Calibre Library Cloud Storage Review: Copy.com

[DoctorOhh]

I have been testing out copy.com and calibre for over a month. I started by running Calibre Portable and PortableApps in my copy.com space. This is what I found.

1. Copy.com seemed to be very CPU intensive when I ran my portableapps (specifically Firefox) from PortableApps.com via their directory. I eventually moved my PortableApps back to Dropbox which handles running programs a little more gracefully.

2. Running Calibre-portable and the viewer via the copy.com account was easier on the CPU then PortableApps. I decided to leave calibre, calibre's library and a host of other files that I wanted to have synced between computers using copy.com's directory.

3. For the 40 days that I tested calibre-portable everything ran fine and I had no problems with my calibre library during this time.

I moved from Dropbox because I was starting to run into space limitations. Copy.com starts you out at 15GB and if you use a referral link (see my signature below) you get another 5GB.

20GB of free cloud storage right off the bat is hard to pass up. I then had my Wife, 2 Sons, daughter and a couple guys from work sign up using my referral link. So before the day was out I had 52GB (2GB for tweeting). More than enough space for calibre to grow and room for me to leave multiple formats and original_epub files in calbre.

The usual warnings about cloud storage and calibre remain.

1. ONLY ONE computer connecting to calibre at a time.
2. Allow any changes you make to the calibre library to sync to the cloud before logging off your computer.
3. Allow the cloud software to fully download/sync the cloud to your computer upon logging on.
4. Do not open calibre until the cloud as synced with the computer you just turned on.
5. When doing bulk operations such as bulk conversions, pause the syncing software first.
6. If installing calibre portable in the cloud, pause syncing prior to installing.
7. When bulk operations / installing are complete don't forget to resume syncing.
8. ALWAY BACKUP your library. Cloud storage is great for syncing machines and should work fine as a simple backup, but often life happens so please also backup your library separately.

Follow these rules when using any cloud storage solution and you should be fine.

[gabby98]

nice i may have to give this a go...it'll make it easier for family members to access my books without me having to go to them or go through a whole tech support situation just for them to get something.

thanks

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by gabby98

nice i may have to give this a go...it'll make it easier for family members to access my books without me having to go to them or go through a whole tech support situation just for them to get something.

I haven't had a chance to test the sharing feature of this service. Update us with your experience after you give it a go.

[Deljah]

Do you use an opds catalog with copy.com, like the one that many people use with dropbox? Other than the syncing procedures that you noted above, is the switch pretty transparent or has there been more of an adjustment? Thanks!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Deljah

Do you use an opds catalog with copy.com, like the one that many people use with dropbox? Other than the syncing procedures that you noted above, is the switch pretty transparent or has there been more of an adjustment? Thanks!

I do not use opds. At the time I tested copy.com it worked fine and was essentially transparent. I was just more comfortable with the version control of Dropbox. Currently I'm using copy.com for family photos.

[Deljah]

Thanks for your reply and the helpful information.