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Old 03-10-2012, 12:24 PM   #1
FatCat0
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Manage Collections in Calibre (Help!)

Hey all.

So I had Calibre all nice and set up to create collections on my PRS-T1 and everything was working fine and nifty. I did this a few months ago so I have forgotten not only how to set this up but where I figured it out (I originally figured it out on a Kindle and then changed over to the Sony reader, which adds another layer of confusion). This would be no problem, since I was all set up and working, but my laptop was stolen and I did not have Calibre backed up on my desktop.

I have no idea how to control collections on my reader now. I've searched around a modest amount but can't find the initial "How to I make a freaking collection in the first place" instructions. Can someone just point me in the right direction please?
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Old 03-10-2012, 01:27 PM   #2
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Hi,


collections of the sony will go under 'tags' in calibre. At least can you set it up this way in the calibre plugin (CTRL P - advanced - plugin) you search for sony prs t1 plugin and find the box called something metadata... in that box you should have tags, then in calibre you'll get the collections of your reader
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Old 03-10-2012, 04:41 PM   #3
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Ahh that's what it was. Thanks!
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Old 03-11-2012, 11:47 AM   #4
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@FatCat0,

I recently wrote a detailed step-by-step for Sony/Calibre users in another thread which covers
  • creating Sony Collections
  • sorting books within Collections
  • including Series info for all books in Sony booklists

It may help you.
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Old 05-27-2012, 09:56 AM   #5
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@ Jackie,

Thanks! I was just wondering how to remove the "tags as collections" for my reader, but keep "series as collections" and your walk through sounds like it will do the trick...
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Old 07-29-2012, 03:01 PM   #6
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@ Jackie_W,

just used your detail instruction for setting up Collections on my Sony T1 ...thanks very much for posting this as I never would have figured this out on my own.....I do have a question for you....

I was able to get the books to display using the Metadata Plugboard info you provided....and all looks beautiful, but only on the initial "addition" to the device. If I reconnect to add additional books to the device, I lose the "displayed" name (that is I lose the display of the series metadata ....ie author_collection_series #_title ......if I reformat the device and add all the books in one go, I get the display again....but this means every time I connect the device, I need to reformat it and add all books again.....in order to get the

Any ideas what may be happening, or is this just an anomaly with the T1?
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Old 07-29-2012, 05:29 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spatlese View Post
Any ideas what may be happening, or is this just an anomaly with the T1?
I wonder if you're running into the PRST1 PITA quirk I noted in this paragraph?

Quote:
[In case you're wondering why the PRST1 needs the 2nd plugboard (the epub one) -- it's because, for some unknown reason, sometimes after connecting it to Calibre, the T1 decides to update its book database by re-reading all the metadata inside each book. The 2nd plugboard makes an effort (for epubs at least) to make the data it re-reads the same as the data it just threw away. However, the epub plugboard is only used when you send the book to the PRST1, not every time you connect T1 to Calibre.]
You can test by doing the following...if your plugboard info 'disappears' from the T1 after a connection to calibre, connect it a second time, let calibre do its stuff, then disconnect again. Does the plugboard info come back?

If it does, it is indeed the PRST1 anomaly (which, BTW, doesn't occur on earlier Sony models).

Did you set up both plugboards as per the detailed step-by-step, i.e. the one for 'device_db' and the one for 'epub'? You can't stop the anomaly, but the 'epub' plugboard should protect your epubs from you noticing it when it does happen.

It is important to understand the difference between the 2 plugboards, so I'll attempt to explain.
  • The 'device_db' one writes your plugboard info directly into the PRST1's book database and this is updated every single time you connect the T1 to calibre.
  • The 'epub' one (which contains the same data) writes your plugboard info into each epub as you send-to-device or save-to-disk (or connect-to-folder???). So epubs which you have sent to the T1, since you put both plugboards in place, should be protected when the anomaly happens. The anomaly causes the T1 to re-extract all data from the epubs on the T1. Because the plugboard data in the epub is the same as that in the T1 book database you don't notice the anomaly has happened.
Next time you connect the T1 to calibre, calibre will send the 'device_db' plugboard info, once again, to the T1 book database... and on it goes until the next anomaly.

If you change metadata in the main calibre library (author, series, title) the 'device_db' plugboard will keep the T1 book database absolutely up-to-date next time you connect. However, the 'epub' plugboard info was only inserted into each epub at the time you copied it to the T1. So you can see how it is possible for T1 epub metadata to become out-of-synch with calibre metadata, over time, when the anomaly happens. However, if you go through the connect/disconnect routine a couple of times, eventually the device_db plugboard should 'win' and you're properly up-to-date again.

If you've followed me so far , just to add a final bit of info. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be possible to protect your PDFs from the anomaly, other than by trying another connect/disconnect cycle. However, TXT files are immune from the anomaly.

To get back to your original question...you should not need to reformat your T1 but resending all books, once only, after both plugboards were added was a good idea because now you should be protected when the anomaly happens.
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Old 07-29-2012, 07:18 PM   #8
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@ Jackie,

Yes, I set up both plugboards as directed....just went back and made sure they were correct.

I wiped everything off the device, connected to calibre & "sent" books to the device....all worked like a charm.....the T1 displays the series metadata as I wanted. I then disconnected the device and reconnected. I waited a few minutes and disconnected the device.....the series metadata disappeared from the device.

I have disconnected & reconnected several times, but the series metadata does not reappear.

I'm not sure what else to try.....any ideas?
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Old 07-29-2012, 08:56 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spatlese View Post
I'm not sure what else to try.....any ideas?

Does the series info disappear from all epubs or just some? Do these epubs contain DRM?

If they are not DRM'd, can you send me a PM with a link to one of your non-working epubs. Take a copy of the epub as-is on the T1, not a copy of the calibre library version.

