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Old 04-07-2010, 03:17 AM   #1
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Exclamation What kind of backup policy does/can calibre have
I am crossed that ebookworm point of no return as my library has crossed 10K items.

Now I live in fear of loosing it all !!

ok too much drama. no more coffee for today.

Seriously thought, can/does calibre create backups of the metadata.db ? I do have a network backup but I dont sync it often enough. and a corrupt metadata.db would kill me.

ebooks are easy to reacquire but the metadata not so much. I want to backup the metadata, say, every week and keep old copies for a long duration. like 6 months or so.

This also would give me a way to 'view' a previous state or undo to a certain point. For e.g. if at some point I want to radically change my library or experiment with the metadata etc and still be able to fallback.

What do u guys do? enlighten me folks.
Last edited by rollercoaster; 04-07-2010 at 03:21 AM.
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Old 04-07-2010, 04:33 AM   #2
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The backup policy is whatever you make it.

I simply copy the entire Calibre Library directory and all its sub folders and files from my laptop to a shared hard disk at home. That is my back up. On top of that, I use MOZY to backup my critical data on my laptop. It's free up to 2GB. The backup runs every night at 2AM.
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Old 04-07-2010, 06:56 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rollercoaster View Post
ebooks are easy to reacquire but the metadata not so much. I want to backup the metadata, say, every week and keep old copies for a long duration. like 6 months or so.
This is my backup strategy.
Note: The below method will not backup custom recipes, they are stored in the metadata.db file. I save all of my custom recipes separate from Calibre as .recipe files when I create them. I wanted folks to know the limitation of this backup option.
  • I use the Save to Disk option in Calibre (ensuring both Save cover separately and Save metadata in OPF file are checked) to save my books in a backup directory.
  • Every time I add/update any books I select them and use Save to Disk to save them to my backup directory.
  • If I ever need to restore from a catastrophic failure I just reinstall Calibre and point it to a new Library folder and import the books. All the metadata, covers, tags, series etc... are recreated perfectly.
I have actually restored a couple of times to test this setup and my library has always passed the disaster recovery test.
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Old 04-07-2010, 07:02 AM   #4
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Hey thanks! I haven't tried this method but it makes a lot of sense. I assume OPF is a standard meta format/file that, potentially, can later be used for import in any other apps too, if calibre left any in the battlefield

One thing comes to mind. is there a way to automate this? command line etc but then sounds like it wont know which books to export or do all at once?
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Old 04-07-2010, 07:20 AM   #5
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I created a free drop box account and moved my whole folder for Calibre there It automatically syncs up with their website and backs up everything as I add it.
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Old 04-07-2010, 07:57 AM   #6
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calibre does not have any backup policy, it leaves you free to backup however you like.

If you want to do a complete backup, backup the library folder and the settings folder (location available from preferences->advanced)
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Old 04-07-2010, 10:07 PM   #7
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ficbot,

Interesting use of dropbox. How is the performance? Adding new books, viewing books, updating metadata, etc...
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Old 04-07-2010, 10:15 PM   #8
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Performance is fine because the actual folder is on my computer. It just gets backed up to the dropbox website. It's a local folder and the 'cloud' version is the backup.
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Old 04-07-2010, 11:29 PM   #9
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Thanks!
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Old 04-09-2010, 12:25 AM   #10
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Thanks for the info guys. I have setup differential backup using windows 7's native backup service. that does pretty much what I want.

I dont know how much of a chance of corruption is there for the metadata file but I think it is reasonable that calibre should create 3 or more backups at selected intervals. Like one month, one week and at startup. Most applications that access a file so frequently create backup files.

Even if a new users has just started using calibre and added only 50 books and then looses the metadata file for some reason then he or she would be distraught. especially since new users are not aware of the nuances of an application or may not be a techie who can setup backups etc.

what do you think?

@kovid thanks. didnt think of backing up settings
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