07-28-2010, 12:01 AM | #1 |
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New to Calibre, having some difficulties
I tried reading the FAQs, and did try searching through this forum for posts related to my questions, however it seems that folks here are all much less of a n00b to programming and coding to get around than I am. In fact, I am not at all comfortable with coding of any kind.
I am using Calibre library in concert with Stanza on an OS X 10.6.4 mac and an iPhone 3GS running ios 3.1.3. I am able to import books into calibre. I am able to download from my computers library into the iPhone. So far, so good. But... I have a considerable library, less than 2% of which I have brought into Calibre. I've spent the last 2 months trying everything (short of coding) to get the simple task of sorting by author done. And, it appears that it simply cannot be done. Adding books by a single author all at once, then changing the calibre metadata (distinct from the existing file's metadata) for each record so that the author's name is uniform in all instances before adding books from another author does not help. I also can't sort reliably on any other category, but for simplicity I will limit this post to the fact that re-entering/correcting the "author" field doesn't do it. Re-entering/correcting the "author sort" field doesn't do it. Deleting the entire calibre library and starting from scratch doesn't do it. What is the trick? Things I'd like to do that seemingly *can* be done in calibre although I haven't been able to make it happen: -Update all records with the series name and series number for all those books for which these fields are relevant.... and sorting on those. -Making series information available and usable while on the device, in this case the iPhone using Stanza (although I also have Good Library and several other iphone programs that would suffice) -Do something to correct the files in the Calibre library such that corrected author names, author sort fields, ISBN numbers and cover art which has been downloaded, etc. all get associated with the book file (my ideal view would be, this information gets put INTO the ACTUAL file so that the calibre metadata work does not have to get done over, and over, and over again as is my experience) -Ultimately arrive at a Calibre library that does not have multiple folders for the same author, some with a comma, some with an underline, in the name, all with identical contents, and arrive at a Calibre library that does not have emply folders for every instance of incorrect author name that existed prior to being corrected I don't need to go into my Calibre library as an access point for the books, but with a substantially large library, I do not want to have duplicate, triplicate, quadruplicate files in that library. Its inefficient and undesirable, not to mention impossible to figure out which file is/should be updated with the corrected metadata. Anyway, I would appreciate any help, and if there IS an existing thread or help file that addresses Sorting, integrated correct metadata into your file, etc, feel free simply to point me there, I'm not intending that anyone recreate the wheel. Last edited by Merischino; 07-28-2010 at 12:06 AM. Reason: Added thread subscription |
07-28-2010, 03:21 AM | #2 |
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Sounds like a lot of problems.
Moving the database/library should copy over only those folders that are actual library entries. saving to disk will create an opf file that will associate the metadata with the file and you can save to disk so all the files are in one directory. The underscore in the folder name seems to happen when you have a comma(or other illegal filename character) in the author name and for me the extra folder is removed when the name is corrected. It used to be easier to spot in the author list when it was displayed alphabetically by first name. Now asmall difference in name can be several entries away. (all the Smiths would be listed in order and then a Smith, would follow) Sorting generally works for me but is a little odd once in a while. For me it is confusing to not be sorting on what you see but I am sure there are good reasons for it. typing the author name into the search bar is often an easier way to go. type in name, then sort on author should help you narrow it down. Thanks for posting as I did not realize that I had the odd underscore in there myself Helen |
07-28-2010, 04:01 AM | #4 |
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I have a library of around 1500 books, and I have no problem sorting them on any field using Calibre.
