Syncing with Calibre

[K8HW]

Hi Chaley!

This is just a FDYI or heads up. I downloaded the newest Calibre and was playing with the book editor. I ended up making a new entry to the table of contents in a book and after doing a wireless sync noticed that the metadata was updated but not the book. The table of contents was unchanged.

I had to delete the book off of my tablet and reload it from the content server to make the change show up.

Dave

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by K8HW

Hi Chaley!

This is just a FDYI or heads up. I downloaded the newest Calibre and was playing with the book editor. I ended up making a new entry to the table of contents in a book and after doing a wireless sync noticed that the metadata was updated but not the book. The table of contents was unchanged.

I had to delete the book off of my tablet and reload it from the content server to make the change show up.

Dave

I strongly suspect that is the eReader software that has cached the previous version, and you have to first delete it to get the cache refreshed. I could be wrong though!

[chaley]

CC syncs metadata, but it does not sync changes to the books themselves. No calibre device driver does.

One way to get the books to sync is to use the reading list plugin. Set it up to send some list to the device, then add books to that list when you change the book's contents.

Of course, itimpi's comment is germane. Some reading apps might cache book info, so you might not see changes to the book contents even if you resend the book.

[K8HW]

Originally Posted by itimpi

I strongly suspect that is the eReader software that has cached the previous version, and you have to first delete it to get the cache refreshed. I could be wrong though!

I don't think this was the case as I had never opened the book with my reading software. My reader is Moon+ Pro.

Originally Posted by chaley

CC syncs metadata, but it does not sync changes to the books themselves. No calibre device driver does.

One way to get the books to sync is to use the reading list plugin. Set it up to send some lost to the device, then add books to that list when you change the book's contents.

Of course, itimpi's comment is germane. Some reading apps might cache book info, so you might not see changes to the book contents even if you resend the book.

Thanks for the advice on using the reading list plugin. I put books on the reading list just as a reminder of what I have planned to read and the sequence. Great for keeping track of reading whole series in the proper order. I wish there was a way to export the info from the reading list to put into a file.

As I have all of my books on the Nexus (Never know when you might need one of them ) I've never synced the reading list list with my Nexus as I don't know what will happen and I don't want to screw anything up. I'll just have to keep track of any book changes and resend them.

Thanks to itimpi and chaley for your replies. Have a very Merry Christmas!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by K8HW

Thanks for the advice on using the reading list plugin. I put books on the reading list just as a reminder of what I have planned to read and the sequence. Great for keeping track of reading whole series in the proper order. I wish there was a way to export the info from the reading list to put into a file.

Use the reading list to "view" the list, then create a catalog of what you see. For example, if you want the list on the device, create an epub catalog and send it to the device. If you want it in a spreadsheet, create a csv catalog.

[K8HW]

Originally Posted by chaley

Use the reading list to "view" the list, then create a catalog of what you see. For example, if you want the list on the device, create an epub catalog and send it to the device. If you want it in a spreadsheet, create a csv catalog.

Thanks for the info on creating a catalog from the reading list. I never realized it would output a CSV file. Very handy, however... The order (sort) on the list (CSV) appears to be jumbled. It would be a supreme pain to reorder it manually. I would have liked it to be output the way it appears in Calibre.

Dave

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by K8HW

Thanks for the info on creating a catalog from the reading list. I never realized it would output a CSV file. Very handy, however... The order (sort) on the list (CSV) appears to be jumbled. It would be a supreme pain to reorder it manually. I would have liked it to be output the way it appears in Calibre.

Dave

Luckily it is a csv so you can open it in Excel/LibreOffice and order it there.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by K8HW

however... The order (sort) on the list (CSV) appears to be jumbled. It would be a supreme pain to reorder it manually. I would have liked it to be output the way it appears in Calibre.

@K8HW - the command line version of catalog will sort a CSV catalog - see http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cli/...ibredb-catalog

BR

[K8HW]

Originally Posted by chaley

CC syncs metadata, but it does not sync changes to the books themselves. No calibre device driver does.

One way to get the books to sync is to use the reading list plugin. Set it up to send some list to the device, then add books to that list when you change the book's contents.

Of course, itimpi's comment is germane. Some reading apps might cache book info, so you might not see changes to the book contents even if you resend the book.

I finally think I got it figured out! I didn't realize that you can have multiple reading lists. I also didn't realize that the options are on a per list item and that certain lists can be applied to just certain devices.

I have set up a list for books to be replaced with the option to remove from the reading list upon a sync. This is working out fantastically. I just remember to put an edited book on the sync list and I'm good to go.

Thanks to Chaley and the others for all of your help.

[xping]

Here is my idea:
I used to store on my ereader only a few books at the time to avoid it to slow down. Then I used to bring with me usb pen with Calibre portable, so that I could use it on every pc to handle my ereader.

How to:
Almost All ereaders (surely kobo and sony) use linux (or android ) os. SO THAT WE CAN USE HIDDEN DIRECTORIES (I mean linux hidden directories and not windows ones) to store inside a complete calibre portable package.then, when we connect the reader to pc we can get inside this or these hidden place and call calibre-portable.exe
To do this we have only to create a linux hidden directory, naming it (dot) name (dot)
For example I use .store.
Obviously we can't create it from a windows pc but from a linux one, following thes3 steps:

1 open memory card driver (Sd inserted into the reader)
2 create a new folder inside it
3 add a file inside it (u can create an empty text file or so on)
4 rename this folder from "new folder" to .store.
5 you will see that now the second dot disappears and the folder is hidden. It means that the ereader won't look inside it to add whatisin to library

Now i copy calibre portabl3 inside it and i am able to run it from every windows pc

The problem:

In this way, when calibre starts it recognize that an eread3r is connected and wants to know what ebooks are inside it! It launches a job to collect book infos and it collects infos about all calibre ebooks!
Well on my sony prs-t3 (but i think that it is the same on other readers) when i exit calibre and restart, my prs thinks to have all these books inside.it thinks a little then makes a check and deletes all library entries about all these books (in .store./calibre-portable/calibre library), even if the files are still in that folder.
On next start on windows pc, all this repeats another time.

The question:

How do I prevent calibre portable to search ebooks on a specific folder inside my ereader??
Is it possible to make this hidden folder (.store.) invisible for calibre portable (windows version) ???

Thx. Maybe this will be useful for someone

[davidfor]

xping: As you list having a Kobo Aura HD, I can say what it does.

Calibre doesn't scan the drive. It reads the devices database. Then the driver checks if this books exist on the device. If there are books on the file system that are not in the device database, calibre will not report them as on the device.

When the Kobo devices re disconnected, they scan the drive and the SD card for books. Any hidden directories are not scanned. So, putting other books in a directory starting with a dot, should hide them from the device. I know people who are using the alternative reader applications are doing this.

[xping]

Originally Posted by davidfor

xping: As you list having a Kobo Aura HD, I can say what it does.

Calibre doesn't scan the drive. It reads the devices database. Then the driver checks if this books exist on the device. If there are books on the file system that are not in the device database, calibre will not report them as on the device.

When the Kobo devices re disconnected, they scan the drive and the SD card for books. Any hidden directories are not scanned. So, putting other books in a directory starting with a dot, should hide them from the device. I know people who are using the alternative reader applications are doing this.

YEZ, with kobos I base no problem. When I make The same with Sony prs t3, calibre seems to scan entire device! And It finds Books that are stored in hidden calibre folder. Then when i disconnect reader, The books are in Sony database. The reader checks and discards every entry with is in hidden folder.... The reader doesn't add books Fromm hidden folder to his database...