Import 5000+ Kindle books into calibre?

BaconButty · 07-19-2013, 11:30 AM

Hello there,

Please, I need some advice before I import my Kindle library (5152 books) into calibre.

I believe I should use "Automatic Adding", where all books from a single folder are added into calibre then, automatically deleted from the original folder.

Is this the best way to import a large library?
Does this import the existing 5000+ Kindle books or only new books added after implementation?
If this method imports existing books, is this likely to take a few minutes or a few hours?
If this method does not import existing books, what is the best method for me to import my existing Kindle library?

I am not very familiar with calibre yet and I am just using it to read and to transfer books from my laptop to my Kindle, but I'd like to use it to control ALL my books, current and future purchases, if I can find a way.

Many thanks in advance.

theducks · 07-19-2013, 12:53 PM

To automatically deleting THE ONLY ORIGINALS

Wait.
At least, until you are sure things went smooth

Personnaly
I would create an EMPTY auto-add folder
Then copy about 10 books there

Then see what you ended up with in Calibre, making adjustments as needed.

Preferences: Adding Books has a lot of useful features and settings.
It can add a Tag (eg 'New1'), Use Filename as Metadata or Internal Metadata...

Once you are satisfied... Then Offload/delete the originals

speakingtohe · 07-19-2013, 12:59 PM

I would add them by drag and drop or adding them from the directory(s) they are in using one of the drop down options.

As theducks said, add only a few at a time until you have your settings right to get the best import. Will pay off in the long run.

Helen

BaconButty · 07-20-2013, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

I would create an EMPTY auto-add folder
Then copy about 10 books there
Then see what you ended up with in Calibre, making adjustments as needed.

I have followed your suggestion and copied 10 books in a "fake" Kindle library folder and instructed calibre to add the folder content automatically.
The books are now in calibre and have been deleted from the fake Kindle library folder. So that answers question 2 above.

It took about 1 minute for 10 books to show up after a short screen freeze, and after the import, I have to make time for a metadata batch download.

I think I'll import batches of 50 books at a time, copying them into the fake Kindle folder for calibre to import, keeping the originals in the real Kindle library until I'm happy everything is working as it should...

Unless someone has another suggestion to offer...?

Quote:

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I would add them by drag and drop or adding them from the directory(s) they are in using one of the drop down options.
Helen

Helen, thanks for the suggestion, but I think it would take ages for 5200 books...

theducks · 07-20-2013, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BaconButty

Helen, thanks for the suggestion, but I think it would take ages for 5200 books...

You can drag 'batches' of 10 to 20+ books and drop them on Calibre if that floats

speakingtohe · 07-20-2013, 07:13 PM

It would take the same time as dragging or copying them to the temp folder.

When I started out with calibre I imported 7000 pdf's, epubs, lits etc. not all books, many were technical data etc. I think it took 12 hours, but I did them in batches of 1000, which I wouldn't do today.

I would group my books by source, for example Amazon, gutenburg, mobilereads etc. and import a test batch to see if the title, author are entered correctly, and hopefully other useful metadata as well. If not I would delete the books and adjust the adding books options in preferences till I got the best results.

At that point I would import a much larger batch. I am kind of intrepid, so I would go with 500 or more at a time, but depends on a persons comfort level. Then I would deal with these books, checking format, (I like all of my books formatted the same way) and carry on with the next batch.

Helen

BaconButty · 07-29-2013, 05:47 AM

Quick update on my original post:

I created a "Kindle for Calibre" folder and used "Automatic Adding" to get Calibre to import (then delete) from this folder.
I organised the original Kindle folder in days and opted to copy/paste one day's batch of Kindle books at a time into the newly created "Kindle for Calibre" folder and let Calibre import them.
Some days had only 20 or 30 books to import, some days had over 100, but this kept things methodical.
I've had to re-import some Kindle books (in batches, as they cannot be identified) as the DRM were not always erased. A Calibre reboot rectified this.

