I want the 'on device' column to stay

[Iskariot]

I have been searching the calibre forums for this, but nothing turned up.

What I would like is the 'on device' column, that shows up when I connect my Sony device, to stay when I disconnect it. The column should be permanent.

I would like to be able to see at all times which books were uploaded to the device. And it would be even nicer if I could also see when they were uploaded, but that is less important.

I have been looking at the calibre settings but could not find anything. I can't imagine there is no such setting.

Can anyone help me out?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Iskariot

I have been searching the calibre forums for this, but nothing turned up.

What I would like is the 'on device' column, that shows up when I connect my Sony device, to stay when I disconnect it. The column should be permanent.

I would like to be able to see at all times which books were uploaded to the device. And it would be even nicer if I could also see when they were uploaded, but that is less important.

I have been looking at the calibre settings but could not find anything. I can't imagine there is no such setting.

Can anyone help me out?

You did not look far enough back

You have one device. I have 2, some have 6
See what happens? Thats why they don't stick.

Now you can make a (T-F) custom column and then (de)populate it FROM the ondevice column using bulk metadata edit (custom columns or S&R tab).

[Iskariot]

Originally Posted by theducks

You did not look far enough back

You have one device. I have 2, some have 6
See what happens? Thats why they don't stick.

Now you can make a (T-F) custom column and then (de)populate it FROM the ondevice column using bulk metadata edit (custom columns or S&R tab).

I thought I had read something about it somewhere.

You are right of course. If one owns more than 1 device this would become a problem. Did not think about that.

But your advice how to go about it is a bit cryptic to me. I have only been doing some minor stuff with custom columns so far.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Iskariot

I thought I had read something about it somewhere.

You are right of course. If one owns more than 1 device this would become a problem. Did not think about that.

But your advice how to go about it is a bit cryptic to me. I have only been doing some minor stuff with custom columns so far.

Cryptic?
Once you know whats on the device (Search ondevice:true) Select all
change the state of your custom column using the Bulk meta-edit to: true
do the reverse: Not ondevice:true Select all, change your custom column to false

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by theducks

Cryptic?

Yes, cryptic.

To a new user your info is often cryptic, to you and I it is clear as a bell.

T-F = True - False
S&R = Search and Replace

[alecE]

I have two devices, so have created a custom column in Calibre to display the name of the device to which a title was uploaded. Downsides are that the column has to be manually completed within the metadata editor, and that it assumes a title will only ever be loaded on one device.
Does however allow me to create custom searches, eg 'titles destined for device #1 not present on device #1'

Hope this helps.

[capnm]

I find the Reading List plugin helps a lot with this:

I have a custom column, tag style text.
I keep a list for each device, which adds/removes an appropriate tag in the custom column.
After I finish uploading books to a device I clear the list (in the plugin menu 'Edit list', select all, delete), then search ondevice:true, select all, and repopulate the list (in the plugin menu 'Add to list').

Thus my custom column contains a tag-style list of all the devices a given book is on.

I tried to convince kiwidude to automate the list repopulation but he didn't bite , it's still quick 'n easy.

(I also keep lists of what to add/remove from the device, which tasks Reading List does do automatically when I connect -- which is a real delight. But that's beyond the scope of Iskariot's original question.)