Importing library from Nexus 7, no metadata

japeshk · 04-12-2014, 12:22 AM

Hi there,

This is my first post, so I'd like to start by thanking Kovid Goyal for developing such an excellent piece of software

So, for some unknown reason, my entire Calibre library vanished a week ago. It is just stored on the main harddrive of a networked iMac, no NAS or external HDD, etc. I didn't see anything happen that would have caused it to become corrupted and I haven't moved or altered the library folder in any way, so I am stumped as to what happened to it. However, it's not the end of the world as I have all of my ebooks and Metadata stored on my Nexus 7 along with Calibre Companion.

However, I have tried to reimport all of the books using the 'Device view' and 'Add to Library' function. Although all of the files are now back in the 'Library View' window on the iMac, they have been stripped of all their metadata. Is there a way to import the library from the Nexus 7 and retain all of the metadata? I have hunted around but most of what I am reading on forums seems to suggest that it should be doing this automatically!

Many thanks in advance for your suggestions.

chaley · 04-12-2014, 05:23 AM

It works for me.

Make sure that you have "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" checked in Preferences / Adding books, and that you have defined any custom columns in the books' metadata exactly as they were defined in the lost library.

japeshk · 04-21-2014, 11:26 PM

Hi Chaley,

Thanks for your reply. Settings were as you suggested, yet still having the same problem. Any thoughts?

Screenshot of setting attached.

Thanks!

JP

Dopedangel · 04-22-2014, 12:13 AM

If only the database is corrupted you can get all most of it back without importing from the nexus. As book not showing in your calibre library does not mean the actual book are lost try using rebuild database option in calibre

chaley · 04-22-2014, 12:33 AM

My bad. It works for me because the books on my device are all epub and (mostly) up-to-date with calibre's metadata.

Looking at calibre's add-from-device code I see that the metadata used in the add comes from the book, not from the device's metadata cache. This means that the metadata added to the library depends on a) whether the book format type contains metadata and b) how up-to-date that metadata is. For example, PDF contains minimal metadata and TXT contains none at all. EPUB can contain all calibre's metadata, but whether or not the book on the device has it all depends on how and when that book was put on the device.

Dopedangel's suggestion is a good one if you can find the folder hierarchy of your old calibre library.

04-12-2014, 12:22 AM	#1
japeshk Nameless Being	Importing library from Nexus 7, no metadata Hi there, This is my first post, so I'd like to start by thanking Kovid Goyal for developing such an excellent piece of software So, for some unknown reason, my entire Calibre library vanished a week ago. It is just stored on the main harddrive of a networked iMac, no NAS or external HDD, etc. I didn't see anything happen that would have caused it to become corrupted and I haven't moved or altered the library folder in any way, so I am stumped as to what happened to it. However, it's not the end of the world as I have all of my ebooks and Metadata stored on my Nexus 7 along with Calibre Companion. However, I have tried to reimport all of the books using the 'Device view' and 'Add to Library' function. Although all of the files are now back in the 'Library View' window on the iMac, they have been stripped of all their metadata. Is there a way to import the library from the Nexus 7 and retain all of the metadata? I have hunted around but most of what I am reading on forums seems to suggest that it should be doing this automatically! Many thanks in advance for your suggestions.

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04-12-2014, 05:23 AM	#2
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,742 Karma: 6997045 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	It works for me. Make sure that you have "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" checked in Preferences / Adding books, and that you have defined any custom columns in the books' metadata exactly as they were defined in the lost library.

04-22-2014, 12:13 AM	#4
Dopedangel Wizard Posts: 1,759 Karma: 30063305 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Singapore Device: Boyue	If only the database is corrupted you can get all most of it back without importing from the nexus. As book not showing in your calibre library does not mean the actual book are lost try using rebuild database option in calibre

04-22-2014, 12:33 AM	#5
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,742 Karma: 6997045 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	My bad. It works for me because the books on my device are all epub and (mostly) up-to-date with calibre's metadata. Looking at calibre's add-from-device code I see that the metadata used in the add comes from the book, not from the device's metadata cache. This means that the metadata added to the library depends on a) whether the book format type contains metadata and b) how up-to-date that metadata is. For example, PDF contains minimal metadata and TXT contains none at all. EPUB can contain all calibre's metadata, but whether or not the book on the device has it all depends on how and when that book was put on the device. Dopedangel's suggestion is a good one if you can find the folder hierarchy of your old calibre library.