Sharing personal books accross two computers
I created a personal book in Logos 9 and it works very well. I have a laptop and a desktop computer running Logos. Is there a way for me to make a Logos book that I created on my desktop show up on my laptop or do I have to create the book on my laptop as well. I apologize for asking such a simple question. Thank you for any help that you can give. Brian
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Brian you can 'upload' personal books which will you can then download to the desktop app (not mobile or web). Just click the book in the personal book tool, then below the build button there should be an upload button.
However I would not recommend this, as you can never delete the books once uploaded (you can however hide them) so the possibility exists where you end up with a book that you no longer want, maybe you find an error or something, that you cannot truly get rid of.
I think you can amend the books and re-upload (not 100% on that so hopefully someone else can advise), but that is contingent on your current Logos installation on the computer you created the file. If you HDD dies or something, you will not be able to change that file. You would have to recreate it.
It depends on how OCD you are about things. It very much disturbs me.
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You can copy the PBB compiled file to a flash drive and scan the flash drive on the other PC. Headed out the door so I don't have time to give the full instructions right now. But there is a way other then UPLOAD.
Or you can move the docx file to the other machine and compile the PBB there also
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Brain - The others I think gave you what you needed to know, but for clarification:
As long as you have the appropriate "use internet" options still turned on, then the metadata (i.e. title, author, etc.) automatically syncs, as does the PBB project. What doesn't sync is the actual compiled book.
You have two choices on that: 1) compile the book on the second device or 2) use the "scan" method that David mentioned. As he said, to compile it on the second device, you will need access to the original .docx file on the second computer. I use dropbox to store mine and have access.
Kevin's issue, which which a vocal minority are in agreement, is that FL does not currently have (nor do I think they have plans to implement) a means to delete the file from their servers. If that would be an issue, it may be best not to "upload" the compiled file. If it is only a mild issue, then if you decide to not use that resource you can 1) hide it or 2) wipe over it with new content.
macOS, iOS & iPadOS |Logs| Install
Choose Truth Over Tribe | Become a Joyful Outsider!0 -
JT (alabama24) said:
As long as you have the appropriate "use internet" options still turned on, then the metadata (i.e. title, author, etc.) automatically syncs, as does the PBB project.
I'm no longer sure that's still (or always) true, based on my two L9/V9 installations.
JT (alabama24) said:FL does not currently have (nor do I think they have plans to implement) a means to delete the file from their servers. If that would be an issue, it may be best not to "upload" the compiled file. If it is only a mild issue, then if you decide to not use that resource you can 1) hide it or 2) wipe over it with new content.
Generally speaking, it seems strange to me that people trust FL with their prayers and their sermons, but then object against having PB files on FL's servers where they probably are stored in encrypted form anyways. Uploading after every build is the most easy way to have PBs synced between two installations.
Have joy in the Lord!
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NB.Mick said:
Generally speaking, it seems strange to me that people trust FL with their prayers and their sermons, but then object against having PB files on FL's servers where they probably are stored in encrypted form anyways. Uploading after every build is the most easy way to have PBs synced between two installations.
For me it is not a trust issue, if I ever spotted an error I could not correct it would slowly drive me round the bend I think.
I imagine one reason, perhaps the main reason, why they don't implement it, is that there would many more support calls from people asking for help to recover items accidentally deleted.
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Thank you so much for your help. I truly appreciate it. I'm humbled that you would take the time to help. God bless. Brian
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Kevin said:
I imagine one reason, perhaps the main reason, why they don't implement it, is that there would many more support calls from people asking for help to recover items accidentally deleted.
That might be part of it, but the biggest reason is that the feature didn't quite do what they had hoped it would. People don't use it for "personal" books, they use it for building books from other authors... which competes against FL. This is hashed out in a LONG thread. It is also why they will not sync with mobile.
macOS, iOS & iPadOS |Logs| Install
Choose Truth Over Tribe | Become a Joyful Outsider!0 -
Bernhard said:
Why can you not correct it? Just change the docx file, recompile and upload again! Where is the problem?
Kevin said:I think you can amend the books and re-upload (not 100% on that so hopefully someone else can advise), but that is contingent on your current Logos installation on the computer you created the file. If you HDD dies or something, you will not be able to change that file. You would have to recreate it.
Do you know of a way of modifying an uploaded personal book in this scenario, where for whatever reason, you lose access to that original Logos installation?
I doubt everyone keeps full backups of their Logos folder, so I will not recommend this without making them aware of potential issues, they can then make their own judgement call.
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Kevin said:
Do you know of a way of modifying an uploaded personal book in this scenario, where for whatever reason, you lose access to that original Logos installation?
If you lost the source docx files you would be unable to modify a PB (uploaded or otherwise). It would be advisable to back them up to a removable drive, or store them in the cloud as well as locally e.g. OneDrive. I'm not sure what you mean by having full backups of our Logos folder, as that would refer to the built PB in the Resources folder. If you upload all your PB's, you won't lose those files, otherwise you have to rebuild them! You don't store the docx files in the Logos folder...
