Inconsistent syncing with Calibre's updated book files

[PatNY]

First, Charles, thanks for all the hard work you put into CC. I really like the new feature of syncing updated book files with Calibre. Do you know I recently updated to Windows 7 just so I could use this new feature? Microsoft should give you a commission!

This feature seems to work most of the time, but I am seeing some inconsistencies. Sometimes, updated files in Calibre do not sync over. I am not sure if it is an issue with Calibre, CC, both, or simply user error.

I have identified at least one scenario where this happens. If I open a book in Calibre's native reader and make a new bookmark and then close out of the reader, the epub file is updated in Calibre. But when I immediately sort on the column "Modified" the book sometimes will not jump to the top of the list. As such, when I sync with CC, the book file is not updated in CC. This happens often and I can easily repeat it. When I open the folder the book is in, I can see the epub file has definitely been updated. But for some reason, Calibre is not registering the modified date properly?

In addition, sometimes in Calibre when I sort on the "Modified" column a book jumps to the top of the list, but I have neither changed the epub file or used Calibre's metadata editor on them. These changed books are then automatically synced to CC. I have no clue how or why these books are being changed. Is CC somehow modifying the metadata in Calibre, unbeknownst to me?

I am running Calibre 2.9 on my laptop and CC 3.5.6 on both the devices that I sync with Calibre. Both devices are running Android 4.4.4.

--Pat

[chaley]

Originally Posted by PatNY

First, Charles, thanks for all the hard work you put into CC. I really like the new feature of syncing updated book files with Calibre. Do you know I recently updated to Windows 7 just so I could use this new feature? Microsoft should give you a commission!

Don't I wish.

This feature seems to work most of the time, but I am seeing some inconsistencies. Sometimes, updated files in Calibre do not sync over. I am not sure if it is an issue with Calibre, CC, both, or simply user error.

I have identified at least one scenario where this happens. If I open a book in Calibre's native reader and make a new bookmark and then close out of the reader, the epub file is updated in Calibre. But when I immediately sort on the column "Modified" the book sometimes will not jump to the top of the list. As such, when I sync with CC, the book file is not updated in CC. This happens often and I can easily repeat it. When I open the folder the book is in, I can see the epub file has definitely been updated. But for some reason, Calibre is not registering the modified date properly?

The "modified" column on the book has no effect on book syncing. It is used by CC only for metadata syncing. As you noticed, changing the date of the book does not change the metadata date.

If the book date changes to something newer than the date of the book on your device, calibre should send the book to CC. The modified date will not be changed by this process. Are you sure the book is not being sent? If you are, then a calibre (not CC) debug log will tell us what is happening. The file mod times of the book in CC and in calibre are both logged, as is which books are sent.

I do suspect that there is a problem with "Update cached metadata on device" and book syncing. I think I have seen cases where the sequence a) connect CC to calibre, b) modify a book, c) choose "Update cached metadata"; does not send the modified book. It was sent on the next connect.

In addition, sometimes in Calibre when I sort on the "Modified" column a book jumps to the top of the list, but I have neither changed the epub file or used Calibre's metadata editor on them. These changed books are then automatically synced to CC. I have no clue how or why these books are being changed. Is CC somehow modifying the metadata in Calibre, unbeknownst to me?

Calibre's last mod time can change for a lot of reasons that are not related to changing a particular book. Some examples:

• Changing the case of a tag while editing metadata for one book. This will touch every book with that tag.
• Changing an author's name in Manage Authors. This will touch every book with that author. The same is true for almost every other metadata item such as publisher, series, etc.
• Using a plugin that can modify multiple books, such as manage series.
• Changing the template of a column built from other columns.
• Asking calibre to back up metadata.

The only scenario where CC can affect calibre's last modified date is if you have turned on "read" syncing, and the info is synced for a book. In that case the smart device driver updates calibre's db, which will update the last mod date.