diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/viewer/convert_book.py b/src/calibre/gui2/viewer/convert_book.py
index 3272eb72fe..109336c440 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/viewer/convert_book.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/viewer/convert_book.py
@@ -120,8 +120,8 @@ def prepare_convert(temp_path, key, st):
 
 def do_convert(path, temp_path, key, instance):
     tdir = os.path.join(temp_path, instance['path'])
-    fork_job('calibre.srv.render_book', 'render', args=(
-        path, tdir, {'size': instance['file_size'], 'mtime': instance['file_mtime'], 'hash': key}, True, True, False,
+    fork_job('calibre.srv.render_book', 'render_for_viewer', args=(
+        path, tdir, {'size': instance['file_size'], 'mtime': instance['file_mtime'], 'hash': key},
         ), timeout=3000, no_output=True
     )
     size = 0
diff --git a/src/calibre/srv/render_book.py b/src/calibre/srv/render_book.py
index 8812f59869..da49067790 100644
--- a/src/calibre/srv/render_book.py
+++ b/src/calibre/srv/render_book.py
@@ -709,5 +709,12 @@ def render(pathtoebook, output_dir, book_hash=None, serialize_metadata=False, ex
                 f.write(annotations)
 
 
+def render_for_viewer(path, out_dir, book_hash):
+    return render(
+        path, out_dir, book_hash=book_hash, serialize_metadata=True,
+        extract_annotations=True, virtualize_resources=False
+    )
+
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     render(sys.argv[-2], sys.argv[-1], serialize_metadata=True)