Calibre Portable not launching (version 7.5.1)

[jecilop]

I'm not sure why it won't launch; I've tried installing 2 different portable drives.
Both drives were empty.
I placed the install .exe file on them and ran the install which placed the Calibre Portable folder on the drives.

I tried the 2nd as it wasn't working on the first so I assumed an issue with the flash drive. But the same problem persist on a second flash drive.

You can see it "working" for a few moments, but then nothing happens.

I also tried version 7.5.0. Same problem.

I'm on Windows 11. I normally use the Wdws version on the hard drive. It is closed so no program conflicts. I even restarted the computer before trying it all again.
I also tried running the calibre-portable.exe file as installed on the portable drive as an Administrator. It just doesn't do anything.

I haven't used Portable in many years, but I had no difficulties with that once upon a Wdw Vista or 8 or so...

Anyone know what's going on?

[theducks]

Normally, I fire off the Installer from the download folder.
That asks where to install (or update), that works.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by theducks

Normally, I fire off the Installer from the download folder.
That asks where to install (or update), that works.

Try installing portable on an internal drive — e.g. some where like C:\Program Files (Portable).

BR

[jecilop]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Try installing portable on an internal drive — e.g. some where like C:\Program Files (Portable).

BR

Hmmm....
Ok...BR, this works (I should have thought of it to test...). Thank you.

I also tried the install to the 2 flash drives (after wiping them) from the PC to the flash as @theducks suggested. I even tried it on a 3rd drive. Same problem on flash drives.

So now to figure out why it won't launch from the flash drives. I do note that these flash drives are very slow...VERY...surprisingly slow. I'm now wondering if that read speed could have anything to do with it.

I've even disabled all virus and such protection when trying to launch it just in case.

Going to test some others, perhaps even a portable hard disk.

[jecilop]

So...I tried one more thing.
I put on the PC and it worked...
Then I copied that install folder to the flash drive (where it didn't work before when installed there), and it works fine.... (yes, even the slow flash drive).

Now I'm just left curious as to why it won't work when directly installed on the flash...

[BetterRed]

What format are the flash drives FAT 32 or NTFS? Whichever - try the other one.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

I dont recall if calibre portable includes a calibre-debug-portable.exe but if it does you can try running it with the -g flag to get the debug log that might tell us what the issue is.

[jecilop]

Ok...so far........ I have it working for what I need. I'm providing this info in case it helps with any error correction.
@BR,

2 Flash Drives with initial install that didn't work had FAT32 formatting. Install was directly to flash drive.

1 Flash Drive (of those 2) that ended up working when I installed the portable on the PC then copied the folder to the flash drive was still FAT32. - works great and fast.

1 Flash Drive (1 of the 2 that didn't work) - Reformatted to NTFS - installed portable on the flash directly - works with that formatting.

@Kovid - no calibre-debug-portable.exe file with the portable

[BetterRed]

@Kovid - maybe the .exe install makes use of hard or symbolic links, IIRC they're off limits on FAT32.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@Kovid - maybe the .exe install makes use of hard or symbolic links, IIRC they're off limits on FAT32.

BR

Not as far as I know unless the unzip library it uses does, but I cant think of a reason it would.

[BetterRed]

This is on Win 10 with a 64GB thumb drive freshly formatted as FAT32

• Copied the 7.5.1 portable installer onto it
• Ran the installer - it went to end
• It asked if I want run calibre - answer Yes
• Stopped and started few times, added books by dropping 'format' files into the book list (EPUB, DOCX, URL), converted the DOCX to EPUB.
• I removed the 'URL' book and then hit the Green 'oops' button and I got this:

calibre, version 7.5.1
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>ValueError</b>:The book 2 not present in the trash folder
calibre 7.5.1 Portable embedded-python: True
Windows-10-10.0.19045-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.19045')
Python 3.11.5
Windows: ('10', '10.0.19045', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
EXE path: G:\Calibre Portable\Calibre\calibre.exe
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre\gui2\actions\delete.py", line 403, in undelete
File "calibre\db\cache.py", line 88, in call_func_with_lock
File "calibre\db\cache.py", line 2893, in move_book_from_trash
File "calibre\db\backend.py", line 2188, in get_metadata_for_trash_book
ValueError: The book 2 not present in the trash folder

When I looked in Recently deleted books it was empty

I tried to reproduce the above error — but couldn't. The caltrash folder is created on first remove, so perhaps it was a timing issue - i.e. I hit the green button too soon.

I've tried moving and copying some very large 'books' between libraries and I've removed and restored them - predictably slow but no crashes.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

Hmm deletion is not asynchronous anymore, but on FAT32 it does use hard links to speed up file copies, but should still not fail if hardlinks dont work.

[DNSB]

For what it may be worth, I installed calibre 7.5.1 on a FAT32 formatted USB drive and it worked okay. I was able to add books to the the library, edit metadata, edit books, etc.

[jecilop]

Originally Posted by DNSB

For what it may be worth, I installed calibre 7.5.1 on a FAT32 formatted USB drive and it worked okay. I was able to add books to the the library, edit metadata, edit books, etc.

Hmmmm.... Then what if it's the drives I was using? All 3 I worked with were the exact same brand/size (package deal type thing).