No formats

[pootytang]

I thought I posted this question earlier, but cannot find a record of it. Pls forgive if I am not following correctly.

Here is the problem: My Calibre Library show lots and lots of book titles with no available formats, and 0 size associated with the title. If I look in the Calibre library directory, under author, I see multiple directories for the same book. Looking into each directory, one directory has only a cover, and a .opf file...no ebook files. Looking in the other title directory, the same files are present, but a .epub and .mobi file is present. The result it appears is Calibre GUI showing the directory and title that has no formats. and not showing the the titles in the directory that have the ebook files.

The 100,000 question ($1,000,000 with inflation) is how to correct this. I believe I caused it when I noticed the size of the directory was abnormally large. I used (like an idiot) a non-Calibre duplicate file finder, and attempted to delete all the directories that had no ebooks in them. While the deletes seemed to do what I directed it to do (windows reported the file size of the directory at about 1/3 the size it was before the deletes), a look now still shows at least two directories for each book title....one having no ebooks, the other having the ebooks, and, Calibre show the vast majority with no formats (and 0 file size).

Can sure use some help on how to fix this.

Thanks very much,

Pooty

[pootytang]

Short on some expert help, I've tried a few things with very strange results.

First, I deleted, using a sort and delete within Calibre, all titles with no formats (or size). Next, I created a new directory on the same external drive ("books working directory") and copied the contents of the Calibre Library to the new directory.

Here is where I'm real confused. The new directory as you expect seems to match the original, but (and I wish I wrote down of of the original examples), I can find no title directory without a ebook (epub or mobi), but I have loads and loads of duplicate title directories with loads and loads of duplicate files. It looks as if somehow the ebook files were added to every directory for the title, but I realize that's crazy talk! One thing for certain, I am in duplicate hell



My next step was to rename the Calibre Library directory, and "add" all the books from the working directory, hopefully being careful to make sure I have the appropriate duplicate controls turned on in Calibre. What I hope happens is Calibre will create one, and only one title directory for each book, and add both formats to it, leaving behind the duplicate disaster I've created in the older folders.

Any thoughts on the soundness of this plan? Another question, I was using almost exclusively the dup plug in for Calibre. If you delete within Calibre using this, will the duplicates in fact be deleted from the hard drive? If not, seems I will have an ever growing drive that cannot be maintained.

Help most appreciated.

Regards,

Pooty

[eschwartz]

It sounds like some other program was interfering with your library while calibre was moving things around. e.g. a Dropboxed library if calibre and Dropbox are running at the same time, can end up with moved files being recreated in the old location, or "conflicted copy" duplicates.

Regardless, the solution is as you surmised.

Create a fresh calibre library, then use Add Books, the second option in the dropdown: "Add books from directories, including sub-directories (One book per directory, assumes every ebook file is the same book in a different format)"

It will import the metadata from the metadata.opf backups.

Once the library is safely recreated, you may have to remove duplicates, the Find Duplicates plugin can help you there -- and yes, of course it will delete them from the hard drive (and send it to the Recycle Bin).

[pootytang]

Thanks so much. Like a another program I use (Media Center) for music, it is always best and has added benifits using the tools of the program of choice.

Appreciate the help.

Pooty

[pootytang]

Hi:

When attempting to add books to Calibre either using "add Books" or configuring auto add, I cannot get Calibre to add books when the ebook is three directories down from where I pointed to the directory to add or watch. For example:

book directory (where pointed to)/Author/Title/ebook file

Works fine when pointing to the author directory i.e: Author/title/ebook

Is this expected behavior?

Thanks

Pooty

[theducks]

Auto add is a Single folder process

Add books has menu options to choose

BTW Add (using filename for Author title metadata) does NOT consider the full path

[MarjaE]

Is it possible to use Calibre to catalogue or rate books it doesn't have in its library?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

Is it possible to use Calibre to catalogue or rate books it doesn't have in its library?

They are called "Empty Books" , which are Metadata only.

Right-click the Adding Books Icon
Look at the choices below the first group

[MarjaE]

*cool*, thanks. I could use that.