Please help--trying to read books from external SD card, nothing's happening

[kimanjome]

Let me start by saying thanks.

I just got a new Tab2 yesterday with JB running. I bought the T2 specifically for the extSD slot. I travel for loooooong periods to remote locations with no wifi, and I need an alternate means of storing many, many, many books and reference materials .

So: I've been going crazy. I've loaded the following apps onto the T2: MoonReader, Aldiko, FBReader, and Nook. What I was hoping to do was use one of the apps to open (i.e. retrieve) a book off my extSD card--similar to how WindowsMediaPlayer, for example, can open and play a CD I pop into my hard drive. But it isn't working!

My husband rooted his Nook Tablet with CM7 and he said he loads all his books through Calibre onto Aldiko, on the micro SD while it is still in the slot on his laptop, then he takes the micro SD out of his laptop, pops it into his Nook Tablet, then uses a file explorer--I think he said Astro?--to find this Aldiko app and open it to read the books.

That sounds incredibly complicated. There must be a faster method.

I'm like the other other poster who said the bought the T2 specifically to run his 16 gb worth of maps from extSD cards, but the T2 can't do it, the apps on his internal SD will only run maps on the internal SD.

Is there absolutely no way I can carry my books on a microSd that I can just plop into the T2 and open with an internal reader?

 

[hkusp40cal]

The nook app is supposed to support epub sideloading. All you should need to do is move any epub books into the Nook/My Documents folder on the sdcard.

 

[yarnsrj]

Moon Reader reads all formats. On the main screen click on 'Local files ' and look for your books through the file explorer.

 

[nick1971]

I've filled my Note 16gb up and so have been looking for the solution to this, too, and found your post.

I've discovered that in Aldiko Premium you can navigate to books on your External SDCard from the files icon on the main page. Then when you click on an ebook it gives you the option of either importing to the internal memory or simply opening. So you can open and read a book from the external SDCard

Which is good, except that it doesn't then track things like the page you have read up to, etc, and the slightest thing (eg moving across to another app and then back) throws you back to the book cover page. If you import from the card, rather than open, then the file is transferred across to the ebooks folder on the internal memory, and Aldiko tracks last page etc, and the book is displayed on the shelf graphic.

So if you want to open books from the external card, and save internal space, it's a partial solution. But for those of us with big collections, it opens the possibility of importing books we are currently reading and using the external card as an archive of books already read, books for quick reference, books for importing in the future. But obviously moving out books from internal to external would lose the relevant data: last page read, bookmarks etc.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dngrsone]

I use Cool Reader on my Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. It reads right off the microSD Card. I use Calibre on my laptop to upload the files directly to the external card through the USB cable.

 

[KindleOwner]

FB Reader works on my Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, and I can set my library to my external card. I too was looking for the same thing without rooting. If you find anything better, let me know. This works fine, but it does not have toe GO TO location, but you can bookmark, and to go to specific locations you have to do phrase searches. Mine is set to default to my external SD card directory.

 

[Ligural]

Try UB reader from Play Store: I had the same problem, tried a lot of apps and this is the one that worked fine since the first moment: great!

 

[Ligural]

Try UB reader from Play Store: I had the same problem, tried a lot of apps and this is the one that worked fine since the first moment: great!

 

[Irishdec52]

Thank you for posting this, Ligural! I'm new to the world of smartphones. I tried several apps to manage my books, but this is the first one that has worked with my sd card from the beginning.

 

[ohtuffcookie]

Thank you so much, Ligural! I have tried several e-book apps for Android, and there were major drawbacks with most. Most especially being able to conveniently sideload my own books onto the sd card instead of the tablet storage and then read them from there. You saved my sanity today. Truly!

 

[Steve Sschardi]

I have 54 ebooks on my Asus tablet, totaling 107 mb. or .107 gb of space. So basically .1 GB is not much at all. I use Aldiko which will not read ebooks from SD card. Just limit how many books you carry around with you. email them to yourself and open them on your phone or tablet as needed.