[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

if I succumb to the temptation to just install the whole library with CC ( but epub only - excluding original-epub backups) what is the best / quickest way please.

"best" and "quickest" might give different answers.

calibre says I have 1500+ books but I think it counts each format as a separate book, & I don't want the backups

No, calibre counts a book as a book. It does not count the formats in the books as individual books.

so should I just hit download all -& let it happen, or should I do something with USB.

If your goal is to get the books into CC then in general you do not use the cable. CC does not see books downloaded over USB. Instead it must find them with a scan for missing books.

If all the books are EPUB then it *might* be faster to send the books to CC over the wire and let CC find them when you connect as a wireless device. The reason: when CC scans for books, it must send the books to calibre for metadata analysis. This is slow. However, CC can extract metadata from epubs and send that, avoiding the slow send of the entire book. Calibre will analyze that metadata, match to books in the library, and send back the correct metadata. What isn't clear is whether the cable send + sending back the metadata + receiving the metadata is faster than just sending the books.

Personally, I would just select the books I want and send them over the wireless device connection. Have a cup of coffee (or tea) while it does its thing.

are there any "recommended" tricks that i should do with custom columns. virtual libraries/tags that I shoudl consider doing before i go for a big one-off download.
E.g. I have a custom column in calibre for"read" ( values Y, blank=no, i = in progress, q= gave up & quit reading ) - it would be good to see that in CC.

CC will receive the columns.

CC can sync is_read columns iff a) the is_read info is a calibre yes/no column and the is_read_date is a calibre custom date/time column. It cannot sync text columns. The synced is_read column appears in the book list. If you want to use these synced columns then it is best to do the setup both in calibre and in CC before sending the books, because that will avoid the rather slow CC "database upgrade" you will get when you do it later. The only penalty for waiting is the upgrade.

Non-synced columns can appear in CC's book details, grouping drawer, and sort menu. At some point in the future you will be able to add them to the book list.

It is hard to be more specific about 'tips' because it really depends on what you want to see and how you want to organize. For example, in a previous thread you asked about whether you could group by format because PDFs were one thing and everything else was something else. You might want to create a custom column, a tag, or something that indicates that "one thing".

Note that it is easy to change your mind. If you add or delete custom columns to calibre they will be in CC after the next sync (which may take a bit of time because all books will have changed). You can at any time tell CC to use a custom column, which will add it to the grouping drawer and the sort menu. Doing so also takes some time because CC must do the "database upgrade": scan the DB and build the appropriate tables.

Then to keep the PC & tablet libraries in sync: you previously advised that connect as wireless device will check & sync all metadata -
how should I connect to pickup & sync any new additions to PC calibre ?

Use the smart-eject plugin (thanks to DoctorOhh for pointing this out). It can tell you during a wireless device connection what books are in calibre's library that are not on the device.

Ditto for how to manage anything that I have now deleted from PC calibre ?

Select books in calibre's device view with In-Library == false, then delete them.

PS - FYI: testing for another issue proved that USB is much quicker than wireless, for PC to Kindle Fire. I was wanting a 1GB video file - it took ~20mins over wi-fi & corrupted anyway with ES explorer, the same file took around 1 minute , & worked!, via USB

This depends on the device and the network. For my Galaxy Nexus when I am close to my WiFi hub, wifi is sometimes faster than the cable. For my Nexus 7 WiFi is never as fast as a cable. That said, I never use the cable to transfer anything. MTP is so strange and unreliable (in general, not just in calibre) that I would rather transfer it using some other mechanism, usually via WiFi through my Synology NAS.