Any way to merge same book, different folders?

[phossler]

I had 20-30 books with AZW3 and EPUB formats (e.g. path = Title1234 (240) )

I added the same books MOBI format (because I wanted to start with a clean copy (sort of) but I just did [Add books from single directory] instead of [Add Files to selected book records]. So now I have duplicate book folders with the same book name but different suffix (e.g. path = Title1234 (678) )

Now I have 30 or so new books (MOBI) that I need / want to merge into the 'real' book (with the AZW3 and EPUB).

Is there an easy way to recover or should I just delete the 30 MOBI and start over, and [Add Files to selected book records] 30 times?

As a test, I copied the MOBI file into the 'main' folder and did a [Check library] to see if it would add the new format. It did find the new format but it didn't add it. (That's as adventurous as I wanted to get with the Calibre folder)

[Ripplinger]

Right click the books that you want to merge into one title, under Edit Metadata you'll see a few options to Merge Book Records.

[phossler]

Thanks that helps, but ...

The Merge always seems to go into the topmost book. It appears that 'first' = the one nearest the top, and not the first one I selected

It works for some instances, but here I wanted the 'Funeral in Berlin' (MOBI) to merge into the 'Harry Palmer 03' book. Even though I selected the HP03 line and then the other

Any ideas?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by phossler

Thanks that helps, but ...

The Merge always seems to go into the topmost book. It appears that 'first' = the one nearest the top, and not the first one I selected

It works for some instances, but here I wanted the 'Funeral in Berlin' (MOBI) to merge into the 'Harry Palmer 03' book. Even though I selected the HP03 line and then the other

Any ideas?

Flip the column Sort so the Target is on top

[phossler]

@theducks -- I sort of ended up doing that.

Books were not always next/close to each other, but I wanted to be careful (this time) so I did each pair in order: merge, next, merge, next, sort, merge, next, sort, merge, next, merge, .... etc.

Took awhile, but that'll be a lesson to me

The word 'first' is a little ambigious since I initially assumed it was the first one I selected.

[eschwartz]

One of the options is Merge into first selected book, IIRC.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

One of the options is Merge into first selected book, IIRC.

There is an older thread that discusses OS dependent issues. Sort order was the solution

[phossler]

Well, I'm confused or tired -- now it seems to work with the first one selected just like I thought it was intended

Maybe it was some kind of SortOrder issue

But at least I learned about the Metadata + Merge option feature

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by phossler

Books were not always next/close to each other, but I wanted to be careful (this time) so I did each pair in order: merge, next, merge, next, sort, merge, next, sort, merge, next, merge, .... etc.

Took awhile, but that'll be a lesson to me

The word 'first' is a little ambigious since I initially assumed it was the first one I selected.

@phossler - yeah, I too fell down that rabbit hole. To remove the ambiguity perhaps the word 'first' should be replaced by 'topmost'.

Too late now, but for future reference:

If the Books have similar authors and titles you could use Find Duplicates, and step through the duplicate pairs it presents, and merge them (sorting if necessary).

Or you could have Marked each pair of books you wanted to merge. shown marked books and done the same thing.

If I want to add an extra format to an existing book, I find it easier to drag drop them into the Book Details panel. The file names and/or metadata don't have to match, so you could drag 'n' drop 13579.TXT to James Baldwin's Another Country.

For some reason one can only add a limited set of file types this way - I think they're the types calibre can convert. So one has to add audio and video formats separately and merge them <sigh>

Aside : I heard recently that some authors are producing short videos, often animations, as a way to promote their books. So will that mean cover.mp4's?

BR

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

...
Aside : I heard recently that some authors are producing short videos, often animations, as a way to promote their books. So will that mean cover.mp4's?

BR

Not in my library it doesn't. Not going to happen.

[phossler]

@BetterRed -- THANKS!!! That drag & drop tip was great.

@Ripplinger -- I also don't even want to think about that.