Newbie Needs Help...Hope It's Not Too Late

[LbrtyorDeath]

Ok, to explain this as simply as possible:

Had 500+ .EPUBs. Changed my page settings to covert to iPad output format (I had read this was best for iPhone). Converted all .EPUBs again, they came into the program as ORIGINAL .EPUBs. Opened up some files, conversions looked good, deleted all of my source .EPUB files. Tried putting new files (original epubs) on iPhone, not happening. Tried converting files back to default output format, and Calibre says it can't because it cannot find a suitable input format.

Have I seriously just lost all of these books (as far as putting them on my iPhone)? I don't understand why/how this went wrong. I'd be devastated if I had to track down and reformat ALL of those books again. Help!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by LbrtyorDeath

Converted all .EPUBs again, they came into the program as ORIGINAL .EPUBs.

The converted epubs were listed as .epub. The original epubs (prior to conversion) were archived as .original_epub.

Originally Posted by LbrtyorDeath

Opened up some files, conversions looked good, deleted all of my source .EPUB files.

You deleted the "new" epubs. All of the .epub files were the newly converted epubs.

Originally Posted by LbrtyorDeath

Tried putting new files (original epubs) on iPhone, not happening.

That is because the file extension is .original_epub if you changed them to .epub you would be back to the beginning before you did any conversions, but the calibre database would be confused.

Originally Posted by LbrtyorDeath

Tried converting files back to default output format, and Calibre says it can't because it cannot find a suitable input format.

I would have thought this would have worked (but checked for myself and it doesn't work) and calibre would have treated the .original_epub as epubs for conversion.

Originally Posted by LbrtyorDeath

Have I seriously just lost all of these books (as far as putting them on my iPhone)? I don't understand why/how this went wrong.

You deleted your newly converted books.

Submit a bug report. Explain that you accidentally deleted your .epub books but still have all of the .original_epub archive books. Then explain that when you go to convert the .original_epub back to .epub calibre says there is no suitable format and ask him if he could enable .original_epub to be seen as a suitable input format.

[kovidgoyal]

Actually, the next release of calibre will have an option in the bulk metadata dialog that will allow you to aautomatically restore .epub from .original_epub for all books at once. If you do not want to wait, you can do it one book ata time in the edit metadata dialog by right clicking the list of formats and selecting Restore EPUB from original

[LbrtyorDeath]

I don't see "Restore EPUB from Original anywhere.....

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by LbrtyorDeath

I don't see "Restore EPUB from Original anywhere.....

Select a book.
Click Edit metadata icon.
Right click on ORIGINAL_EPUB.
Click on Restore Epub from the original.

See attached.

Or wait until tomorrow and upgrade to 0.8.27 and restore them all at once.