calibre library problems

[normanstein]

Hello all,

I've been using Calibre for quite a while very happily. Something happened recently which has caused my entire Calibre library to appear on the desktop in 300 or so separate folders (this is Win 10 I'm using). As you can imagine, this is very awkward. When I tried to move it to a more reasonable place Calibre stopped finding my books. Where should the library be so that Calibre can find it and I don't have 300 or so folders cluttering up the desktop?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Norman

[theducks]

Originally Posted by normanstein

Hello all,

I've been using Calibre for quite a while very happily. Something happened recently which has caused my entire Calibre library to appear on the desktop in 300 or so separate folders (this is Win 10 I'm using). As you can imagine, this is very awkward. When I tried to move it to a more reasonable place Calibre stopped finding my books. Where should the library be so that Calibre can find it and I don't have 300 or so folders cluttering up the desktop?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Norman

This is NOT expected in any way
You see folder_name (##) on your desktop? folder_name being a title, ## is a number ={id}

Or do you see Authors named folders? (this implies your Calibre thinks the library name is now 'Desktop' (which is 1 level BELOW Documents (and usually hidden)

Get back with which you have. The second should be real easy to fix AS LONG AS YOU DON"T mess with them.

[BetterRed]

I have a folder called Calibre on my data drive (partition) - in it I have several library folders (_Main, _Media, _Test etc) and various other folders I use in conjunction with calibre.

I would encourage everyone to segregate their data from the software, either on a separate device (preferable) or a partition. You can relocate folders like Documents, Pictures etc from within Windows - how varies by version Ψ²

[normanstein]

Authors named folders is what I see on the desktop.

Thanks for any help you can give but unfortunately I've already been messing around trying to correct the situation and probably making it worse.

Norman

[theducks]

Originally Posted by normanstein

Authors named folders is what I see on the desktop.

Thanks for any help you can give but unfortunately I've already been messing around trying to correct the situation and probably making it worse.

Norman

That confirms to me that your Library name WAS 'desktop' at some point (Calibre will not allow a library to be created in a non-empty folder, which make this a puzzle)

Do you see metadata.db anywhere? (this is good)

If you still have a bunch, you can still see what happens:

Click on the Library Icon:
You should see some names in the middle (The bottom is Library Maintenance, which WILL be used later):
Do you see Desktop? Choose it. Do you see a list of books? select books: right-click: Copy to Library: <your current Library name> Delete after copy.
Expect error messages (those should mostly be the ones you messed with). What is left in the list are the ones that: a)could not be found (gone/lost) b)the name got messed with

Now switch back to your main library.
Do you have many author folders STILL on the desktop?
(respond and we will try another trick)

[normanstein]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I do see metadata.db on the desktop.

I've started to do what you suggest and got as far as

Do you see Desktop? Choose it.

I did that but then do not see a list of books.

Many folders are still on the desktop.

I await further instructions.

Norman

On the desktop there is also a file called metadata_db_prefs_backup.json.

In addition, here are two error files generated by Calibre in the course of my attempts.

calibre, version 2.36.0
ERROR: Failed: Restoring database failed, click Show details to see details

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\db\restore.py", line 125, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\db\restore.py", line 276, in replace_db
File "shutil.py", line 83, in copyfile
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'C:\\Users\\USER\\Documents\\Calibre Library\\metadata_pre_restore.db'


calibre, version 2.36.0
Corrupted database: The library database at C:\Users\USER\Documents\Calibre Library appears to be corrupted. Do you want calibre to try and rebuild it automatically? The rebuild may not be completely successful.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 631, in library_moved
File "site-packages\calibre\db\legacy.py", line 73, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\db\legacy.py", line 46, in create_backend
File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 362, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\db\schema_upgrades.py", line 18, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 806, in execute
File "c:\cygwin64\home\kovid\sw\build\apsw-3.8.2-r1\src\cursor.c", line 231, in resetcursor
ReadOnlyError: ReadOnlyError: attempt to write a readonly database
Perhaps they'll help you to understand what's going on.

All the best,

Norman

[theducks]

On the desktop there is also a file called metadata_db_prefs_backup.json.

In addition, here are two error files generated by Calibre in the course of my attempts.

calibre, version 2.36.0
ERROR: Failed: Restoring database failed, click Show details to see details

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\db\restore.py", line 125, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\db\restore.py", line 276, in replace_db
File "shutil.py", line 83, in copyfile
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'C:\\Users\\USER\\Documents\\Calibre Library\\metadata_pre_restore.db'

Your login name is USER (or was your Login renamed. Windows leaves the user folder with the original name).

