Auto-delete source files?

[Phyrefly]

I don't know if this option exists, or could exist, but is it possible to auto-delete files from their old locations on the HDD as you import them into the Calibre library?

I have a large collection of books, and as importing regularly fails (24% best performance so far, and that took 36 hours or so, so it's not surprising that it gives up sometimes), I have to keep starting from the beginning again. This would be a lot easier if the books that had been imported successfully weren't still sitting in the source folder too.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Phyrefly

I don't know if this option exists, or could exist, but is it possible to auto-delete files from their old locations on the HDD as you import them into the Calibre library?

I have a large collection of books, and as importing regularly fails (24% best performance so far, and that took 36 hours or so, so it's not surprising that it gives up sometimes), I have to keep starting from the beginning again. This would be a lot easier if the books that had been imported successfully weren't still sitting in the source folder too.

My work flow (in the beginning , when I was bulk adding):
Create a folder: WORKING
Move a bunch (25-50) of to be done book folders (or books, if many in one folder).
Start the Import of those into Calibre.
While that is grinding away.

Prepare folder WORKING2

When working import completes: Verify the import of all items. Fix problems.

Delete/Archive WORKING and start Import WORKING2

(repeat till done)
This avoids Calibre choking and allows minimal re-Importing (wasted effort) of completed books.

[Phyrefly]

Thanks,

That is pretty much what I'm doing at the moment, I was hoping there would be an easier solution... I didn't mind the thought of it taking a week to import my books, if it was a process I could leave to run...

From your experience, how many books at a time did it cope with?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Phyrefly

Thanks,

That is pretty much what I'm doing at the moment, I was hoping there would be an easier solution... I didn't mind the thought of it taking a week to import my books, if it was a process I could leave to run...

From your experience, how many books at a time did it cope with?

I used those numbers.
I was not in a rush, I wanted the data correct (that took lots longer than the import).

Before you fly off and bulk convert (if you need to). take time and get your default conversion settings refined to your liking.

[speakingtohe]

I had a similiar problem when I first started using calibre. I had about 7 gig of files I was trying to import at once. Someone suggested (Starsun if I remembercorrectly) that calibre had more trouble with certain file types. pdf and html perhaps, not totally sure.So I did a search for each format and cut and pasted them into seperate directories. Pdf, epub,lit, mobi, zip,rar, htm etc.
Then I imported one directory at a time and it went perfectly.

Before you fly off and bulk convert (if you need to). take time and get your default conversion settings refined to your liking.

This is totally good advice and will save you a lot of grief.

under preferences->adding books:
Two preferences that make a difference in importing time I have been told is to have automerge turned on and to have read metadata from file contents turned off.

Before beginning again, I would suggest looking at your authorsand see if the majority are in the right order. Then decide whether to have swap firstname/last name.

Recently, due to a corrupted database, I re-imported my entire library and it took under 3hours for 18+ gig of files. of course these files had already been processed.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I had a similiar problem when I first started using calibre. I had about 7 gig of files I was trying to import at once. Someone suggested (Starsun if I remembercorrectly) that calibre had more trouble with certain file types. pdf and html perhaps, not totally sure.

The PDF module Calibre uses for conversion has trouble with some pdfs. It's best to exclude them from any mass convert. Further, it's hard to get the settings right for all possible formats. If you separate the formats, tweak the conversion settings for that format, then convert, you are likely to get better results. There's no substitute for individual book-by-book attention, but using the Content Server, I need EPUB formats for my preferred reader, so I tend to do group converts, just to have something available for my reader, then fix them if needed.