MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - bulk add has File Path instead of author name

Merischino · 05-01-2025, 07:34 PM

Hi,

I'm on a MacBook air on Sequoia 15.4.1, running Calibre 8.3.

I have been trying and failing to resurrect my calibre library, and have been through several iterations including efforts to relocate a library, backup and restore a library, migrate books from one library to another using the "copy to" function, export and later importing. Something seems to always go wrong, and I have referred to many good threads here but have yet to have success.

My latest attempt is to begin again, by adding 20 years worth of original ebook files and formats to a completely new calibre library. Unfortunately, this is naturally going to result in having to compile and correct a lot of metadata, again. I'm ok with that, but only up to the point where it's truly necessary. The problem right now is that when I try to add groups of books, they come in with the kind of data that requires individual, manual correction. Like putting file paths into the database instead of author name, title, or series information. or random nonsensical system gook instead of proper data.

The nuances of importing formerly exported libraries has caused me to put a lot of time into correcting calibre settings, and I have spent a good deal of time with the "adding books" settings. Thank God for the "ignore file formats" and "merge" options there! I am still struggling though with the correct file name / metadata conventions for arriving at a calibre instance with authors where they belong, titles where they belong, series if present where it belongs, and of course file paths, not being wanted, nowhere to be found.

When I test my settings from within the settings dialog, my authors/titles/series mostly fit where they ought to. However, when I perform a "bulk" import of a folder full of books, the Author is the Title and the Title is the path to the file.

Does anyone have an idea how I can fix that? Where I need to I can flip author and title as i need, and where series exist i can usually bulk-edit metadata for the series to get where i need to go. I just do not want to have to manually go through 80k books to remove a file path and figure out what needs to be there instead.

the adding books settings also seem to rely on the filename for the metadata... i'm wondering how I could either force the filename as source, or alternatively force the scraping of metadata from within the file instead.

05-01-2025, 07:34 PM	#1
Merischino Groupie Posts: 199 Karma: 436584 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: the beautiful Pacific Northwest Device: Kindle Oasis, Pixel 2, Kindle Fire HD 8	bulk add has File Path instead of author name Hi, I'm on a MacBook air on Sequoia 15.4.1, running Calibre 8.3. I have been trying and failing to resurrect my calibre library, and have been through several iterations including efforts to relocate a library, backup and restore a library, migrate books from one library to another using the "copy to" function, export and later importing. Something seems to always go wrong, and I have referred to many good threads here but have yet to have success. My latest attempt is to begin again, by adding 20 years worth of original ebook files and formats to a completely new calibre library. Unfortunately, this is naturally going to result in having to compile and correct a lot of metadata, again. I'm ok with that, but only up to the point where it's truly necessary. The problem right now is that when I try to add groups of books, they come in with the kind of data that requires individual, manual correction. Like putting file paths into the database instead of author name, title, or series information. or random nonsensical system gook instead of proper data. The nuances of importing formerly exported libraries has caused me to put a lot of time into correcting calibre settings, and I have spent a good deal of time with the "adding books" settings. Thank God for the "ignore file formats" and "merge" options there! I am still struggling though with the correct file name / metadata conventions for arriving at a calibre instance with authors where they belong, titles where they belong, series if present where it belongs, and of course file paths, not being wanted, nowhere to be found. When I test my settings from within the settings dialog, my authors/titles/series mostly fit where they ought to. However, when I perform a "bulk" import of a folder full of books, the Author is the Title and the Title is the path to the file. Does anyone have an idea how I can fix that? Where I need to I can flip author and title as i need, and where series exist i can usually bulk-edit metadata for the series to get where i need to go. I just do not want to have to manually go through 80k books to remove a file path and figure out what needs to be there instead. the adding books settings also seem to rely on the filename for the metadata... i'm wondering how I could either force the filename as source, or alternatively force the scraping of metadata from within the file instead. Attached Thumbnails