Calibre Companion and book location

[1katie23]

I would prefer option 1, simple and straightforward without errors. This is why I really like CC because it is easy and works flawlessly for me.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by chaley

I like the theory of using the custom column, but it is indeed more fault-prone. There can be both length and character set problems. The first is somewhat difficult to work around because the template never includes the path of the base folder that the books live in. The character set problem can be worked around, but means that the resulting path might not exactly match the template. There are also issues with accidental slash characters in the path, such as in the (made up) title "The Excitement/Joy of Being Bob". I am still thinking about this option. I like the idea of user-defined constant paths, but I am not happy with the weird errors that can pop up.

The next release of CC (and calibre) will have the first option.

Would that mean I'd have to re-download all books again?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Would that mean I'd have to re-download all books again?

Only if you want to use the new option for books already on your device. You must check a box to turn on using UUIDs as file names, and then the option has effect only for books sent after you check that box.

It is true that after checking the option, resending a book over the wireless device connection will create a duplicate. If "On Device" is checked then you should delete the existing copy when you send a new one. The easiest is to send the new copy, notice that it now says "2 books", then delete the older copy.

CC's content server connection already checks if a book with the same UUID is already on the device, and if so overwrites that book. The reverse is not true: CC+calibre do not check for duplicate UUIDs when using the wireless device connection. And yes, I agree that it is strange that one pathway checks while the other doesn't, but we didn't want to make CC's calibre device driver work differently from the other calibre devices. And in any event, such a check does not solve the problem where the same book can have a different file name on different devices.

[chaley]

After thought, I changed calibre so that if you send a book to a device that is already on the device (UUID and extension match), the file name for the book already on the device is used and that file on the device is overwritten with the new content. The template and the UUID option are ignored. This change will go far to prevent duplicate book files when metadata changes.

If you don't like this change then you can shut it off by going to the smart device plugin and unchecking the option. I would be interested in hearing why you don't like the new behavior. I haven't been able to come up with a good reason to want more than one copy of a specific format of a book on the device, and there are lots of reasons to avoid it. The only reason I came up with is someone requiring that a file name on the device reflect the newest metadata, but this can be achieved by deleting the old file before sending the new one.

The UUID option remains necessary for people who have multiple devices and want the same file name on all regardless of how the book got to a particular device.

The replace-file behavior and the option will be in calibre 0.9.15. The next version of CC will support the UUID option. The UUID option will be ignored unless calibre is at release 0.9.15 or later.