How to get books from my Kobo onto Calibre?

[*Angie*]

I recently had got a nasty virus and had to format my computer. I was able to backup all of my important files..... but.... I did not back up my Calibre library. I figured, since all my books are currently on my Kobo, I would just transfer them from my Kobo back to Calibre and save myself the trouble of burning them all to DVDs to back them up (my husband is out west with our external hard drive).

So, now I have a spankin' clean computer, and for the life of me I cannot figure out how to get my books back onto Calibre! With Calibre open, I can choose my Kobo and see all my books on the device, but can't find an option to copy them over to my Calibre library. Is this possible? Or will I have to copy them from Calibre to my pc and then add them to Calibre all over again (is that even possible)? Help!

[CazMar]

When you plug in your Kobo you can use Windows file Explorer to transfer back from the device to your computer, just the same as you would with a flash drive. Just highlight the files and drag and drop back onto your computer into a directory (call it "Books" or something you will find easily). Then you will have to go back into Calibre and do the "add to library" routine over again from your file called "Books". I may be wrong but I just don't think you can transfer the files straight back into Calibre's library.

[sabredog]

If you "sideload" the books from your Kobo back to Your new PC, you can rebuild Calibre manually.

Make sure Calibre is not running, plug the Kobo in and autoplay should allow you to browse the Kobo's contents in a explorer window. You can copy all the ebooks from the Kobo to your PC. Disconnect the Kobo and fire up Calibre. Import the copied over ebooks into Calibre and away you go.

Oops, answered a while back. Teach me walk away with a post unfinished!

[Marcels]

How come Calibre can't see the pre-loaded books? I'd like to copy some of them on the my other eReading devices.

[JPenguin]

Originally Posted by Marcels

How come Calibre can't see the pre-loaded books? I'd like to copy some of them on the my other eReading devices.

On the original Kobo the books aren't in ePub format, they're in a custom format. But you can browse the Kobobooks.com site and download ePub versions of them. They won't be formatted exactly the same way, or include covers (I think this is the case anyway) but they will be the same books.

[timlegge]

If you right click on a book in calibre you should see a Add to Librabry option. It should copy epub format books to your calibre library.

For books synced via kobo desktop simply reinstall the desktop and sign in to sync the books. In current original kobos there is no way to copy the original delivered books to the library.

Tim

[*Angie*]

Originally Posted by timlegge

If you right click on a book in calibre you should see a Add to Librabry option. It should copy epub format books to your calibre library.

For books synced via kobo desktop simply reinstall the desktop and sign in to sync the books. In current original kobos there is no way to copy the original delivered books to the library.

Tim

This worked like a charm! Thank you!

[corona]

Originally Posted by sabredog

If you "sideload" the books from your Kobo back to Your new PC, you can rebuild Calibre manually...

Sorry to be dense, but this term -- "sideload" -- keeps coming up, and I'm not sure what it means. Thanks!

[tpw]

Originally Posted by corona

Sorry to be dense, but this term -- "sideload" -- keeps coming up, and I'm not sure what it means. Thanks!

Sideload in this context means transferring files to/from the kobo without going through the kobo desktop software. If you plug your kobo in, have it show up as a USB drive, and just drag/drop files - that's sideloading.

[corona]

Thank you!