You have some sort of permissions problem with the New Library
Did you copy the backup from a CD? Those always become read only. Change the folder+all sub folders to remove the Read Only tick

[BetterRed]

@theducks - my suggestion would be have calibre create an empty library some place - I would suggest within something like C:\Calibre, so you get C:\Calibre\My Library.

Then move all the Author folders from the desktop into C:\Calibre\My Library, and then use the Restore database to recreate the database form the metadata.opfs

@normanstein - wait for theducks response, he may have a better idea.

BR

[theducks]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@theducks - my suggestion would be have calibre create an empty library some place - I would suggest within something like C:\Calibre, so you get C:\Calibre\My Library.

Then move all the Author folders from the desktop into C:\Calibre\My Library, and then use the Restore database to recreate the database form the metadata.opfs

@normanstein - wait for theducks response, he may have a better idea.

BR

That would be my way, but I was trying for KISS (less steps)

[normanstein]

Thanks to all for your help. I've actually solved the problem now and Calibre is running well once again.

[normanstein]

Hello everyone,


At the end of my last thread I said I had solved the problem but that turned out to be wrong so I'm starting all over.

For many books in Calibre when I try to view them in Calibre I get a message saying no available formats. When I look at the folder with the author's name I find that there is a file with the title of the book and the suffix .azw3. So what's wrong?

[HarryT]

Have you done a "Repair Library"? If not, that should be your first step.

[normanstein]

I think so. That is, in Calibre I went to Calibre Library, then to Library Maintenance, then Check Library and then, since a few errors were found, to restore database. I got the following error message after that:

calibre, version 2.33.0
WARNING: Success: Restoring the database succeeded with some warnings click Show details to see the details. The old database was saved as: C:\Users\USER\Calibre Library\metadata_pre_restore.db

Failed to restore the books in the following folders:
C:\Users\USER\Calibre Library\A E W Mason\They Wouldnt be Chessmen (1934) (145) with error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\db\restore.py", line 253, in restore_books
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 57, in call_func_with_lock
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 1985, in restore_book
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 1493, in create_book_entry
File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 804, in execute
File "c:\cygwin64\home\kovid\sw\build\apsw-3.8.2-r1\src\cursor.c", line 231, in resetcursor
ConstraintError: ConstraintError: UNIQUE constraint failed: books.id

C:\Users\USER\Calibre Library\Fyodor Dostoyevsky\Demons (Russian Edition) (419) with error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\db\restore.py", line 253, in restore_books
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 57, in call_func_with_lock
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 1985, in restore_book
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 1493, in create_book_entry
File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 804, in execute
File "c:\cygwin64\home\kovid\sw\build\apsw-3.8.2-r1\src\cursor.c", line 231, in resetcursor
ConstraintError: ConstraintError: UNIQUE constraint failed: books.id

C:\Users\USER\Calibre Library\David Bezmozgis\The Free World_ A Novel (432) with error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\db\restore.py", line 253, in restore_books
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 57, in call_func_with_lock
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 1985, in restore_book
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 1493, in create_book_entry
File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 804, in execute
File "c:\cygwin64\home\kovid\sw\build\apsw-3.8.2-r1\src\cursor.c", line 231, in resetcursor
ConstraintError: ConstraintError: UNIQUE constraint failed: books.id

C:\Users\USER\Calibre Library\B. A. Shapiro\The Art Forger_ A Novel (492) with error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\db\restore.py", line 253, in restore_books
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 57, in call_func_with_lock
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 1985, in restore_book
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 1493, in create_book_entry
File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 804, in execute
File "c:\cygwin64\home\kovid\sw\build\apsw-3.8.2-r1\src\cursor.c", line 231, in resetcursor
ConstraintError: ConstraintError: UNIQUE constraint failed: books.id

Now I don't know what to do.

Thanks for your help.

Norman

[theducks]

Looks like you might have 4 books that overlap the ID of other books in the library

This is one of those times that you CAREFULLY go under the skirts:

Find those folders with the EXACT name and NUMBER .
Just the (title) folders
eg The Art Forger_ A Novel (492)


Move ALL of them Completely Out of the Library

Run the Maintenance check and correct (usually mark for deletion of empty authors)

Now add those books in the traditional manner (if they don't already exist. ie are duplicates)

[normanstein]

Thanks very much. I've done what you say and it worked in the sense that I now get the message that there are no errors. But the next problem is that there are a lot of books which Calibre says it can't open due to no available formats. I chose one at random and found it in epub form in the Calibre Library. What can I do?