MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Best practice for sharing Calibre library with Dropbox

Sirtel · 03-23-2020, 09:26 AM

More likely that your library database is out of sync with your library files. That can happen very easily when you keep your library in a cloud.

The golden rule re Calibre and Dropbox is: pause the syncing while Calibre is open and never have either Dropbox or Calibre running on two computers at the same time. If you keep Dropbox constantly syncing in the background, you'll end up with a corrupted library in no time.

I keep my Calibre library in Dropbox too and use it on 2 Windows 10 PCs. I do things in the following order:

Run Dropbox and let it sync
Pause Dropbox
Open Calibre, do what's needed there
Close Calibre
Resume Dropbox and let it sync
Close Dropbox

Now when I go to my other PC, I do the same steps there. Still, conflicted copies do creep in and I run the Library Maintenance regularly, to remove those.

All in all, it's a lot of bother and it's very easy to mess up your library, even if you're cautious. Back-up copies of the library are a must, and best not to keep all of those in a cloud, but some on external drives, for example. And don't forget to update your backups regularly.

03-23-2020, 09:26 AM	#2
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,582 Karma: 240526511 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	More likely that your library database is out of sync with your library files. That can happen very easily when you keep your library in a cloud. The golden rule re Calibre and Dropbox is: pause the syncing while Calibre is open and never have either Dropbox or Calibre running on two computers at the same time. If you keep Dropbox constantly syncing in the background, you'll end up with a corrupted library in no time. I keep my Calibre library in Dropbox too and use it on 2 Windows 10 PCs. I do things in the following order: Run Dropbox and let it sync Pause Dropbox Open Calibre, do what's needed there Close Calibre Resume Dropbox and let it sync Close Dropbox Now when I go to my other PC, I do the same steps there. Still, conflicted copies do creep in and I run the Library Maintenance regularly, to remove those. All in all, it's a lot of bother and it's very easy to mess up your library, even if you're cautious. Back-up copies of the library are a must, and best not to keep all of those in a cloud, but some on external drives, for example. And don't forget to update your backups regularly.