Calibre won't open after install -- ERROR: Bad database location

[htbyron]

I have tried multiple times now to install Calibre on my desktop computer (Win XP Home SP3). I tried both versions 0.7.2 and 0.7.1, fully uninstalling each time before trying to reinstall from a clean download of the installer. Every time I get the following error:

ERROR: Bad database location

Here are the details:

ERROR: Bad database location: Bad database location u'E:/My Documents/Calibre Library'. calibre will now quit.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\main.py", line 183, in initialize_db_stage2
File "site-packages\calibre\library\database2.py", line 128, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\library\schema_upgrades.py", line 20, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\library\schema_upgrades.py", line 50, in upgrade_version_2
File "site-packages\calibre\library\sqlite.py", line 184, in run
DatabaseException: trigger fkc_delete_on_authors already exists
RemoteTraceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\library\sqlite.py", line 148, in run
OperationalError: trigger fkc_delete_on_authors already exists

It looks like the Calibre installer is inserting the letter "u" before the pathname, but maybe that's just how the error code generates.

I have admin rights on my system, I am the only user. I am about to give up on this software, but it has gotten such good reviews from others.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by htbyron

ERROR: Bad database location

Here are the details:

ERROR: Bad database location: Bad database location u'E:/My Documents/Calibre Library'. calibre will now quit.

I have admin rights on my system, I am the only user. I am about to give up on this software, but it has gotten such good reviews from others.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions?

I've seen this corrected many ways from rebooting the computer to disabling Microsoft Essentials AV program during install. Kovid once recommended the following as a starting point.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Create a folder called c:\library

Start calibre from the command line as

calibre --with-library C:\library

Also Calibre has this advice in the FAQ:

Calibre is not starting on Windows?

There can be several causes for this:

• If you get an error about a Python function terminating unexpectedly after upgrading calibre, first uninstall calibre, then delete the folders (if they exists) C:\Program Files\Calibre and C:\Program Files\Calibre2. Now re-install and you should be fine.
• If you get an error in the welcome wizard on an initial run of calibre, try choosing a folder like C:\library as the calibre library (calibre sometimes has trouble with library locations if the path contains non-English characters, or only numbers, etc.)
• Try running it as Administrator (Right click on the icon and select “Run as Administrator”)
• Windows Vista: If the folder C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\calibre exists, delete it. Uninstall calibre. Reboot. Re-install.
• Any windows version: Try disabling any antivirus program you have running and see if that fixes it. Also try disabling any firewall software that prevents connections to the local computer.

If it still wont launch, start a command prompt (press the windows key and R; then type cmd.exe in the Run dialog that appears). At the command prompt type the following command and press Enter:

calibre-debug -g

Post any output you see in a help message on the Forum.

It's a great program I hope you get it working.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by htbyron

[INDENT]ERROR: Bad database location: Bad database location u'E:/My Documents/Calibre Library'. calibre will now quit.
...

It looks like the Calibre installer is inserting the letter "u" before the pathname, but maybe that's just how the error

The 'u' just indicates that the string that follows is a Unicode string.

Does the folder named exist? If so are the permissions set to allow full access? If it does exist and you have not used calibre before is that folder empty (in case you have a corrupt metadata.db database file there from an earlier failed attempt).

Note that uninstalling Calibre does not remove any Calibre settings. The fact that drive 'E:' is mentioned in the error message you quoted suggests that there are stored default settings from an earlier attempt. If you want to remove these as well and start with the default initial settings then you need to find the 'calibre' folder under your user profile and remove that as well.

[htbyron]

Thanks, guys. Very helpful. The command line fix worked. And once open, I was able to move the database to my E: drive where I keep all my data. All seems well now. I appreciate the quick responses and helpful suggestions (I had seen the FAQ but not the command line suggestion, and I realized that defaulting to the E: drive folder meant something was persisting in the settings, but I couldn't figure out what to do about it).