[Beanxx!]

I have been collecting my library for over a decade. It includes more than 3,000 books and more than 6,000 papers, including my entire professional library I was keeping them on my computer alone, but when my books and papers passed the 5,000 mark, I began to get really scared about what might happen if my computer were stolen, or my hard disk died suddenly. Each of these things has happened to me In the past, and I still do not have a great local backup system. But now I back up my important writing and my library to Dropbox. At first I had a lot of trouble because Dropbox and other programs fought for control of my files. But I learned to pause Dropbox sync whenever I was doing anything that would change one of the files, and that pretty much solved the problem.

I did not really start gathering books and papers seriously until I began using Caliber Companion. It makes it enormously easier to find books and papers. I have put aa great deal of time into choosing and applying useful labels. Also, ir is just easier to read things on my tablet. It is lighter and easy to take along, and the screen is brighter and sharper than that of my laptop.

Recently my tablet was destroyed, damaged beyond repair, in an accident. I bought a new Samsung tablet, similar to my old one but a bit bigger. I transferred my apps to my new tablet and updated them. Then I tried to sign into my Dropbox library. Or rather, tried to. Using Googe to sign into Dropbox.
And for the last four hours, Calibre Companion is just reporting ”Authenticating.”

I know zilch about how authenticating works. I see stuff in this thread that looks like it should solve my problem, but I do not understand it well enough to even try to implement the fix. I am 66, and not a computer person at all, and I do not have an IT department. I am just a one-man shop. I am in a total panic at the thought of losing my library. It is not so much spending another $40,000 that is frightening, as finding all that stuff again. A lot of it I have no idea where I originally got I, including unique documents not easily available elsewhere.

Well, actually it is not quite that bad. I still have my local copy of my library. But to read them with comfort, I would have to transfer each boog individually to my tablet. Individually because my tablet memory is not nearly large enough to hold my library. Not even close. And trying to read book-length documents on my laptop gives me a blinding headache.

Is there any possibility that Calibre can go back to the old system, so that CC on my tablet will work again? If not, could I get one of those “Explain it to me like I was five” – type instructions on how to make CC work again on my tablet? Perhaps work differently, but work. I would be happy to pay for a software upgrade if that would help. Or is there another cloud service that still works with CC if I copy my library to it and is expected to continue to work?