.e. 1 collection per author name, books with multiple authose go into all respective collections), but they don't seem to be able to sort alphabetically  which leaves me to sort through 200 randomly sorted author collections instead of 1000 books alphabetically by author name...not particularly an improvement. How in the world do you organize a large Kindle library? argh! All I ask for is an alphabetical author sort by folder, the way the Calibre library is designed...

If i put books on the Kindle, then plug it in, it starts indexing them...indexes...then shuts off. Sigh. I turn it back on awhile later, and it picks up where it left off. When transferring large numbers of books, this is an issue. How can I tell it to stay ON while plugged in until it is done indexing, so I can leave it on overnight and have search actually WORK when I get back?

Trying to figure out how the Paperwhite accesses online documents has been...interesting. I have discovered that the Paperwhite has no apparent access to the Amazon Cloud, which is where I uploaded all my books before purchase. Grr. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000828861 Instead, it seems to have access to the Kindle Personal Documents archive, which, to add to the confusion, is ALSO 5 Gb. Unfortunately, the only way to put documents on there seems to be to mail them 5-20 at a time (depending on size) as attachments. Mailing 1600 documents manually is doable, but annoying. Is there any way to send documents directly to this service through Kindle, Calibre, or some sort of batch program someone has made?

Which all leads to sync issues. I want to have my calibre library on my computer, backed up in Amazon's personal documents, and available for download onto my Kindle though Amazon or Calibre as needed. However, if I use plugboards to 'fix' the author sort issue when transferring from Calibre to Kindle, I now have 2 different .mobi files (different author names) for each book - one on Calibre, one on Kindle. If I ten email the files from my computer to Amazon's servers, I then have any Amazon downloads 1) have the 'wrong' author 2) all register as 'undownloaded' books, whether or not they're actually on the Kindle already 3) not be a part of any collections already on the Kindle. How would I fix this? The only potential solution I see right now is to put half the files onto the Kindle from calibre, sort them into collections, copy them off into a temporary folder, copy the other half, repeat, email the temporary folder to amazon a few books at a time, hope the collections are saved, and go through the same multistep process (copy to kindle, put in collection, copy off kindle, mail new mobi from temporary folder to Amazon) for each new book I get? These must be an easier way? If I have to do this, will it save collection info properly? Is there some computer program I can get to make putting books into collections easier? Or do I have to manually select each book on the kindle and set its collections?

Thanks again for the help!

TLDR version:
1)	How do you easily organize large numbers of books on Kindle so you don't have to page through hundreds of pages to browse
2)	How do you sort collections alphabetically
3)	How do I get the Kindle to stay on to index instead of shutting itself off
4)	How to I batchmail large numbers of documents to my email address, and is there some easier way to get them onto my Kindle Personal Documents storage (which is NOT the same as Amazon Cloud Drive, apparently)
5)	If I use plugboards to 'fix' author sort on the kindle, how do I Sync books and collections between Calibre, Kindle, and Personal Documents, since the 'send to kindle' would create a different .mobi on the Kindle, with a 'new' author?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Zithras . . . I moved this to our Tips and Tricks section since part of what you're asking about is Calibre and the folks that play with that hang out here.

As to the answers to your questions, from my perspective:

1.  That's really up to you. . . I have a few collections and keep most books in them except for the ones I'm currently reading or expect to start reading soon.  And I have my home page set to show My Items and Collections, which lists collections first, alphabetically, followed by uncollected items.

2.  It's the default. . . I don't think you can change it.  At least, it's always alphabetical for me.

3.  It should keep indexing even if it goes to sleep.  So as long as you have a sleep picture showing, it's working.

4.  You can use 'send to kindle' for PC or Mac (Send to Kindle for PC is available to download at www.amazon.com/sendtokindle/pc and Send to Kindle for Mac is available for download at www.amazon.com/sendtokindle/mac.)  The PC one works like any other right click menu option.  If you're in a folder on your computer and have a number of things you want to send, you can select them all with ctrl or shift and then right click the group.  I have definitely sent multiple items at a time but never more then 3 or 4 just because I've not needed to send more.
    As to the Cloud. . .no, your Amazon Cloud Drive is not the same as the Amazon Cloud where your kindle books live when not on your device. 

