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Georgie W · 12-02-2024, 02:21 PM

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

I ran Check Library, including the second stage checking if the files in the library matched the database. [And I should have thought of doing that earlier.] For almost all pre 19 Nov books, there was a second book folder. E.g. In the File Explorer display of the data base, there was a folder "Peter Ackroyd" with two sub-folders "Hawksmoor (506)" [created 09/03/2022] and "Hawksmoor (3020)" [created 30/11/2024]. 506 & 3020 being the numbers Calibre allocates to book entries.

The earlier 506 folder has both cover.jpg and metadata.opf (both dated 9/3/22). But the metadata in 506 is ONLY Basic Metadata—all my Custom Metadata fields (Dewey no/ Price / format / condition etc) are now shown as Undefined. So in Calibre, I get the cover of the 506 book but only basic metadata.

However, the later 3020 one has only metadata.opf (dated 30/11/24 - I did not create this). If I look at the Book Details for the 3020 book, both basic and custom metadata are present. In Calibre, there is no cover, but full metadata.

So the DB Browser for SQLite has been picking up the earlier folder info ONLY. And I have nearly 1000 duplicate book entries. To date, I have used the Show Duplicates add-in to show me the duplicates; it's clear from the column entry "Dewey no" which book contains the fuller metadata (e.g. 3020) , and I've used copy / paste to transfer the cover image from 506 to 3020. I've then deleted 506. It's a slow process, and one I resent having to do.

For the record, I also renamed the Caches folder (which was empty), and restarted Calibre. That made no difference; the new Caches folder was also empty—I don't know whether that's expected behaviour or not.

I'm conscious that what I'm describing is confusing (well, I'm confused, anyway), and I am really struggling to see how I can have duplicated my library in a way that means that the old entries lose half their metadata whereas new entries retain the metadata but lose the cover images. Sorta illogical, captain.

12-02-2024, 02:21 PM	#13
Georgie W Connoisseur Posts: 96 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Scotland Device: KT4 5.13.6	Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I ran Check Library, including the second stage checking if the files in the library matched the database. [And I should have thought of doing that earlier.] For almost all pre 19 Nov books, there was a second book folder. E.g. In the File Explorer display of the data base, there was a folder "Peter Ackroyd" with two sub-folders "Hawksmoor (506)" [created 09/03/2022] and "Hawksmoor (3020)" [created 30/11/2024]. 506 & 3020 being the numbers Calibre allocates to book entries. The earlier 506 folder has both cover.jpg and metadata.opf (both dated 9/3/22). But the metadata in 506 is ONLY Basic Metadata—all my Custom Metadata fields (Dewey no/ Price / format / condition etc) are now shown as Undefined. So in Calibre, I get the cover of the 506 book but only basic metadata. However, the later 3020 one has only metadata.opf (dated 30/11/24 - I did not create this). If I look at the Book Details for the 3020 book, both basic and custom metadata are present. In Calibre, there is no cover, but full metadata. So the DB Browser for SQLite has been picking up the earlier folder info ONLY. And I have nearly 1000 duplicate book entries. To date, I have used the Show Duplicates add-in to show me the duplicates; it's clear from the column entry "Dewey no" which book contains the fuller metadata (e.g. 3020) , and I've used copy / paste to transfer the cover image from 506 to 3020. I've then deleted 506. It's a slow process, and one I resent having to do. For the record, I also renamed the Caches folder (which was empty), and restarted Calibre. That made no difference; the new Caches folder was also empty—I don't know whether that's expected behaviour or not. I'm conscious that what I'm describing is confusing (well, I'm confused, anyway), and I am really struggling to see how I can have duplicated my library in a way that means that the old entries lose half their metadata whereas new entries retain the metadata but lose the cover images. Sorta illogical, captain.