diff --git a/src/calibre/devices/kobo/driver.py b/src/calibre/devices/kobo/driver.py
index 531c1cdc99..1779a92863 100644
--- a/src/calibre/devices/kobo/driver.py
+++ b/src/calibre/devices/kobo/driver.py
@@ -3052,7 +3052,12 @@ class KOBOTOUCH(KOBO):
 
     @property
     def collections_columns(self):
-        return self.get_pref('collections_columns')
+        return self.get_pref('collections_columns') if self.manage_collections else ''
+
+    def get_collections_attributes(self):
+        collections_str = self.collections_columns
+        collections = [x.lower().strip() for x in collections_str.split(',')] if collections_str else []
+        return collections
 
     @property
     def delete_empty_collections(self):
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/book/__init__.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/book/__init__.py
index 18305ecfa2..1579a042d9 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/book/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/book/__init__.py
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ SC_FIELDS_NOT_COPIED =     frozenset(['title', 'title_sort', 'authors',
                                       'identifiers'])
 
 # Metadata fields that smart update should copy only if the source is not None
-SC_FIELDS_COPY_NOT_NULL =  frozenset(['lpath', 'size', 'comments', 'thumbnail'])
+SC_FIELDS_COPY_NOT_NULL =  frozenset(['device_collections', 'lpath', 'size', 'comments', 'thumbnail'])
 
 # Metadata fields that smart update should copy without special handling
 SC_COPYABLE_FIELDS =       SOCIAL_METADATA_FIELDS.union(