Adding books

[Teeny]

I have a folder in which I have all my books in there. Some of them are inside other folders, so what should I choose so that the books from all the sub-folders are added especially since some might have the same title but not the same author?

Also some of them are available in different format what can I do so only the MOBI is added?

[DaveFalcon73]

In my experience Calibre won't deal with ebooks in multiple sub folders, if you try to drag them into the Calibre window they just don't add. So I have all of my ebooks in a single folder.

Once you have them in a single directory you could sort by file type and just highlight the ones you want to import. However, Calibre will handle them all and allow you to convert them to MOBI or the format of your choice if you want. If the books have DRM then you would need to use a Calibre plugin to remove that on convert.

[Teeny]

@DaveFalcon73
The thing is when you have to add 800+ books its not easy to comb through them and see which have multiple formats and which don't that's why I'm looking to prioritize the MOBI format

[BetterRed]

@Teeny - if you are using Windows 7/8/10

First you need to create a Windows Library, which we'll name 'Ebooks' - you do that from Windows Explorer, so do a Start-Documents or Win+E to bring up a fresh WinExp window.

• in the Navigation panel (left) you should see Libraries, right click it, select New, type 'Ebooks';
  
• under Libraries you should now see something like Documents, Ebooks, Music, Pictures and Videos
  
• navigate to the folder (in the navigation panel) where you have all your books, right click it and select Include in Library->Ebooks;
  
• navigate back to Libraries->Ebooks and you'll see your folder structure in the centre (main) panel;
  
• right click in white space in the centre panel and select Arrange By->Type, you should see something like this (the blue folders are 'virtual folders);
  
  
  
• Now open the virtual folder for MOBI files, select all the files and drag them over to calibre and drop them into the book list.

BR

[Teeny]

@BetterRed

My problem was never that, I have a folder in which all my ebooks are in and I need to clean so instead of checking the ebooks one by one I'll do the cleaning with calibre.

I moved all my ebooks from the subfolders into my main one, and that really is a problem since the ones I keep I have under author folders and I don't see why I can't add a main folder and calibre add books from all the subfolders I have, especially since there's an option of sub-directories even if the rest makes no sense.

My problem is that I have for e.g. 2 ebooks named ThePurgatory.epub and ThePurgatory.mobi, those are 2 different books, not by the same authors, will calibre be able to tell them apart? Or will it only add one thinking the other one is a duplicate of the first?

And my other problem is if for e.g. I have:
royal_street_heist_s.cade.pdf
royal_street_heist_s.cade.epub
royal_street_heist_s.cade.mobi

is there a way to have calibre add the mobi and ask me about the other 2 duplicates if I want them added so that I can choose no?

Also when it comes to adding 200-300 books you can't go looking one by one what duplicates you want added and which you don't.

[DaveFalcon73]

Originally Posted by Teeny

My problem is that I have for e.g. 2 ebooks named ThePurgatory.epub and ThePurgatory.mobi, those are 2 different books, not by the same authors, will calibre be able to tell them apart? Or will it only add one thinking the other one is a duplicate of the first?

If you try to add two ebooks that are identical Calibre will popup a dialog and say you have duplicates, select which one you want to import or choose to cancel. I'm not sure if it does it by file name alone or if it checks other entities like the ISBN number to determine this, so you might have to try it in your situation on one book first and see what happens.

Originally Posted by Teeny

And my other problem is if for e.g. I have:
royal_street_heist_s.cade.pdf
royal_street_heist_s.cade.epub
royal_street_heist_s.cade.mobi

is there a way to have calibre add the mobi and ask me about the other 2 duplicates if I want them added so that I can choose no?

Calibre by itself when you bring in a file (e.g. I bring in an Amazon .azw3 file) you can have it convert it to multiple formats. So by default it converts it on my setup to .epub and .mobi and strips any DRM if necessary. You can then right click the book in Calibre and open folder container and it will show you the same book in each format. So if you have a book in multiple formats there's no need to bring it in in multiple formats because it will convert it for you on adding and have a copy of each format in the ebook container folder for that ebook.

Originally Posted by Teeny

Also when it comes to adding 200-300 books you can't go looking one by one what duplicates you want added and which you don't.

I have had a handful of duplicates myself, not many. I just look through the covers once imported and right click and select remove book if I find any duplicates. Once you've imported them all just do that as a quick cleanup exercise. It might take 30 mins or more with 300 books depending on how many duplicates there are.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Teeny

@BetterRed

My problem was never that, I have a folder in which all my ebooks are in and I need to clean so instead of checking the ebooks one by one I'll do the cleaning with calibre.

I moved all my ebooks from the subfolders into my main one, and that really is a problem since the ones I keep I have under author folders and I don't see why I can't add a main folder and calibre add books from all the subfolders I have, especially since there's an option of sub-directories even if the rest makes no sense.

My problem is that I have for e.g. 2 ebooks named ThePurgatory.epub and ThePurgatory.mobi, those are 2 different books, not by the same authors, will calibre be able to tell them apart? Or will it only add one thinking the other one is a duplicate of the first?

And my other problem is if for e.g. I have:
royal_street_heist_s.cade.pdf
royal_street_heist_s.cade.epub
royal_street_heist_s.cade.mobi

is there a way to have calibre add the mobi and ask me about the other 2 duplicates if I want them added so that I can choose no?

Also when it comes to adding 200-300 books you can't go looking one by one what duplicates you want added and which you don't.

My previous post demonstrates you how you can to use Windows Libraries, which are a native feature of the Windows Operating System to create virtual folders for each file type in your existing folder structure.

This allows the order in which you add the different formats to be optimal, by starting at the biggest group and working through to the smallest.

When I first installed calibre I was faced with a similar situation as you have, except my folders were a shambles spread over 3 devices and I had 25,000+ books. By including my 'shambles' into a single Windows Library and using file type virtual folders it only took me about two days to do the initial load, including weeding out the 1,000+ real duplicates.

Just make sure that Add Books Automerge setting is NOT checked.

BR

[gbm]

Originally Posted by Teeny

I have a folder in which I have all my books in there. Some of them are inside other folders, so what should I choose so that the books from all the sub-folders are added especially since some might have the same title but not the same author?

Also some of them are available in different format what can I do so only the MOBI is added?

You are new to calibre so I suggest that you stop and read the manual.

Quit trying to do your add books the hard way and do it the easy way. Right click add books and select option 2:

Add books from directories, including sub-directories (One book per directory, assumes every ebook file is the same book in a different format): Allows you to choose a directory. The directory and all its sub-directories are scanned recursively, and any ebooks found are added to the library. calibre assumes that each directory contains a single book. All ebook files in a directory are assumed to be the same book in different formats. This action is the inverse of the Save to disk action, i.e. you can Save to disk, delete the books and re-add them with no lost information except for the date (this assumes you have not changed any of the setting for the Save to disk action).

or 3:

Add books from directories, including sub-directories (Multiple books per directory, assumes every ebook file is a different book): Allows you to choose a directory. The directory and all its sub-directories are scanned recursively and any ebooks found are added to the library. calibre assumes that each directory contains many books. All ebook files with the same name in a directory are assumed to be the same book in different formats. Ebooks with different names are added as different books.

Just add all your ebooks to calibre then let it sort them for you.
example search:

format:mobi

will find all the ebooks that are in mobi format.

bernie