It's late here. If you can send me some 'evidence' I could take a look tomorrow.
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Old 07-30-2012, 11:59 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jackie_w View Post
Does the series info disappear from all epubs or just some? Do these epubs contain DRM?

If they are not DRM'd, can you send me a PM with a link to one of your non-working epubs. Take a copy of the epub as-is on the T1, not a copy of the calibre library version.

It's late here. If you can send me some 'evidence' I could take a look tomorrow.
My series data keeps disappearing also, it happens to my whole my library. It worked on initial setup, but the next time I 'synced' with Calibre I lost all my series/sorting properties. Jackie_W, you may recall you helped me with initial setup. Once we got that all straightened out, and it was all working, I thought it was something I had done, so I re-did all the steps, and voila, my series/sorts were all working again. Once I connected again, they disappeared. ie, my books are sorted by author. After initial setup, first author should be [and was initially showing] as 'Lara Adrian'. Now it's back to 'Adam Creed', and no series info showing in titles. So it seems to be working after 1st sync, and then losing something after that.


PS, yes, I did all the plugboards as directed, using both as you indicated in previous post.
Any suggestions? And as always, your help is SO appreciated!

Last edited by Blue2u; 07-30-2012 at 12:00 PM. Reason: clarification
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Old 07-30-2012, 01:39 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue2u View Post
My series data keeps disappearing also, it happens to my whole my library. It worked on initial setup, but the next time I 'synced' with Calibre I lost all my series/sorting properties. Jackie_W, you may recall you helped me with initial setup. Once we got that all straightened out, and it was all working, I thought it was something I had done, so I re-did all the steps, and voila, my series/sorts were all working again. Once I connected again, they disappeared. ie, my books are sorted by author. After initial setup, first author should be [and was initially showing] as 'Lara Adrian'. Now it's back to 'Adam Creed', and no series info showing in titles. So it seems to be working after 1st sync, and then losing something after that.


PS, yes, I did all the plugboards as directed, using both as you indicated in previous post.
Any suggestions? And as always, your help is SO appreciated!
It's about 6 weeks since your original post. Has it only just gone wrong?

First a simple check, please post a screencap of the settings window of Prefs - Plugins - Device Interface - Sony PRST1 - Customize

I've just done a connect/disconnect to calibre and have no problems. Following that I transferred a few new books via send-to-device - still no problems. I'm using calibre v0.8.61.
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Old 07-30-2012, 03:19 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jackie_w View Post
It's about 6 weeks since your original post. Has it only just gone wrong?

First a simple check, please post a screencap of the settings window of Prefs - Plugins - Device Interface - Sony PRST1 - Customize

I've just done a connect/disconnect to calibre and have no problems. Following that I transferred a few new books via send-to-device - still no problems. I'm using calibre v0.8.61.
No, it's 'vanished' a couple of different times since then. My workaround has been to re-add the metadata plugboards [I click edit, then don't edit anything, and then 'save'], seems to work.

Remember I'm rather a tech-challenged person, so haven't done screencaps

Settings checked: epub and others [I only have epubs anyway]
use sub directory
save template: {author_sort}/{title} - {authors}
comma separated: series,tags
then 'upload', 'refresh', and 'preserve' all checked, last option 'use Sony' is not

Current Calibre version 8.62

And just like bringing your car to a mechanic, I've just 'synced' 3 different times in a row and lost nothing...

But I figured I'd voice that it's happened to me also and wondered why it seems to happen 'sometimes', maybe it's a setting I've messed in error, knowing me, very likely.

Thank you again as always for your very advanced and patient assistance.
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Old 07-30-2012, 04:43 PM   #13
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@Blue2u,

I don't see anything obvious there. The main thing is that the box 'Use author sort for author' is UNCHECKED.

If this is intermittent, I'm totally stumped. I'm afraid it may need a better calibre techie than me.

I can think of a couple more checks but it requires you to send me one of your epubs and the books.db file from your T1. You won't want to post those here so I'm switching to PM for further discussion.
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Old 07-30-2012, 04:53 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jackie_w View Post
@Blue2u,

I don't see anything obvious there. The main thing is that the box 'Use author sort for author' is UNCHECKED.

If this is intermittent, I'm totally stumped. I'm afraid it may need a better calibre techie than me.

I can think of a couple more checks but it requires you to send me one of your epubs and the books.db file from your T1. You won't want to post those here so I'm switching to PM for further discussion.
Yes, it does seem intermittent. I wondered if at some point it's because I'm using diffrerent libraries at times [I handle my Mom's Kobo for her], and I keep a separate 'Kindle' library for freebies.

As I said, I've just updated successfully 3 different times with no problems, it's only happened on occasion and by 're-adding' the plugboards the problem disappears. Thank you again, I'll leave your expertise now to the initial poster[s].
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Old 07-30-2012, 08:25 PM   #15
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I have had similiar problems and coincidentally or not they often occurred after updating my mothers kindle

For some reason the plugboard that embeds epub metadata with series info etc. does not seem to work.

Maybe this is not the cause, but I check this by dragging a book from the T1 to calibre library and checking the metadata in the viewer and in every case the metadata has not been changed by the plugboard that embeds metadata into the epub file. So I struggle with the plugboard and end up with the same one miraculously working again.
(The 350 and 600 are fine as they do not go into random rescanning like the T1)

Two things I have found (in my experience only)
If you shut down the computer before disconnecting, the T1 will not rescan and the metadata db plugboard will prevail.

If you use a custom column to create collections from, sorting by series on the T1 is almost nonexistent regardless of embedded metadata.

The jackie_w plugboards are pretty awesome, as is calibre, and the supberb supportfor Sony readers.

Helen
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