Saving metadata in the ebook file

[krimhorn]

Hello all. I'm relatively new to Calibre (though I did use it a bit a couple of years ago for minor library management) and I've come across a rough patch.

I'm attempting to update and correct the metadata in quite a few of the ebooks that I have and I can't figure out how to get Calibre to actually save that information in the actual ebook. Upon making changes to the metadata it saves covers in the folder with the book and the metadata in the .opf file. This would be fine, except I need these books to work with a reader that does not support getting the books from Calibre (at least I assume that if I used Megareader/Quickreader to import the books it would get the correct metadata).

I have selected and unselected each of the options in the Save to Disk section of the preferences, and it doesn't seem to work unless I actually export the books using the save to disk functionality. Seeing as I have a large collection and centralized management is a primary goal that is not an ideal solution (even re-importing after the export).

Is there any way to make Calibre save the metadata from the database into the file that Calibre has as the centralized managed copy?

Thanks for any and all help that comes my way with this issue.

[davidfor]

Firstly, the "Save to disk" is basically an export function. It copies the ebook outside the calibre library structure. It will update the metadata in the ebook if you configure it to.

Calibre will also update the metadata when putting the ebook onto an ereader. That doesn't help you as your ereader isn't compatible with calibre.

To update the ebooks stored in calibre, you need to either do a conversion, or use the "Modify ePub" plugin. If you do a conversion to the same format, you have an option to update the metadata including the cover. If you are doing this for ePubs, the Modify ePub plugin will do it without the need for a full conversion.

[krimhorn]

Thanks davidfor. After a quick test-run it looks like the Modify ePub plugin was exactly what I was looking for.

While I understand why (at least in part) this functionality isn't included in Calibre (at least they provide at least one way to get your information out of the application) by default, it would be great for it to be available as an option.

[DoctorOhh]

I'm glad you have come across the Modify ePub plugin as it seems to accomplish exactly what you're looking for.

Originally Posted by krimhorn

Upon making changes to the metadata it saves covers in the folder with the book and the metadata in the .opf file.

The .opf files you see in the library structure are used strictly for reconstructing the calibre database should it ever be needed.

Originally Posted by krimhorn

This would be fine, except I need these books to work with a reader that does not support getting the books from Calibre (at least I assume that if I used Megareader/Quickreader to import the books it would get the correct metadata).

Any feature in calibre that exports the books will also update the metadata. Most folks use Send to device and you know about Save to disk, but you may not know about the Connect to Folder feature that allows you to connect calibre to any folder and treat that folder as a device. Once you are connected to a folder you would use the Send to device button used for sending books to any device to send books to the connected folder. Another method would be to use the content server which updates ePub and Mobi metadata as it serves the the book.

The reason calibre doesn't update the library copy is because calibre doesn't support or encourage direct access to its file system. Calibre has provided multiple ways to export books from the library that should serve well.