Moving books Amazon into Calibre

[Tully]

Hello,

I have a lot of book that on on Amazon in "Your Content" which I guess is their cloud. I don't know how to get these to appear in Calibre.

I also purchase a lot of books from publishers and those are on my computer so was able to put those into Calibre already. But I'd like to add all the books in once place in Calibre so I don't duplicate any in future (buying one I already have by accident as I couldn't find it).

Thank you.

[eschwartz]

Install Kindle for PC, and setup calibre's Auto-add folder to add books from My Kindle Content.

You may need to install some DeDRM tools in order to read them, see this blog (assuming you haven't already): http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com

[Tully]

Thanks. I actually have a Mac (not pc) but will try using the kindle on mac.

[eschwartz]

And it is the same exact concept on the Mac.

[eschwartz]

You might also want to go to http://amzn.com/manageyourkindle and set Kindle for Mac as the main device, that way any future purchases will by default be sent to the Kindle Mac app and next time you open the app it will automatically download new books and calibre will import them.

[fncll]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Install Kindle for PC, and setup calibre's Auto-add folder to add books from My Kindle Content.

Doesn't this automatically delete the files as they are added? Speaking of: is there a way to prevent that and have auto-add make a copy?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by fncll

Doesn't this automatically delete the files as they are added? Speaking of: is there a way to prevent that and have auto-add make a copy?

No
It was made that way BECAUSE folk did not WANT copies

[fncll]

Too bad. Other software I've used for other tasks can auto-import but avoid importing the same files more than once. Which would be useful for people like me who want "copies" because we do sometimes use the Kindle app or otherwise want to use the files for other purposes. Seems like it COULD be a USEFUL OPTION to "watch" a directory but only import files once for PEOPLE who like to DO THINGS in different WAYS.

Point being that, while I use Calibre to manage my library and for many purposes, I still sometimes use the Kindle app on my computer so I can't take advantage of the auto-adding goodness

Similarly, it would be useful to be able to specify which library auto-imports went into or, at least be able to tag such auto-imported files in the main library if there's no choice.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by fncll

Too bad. Other software I've used for other tasks can auto-import but avoid importing the same files more than once. Which would be useful for people like me who want "copies" because we do sometimes use the Kindle app or otherwise want to use the files for other purposes. Seems like it COULD be a USEFUL OPTION to "watch" a directory but only import files once for PEOPLE who like to DO THINGS in different WAYS.

Point being that, while I use Calibre to manage my library and for many purposes, I still sometimes use the Kindle app on my computer so I can't take advantage of the auto-adding goodness

Similarly, it would be useful to be able to specify which library auto-imports went into or, at least be able to tag such auto-imported files in the main library if there's no choice.

It is way simpler (and 100% error resistant) to add and delete. No need to keep track of which of the 40,001 books left in that folder have been added

[fncll]

It isn't easier if you still want/need to use the Kindle app sometimes. Other software seems to handle such an option flawlessly, so it's not exactly nuclear physics.

[eschwartz]

Other software has more than one developer, perhaps. As Kovid Goyal (creator of calibre) says all the time in such cases, patches are welcome.

Personally, I don't really like the Kindle for PC app. calibre has its own reader.

calibre libraries are fully self-contained and portable, so referencing outside paths is somewhat difficult. Scanning each auto-import book for metadata, all 40,000 of them, is rather slow for the sole purpose of avoiding re-imports.


Perhaps you could setup a script to transfer books into the import folder from My Kindle Content whenever new stuff appears, question is, how do you avoid duplicating everything?

Most people auto-importing from K4PC only have it in order to download into calibre. Like the OP. This solution isn't for everyone.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by fncll

Similarly, it would be useful to be able to specify which library auto-imports went into or, at least be able to tag such auto-imported files in the main library if there's no choice.

Preferences ==> Adding books ==The add process

Tags to apply when adding a book: ______________


Auto-imports ALWAYS go into the currently-open library, for most people it is the only one.

There is a TODO task to get a decent multi-user mode into calibre, check back in a few years... Kovid has many things he would like to get to someday, but he is the only developer so there are a lot of things he has on his mind.
Perhaps then you will be able to launch multiple instances of calibre at once, including an instance just to watch for books.

[fncll]

Ah, thanks. I didn't realize the auto-add picked up all those parameters. All I have to do now is remember to always close Calibre with the proper library open so that I don't open it the next time and have the auto-imports go into the wrong library.

[eschwartz]

Or script the auto-add.

calibredb add --with-library=/path/to/library/ --tags="tag1, tag2" --recurse /path/to/auto-add/
rm -r /path/to/auto-add/*

(paths on windows will look slightly different, and the "rm" command must be replaced with a valid "del" command.)

And run that regularly, or in a scheduled task/cron job.