Filenames truncated after being added

[nono01]

Hello.

How can i solve this problem : the filenames are truncated after being added in Calibre.

e.g : "A People's History of The United States - Howard Zinn.pdf" becomes "A People's History of The - Howard Zinn.pdf"

Is there any regex to keep the filenames unchanged ?

Thanks.

[theducks]

shorten them before adding?
Move your Library close to the drive root (and keep the name short).

C:\Lib

Path length limits will always limit what will survive in most file system environments. Calibre is designed to work between file systems.

[nono01]

I've already moved the library close to the drive root and shortened the names. I've even tried with a single ebook close to the root. Nothing changed...

[eschwartz]

calibre can find all your books for you, so why does it matter?

[nono01]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

calibre can find all your books for you, so why does it matter?

Maybe because i don't want to use Caliber all the time and rename manually all my books.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by nono01

Maybe because i don't want to use Caliber all the time and rename manually all my books.

Then you are not a user candidate for Calibre.

[Section8]

I think this is the relevant sticky thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=119175

[faltradl]

Originally Posted by nono01

Maybe because i don't want to use Caliber all the time and rename manually all my books.

Use the export funktion of Calibre.

[PeterT]

Or Save to Disk; and remember in Save to Disk there is a preference setting where YOU control the format of the name being used.

Remember that the calibre library and it's folders should really be treated as a black-box; while you can peek under the covers, the names / structures there are for the convenience of calibre itself, and not for the convenience of you the user.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by nono01

Maybe because i don't want to use Caliber all the time and rename manually all my books.

As has been mentioned above -- if you don't want to use calibre for what it is meant for, then what, precisely, do you use it for?

calibre is a librarian for your books. It tracks them, stores metadata in its catalogs, and makes all of that available for you, and in order to do a good job at that, it needs you to use it. If you really want to deal with raw files, go ahead -- but you can do that just as well without calibre having ever been involved at any time.

You just want to convert books? calibre has a rich and featureful command line interface.
Or you can export books according to whatever metadata-based filename paths you prefer, sing save-to-disk.

My favorite method involves just letting calibre abstract away all that busywork.

[nono01]

I just want to use Caliber to download metadatas and batch rename the files properly. I don't want to be dependant of this software, despite its qualities. It is really brilliant and this is the only criticism i can make about it.

[eschwartz]

If you want to use calibre to download metadata but not to manage your ebook library, try using `fetch-ebook-metadata` to download metadata and output as OPF, then use `ebook-meta` to save the metadata to the book.

It shouldn't be too hard to script it.

Or just use calibre and let it handle everything. Your choice.
If you want, you can even use save-to-disk to export a copy of your library that looks exactly the way you like it, whatever that may be.


calibre, by design, requires exclusive control over the in-library copies of your books, and needs to be robust against bad filesystem design across three operating systems, including Windows ().

The truncated filenames are a hard requirement and will not change. The issue has been brought up before, trust me. See the above-mentioned sticky thread.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by nono01

I just want to use Caliber to download metadatas and batch rename the files properly. I don't want to be dependant of this software, despite its qualities. It is really brilliant and this is the only criticism i can make about it.

Repeat
Calibre renames files 'Properly'.
You use it.
You use its rules. It works as advertised. It is not broke. It will not change to meet your whim. Got it?

[nono01]

Understood. Thanks you guys.

Originally Posted by theducks

Repeat
It will not change to meet your whim. Got it?

Originally Posted by theducks

Then you are not a user candidate for Calibre.

Are you serious ? Repeat : "I'm not suffering from any kind of sectarism".
Got it ?

[LadyKate]

Originally Posted by nono01

I just want to use Caliber to download metadatas and batch rename the files properly. I don't want to be dependant of this software, despite its qualities. It is really brilliant and this is the only criticism i can make about it.

But if you are going "under the hood" so to speak and renaming things at the os level you are breaking all links to calibre.

If you just want to download metadata then rename the files in batch and maintain the files at the os level you should use calibre to do those functions, save the resulting changes to disk then remove them from calibre if you don't wish to have that disk space used by calibre controlled named files.

I know when I first used calibre I had a natural resistance to not being able to control the naming of the files but I soon overcame that.

The best way for a control freak library owner such as myself is to treat all those files under my library directory as a black hole. It is the ultimate library backup.

I save my books etc that are going to my device in a "to android" folder which I can rename to my hearts content. The duplication of space is no big deal, I make sure these directories are on different drives and treated my calibre library as my backup.

I will say that the more I used calibre the more I was impressed with the functions of calibre and felt the need to delve into the directory structure less.