Syncro of Library on 3 x PC's

[Leclerc]

Hi, I'm to the site and I've had a quick look to see if my query has already been asked, but I couldn't find anything, so here is my question.

We have 3 x laptops in the house the library sits on an external drive, whilst I manage the library from Laptop 1, I want to put Calibre on the other 2 Laptops. When I have updated the library I want Calibre to only upload any new additions to the other Laptops, can this be done??

Thanks

L

[Joanna]

I've decided to use Dropbox for that. It works well, you just need to remember to sync everything after any changes before you sync on the other computer. The biggest drawback is that the size of your Dropbox is very limited (if you use the free version).

But there are other ways to synchronize the libraries; I'm sure there are at least a few threads about it here on the forum.

[Ortep]

I use Windows Live Mesh...then you don't have to remember to sync. You can assign every folder you want on your computer tot the mesh. And it is 5 Gig for free

[BookJunkieLI]

Originally Posted by Ortep

I use Windows Live Mesh...then you don't have to remember to sync. You can assign every folder you want on your computer tot the mesh. And it is 5 Gig for free

Windows Live Mesh is fine so long as *all* of your computers are running Window 7 and/or Windows Vista. You're out of luck if you're using XP, a Mac OS or Linux OS. Dropbox works on all 3 platforms and all OS versions, as far as I'm aware.

Originally Posted by Joanna

I've decided to use Dropbox for that. It works well, you just need to remember to sync everything after any changes before you sync on the other computer. The biggest drawback is that the size of your Dropbox is very limited (if you use the free version).

Dropbox should sync automatically unless a)you have syncing paused; b)a computer turned off; or c)you are not connected to the internet. Once you reconnect to the internet or the computer is turned back on Dropbox will automatically sync with it. *You* shouldn't have to do anything to get Dropbox to sync.

Originally Posted by Leclerc

We have 3 x laptops in the house the library sits on an external drive, whilst I manage the library from Laptop 1, I want to put Calibre on the other 2 Laptops. When I have updated the library I want Calibre to only upload any new additions to the other Laptops, can this be done??

Welcome to the forum, L!
I'm going to assume that the external hard drive you're using is a portable drive rather than a networked drive. ie only one laptop at a time can see it vs they can all see it at the same time via a wired/wireless network. Based on that assumption you could either a)Install Calibre Portable on the hard drive and just run Calibre from there no matter which laptop it's attached to, or b) install Calibre on each machine and then just make sure it's pointing to that drive for the library. This option does mean that if the drive isn't attached when you open Calibre it will ask you for the location of the library and you'll either need to attach the drive or create/point to a local library.

Otherwise it sounds like what you want to do is install Calibre on each laptop with a local library and then update each library individually with data from the other libraries. This is really not a good idea and you will end up with corrupted metadata, books in one library but not the other... Believe me you will end up with a very big mess in short order.

Your best options are either Calibre Portable on the external drive itself or putting the library on Dropbox and accessing it that way. Each way has its' good points and its' bad points but it's up to you to decide which will work best for your situation.

Beth

[Joanna]

Originally Posted by BookJunkieLI

Dropbox should sync automatically unless a)you have syncing paused; b)a computer turned off; or c)you are not connected to the internet. Once you reconnect to the internet or the computer is turned back on Dropbox will automatically sync with it. *You* shouldn't have to do anything to get Dropbox to sync.

Sorry, I didn't express myself clearly. Obviously, Dropbox syncs everything automatically; that's kinda the main purpose of the program . I meant the situation when you're disconnected or you turn the computer off before syncing process is completed.

[transmitthis]

What BookJunkieLI said.

Also if your going to be using 3 laptops in your household, then having your external hard drive network attached would make sense in a lot of ways. Many ways to acheive this, maybe next time you upgrade your router, you get one with a usb port...

For now though, I think it would be using an sd card/stick and as suggested, either just the library on the stick and calibre installed on all laptops, or portable calibre and the library on the stick.

[Leclerc]

Thanks for all the replies, just finished transfer to Calibre Portable on my external hard disk and it works a treat, just want I wanted it to do.
Thanks again
L