Dave
===Windows 11 & Android 13
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I never spoke about losing the docx. If you lost your Logos installation, for instance if the HDD failed, but still had the docx (most people backup their documents), how would you amend a previously uploaded pbb? You could recreate the pbb from the docx, but that would be a new file, and as far as I can tell, there is no way to create or change the association of a book in the Personal Books Tool with an uploaded file.
Perhaps you could just amend the db file, I have not cared to investigate that far, but even so it is certainly not something I would want to help someone with over the forum.
My reference to backing up the entire Logos folder, is that you would then still be able to change the uploaded file, by recovering that backup, which would still have the reference to the uploaded file associated with the local file......but I doubt most people do back up their entire folder.
This is not a problem I have, it is a problem other people might have, if they have uploaded files, lose their Logos installation, have no backup, then have files on the server they can no longer amend. This is why I won't recommend uploading unless they are quite happy to potentially have files that they can no longer edit.
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Kevin said:
I never spoke about losing the docx. If you lost your Logos installation, for instance if the HDD failed, but still had the docx (most people backup their documents), how would you amend a previously uploaded pbb? You could recreate the pbb from the docx, but that would be a new file, and as far as I can tell, there is no way to create or change the association of a book in the Personal Books Tool with an uploaded file.
That is not correct. You can recompile the book with the changed docx file:
- Open the Personal Books Builder on your new computer and scroll to the book in question
- If the docx file is located at the exact same path on your new computer as before, just hit "Build Book" and you are done
- If it is located in a different location, it will show with an exclamation mark. Right-click on that, delete. Then click "Add file" and point it to the amended docx file in the new location
I have just tested this, and in my case it even retained previously applied highlights (I believe that could depend on how much was changed in the docx file between builds).
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Bernard on a new installation, the Personal Books Builder will be empty.
I just checking this....maybe this is not the case.
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Bernhard said:Kevin said:
Bernard on a new installation, the Personal Books Builder will be empty.
Sorry - but that is just not true. Your PB projects are synced between your installations.
I have just checked and you are right, it does sync the projects, which pretty much negates all my concerns. Thank you
What is interesting though is that I had projects on one, that had not synced......I will try a few things.
Cheers.
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I don't know why but my projects on one installation were not syncing to the other, which is why I had assumed wrongly (for several years now) that there was no project sync. However deleting my Documents/Personal Books folder initiated a sync from the server and all my projects from my main computer appeared on this one.
I had created the secondary installation from the backup of the first, perhaps doing this caused a corruption and stopped it syncing.
Anyway basically ignore everything I said then, as there is no possibility (unless you delete the project perhaps?) of not being able to edit the uploaded book. [:#]
Edit - Just checked and creating a new book the project does sync, and had been mostly, just the latest book had not.....so sorry all for confusing everyone. I don't know why I had this wrong for so long. I never really had the need to look into it, I don't uses the backup computer often at all, it is just there in case main dies....and I just kept that assumption from my early days in Logos. Something led me to believe this, perhaps there was a sync issue back then, but at least wiser now.
Thanks
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So Brian, my advice has changed. Use the upload function [:)] [Y]
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Scan from Wiki
Scan {Resource Path} - finds unlocked books in a folder or on a disk.
You must first find your PBB files
A PBB file has the name similar to 5ef51f82dcde4751b50c52a59c7ce8ef.lbspbb
All end in .lbspbb
And these are found at something like:
\Users\User1\AppData\Local\Logos\Data\admhbkzb.2ys\ResourceManager\ResourcesWhere D is the drive letter: Most likely C:
Where Logos maybe Logos4
Where “admhbkzb.2ys” will be a “random” string probably unique to your system
Copy all the files ending in .lbspbb to a flash drive
Move the flash drive to your second machine
In the command box of Logos type scan followed by the path name to the flashdrive.
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Bernhard said:
Your PB projects are synced between your installations.
If you use UPLOAD for all of you PBB books
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NB.Mick said:
having PB files on FL's servers where they probably are stored in encrypted form anyways.
Question: Are they encrypted? Some time back FL did an analysis on all of the PBB that were uploaded and that is when they discovered that most PBBs are files taken from the internet as text or PDF files and loaded into Logos. And they complained that many were books that they have offered as Logos Resources. [or that they claim that they will offer as Logos Resources someday maybe]
[[FL if you are reading this for every one of the 300 PBB I have I checked that it was NOT currently listed as a for sale resource, pre-pub nor community pricing item at the time I first built it. I may have missed some as the titles might not have matched.]]
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David Ames said:
Question: Are they encrypted?
Yes, they are.
David Ames said:Some time back FL did an analysis on all of the PBB that were uploaded and that is when they discovered that most PBBs are files taken from the internet as text or PDF files and loaded into Logos.
This isn't quite true. We never analysed PBBs, looked at their content, etc.
What happened is that uploaded PBBs were loaded into our standard resource distribution system (because code reuse). Our CS agents searching for our published resources (by title) were finding that their search results were filled with Personal Books. Our analysis was based on the assumption that Institutes of the Christian Religion or How Should We Then Live? (I'm just making these up; I don't know what the most common titles were) were probably not personal books authored by the users who uploaded them.
