Managing Calibre

[crossi]

I have 2 kindles so to keep backups of my books I would need to add a book to calibre for one of them but then how should I backup the other? I don't think I could have two azw formats in the same book listing. Is there any point if fact of keeping any amazon format in the listing once I have edited the title/author to suit myself? Since with each new kindle I would need a separate format download why not simply delete all the formats and just keep an empty book? I don't know how to set up separate libraries for each kindle or how I could switch between them or how to copy the metadata from one to the other so I wouldn't have to do it twice.

[itimpi]

You are correct in that you can only store a single instance of a given format against a book entry.

There are a coupleof things you could do:

- Create multiple entries for each book, and tag each one with the Kindle to which that one belongs. By using a saved search as a restriction you can easily switch between views showing what is specific to a given Kindle

- Remove the DRM restriction (although the details of how to do this cannot be discussed on this forum) so that the books are no longer tied to a particular Kindle.

[crossi]

I don't need to remove DRM. I was thinking of having all empty books with just the metadata set up to be right in Calibre. Then have a separate folder of books for each kindle. When I want to send one to a kindle I would just add the correct format to the existing metadata before sending to device then discard the format from calibre again afterwards leaving the empty book. It would be nice since the metadata is stored separately from the book if you could just toggle between the two folders of books like you can toggle between the device and the library

[Worldwalker]

It really sounds like you need two libraries, for which calibre has a handy "switch library" option, but I haven't used it, so you'll need a real expert to tell you how. That way you can keep each Kindle's books in a separate library, and if you want to get fancy, you can set up a third library for books usable on either one.

[theducks]

Crossi
I was wondering why you were not using the "Switch Libraries" option that Worldwalker was talking about.

I don't claim to be an expert, but it is fairly simple.
If you already have 2 libraries (you can have more), you are 75% there.

For this exercise we will call the existing Library Mine and the New one Yours

There is a small arrow next to the Library (books) Icon on the toolbar.
The first item is Create/Switch: Use that to make (middle choice) a Yours in a empty folder, NOT inside 'MINE' (or point to another folder (first choice) that contains a Library copied from some other Calibre)
Calibre will do some work for a few moments..


Now to add/move books
select (Switch) to Mine library.
(The little arrow again:
Underneath "Pick a random book" , there is a line and below that you should see a list of Libraries available to switch to.)



Select books: Right-click: Copy to Library:

You should see Yours on the list
The first is a copy, the second (delete) is equal to a move.

Easy, right

[crossi]

That sounds like what I need. I've didn't know how to create a second library. Can you copy all the metadata and covers from one to the other but not the books? Ideally I would like to share the metadata between the two libraries so I wouldn't need to keep them in sync.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by crossi

That sounds like what I need. I've didn't know how to create a second library. Can you copy all the metadata and covers from one to the other but not the books? Ideally I would like to share the metadata between the two libraries so I wouldn't need to keep them in sync.

I think you would COPY the books (along with the metadata), then delete un-wanted for mats using the option on the Bulk-metadata editor