Quote:
Originally Posted by barlowrm
Apart from linguistic opinions, could you maybe suggest the most efficient way to keep a relatively large calibre library (~5000 books, 10GB) always sync-ed between a computer and a tablet? One-way sync (from pc to tablet) is really all I need: I don't expect to be ever editing the library from the tablet.
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It really depends on how you use calibre and what the "one-way sync" is expected to do.
First: 5000 books isn't particularly large. The biggest CC library I know of is around 35,000 books. Around 6% of CC users have libraries larger than 5,000 books.
If you never change metadata (where "metadata" includes the cover) for a book in calibre then any of the connection types will do the job. Once the library is in CC then it is easy to add new books. For example, in the cloud connection you could go to "Newest" and then "Download all". CC will download any book not already in its library. The same option exists in the content server. However, neither of these connection types will update metadata for books already in CC's library. The wireless device (WD) supports calibre's On-Device, so sending new books is easy.
If you change metadata (updating tags or what-have-you) and want to see those changes in CC, then you should use the WD. The WD automatically updates all metadata for books on every connection. The update process is highly optimized to ensure that the check is fast and only changes are sent to CC. It doesn't matter which connection was the original source for a book in CC. You can use the cloud or content server on an as-needed basis, then use the WD connection to check and update metadata. CC users use the WD much more frequently than the other 2 connection types.
If you frequently edit books in the library, something that seems to happen frequently with fanfic, then from time to time you could use the WD connection variant that syncs changed book files from calibre to CC. You might not want to do this check every time because it is relatively slow. Calibre must check the mod-time of every book to see if it is newer than the one in CC's library.
In all cases you will need to get the original library into CC. Assuming you have a reasonable WiFi connection, I suspect that transferring using WD connection will take around a second per book. You will definitely want to look at this FAQ:
I have added a lot of books and now adding books takes forever. What do I do? before doing the transfer.
If you use the WD connection then you might also want to use either the Reading List plugin or the Smart Eject plugin to help manage sending new books to CC. Reading List can be set up to detect books not on the device and send them automatically. By using that feature and CC's auto-connect feature you can set things up so that new books and new metadata is sent to the device at some chosen time every day.
There are lots of users who can help with specific usage questions, etc. If this answer isn't enough then I suggest you start a new thread with a title that helps people know what information you are looking for.