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Old 06-24-2014, 08:29 PM   #3
BetterRed
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Posts: 21,820
Karma: 30277270
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Sydney Australia
Device: none
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ma'am-I-Am View Post
When I Add Books to Calibre, is it actually copying the book from my PC ebook directory?
Yes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ma'am-I-Am View Post
If I delete the ebook from my PC directory, can I still access it and transfer it to Kindle from Calibre?
Yes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ma'am-I-Am View Post
If something happens to Calibre and it is no longer usable or if I switch to another software, will I still be able to extract my books from the Calibre database?
Yes, see below for details


Quote:
Originally Posted by Ma'am-I-Am View Post
As I have it set up now (with a copy on my PC and Calibre and some at Amazon), how many copies do I actually have?!
Two on your PC. Maybe one on your Kindle if you put it there. Dunno about Amazon, I would think there would be a record there saying you have the book.

======================

@Ma'am-I-Am - calibre does not store the ebooks themselves (format files) in its database. It stores them as files in a folder structure - Library/Author/Book Title. The folder names reflect what you enter eg I have my libraries in an outer folder named CalibreData, and one of the libraries is named TestLibrary so I have the following folders

Code:
E:\CalibreData\TestLibrary\Daniel Defoe\Moll Flanders (94)
E:\CalibreData\TestLibrary\Daniel Defoe\Robinson Crusoe (86)
In the Robinson Crusoe (86) folder I have this file

Code:
E:\CalibreData\TestLibrary\Daniel Defoe\Robinson Crusoe (86)\Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe.epub
So, should you no longer want to use Calibre, your books will be readily accessible to use via other means.

Calibre has a golden rule you should follow - don't add, change or remove anything from the Library/Author/Book Title folders by any means other than the calibre program.

The Library/Author/Book Title folder structure and naming conventions cannot be changed, period.

However, when sending books to your reader, or saving books to disk etc you have a great deal of flexibility in this regard. In practice this is not a constraint of any real significance because 'everything' is done via calibre's database. One advantage the structure offers to the user is that should you want to stop using calibre then you're not left with something you can't make head or tail of.

BR

Last edited by BetterRed; 06-24-2014 at 09:27 PM. Reason: typo
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