MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Copying Library to Windows from Linux (or other Windows installation)

DaltonST · 12-27-2014, 06:20 PM

@grumbles,

An option (a variation of which I have personally used for a different purpose and is described in detail at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...84760#poststop ) would be to make a copy of your metadata.db, put it safely aside, then add your books into Calibre in Windows. Your valuable metadata that will be changed in the process can be manually copied from your sequestered original metadata.db to the new Windows metadata.db using a SQLite manager. Your SQL would have to match on title & author_sort in the books table (more if at all possible, such as isbn from the identifiers table), since the integer book ids and the integer author ids would be different in your new library.

The Calibre table to look at would be "books". Attach the "old" metadata.db, and do something like [example for published date here]: "UPDATE main.books SET pubdate = (SELECT pubdate FROM old.books WHERE old.books.title = main.books.title AND old.books.author_sort = main.books.author_sort AND (whatever else you can match on) . The above example is for pubdate, but it would work for last_modified and timestamp, too. Be careful not to mess with anything that Calibre will create uniquely for the books in the new Windows metadata.db (e.g. path, uuid, etc.). Back up the "new" metadata.db after your books have been added but before executing any of your own SQL queries.

Best of luck.

DaltonST

12-27-2014, 06:20 PM	#3
DaltonST Deviser Posts: 2,265 Karma: 2090983 Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Texas Device: none	@grumbles, An option (a variation of which I have personally used for a different purpose and is described in detail at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...84760#poststop ) would be to make a copy of your metadata.db, put it safely aside, then add your books into Calibre in Windows. Your valuable metadata that will be changed in the process can be manually copied from your sequestered original metadata.db to the new Windows metadata.db using a SQLite manager. Your SQL would have to match on title & author_sort in the books table (more if at all possible, such as isbn from the identifiers table), since the integer book ids and the integer author ids would be different in your new library. The Calibre table to look at would be "books". Attach the "old" metadata.db, and do something like [example for published date here]: "UPDATE main.books SET pubdate = (SELECT pubdate FROM old.books WHERE old.books.title = main.books.title AND old.books.author_sort = main.books.author_sort AND (whatever else you can match on) . The above example is for pubdate, but it would work for last_modified and timestamp, too. Be careful not to mess with anything that Calibre will create uniquely for the books in the new Windows metadata.db (e.g. path, uuid, etc.). Back up the "new" metadata.db after your books have been added but before executing any of your own SQL queries. Best of luck. DaltonST Last edited by DaltonST; 12-29-2014 at 09:41 AM. Reason: Updated information and link to helpful post.