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David Ames said:
Question: Are they encrypted? Some time back FL did an analysis on all of the PBB that were uploaded and that is when they discovered that most PBBs are files taken from the internet as text or PDF files and loaded into Logos.
I think they are encrypted just with the same algorithm as our other library books. But metadata such as author and title are not encrypted. Logos could decrypt the actual books if they wanted, but I don't think they would feel any desire to do so.
David Ames said:And they complained that many were books that they have offered as Logos Resources.
Also, maybe you put more into FL's "Analysis" of PBs than they actually did. I didn't want to google that old post, but my recollection is not that FL did an in-depth analysis of all PBs actual content, but just glanced at the titles ordered by frequency and it was one book by AW Pink that they found was near the top of the seemingly most-popular PBs and to be taken from the internet (at that time it was not offered by Logos, but was freely available at CCEL and other websites. Many of FL's very reformed user base just thought they needed it "for completeness sake". In fact I have a PB copy of this myself - and a copy I bought from FL. This probably was a very special case, the book possibly still being copyrighted (at least in Europe, where the publisher sits who back then refused to allow FL to sell it) and available from so many websites on the web. I know that at the time when I first built it, I thought the text from CCEL was PD (and it actually may be, at least in the US).
This analysis might even lead to wrong conclusions: Years ago I started putting "dummy" PBs into my library with the exact title, author, publisher etc just to get library search hits and as a reminder I owned this work in another bible software or in paper. I stopped doing that (too much effort without scripting), but such books from their metadata look like a "competing" PB when actually they aren't - and I ended up buying the Logos edition for many of those anyway.
Of course, many or most PBs are not documents produced by the individual Logos user, but are public domain works or otherwise free resources that users build to enhance their libraries. I personally find that PBs don't compete much with Logos resources. There might be the argument that every book competes with every other book. And in theory, FL could bring every PD book ever written to Logos. Looking at their bandwidth to actually get books produced, they are not able to keep up even with the volume of new books pushed out by their most trusted publishing partners.
My impression, making and using PBs from L4 onwards, is that the PB community is very ethical in the PBs that are shared here in the forums: no blatantly stolen books, no PD works that are offered at CP (even though we know it takes years for them to go through). It's rather that PB fills up areas where FL is not strong enough to make an offer. I think that PBs are a strong component of getting users from underdeveloped faith traditions (like the restoration movement) or non-English languages to actually find Logos usable. My personal conviction is that without PBs, there would not be an active user community in e.g. the German language - and if FL wants to grow other languages (as they seem to do with French now, and as they probably should do with Dutch/Afrikaans), my sincere recommendation would be to get the users making PBs in order to overcome the dearth of resources.
Are there users who sometimes might privately build a PB that is a book FL sells? Surely. I personally have done so once or twice in the past, as a proof of concept for format conversion for a book I legally owned in another format (worked well; nevertheless I bought the Logos resource) and once as a test for making a devotional from an FL eBook. Such format conversion may be considered a grey area by some, but is probably legal and falls under Fair Use for most users anyway. Some student or bivo pastor may think they can grab a text from archive.org for free and save the bucks they really can't afford in the Logos store. I don't believe that this actually cuts much into Logos revenue - maybe to the contrary: Experience from the forums seems to show that people who actually tried building a commentary or a bible with the same full functionality as a Logos resource are the first who jump in when some cheapo starts to whine about Logos prices, as building such PBs clearly teaches the amount of effort, diligence and time needed to produce a Logos resource. This may make users more willing to pay Logos prices even for PD works.
EDIT: I took much too long to write this up, but I see that Bradley in the meantime confirmed at least my answers to your question /EDIT
Have joy in the Lord!
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Our analysis was based on the assumption that [titles of well-known works] were probably not personal books authored by the users who uploaded them.
NB.Mick said:This analysis might even lead to wrong conclusions: Years ago I started putting "dummy" PBs into my library with the exact title, author, publisher etc just to get library search hits and as a reminder I owned this work in another bible software or in paper.
The conclusion we drew was that Personal Book Builder was being used for things other publishing the user's personal content (not necessarily that it was being used for widespread copyright violation).
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Our analysis was based on the assumption that [titles of well-known works] were probably not personal books authored by the users who uploaded them.
NB.Mick said:This analysis might even lead to wrong conclusions: Years ago I started putting "dummy" PBs into my library with the exact title, author, publisher etc just to get library search hits and as a reminder I owned this work in another bible software or in paper.
The conclusion we drew was that Personal Book Builder was being used for things other publishing the user's personal content (not necessarily that it was being used for widespread copyright violation).
Fair enough and thanks for clarifying.
Have joy in the Lord!
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NB.Mick said:
EDIT: I took much too long to write this up,
I Agree with your post. And thanks for taking the time.
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David Ames said:Bernhard said:
Your PB projects are synced between your installations.
If you use UPLOAD for all of you PBB books
I was talking about the metadata in the personal book builder, not the compiled book. The metadata is always synced.
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