Matadata management for Kindle

CaitlinShaw · 01-17-2011, 01:32 PM

I have a feeling I'm missing something obvious -- can anyone help me out?

I have a Kindle 3 and Calibre 0.7.37, and I am trying to manage the metadata on my books. I have a number of older DRM-free ebooks loaded on my Kindle, so I loaded them into my Calibre library and cleaned up the metadata on some of them, but I can't figure out how to get the metadata corrections back into my Kindle without deleting the books from my Kindle and re-adding them from Calibre.

Under Preferences -> Import/Export -> Sending books to devices I have the "metadata management" option set to "automatic management", but that doesn't seem to do anything for my Kindle, even though it says that it will keep my metadata in sync every time I connect my device.

If I try to send the books to my Kindle without deleting them first, I end up with two copies of each book on my Kindle, so that's not the way to do it.

If I do delete the books and re-add them, I can see the metadata as I set it in Calibre, so I know that Calibre is correctly setting the metadata on my books.

What am I missing?

chaley · 01-17-2011, 01:51 PM

You aren't missing anything. That is how the kindle and calibre work together.

Amazon provides no way for calibre to update metadata for books (or anything else, for that matter), so automatic management doesn't do much on a Kindle (calibre keeps its own metadata cache up to date). This is also why collection information is not updated on kindles. You end up with two copies because the path names have metadata in them. You can delete the old copy before or after sending the new one.

CaitlinShaw · 01-17-2011, 09:40 PM

Oh, botheration! That is very frustrating.

Thank you for letting me know before I pulled out any more of my hair!

01-17-2011, 01:32 PM	#1
CaitlinShaw Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Kindle 3	Matadata management for Kindle I have a feeling I'm missing something obvious -- can anyone help me out? I have a Kindle 3 and Calibre 0.7.37, and I am trying to manage the metadata on my books. I have a number of older DRM-free ebooks loaded on my Kindle, so I loaded them into my Calibre library and cleaned up the metadata on some of them, but I can't figure out how to get the metadata corrections back into my Kindle without deleting the books from my Kindle and re-adding them from Calibre. Under Preferences -> Import/Export -> Sending books to devices I have the "metadata management" option set to "automatic management", but that doesn't seem to do anything for my Kindle, even though it says that it will keep my metadata in sync every time I connect my device. If I try to send the books to my Kindle without deleting them first, I end up with two copies of each book on my Kindle, so that's not the way to do it. If I do delete the books and re-add them, I can see the metadata as I set it in Calibre, so I know that Calibre is correctly setting the metadata on my books. What am I missing?

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01-17-2011, 01:51 PM	#2
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,343 Karma: 8012652 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	You aren't missing anything. That is how the kindle and calibre work together. Amazon provides no way for calibre to update metadata for books (or anything else, for that matter), so automatic management doesn't do much on a Kindle (calibre keeps its own metadata cache up to date). This is also why collection information is not updated on kindles. You end up with two copies because the path names have metadata in them. You can delete the old copy before or after sending the new one.

01-17-2011, 09:40 PM	#3
CaitlinShaw Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Kindle 3	Oh, botheration! That is very frustrating. Thank you for letting me know before I pulled out any more of my hair!

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