[normanstein]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I do see metadata.db on the desktop.

I've started to do what you suggest and got as far as

Do you see Desktop? Choose it.

I did that but then do not see a list of books.

Many folders are still on the desktop.

I await further instructions.

Norman

On the desktop there is also a file called metadata_db_prefs_backup.json.

In addition, here are two error files generated by Calibre in the course of my attempts.

calibre, version 2.36.0
ERROR: Failed: Restoring database failed, click Show details to see details

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\db\restore.py", line 125, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\db\restore.py", line 276, in replace_db
File "shutil.py", line 83, in copyfile
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'C:\\Users\\USER\\Documents\\Calibre Library\\metadata_pre_restore.db'


calibre, version 2.36.0
Corrupted database: The library database at C:\Users\USER\Documents\Calibre Library appears to be corrupted. Do you want calibre to try and rebuild it automatically? The rebuild may not be completely successful.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 631, in library_moved
File "site-packages\calibre\db\legacy.py", line 73, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\db\legacy.py", line 46, in create_backend
File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 362, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\db\schema_upgrades.py", line 18, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 806, in execute
File "c:\cygwin64\home\kovid\sw\build\apsw-3.8.2-r1\src\cursor.c", line 231, in resetcursor
ReadOnlyError: ReadOnlyError: attempt to write a readonly database
Perhaps they'll help you to understand what's going on.

All the best,

Norman