5.  Someone else will have to address this since I haven't a clue what you're referring to.


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## SusanCassidy (Nov 9, 2008)

3) Indexing still takes place when the device is asleep.  Don't turn it off, just let it sleep.

Author sort on the Kindle is lastname, firstname, and that is the way that the metadata in the book file is supposed to be set.


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## Zithras (Dec 27, 2012)

Okay so that takes care of 1) 2) 3)..
for 4) I thought send to kindle ONLY sends to kindle, not to you Amazon Personal Documents Archive?
5) To get author sort working right, from what I understand, I have to use plugboards to redo the author, creating a new document when I send it to kindle, and causing sync issues with the online Archive? Has the firstname lastname sort problem been fixed? (see http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126382)

Also, is there any way to create, organize, and manage collections other than through the Kindle interface?


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

I'm not sure it's the only way, but I made all the changes in Calibre, then emailed my books to myself (over 3,000). You can email the books to your Kindle account directly from Calibre. If it was a book I purchased from Amazon, I actually deleted the book from Amazon (I figure I have them backed up in Calibre and Dropbox) so I only have 1 copy of the book in my cloud. 

AFTER I did that, I set up my collections.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Zithras said:


> Okay so that takes care of 1) 2) 3)..
> for 4) I thought send to kindle ONLY sends to kindle, not to you Amazon Personal Documents Archive?
> 5) To get author sort working right, from what I understand, I have to use plugboards to redo the author, creating a new document when I send it to kindle, and causing sync issues with the online Archive? Has the firstname lastname sort problem been fixed? (see http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126382)
> 
> Also, is there any way to create, organize, and manage collections other than through the Kindle interface?


4. When you use the Send to Kindle app, you can choose whether to have the document saved in your Archives/Cloud or not.

There is a Calibre plugin for creating Collections, but last I heard it doesn't work with the Paperwhite, but that might've changed by now. I haven't kept up since I don't have a PW.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Zithras said:


> Okay so that takes care of 1) 2) 3)..
> for 4) I thought send to kindle ONLY sends to kindle, not to you Amazon Personal Documents Archive?


As Meemo says, you can specify whether or not to archive it.

I do think you have to specify at least one kindle device. You can send it to more than one.

If you don't want it on ANY device right now, I'd say pick a device and send it, and then delete it from that device.

OR download Kindle for PC and let THAT be the device you send to when really you want it to just be archived.


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

Simple answer (though you're not going to like it)...

Don't try and keep 1000 books on the Kindle.

I know it can do it, and I know there are people on here who do it, but you've hit all the problems that I would expect you to have with that number of books on there.

You can't read 1000 books at the same time. If you're wanting to use it for reference purposes then I'm afraid that a Kindle isn't the device for this sort of use, it's for reading.

I've got about 100 books on mine - 50 or so in my reading/will read soon/might get round to sometime collection, and about another 50 spread between favourites, manuals, and bits and pieces.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> If you don't want it on ANY device right now, I'd say pick a device and send it, and then delete it from that device.


You can also set up the Kindle Cloud Reader and send it to that - it's just sitting in the Cloud waiting to read (Cloud Reader is for reading online on your computer). That way it isn't on any device.



Morf said:


> Simple answer (though you're not going to like it)...
> 
> Don't try and keep 1000 books on the Kindle.
> 
> ...


I think a lot of folks find that their way of handling this evolves over time. I used to send everything to my K1. With my K2, I kept all my *un*read books on it and once we got the Collections feature, I set up a Collection for an author if I had more than a couple of his/her books. I had WAY too many Collections, but it pretty much stayed that way through my K3.

By the time I got to my K4, I was over it. I completely rethought the whole thing, and only had maybe a half dozen Collections: Fiction, Nonfiction, Next-in-Series, To Finish (books it turned out I wasn't in the mood for when I first started them) and Up Next, books I want to read soon-ish.


