Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob
One thing you should be aware of is that you can't run Calibre on more than one at the same time. Kovid has said that calibre isn't written to expect changes to the database from external sources. It is a minor issue.
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It's only minor until it bites you in the you-know-what. The reason you should not run two copies of Calibre at the same time and pointed to the same library is because the first version of Calibre may be doing something important when the second tries to change the database.
By using dropbox, you are doing the same thing. You may be risking the loss of your Calibre database. I'm not saying it's likely, but I don't want to risk it.
It seems to me it's more than just the risk of running two copies of Calibre at the same time. Any time dropbox thinks it has a newer file, it's likely to want to overwrite. That can arise when the clock is wrong on one machine due to daylight savings time errors. Or you may update the database on computer 1, which updates dropbox, but computer 2 did not gain internet access until you were in the middle of Calibre. I would hope that you could at least run dropbox in a manual update mode to prevent inadvertent overwrites.
I don't know how dropbox is designed, but just be careful and make backups. I do run a sync program, but I do it manually. I also run a backup.
Finally, consider whether the remote access of content server will do what you need with less risk. I keep a single copy of Calibre, but can access it worldwide via phone, PDA and laptop.
(Sorry if I've thrown cold water on those who are happy with dropbox, but that's how I see it. I'm willing to listen to contrary views if you think I'm wrong.)