[Google Drive Warning] Trouble moving/combining Calibre libraries

[vermontcathy]

I've got Calibre running on two different computers, each with their own libraries. I figure I should combine them. On one computer (work computer) I moved the library to my Google Drive, which is saved on the hard drive, but syncs to my online storage and to my home computer. All is well with using that library on the work computer.

On my home computer, in Calibre, I say "switch/create library" and point it to the folder in my Google Drive folder. It lists the books, but shows no covers. Then if I double-click on one of the books, it says no valid formats found. I notice that the library on the google drive doesn't have numbers in the folder names. For instance, the library on the home computer has a folder with the author name, then inside that are folders with the book titles, but there is a number like (221) after the book title, as the folder title. The book folders in the library on the google drive don't have any numbers like this (and yet, that library works fine on the work computer, so Calibre on the work computer doesn't seem to care that there are no numbers in parenthesis in the folder names).

When I point the home computer to the google drive, and double click on a book, I can see that Calibre makes a new folder within the author's folder, with the same book title as the folder that is already there, but with a number in parenthesis. So, for instance, there might be a folder called Doe_Jane and with in that a folder called My_book_title. When I access the book in Calibre (double click on it, or click it and edit metadata) it makes a new folder such as My_book_title(212). That new folder doesn't have anything in it, and so Calibre says there's no valid book file. But the book file, cover, etc. are all in the original My_book_title folder - Calibre just won't look there.

I tried restoring the database file, but it says all the book titles are invalid (presumably because it wants a number in parenthesis in the folder name?).

So, any idea what's going on? I think the fact that it's on Google drive is irrelevant - I could have copied the library on the work computer to a thumb drive and the same thing would happen because it seems to want number in the book folders.

[DoctorOhh]

Sounds like you didn't wait for the cloud to fully download (sync) to your computer.

[chaley]

Google drive cannot currently be used to sync calibre libraries because it removes parts of file names. In particular, it removes the calibre database ID from the names (the number in the parentheses). Dropbox does not do this, and calibre library sync works well as long as the single-writer rule is respected.

It is difficult to understand how google thinks that drive is a usable product when it changes the names of files. What substance are they smoking?

[vermontcathy]

Thank you for your assistance. I will consider Dropbox. I assume the single-writer rule means that you shouldn't have Calibre open in both places at the same time.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by vermontcathy

Thank you for your assistance. I will consider Dropbox. I assume the single-writer rule means that you shouldn't have Calibre open in both places at the same time.

Yes - Calibre assumes it has exclusive access to the database, so trying to update on two computers at the same time can cause conflicts. There is a long-running background activity to remove this restriction, but it is unlikely to produce any results in the near future. If you make a mistake and accidentally run calibre on two systems at the same time and thus you DO get sync conflicts then using Calibre Library Maintenance facilities can help with resolving them.

Dropbox is the cloud solution that is most commonly use. However if I remember correctly other solutions such as SkyDrive and SugarSync also work OK. I am guessing that at some point GoogleDrive will be updated to stop it mangling filenames (but being Google who knows ).