When you add books you have to make sure that the author name is exactly as it is for all other books for the same author, and you also have to make sure that author sort is correctly set. It all works fine for me, no problem. So I don't have any multiple folders for the same author. I don't have any empty folders either. That is a sign that your library is out of sync with the database. The easiest way to correct that is to delete the entire library and restore from a current backup. You can also move the library to some other folder, and see what is left behind. Save any books. But I have not yet found a good method to handle series. The best for now is to save a series in a subfolder under the author, and have the title of the book containing an abreviation of the series name and the series index. The subfolder thing Calibre handles, but I have to manually fix the title. Works fine, but it is a little work. Another way could be to send all books in a series with one save pattern, and after that all books without a series in another save pattern. That way I could write the filenames and folders to reflect [series name and index] without any spurious zeroes and stuff. This is how I save to device now: {author_sort[0]}/{author_sort}/{series}/{title} - {authors} If there is no series, then that part is just left out. I usually browse my library using folder view. |
07-28-2010, 04:14 AM | #5 | |||||||||||||
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By the way, thank you for providing this information. I don't know how many times, in my years of answering random tech questions for people all over the Web, I've given someone a comprehensive answer to their question only to hear "well, that will work for you, but I'm running (strange, obsolete OS) on (obscure hardware) in (just plain strange environment) so that's not going to help." Yeah, well, and if you'd told me that up front .... (sorry for the rant, I'm kind of peeved at the clueless right now) Quote:
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For starters, what format are your files in? There are some format quirks (mostly with PDF, the format of the beast) which might be involved here. I deal mostly with epubs. I just import the book, do a quick check on the existing metadata, add my tags, and I'm done. I've never had a problem sorting by author; it's just a matter of clicking the "author" column header. If I'm misunderstanding you and you're referring to sorting on your device, or if this just isn't working for you, please correct me. Quote:
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Last edited by Worldwalker; 07-28-2010 at 04:18 AM. |
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07-28-2010, 07:33 AM | #6 | |||||
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Then since I don't use Stanza are you having trouble sorting in Stanza or in the calibre application itself? Quote:
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At this point it might help to use the "Move library to a new location" feature by clicking on the library icon in the top row. Move it to a new EMPTY folder. After your finished this new folder will have the exact books / metadata you have listed in your library. Now stay out of the folder structure and correct the metadata in the GUI to clean things up. Last edited by DoctorOhh; 07-28-2010 at 07:41 AM. |
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07-28-2010, 12:08 PM | #7 | |||||||||||
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Some answers for Worldwalker
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1. Import/add the epub (in 90% of cases. 9% of cases it's a .lit file, 1% or less it's a rtf or pdf or doc file which I import, convert into epub etc. my ideal end state is a calibre library consisting entirely of epub files.) 2. Edit any metadata such that I have cover art for all works that were ever published with a cover, or such that I have added a relevant image (e.g., famous painting or illustration or photograph related to the author or work) to those items such as short stories that never had an actual cover 3. Ensure that the Author's name is identitical to other entries from that author in the library. (e.g., Jane Austen appears in all instances in the library as "Jane Austen" in that order without punctuation in both the "author" and "author sort" fields) 4. "Save to disk" assuming that this in some way associates the corrected metadata with the existing epub file 5. On the device (my iphone 3GS) I open Stanza, go to the "Get Books" page, go to where it says "Computers sharing books", click on my computer (which is sharing books if Calibre is running) click on ""Books in Calibra (on "computername") and then navigate to the book I'd like to download to my device. Quote:
I have put considerable time over the last 2 months into updating and completing each record (work, book, item, whatever you want to call it) with the complete correct and standardized author name, author sort name, series title, series number, cover art, and summary/description. No matter what I do, I cannot get "Jane Austen" to sort in all instances (or even half of the instances where Jane Austen occurs in the library) In either what could be called a "J" spot in the library, or in what could be called an "A" spot in the library. So, in a library with Herman Melville and Jane Austen and Edgar Rice Burroughs and Mary Shelley and Theodore Huxley, I get a sort that looks like this: Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs Mary Shelley Theodore Huxley Edgar Rice Burroughs Jane Austen Mary Shelley Theodore Huxley Jane Austen Edgar Rice Burroughs Herman Melville Where there appears to be exactly no rhyme or reason for the failure of calibre to sort alphabetically on either the last or the first name, because in no case are J entries being followed only by items later in the alphabet, nor to "a" items precede other alphabetical items, and neither the J items nor the A items group together. Quote:
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When that didn't work, I spend days laboring on metadata collection again, and then instead of converting to epub, the second time around I chose "Save to Disk" and maneuvered the save location to be the hard drives Calibre db location. Now, "Save to Disk" provides a number of different (to me, esoteric) options such as "save to disk"-no further description, "save to disk in a single folder" and 3 more. I have not discovered where the documentation is that explains when/why you would choose one over another, and it's quite likely that the huge duplication of files in the calibre db when I got there is because my "save to disk" choices were not the good ones. But, if you are dealing with a 300 item database which represents only a tiny fraction of your total digital library, having upwards of 32 records for each and every book in your library is not something to just wave away. It could represent a huuge and costly waste of storage real estate. I would like to use Calibre the way it was meant to be used. And, I'd like to do that for a considerably large library ie a library of a size you would find in a building marked with the stone sign "library" on the front of it. Quote:
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I just can't seem to get to a place where Calibre reliably and understandably performs even the assumedly simple function of sorting by author alphabetically. Michele PS Please forgive me if my tone is that of a frustrated wretch. I don't mean to sound like that... but I'm kind of a frustrated wretch...... |
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07-28-2010, 12:31 PM | #8 |
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The Save to Disk option is irrelevant in your workflow. Think of it instead as an "export to disk" option. You seem to be thinking of it as an Update books inside Calibre library which it is not.
To get your metadata changes applied in your scenario you need to run a conversion in calibre (even if both input and output formats are the same). Without doing that you will be getting the books in their unmodified form (I.e. Exactly as they were before you added them to calibre). Metadata is only updated in the physical ebook files on conversions, save to Disk (export) and send to device actions. There has been discussion about providing a way of updating the metadata in the files inside calibre's library 'in situ' without conversion but currently that does not happen. (for reasons probably too complicated to go into here) Having said all the above you could achieve the same effect by doing a Save to Disk to get the files updated, and then read the saved books to Calibre as the new versions of a format would then take precedence. However it is easier to do a conversion of a format to the same one as mentioned above. Note that if you were using iBooks instead of Stanza then calibre has full integration with iTunes, and the conversions would not be necessary as calibre would update the metadata as part of the transfer of books into iTunes. |
07-28-2010, 12:42 PM | #9 |
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Are your books sorted on some other field, if not on author?