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## Zithras (Dec 27, 2012)

thanks for the comments  will mess around more with organization and see if I can get it all worked out.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Meemo said:


> You can also set up the Kindle Cloud Reader and send it to that - it's just sitting in the Cloud waiting to read (Cloud Reader is for reading online on your computer). That way it isn't on any device.


Good point -- I'd forgotten about that. . . .kind of the same idea as using Kindle for PC as a storage device, but different. 



> I think a lot of folks find that their way of handling this evolves over time. I used to send everything to my K1. With my K2, I kept all my *un*read books on it and once we got the Collections feature, I set up a Collection for an author if I had more than a couple of his/her books. I had WAY too many Collections, but it pretty much stayed that way through my K3.
> 
> By the time I got to my K4, I was over it. I completely rethought the whole thing, and only had maybe a half dozen Collections: Fiction, Nonfiction, Next-in-Series, To Finish (books it turned out I wasn't in the mood for when I first started them) and Up Next, books I want to read soon-ish.


I think so too. And my evolution has been much the same as yours. . . initially EVERYTHING on the kindle. But as I got new devices I realized there was no need -- it was all available anyway. I also had, for a while a whole BUNCH of collections. Organized to within an inch of my life. But that got to be too much after a while too, so now I have a few main groupings.


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## backslidr (Nov 23, 2012)

I like having all my books on my Kindle. They're sorted by collections and easy to find when sorted by title or authors. I have two collections for every genre, such as 01. Science Fiction, 02. Science Fiction - Read. Every time I finish a book it goes in the Read collection. When you have a lot of books on Amazon it can become very difficult to remember what you've read or not and for me it's really a pain trying to find something when you have so many pages to dig through with no way to sort them. Having them all available and sorted just right makes it much easier for me.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

7vn11vn said:


> When you have a lot of books on Amazon it can become very difficult to remember what you've read or not and for me it's really a pain trying to find something when you have so many pages to dig through with no way to sort them. Having them all available and sorted just right makes it much easier for me.


That's why I went through the "unread books only on my Kindle" phase. Once I read a book, I'd delete it. It's how I kept up with read vs unread.

If I only had Amazon books, I'd maybe use kindle.amazon.com and mark my books "Read" after I read them. But I have books from all over, which I all keep in Calibre. So I mark them as "read" in Calibre once I've read them. (I also put them on Goodreads.com, and I try to keep a written list in an old journal - something my dad used to do and I kinda like carrying on that little tradition - I'm not so good about keeping that one current, though.)

For some reason, though, I'm pretty good about remembering whether I've read a book, except for series - sometimes I can't remember which book is the last one I've read in a series. Funny how I can usually remember whether I've read a book, but don't ask me if I remembered to turn off the closet light...


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

At one time I kept all my books on my Kindle, also. It got to be unwieldy, so now I store them all in Calibre. I have a custom column where I enter the month and year I read them. I started doing this primarily to keep track of where I was in reading a series.

Mike


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Meemo said:


> That's why I went through the "unread books only on my Kindle" phase. Once I read a book, I'd delete it. It's how I kept up with read vs unread.
> 
> If I only had Amazon books, I'd maybe use kindle.amazon.com and mark my books "Read" after I read them. But I have books from all over, which I all keep in Calibre. So I mark them as "read" in Calibre once I've read them. (I also put them on Goodreads.com, and I try to keep a written list in an old journal - something my dad used to do and I kinda like carrying on that little tradition - I'm not so good about keeping that one current, though.)
> 
> For some reason, though, I'm pretty good about remembering whether I've read a book, except for series - sometimes I can't remember which book is the last one I've read in a series. Funny how I can usually remember whether I've read a book, but don't ask me if I remembered to turn off the closet light...


I use fictfact for keeping track of series . . . . . it even will let me know when new volumes of series come out.

Lately I've been using shelfari just for keeping track of 'read' or 'not'.


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## mom2karen (Aug 15, 2009)

If you use Kindle 4PC to set up your categories you can move the books into categories easier than on your kindle.  Then you can import the categories to your kindle devise and it will move any books on the kindle into the category you chose on the PC.  On K4PC you can see the covers which can help decide which category, and you can click and drag into the categories you want.  

If they would give us the ability to sort by genre I'd be thrilled.


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