Removing Books from Calibre Library

[QOO]

I'm new to the forums, so I apologize in advance, if this question is repeatedly asked.

I imported all my books into calibre, and apparently I've got a lot of duplicate files. I've had some books as last name,first name and the same book as first name last name.

Because I have a lot of books, I was importing the books in groups. In the last import, I mistakingly selected the wrong option, and duplicate books were imported. Some entries had the .epub file and others had only the cover. Not sure how/why this happened, but it tooks days to clean out the files and delete those entries that did not have the cover and epub file within the same folder path.

I've used calibre to edit the library, and I thought it worked great. But when I went to windows explorer, I see that all the old files are still there.
-if I deleted a book I didn't like, it does not show in my library list within Calibre, but if I use windows explorer to view my calibre library, the author and all books from that author are still there.
-if I painstakingly editted my library within calibre, to delete the book that was FIRST NAME LAST NAME and kept the book that was last name,first name - the book only shows once within Calibre, but using Windows Explorer, I can see multiple entries for the same book.
-if I painstakingly went throught effort of deleting books that did not have the cover and the epub file in the folder path, it is gone from Calbre, but I can still see it in the Calibre library using windows explorer.

I would have thought that removing the book within Calibre automatically, would mean that I would not still see the book in Calibre Library using Windows explorer, but that is not the case.

I want to reduce the overall size of my library by getting rid of duplicate entries, so now I'm using windows explorer to edit my library. Within Calibre, it shows no duplicates.

Is there an easier way to do this? Is there a setting within calibre, that I should have used so that when I delete the file, it is gone for good?


I have a kobo vox, and my plan is to clean out the file as I see it in windows explorer, so that I can copy the clean file to a micro SD card and insert in my kobo vox. Is there a better way to do this using calibre that would save me the time of editting through windows explorer?

thanks to all who take the time to read and reply.

[theducks]

Using Explorer (to delete) inside the Library . See the sticky https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=119175

Deleting (the Del Key or Recycle Icon) normally works.
Do you have something other than a standard LOCAL drive filesystem?

Did you leave the Book open in a (any) viewer when you did the delete (can block the removal)?

[eltrkbrd]

Click the Library dropdown icon (caron) | "Library Maintenance" | "Check Library"

Click "Yes" if you get the message: "Found no errors in your calibre library database Do you want calibre to check if the files in your library match the information in the database?"

Also, according to calibre recommended guidelines, never use Windows explorer to edit anything in your calibre library directory.

For the empty book entries, you could have done a search for "formats:false" and deleted them that way.

I have a related post on my experience with merging/deduping calibre libraries that mentions using the "Duplicate Finder" plugin. See here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...16&postcount=4

[QOO]

Actually, I'm starting to suspect that something else may be the cause. I use allway synch, to back up my laptop, and I'm wondering if some glitch caused all my deleted files to reappear.

eltrkbrd - I ran that as suggested, and it found errors. I'm a little skeered to give it cart blanch to fix the errors, as I don't want my deletes repopulating.

RE: windows explorer, I'm not really using it to edit (ex. names or file structure) - I'm just using it to delete files that I know I have deleted (they don't show in calibre). I'm also going through manually to reconcile folders. For example, I have a folder of James Patterson books and I also have a folder of Patterson, James. It's the latter I want.

I guess there is no such thing as a quick fix, but I will read the threads you referenced.

thanks for your help.

I've disabled allway synch just in case this is the cause of the problem

[theducks]

Allway as in Bi-directional ?
Calibre deletes are multi-step transactions (db entries, many files, then folders). The synch should be prevented while Calibre is running.

Think what happens if you use Calibre on the other system while this one is active a total mess
Calibre is SINGLE instance (any way/shape/form) or you get what you are seeing... A mess.

[eltrkbrd]

Deleting anything from the calibre library directory via Windows Explorer is definitely a bad idea. Even navigating to the calibre directory via Windows Explorer can cause file structure inconsistencies with the calibre database (whereby Windows automatically creates thumb.db thumbnail files for example).

I recommend reading up on the "library maintenance" | "check library" features in calibre. You don't want to see any errors there. Make a backup of your calibre library directory first if you are concerned about comprising your data before performing the library maintenance. Then allow calibre to deal with your carte blanche concerns...

I had a bunch of inconsistencies myself when I first ran library maintenance and I can affirm that it's a pretty straight forward operation. I figured it out intuitively and I'm fairly certain you can do the same...

See the "Maintaining" section in this helpful guide:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2156678

Good luck!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by eltrkbrd

Deleting anything from the calibre library directory via Windows Explorer is definitely a bad idea. Even navigating to the calibre directory via Windows Explorer can cause file structure inconsistencies with the calibre database (whereby Windows automatically creates thumb.db thumbnail files for example).

I recommend reading up on the "library maintenance" | "check library" features in calibre. You don't want to see any errors there. Make a backup of your calibre library directory first if you are concerned about comprising your data before performing the library maintenance. Then allow calibre to deal with your carte blanche concerns...

I had a bunch of inconsistencies myself when I first ran library maintenance and I can affirm that it's a pretty straight forward operation. I figured it out intuitively and I'm fairly certain you can do the same...

See the "maintaining section" in this helpful guide:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2156678

Good luck!

thumbs.db is a non-damaging error since Calibre does not track that (I believe it appears in the Names Exclusion list in phase 2)

[eltrkbrd]

Originally Posted by theducks

thumbs.db is a non-damaging error since Calibre does not track that (I believe it appears in the Names Exclusion list in phase 2)

Thanks for that info; I recall it was a minor issue where I would get "Unknown files in books" errors for Thumbs.db files when running "check library". I'm not exactly sure why that happened but I think it was perhaps due to changing the Windows Explorer views while navigating within the calibre library folder that caused Windows to insert those Thumbs.db files.

That was before I figured out "You can't change the library's folder structure. You shouldn't even be in there."

[theducks]

Originally Posted by eltrkbrd

That was before I figured out "You can't change the library's folder structure. You shouldn't even be in there."

If that were true, then there would not be the "o" key

Not changing anything is good advice. You need care to get away with sleights of hand changes (Open With [Sigil], Tweak EPUB use this care)