You can easily change what to sort on by just clicking on the field heading you wish to sort on. Click again to reverse sort. If you do this on "Author(s)", does the order of the books change? I usually sort on last name. So if the author is Jane Austen, I sort using "Austen, Jane". One quick way to ensure that all entries for the same author are sorted identically is to mark them all and then right click on them and select "Edit Metadata in Bulk". Set the author name and select Automatically select author sort. (This will make the books sort on the last name of the author.) Don't change anything else and click OK. After that all the books for that author should appear together, if you sort on author. You may have to refresh by cklicking on the Author(s) heading. This is what I (and I assume most others here) always do to books I add to my library. It works perfectly. |
07-28-2010, 12:49 PM | #10 | |||||||||
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Some clarification
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I don't know how else I can say it in English to be understood: Calibre is not sorting alphabetically. My metadata has been standardized, and it still is not sorting alphabetically. There's something wrong: it doesn't sort alphabetically. Quote:
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and... in my experience, changing the metadata so that is is all uniform - does not make it sort properly. And, in my experience, re-converting to the same file format as the original, eg. epub-to-epub, has not resulting in my problems being fixed. So... something is amiss in Denmark. Quote:
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Isaac Asimov Asimov, Isaac Isaak Asimov I. Asimov Asimov, I. I went and changed each instance such that his name was in the metadata in Calibra through the GUI (*not from the file structure): Isaac Asimov (note: no punctuation) I could go and peek (NOT MUCK) at the calibre file structure and not only see: Isaac Asimov Asimov, Isaac Isaak Asimov I. Asimov Asimov, I. as folders, but I could see that within each folder were still records for all the files, in addition to those exact same records now all residing within Isaac Asimov such that there were duplicate files. Files which were no longer accessible through Calibre-s GUI, and folders for author names which were no longer reflected within Calibre's GUI. I DID NOT MUCK. I simply came here and reported -- Calibre has multipe folder instances and multiple file instances where they are not need/required and they are wasting hd space. So, your statement: Quote:
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And please, future posters, please... hear me. I have not mucked in my calibre file structure. I don't need further spankings on this issue. It may be an issue with the majority of your noobs, but 'taint the case here. Last edited by Merischino; 07-28-2010 at 12:53 PM. Reason: fixed quoting formats |
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07-28-2010, 01:00 PM | #11 | |
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07-28-2010, 01:08 PM | #12 |
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I can hear your frustration. Just be aware that you're reporting something that none of the experts have seen before, so it's hard to provide practical guidance. I concur with the recommendation to move your library (that will move the books Calibre knows about and leave behind any folders that it does not know about). I'd also run the "Check database integrity" in Prefs|Advanced.
Those 2 steps will clean the Library as far as can be done automatically. If I was guessing, based on your reported symptoms - I'd be looking at file/folder permissions issues. |
07-28-2010, 01:10 PM | #13 | |||
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when I click on the colum headed "author" I get a mishmash of results, where it looks like this
McCaffrey, Anne Austen, Jane Melville, Herman Heinlein, Robert A McCaffrey, Anne Melville, Herman Huxley, Theodore Heinlein, Robert A such that although I have asked it to sort alphabetically by Author, it is neither sorting alphabetically by last name, nor is it sorting alphabetically by first name. It is not grouping authors of the same name together in a mistaken place (e.g., all McCaffreys are not together. All Heinleins are not together. All Melville's are not together). In short: there is no rhyme or reason to where items appear in the list. When I click to sort on Series, It does, happily, sort on series and in numerical order. So that Foundation 1 Foundation 2 Foundation 3 Occurs or conversely Foundation 3 Foundation 2 Foundation 1 So, Calibre is CAPABLE of sorting on a field. There simply is nothing clearly understandable to me, a lay person, why if AuthorName filed is populated with "Robert A Heinlein" and (for simplicity's sake) AuthorSort field is populated with "Robert A Heinlein" it would not both group all "Robert A Heinlein"s together, and place them within a larger list in an "R" location within that list. Quote:
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I can edit my metadata individually. I can edit it in bulk. I always perform my edits from within the GUI. I never edit it in the file structure itself. I can edit the author name manually. I can choose to edit the metadata by having the downloaded information overwrite what is existing within the database. No matter how I do it, my Calibre does not sort alphabetically by author based on the actual metadata reflected in those fields as viewed from within Calibre's GUI. I cannot get Calibre to sort alphabeitcally by author. Help. |
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07-28-2010, 01:23 PM | #14 |
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07-28-2010, 01:50 PM | #15 |
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