As an aside, I read about Belvedere to add books into Calibre and this works very well indeed.
All new Kindle purchases are now automatically copied into the "Kindle for Calibre" folder and imported into Calibre without any action on my part. This takes care of any future Kindle book purchase.

I still have to run "Find Duplicates", then "Edit metada in bulk" and "Quality Check" to tidy things up...

Thanks for all the comments. It's useful to find out how people would/did deal with a similar situation.

07-19-2013, 11:30 AM	#1
BaconButty Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 520 Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: France Device: Kindle Paperwhite 5 & iPad Mini & Galaxy Tab10	Import 5000+ Kindle books into calibre? Hello there, Please, I need some advice before I import my Kindle library (5152 books) into calibre. I believe I should use "Automatic Adding", where all books from a single folder are added into calibre then, automatically deleted from the original folder. Is this the best way to import a large library? Does this import the existing 5000+ Kindle books or only new books added after implementation? If this method imports existing books, is this likely to take a few minutes or a few hours? If this method does not import existing books, what is the best method for me to import my existing Kindle library? I am not very familiar with calibre yet and I am just using it to read and to transfer books from my laptop to my Kindle, but I'd like to use it to control ALL my books, current and future purchases, if I can find a way. Many thanks in advance.

07-29-2013, 05:47 AM	#7
BaconButty Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 520 Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: France Device: Kindle Paperwhite 5 & iPad Mini & Galaxy Tab10	Quick update on my original post: I created a "Kindle for Calibre" folder and used "Automatic Adding" to get Calibre to import (then delete) from this folder. I organised the original Kindle folder in days and opted to copy/paste one day's batch of Kindle books at a time into the newly created "Kindle for Calibre" folder and let Calibre import them. Some days had only 20 or 30 books to import, some days had over 100, but this kept things methodical. I've had to re-import some Kindle books (in batches, as they cannot be identified) as the DRM were not always erased. A Calibre reboot rectified this. As an aside, I read about Belvedere to add books into Calibre and this works very well indeed. All new Kindle purchases are now automatically copied into the "Kindle for Calibre" folder and imported into Calibre without any action on my part. This takes care of any future Kindle book purchase. I still have to run "Find Duplicates", then "Edit metada in bulk" and "Quality Check" to tidy things up... Thanks for all the comments. It's useful to find out how people would/did deal with a similar situation.

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07-19-2013, 12:53 PM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,977 Karma: 56143930 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	To automatically deleting THE ONLY ORIGINALS Wait. At least, until you are sure things went smooth Personnaly I would create an EMPTY auto-add folder Then copy about 10 books there Then see what you ended up with in Calibre, making adjustments as needed. Preferences: Adding Books has a lot of useful features and settings. It can add a Tag (eg 'New1'), Use Filename as Metadata or Internal Metadata... Once you are satisfied... Then Offload/delete the originals

07-19-2013, 12:59 PM	#3
speakingtohe Wizard Posts: 4,812 Karma: 26912940 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: sony PRS-T1 and T3, Kobo Mini and Aura HD, Tablet	I would add them by drag and drop or adding them from the directory(s) they are in using one of the drop down options. As theducks said, add only a few at a time until you have your settings right to get the best import. Will pay off in the long run. Helen

07-20-2013, 07:13 PM	#6
speakingtohe Wizard Posts: 4,812 Karma: 26912940 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: sony PRS-T1 and T3, Kobo Mini and Aura HD, Tablet	It would take the same time as dragging or copying them to the temp folder. When I started out with calibre I imported 7000 pdf's, epubs, lits etc. not all books, many were technical data etc. I think it took 12 hours, but I did them in batches of 1000, which I wouldn't do today. I would group my books by source, for example Amazon, gutenburg, mobilereads etc. and import a test batch to see if the title, author are entered correctly, and hopefully other useful metadata as well. If not I would delete the books and adjust the adding books options in preferences till I got the best results. At that point I would import a much larger batch. I am kind of intrepid, so I would go with 500 or more at a time, but depends on a persons comfort level. Then I would deal with these books, checking format, (I like all of my books formatted the same way) and carry on with the next batch. Helen

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