Sync issues after transferring library over USB

[bsk]

I tried to transfer most of my library from Calibre to CC over USB after an initial wireless transfer of about 1/3 of it took a really long time. But I couldn't get it to find the files I had transferred over, even though they ended up in the "calibre_companion" folder on the device. Then, the next time I connected wirelessly, it got stuck for a really long time (~20 minutes) in some metadata-fetching loop. Calibre stopped responding and I had to force quit it. Now I can find some (but not all) of the books in my library on CC, but they all show weird "ERROR: SERIES_SORT NOT IN METADATA" things attached.

Can someone explain what's going on and how to fix it?

[chaley]

CC does not play well with USB connections. You should use one or the other.

Assuming the "scan on connnect" option is checked (and it is by default), when you connect as a wireless device CC will look for new books in its folders. If it finds some then it attempts to extract some metadata, adds the books, and then sends the books to calibre for analysis. Calibre will attempt to match the books with books in your library and will send back correct metadata. By killing calibre you interrupted the process, leaving CC with books with bad/incorrect metadata.

The way to fix it is to connect CC as a wireless device and let the process finish. The analysis phase can take a long time.

What version of CC and what version of calibre are you running?

[bsk]

That's too bad, as the wireless sync is incredibly slow and flaky for me (I usually have to enter the IP and port manually, which is really annoying because they change all the time).

So you're saying that there's no way to transfer the books any more quickly (since the process of acquiring metadata after having transferred the books was just as slow)? That's unfortunate--it's already been syncing for a couple hours and it's no more than 1/3 of the way done. I guess future syncs will hopefully take less time.

I'm using the latest Google Play Store version of CC and Calibre 2.13.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by bsk

So you're saying that there's no way to transfer the books any more quickly (since the process of acquiring metadata after having transferred the books was just as slow)? That's unfortunate--it's already been syncing for a couple hours and it's no more than 1/3 of the way done. I guess future syncs will hopefully take less time.

There is something very wrong with what you are seeing. Normally syncing takes less than a second per book, usually more like a quarter second. Some users report that they can send around 5000 books in around an hour, and can fully sync that many books in less than 10 minutes. To test this, I just cleared the CC database on one of my devices then connected. This simulates sending books over USB. There were 450 epubs in CC's folders. CC scanned and sent the computed metadata to calibre in slightly under 5 minutes. Calibre spent 20 seconds analyzing the books, then spent 3 minutes sending the correct metadata back to calibre.

Where is this time being spent? Is it in calibre itself, analyzing the books? Or is it in sending the books to calibre? The former shows itself in CC ans "Waiting for calibre". The latter has a progress bar. If it is in calibre during analysis then it will show a percentage done in its status bar.

How many books are on your device?

Have you turned on book syncing, and have you chosen the "connect and sync books" option? If so, then calibre must check the mod time of every book. This will be very slow if your calibre library is on a NAS, as will many other calibre operations (assuming they work at all on a NAS, which is problematic).

[bsk]

I have a couple hundred books, many of which are fairly large PDFs. The rest of the sync went faster (I forgot that my library was sorted descending by size!), but it was still quite slow overall. Most of the time is being spent actually downloading the books from Calibre, which seems to be going at about 200 kbps or thereabouts judging from a few sample books. (My book library is multiple gigabytes.)

Calibre isn't on a NAS, it's on my laptop (Macbook Pro).

By the way, I'm also seeing ads whenever I press "back" out of the default reader to CC. Is this the Nook's fault, or CC's?

Thanks for your help!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by bsk

I have a couple hundred books, many of which are fairly large PDFs. The rest of the sync went faster (I forgot that my library was sorted descending by size!), but it was still quite slow overall. Most of the time is being spent actually downloading the books from Calibre, which seems to be going at about 200 kbps or thereabouts judging from a few sample books. (My book library is multiple gigabytes.)

Ahhhh...

CC can't extract metadata from a PDF, so it sends the entire file back to calibre for analysis. If the files are large, this will definitely take time. A long time. With PDF it is always faster to transfer them via CC then to let CC's scan find them.

As for speed, that depends on a lot of things. I just ran three tests with a 13 MB CBR book.
1) Laptop on WiFi, device on different access point: 196 seconds, or 530Kbit/sec
2) Laptop on cable, device on WiFi: 8 seconds, or 13 Mb/sec
3) Laptop and device on same access point in same room: 23 seconds, or 4.5Kb/sec.

I don't know how your Mac is connected, but I suspect it is by WiFi. That, plus possible channel collision from neighbors, could account for the slow transfer rates you are seeing.

By the way, I'm also seeing ads whenever I press "back" out of the default reader to CC. Is this the Nook's fault, or CC's?

CC has no ads at all in any version, so I must assume it is the Nook.

Thanks for your help!

You are very welcome.