Calibre issues when the same author is on 150+ books

cartman · 07-28-2009, 08:26 AM

I think i have finally found out why i had major issues with almost every release of calibre and the transfer of my collections to my Sony 505. In short, I usually had about 100 books missing from the 505, sometimes i had no collections at all, blank collections, collections with random books inside etc.

The problem was that i had about 250 books with the same author (Carl Barks), so calibre put them in the same folder. When i broke that into 3 groups, (Carl Barks, Carl Barks2, Carl Barks3), all problems disappeared, and everything is now fine.

Killian · 07-28-2009, 08:30 AM

Forgive me for my ignorance but why would that be causing problems? Is there some kind of limit to how many books you can have per author?

cartman · 07-28-2009, 08:35 AM

I dont know why it causes problems, the only thing i know is that after months of trying everything i could think of, bugging kovid many times, formatting my 505, reflashing its firmware, trying many different versions of calibre, transferring a few books at a time etc, the only thing that finally worked was me reducing the max number of books per author to under 100.

kovidgoyal · 07-28-2009, 11:09 AM

Interesting, Ireally can't think of a reason why this should cause problems. It only caused problems when transferring to the SONY, correct?

cartman · 07-28-2009, 12:24 PM

yes, only when transferring(on the latest betas of 0.6 i also get an error message when transferring, I have posted that on the long beta thread). Just after the transfer and without disconnecting the device, calibre reads everything fine from the Sony. The problem shows when I disconnect the 505 and it tries to refresh its library.

kovidgoyal · 07-28-2009, 12:40 PM

Hmm in that case it seems like the SONY firmware can't deal with so many books by a single author.

tfarrell · 07-28-2009, 05:09 PM

Many file systems have limits on the number of items that can exist in an individual folder. These limits are usually relatively low, in the 150 to 250 range. I believe the (exceedingly common) FAT file system has such a limit. So, it may be the firmware system Sony is using, or it may be the file system of the disk that cartman has his Calibre library on.

Cartman, I would suggest checking the file system of your disk that you have your library on. If it's FAT, consider doing a backup, reformatting the disk to the newest and bestest file system Windows has to offer, and then restoring your data. If that's prohibitive (like, if it's your boot disk), consider getting an external disk to use for the purpose.

cartman · 07-28-2009, 05:38 PM

My calibre library is on a NTFS disk. The SD card is FAT of course, probably FAT32

itimpi · 07-28-2009, 05:47 PM

FAT16 had a limit on how many entries could exist at the top level of a device. There was no limit within a sub-folder except that performance degraded if the entries got into the thousands.

I suspect it is some other firmware limitation.

Colaveare · 07-29-2009, 05:00 AM

Try renaming them back to Carl Barks only again.
Maybe you had a single one that was corrupted and it was creating issues.
I've noticed sometimes changing the metadata information to something different then back to it's original fixes some database issues...

cartman · 07-30-2009, 05:27 AM

It didnt work. I transfered 101 newly created comic ebooks with the same author (walt disney), and i lost all collections... of these 101 books, only 84 are being displayed. Now i will try to transfer 80 books/author, lets see what happens.

07-28-2009, 08:26 AM	#1
cartman Connoisseur Posts: 57 Karma: 22 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mytilene, Greece Device: Kobo Aura HD, Sony PRS-505 (Blue)	Calibre issues when the same author is on 150+ books I think i have finally found out why i had major issues with almost every release of calibre and the transfer of my collections to my Sony 505. In short, I usually had about 100 books missing from the 505, sometimes i had no collections at all, blank collections, collections with random books inside etc. The problem was that i had about 250 books with the same author (Carl Barks), so calibre put them in the same folder. When i broke that into 3 groups, (Carl Barks, Carl Barks2, Carl Barks3), all problems disappeared, and everything is now fine.

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07-28-2009, 08:30 AM	#2
Killian Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 29000 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	Forgive me for my ignorance but why would that be causing problems? Is there some kind of limit to how many books you can have per author?

07-28-2009, 08:35 AM	#3
cartman Connoisseur Posts: 57 Karma: 22 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mytilene, Greece Device: Kobo Aura HD, Sony PRS-505 (Blue)	I dont know why it causes problems, the only thing i know is that after months of trying everything i could think of, bugging kovid many times, formatting my 505, reflashing its firmware, trying many different versions of calibre, transferring a few books at a time etc, the only thing that finally worked was me reducing the max number of books per author to under 100.

07-28-2009, 11:09 AM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,844 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Interesting, Ireally can't think of a reason why this should cause problems. It only caused problems when transferring to the SONY, correct?

07-28-2009, 12:24 PM	#5
cartman Connoisseur Posts: 57 Karma: 22 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mytilene, Greece Device: Kobo Aura HD, Sony PRS-505 (Blue)	yes, only when transferring(on the latest betas of 0.6 i also get an error message when transferring, I have posted that on the long beta thread). Just after the transfer and without disconnecting the device, calibre reads everything fine from the Sony. The problem shows when I disconnect the 505 and it tries to refresh its library.

07-28-2009, 12:40 PM	#6
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,844 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Hmm in that case it seems like the SONY firmware can't deal with so many books by a single author.

07-28-2009, 05:09 PM	#7
tfarrell Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: kindle 2	Many file systems have limits on the number of items that can exist in an individual folder. These limits are usually relatively low, in the 150 to 250 range. I believe the (exceedingly common) FAT file system has such a limit. So, it may be the firmware system Sony is using, or it may be the file system of the disk that cartman has his Calibre library on. Cartman, I would suggest checking the file system of your disk that you have your library on. If it's FAT, consider doing a backup, reformatting the disk to the newest and bestest file system Windows has to offer, and then restoring your data. If that's prohibitive (like, if it's your boot disk), consider getting an external disk to use for the purpose.

07-28-2009, 05:38 PM	#8
cartman Connoisseur Posts: 57 Karma: 22 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mytilene, Greece Device: Kobo Aura HD, Sony PRS-505 (Blue)	My calibre library is on a NTFS disk. The SD card is FAT of course, probably FAT32

07-28-2009, 05:47 PM	#9
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,552 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	FAT16 had a limit on how many entries could exist at the top level of a device. There was no limit within a sub-folder except that performance degraded if the entries got into the thousands. I suspect it is some other firmware limitation.

07-29-2009, 05:00 AM	#10
Colaveare Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: iphone	Try renaming them back to Carl Barks only again. Maybe you had a single one that was corrupted and it was creating issues. I've noticed sometimes changing the metadata information to something different then back to it's original fixes some database issues...

07-30-2009, 05:27 AM	#11
cartman Connoisseur Posts: 57 Karma: 22 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mytilene, Greece Device: Kobo Aura HD, Sony PRS-505 (Blue)	It didnt work. I transfered 101 newly created comic ebooks with the same author (walt disney), and i lost all collections... of these 101 books, only 84 are being displayed. Now i will try to transfer 80 books/author, lets see what happens.

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