Quote:
Originally Posted by BetterRed
I assume you were importing into an empty library cloned from your actual library - yes/no? On what evidence did you make the judgement that Import List PI was 'stuck'?
The process of importing a ~6500 row CSV into an empty database would create thousands of Author and Book folders, ~6500 metdata.opf files in the book folders, and write many more thousands of rows to dozens of tables in the database? Doesn't surprise me that it wasn't finished after an hour.
The unexpressed reasons I suggested that you create a 'book-less' copy of your library (i.e. one with no format files) were - obviously to reduce the amount of data needing to be transferred to your friend, and less obviously
- to protect you from breaching the copyright terms of your books, and
- to make sure your friend was starting out with a recoverable library. Which means the metadata_db_prefs_backup.json would be included in the archive.
A 'bonus' would be that your friend wouldn't be looking at cover-less (boring) library. And the metdata.opfs, which are a recovery source would be in the book folders. And your friend might also be able to source 'better' covers than you already have.
I urge you to create a subset of your library with a couple of hundred books and experiment with that - in the long run it will save you time.
BR |
Yes, I was cloning a CSV into an empty library. I don't really have any evidence about Import List being stuck (Calibre was unresponsive for an hour or so before I killed it), but I think I don't really get the way Calibre handles this situation. Now that you explain it, I understand all the folders are necessary even though she will be only working on metadata which is stored in the DB file. That basically tells me, perhaps Calibre is not the tool we are looking for. Or, more precisely, we probably need a tool that can work on the calibre DB file without needing to create all those empty folders (seeing the book covers would be nice, but the toll is too high).