Author Metadata "Randomly" Missing from Files?

Flyweight · 08-31-2010, 10:46 PM

I am using Calibre to consolidate all my books and to properly add/edit metadata on the files.

I have about 450 books I've sideloaded to the My Documents area on my Nook and on about 10 of the books the author is shown as "Unknown Author". I have carefully added author metadata to all my books in Calibre. Some are .pdb files and other are .epub. I can't determine a pattern. When I look at the books through Calibre, I see they all have authors, but they show up us "Unknown Author" on my device.

Any thoughts on why this metadata may be missing?

Thanks.

DoctorOhh · 08-31-2010, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyweight

I am using Calibre to consolidate all my books and to properly add/edit metadata on the files.

Making the book pretty in calibre does not add the metadata to the book.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyweight

I have about 450 books I've sideloaded to the My Documents area on my Nook and on about 10 of the books the author is shown as "Unknown Author".

How did you "side load" them to the Nook.

Metadata is written to the book during certain functions:

Save to Disk
Send to device
Connect to Folder
Converting the book

I may have missed a feature, but if you didn't use one of the above and just grabbed the book directly from the calibre database then the metadata was never added to the book.

Flyweight · 09-01-2010, 06:32 AM

I sideloaded the books into the Nook using "Send to Device". I added the author metadata to about 30-40 books but for some reason, on about 12 of the books, the author shows as "Unknown Author".

DoctorOhh · 09-01-2010, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyweight

I sideloaded the books into the Nook using "Send to Device". I added the author metadata to about 30-40 books but for some reason, on about 12 of the books, the author shows as "Unknown Author".

What format are those 12 books? Are they all .pdb?

Flyweight · 09-01-2010, 07:07 AM

Some are pdb, some epub. And for the books that properly show the author metadata, some are pdb, some epub. I can't find a pattern based on the format of the book.

chaley · 09-01-2010, 11:58 AM

This can happen if you end up with the book on the device twice, something that is easy to do when hacking metadata. For example, because the author is in the default save path, if you change the author then the book will go to a new folder.

If calibre put the books on the device, it can usually find all the copies. You can check one of the books by using the function 'Remove matching books from device'. Connect the Nook, wait for the 'ondevice' field to show, then in the library view right-click on a suspect book, bring up the submenu under 'Remove books', and select 'Remove matching books from device'. A dialog will appear showing all the copies of the book that Calibre knows about. Delete the wrong ones.

Another sledgehammer (but more certain) approach is to delete all the books and resend the ones you want.

timlegge · 09-01-2010, 12:27 PM

Not related to the nook but I fixed a bug in the Kobo driver last night where I had accidentally been sending the full path to the metadata in some cases. This resulted in the metadata being replaced by default metadata (with missing uuids, etc.) when the device was reconnected.

In my testing I was able to fix the book by resending it to the device (no delete necessary first). The only cases where it did not work was when I had accidentally sent multiple copies of the same book to the device in the past. In that case, deleting the duplicate and resending the device seemed to correct the metadata.

Tim

speakingtohe · 09-01-2010, 01:25 PM

Could your author_sort field still say unknown? Has happened to me.

08-31-2010, 10:46 PM	#1
Flyweight Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Nook, Kindle 3	Author Metadata "Randomly" Missing from Files? I am using Calibre to consolidate all my books and to properly add/edit metadata on the files. I have about 450 books I've sideloaded to the My Documents area on my Nook and on about 10 of the books the author is shown as "Unknown Author". I have carefully added author metadata to all my books in Calibre. Some are .pdb files and other are .epub. I can't determine a pattern. When I look at the books through Calibre, I see they all have authors, but they show up us "Unknown Author" on my device. Any thoughts on why this metadata may be missing? Thanks.

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09-01-2010, 06:32 AM	#3
Flyweight Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Nook, Kindle 3	I sideloaded the books into the Nook using "Send to Device". I added the author metadata to about 30-40 books but for some reason, on about 12 of the books, the author shows as "Unknown Author".

09-01-2010, 07:07 AM	#5
Flyweight Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Nook, Kindle 3	Some are pdb, some epub. And for the books that properly show the author metadata, some are pdb, some epub. I can't find a pattern based on the format of the book.

09-01-2010, 11:58 AM	#6
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,742 Karma: 6997045 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	This can happen if you end up with the book on the device twice, something that is easy to do when hacking metadata. For example, because the author is in the default save path, if you change the author then the book will go to a new folder. If calibre put the books on the device, it can usually find all the copies. You can check one of the books by using the function 'Remove matching books from device'. Connect the Nook, wait for the 'ondevice' field to show, then in the library view right-click on a suspect book, bring up the submenu under 'Remove books', and select 'Remove matching books from device'. A dialog will appear showing all the copies of the book that Calibre knows about. Delete the wrong ones. Another sledgehammer (but more certain) approach is to delete all the books and resend the ones you want.

09-01-2010, 12:27 PM	#7
timlegge Addict Posts: 305 Karma: 78651 Join Date: May 2010 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Device: Kobo, Kobo Wifi, Kobo Touch	Not related to the nook but I fixed a bug in the Kobo driver last night where I had accidentally been sending the full path to the metadata in some cases. This resulted in the metadata being replaced by default metadata (with missing uuids, etc.) when the device was reconnected. In my testing I was able to fix the book by resending it to the device (no delete necessary first). The only cases where it did not work was when I had accidentally sent multiple copies of the same book to the device in the past. In that case, deleting the duplicate and resending the device seemed to correct the metadata. Tim

09-01-2010, 01:25 PM	#8
speakingtohe Wizard Posts: 4,812 Karma: 26912940 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: sony PRS-T1 and T3, Kobo Mini and Aura HD, Tablet	Could your author_sort field still say unknown? Has happened to me.

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