Trying to delete folders = "open in another program"

Mad Girl Disease · 09-19-2013, 08:45 PM

hi. i just started using Calibre and it looks really nice. BUT...

I'm running (or was running) the portable installation in Window 7.

I was trying to delete books I added to the library and it was not going as expected. When I deleted books, it left behind empty (or mostly empty) folders associated with the deleted titles. When I try to delete these manually, I get an error from Windows saying:

Code:

Folder In Use: 
The action can't be completed because the folder or file is open in another program. 
Close the folder or file and try again.

It indicates the program as Calibre Portable.

Calibre was not running. Nor was anything I could identify as being associated with Calibre running in Task Manager.

I was able to totally delete the Calibre db, and other files, and eventually I was able to remove every file from the entire installation -- BUT the folder associated with that book can not be deleted, and so the entire otherwise empty folder structure remains.

This is really frustrating.

How can I get rid of this?

Also, I noticed a couple of times when I tried to delete a book, I'd get an error message, from Calibre, saying that the file already existed, as though I was trying to overwrite a file. This made no sense to me. But it seems somehow related.

What am I missing?

Like I said, it looks like a nice program, and I was able to get it to convert a complex PDF into a beautifully formatted rtf doc that I was able to bring into Word. So I really want to like Calibre. But this just seems weird.

All insight appreciated!

Thank you!

Mad Girl Disease · 09-19-2013, 09:26 PM

ok I figured it out. I had turned on debugging, and once I deleted the folders and files created by that, the other folders were released.

I don't really understand what that was about... or why I turned ion debugging, tbh... it seemed like at might be interesting... and it was... though not in a particularly good way.

oh well....

still curious about the error I was getting when trying to delete a book from the library, that said the file already existed, as though I was trying to overwrite a file.

BetterRed · 09-19-2013, 11:02 PM

Did you have the rtf file open in Word, when Word opens a file in edit mode it locks it - Windows wont allow program B to delete a file that program A has locked. Calibre detects this and pops a message.

BR

Mad Girl Disease · 09-19-2013, 11:42 PM

Hey thanks for the reply.

That wasn't it, I had been able to move the the rtf to another folder outside of the Calibre structure, and work on it there. It might have been opened for some of the time when I was trying to delete the Calibre folders, but definitely not the entire time... and I wouldn't think I'd have been able to move it (or edit it) if Calibre was holding on to it... or that Calibre weas even aware of it once it had been moved.

It cleared up as soon as I deleted the debug folder that I had specified. I didn't look closely at what was in that folder, but I saw it had several hundred files, each named with references to a pages and/or other object in the file .epub file I was converting.

Thanks again!

09-19-2013, 08:45 PM	#1
Mad Girl Disease Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Calibre	Trying to delete folders = "open in another program" hi. i just started using Calibre and it looks really nice. BUT... I'm running (or was running) the portable installation in Window 7. I was trying to delete books I added to the library and it was not going as expected. When I deleted books, it left behind empty (or mostly empty) folders associated with the deleted titles. When I try to delete these manually, I get an error from Windows saying: Code: Folder In Use: The action can't be completed because the folder or file is open in another program. Close the folder or file and try again. It indicates the program as Calibre Portable. Calibre was not running. Nor was anything I could identify as being associated with Calibre running in Task Manager. I was able to totally delete the Calibre db, and other files, and eventually I was able to remove every file from the entire installation -- BUT the folder associated with that book can not be deleted, and so the entire otherwise empty folder structure remains. This is really frustrating. How can I get rid of this? Also, I noticed a couple of times when I tried to delete a book, I'd get an error message, from Calibre, saying that the file already existed, as though I was trying to overwrite a file. This made no sense to me. But it seems somehow related. What am I missing? Like I said, it looks like a nice program, and I was able to get it to convert a complex PDF into a beautifully formatted rtf doc that I was able to bring into Word. So I really want to like Calibre. But this just seems weird. All insight appreciated! Thank you! Last edited by Mad Girl Disease; 09-19-2013 at 08:48 PM. Reason: typose, etc.

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09-19-2013, 09:26 PM	#2
Mad Girl Disease Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Calibre	ok I figured it out. I had turned on debugging, and once I deleted the folders and files created by that, the other folders were released. I don't really understand what that was about... or why I turned ion debugging, tbh... it seemed like at might be interesting... and it was... though not in a particularly good way. oh well.... still curious about the error I was getting when trying to delete a book from the library, that said the file already existed, as though I was trying to overwrite a file.

09-19-2013, 11:02 PM	#3
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 20,572 Karma: 26954694 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	Did you have the rtf file open in Word, when Word opens a file in edit mode it locks it - Windows wont allow program B to delete a file that program A has locked. Calibre detects this and pops a message. BR

09-19-2013, 11:42 PM	#4
Mad Girl Disease Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Calibre	Hey thanks for the reply. That wasn't it, I had been able to move the the rtf to another folder outside of the Calibre structure, and work on it there. It might have been opened for some of the time when I was trying to delete the Calibre folders, but definitely not the entire time... and I wouldn't think I'd have been able to move it (or edit it) if Calibre was holding on to it... or that Calibre weas even aware of it once it had been moved. It cleared up as soon as I deleted the debug folder that I had specified. I didn't look closely at what was in that folder, but I saw it had several hundred files, each named with references to a pages and/or other object in the file .epub file I was converting. Thanks again!