Prevent book delete/metadata edit

[TrentWell]

Is there any way to prevent a book from accidentally getting deleted or the metadata changed after it's 'perfect'?

I know there's lots of strategies using tags and searches and such, but I still seem to find myself re-editing/scraping metadata from books that were already done earlier.

Is there a way to prevent either accidentally deleting a book or editing its metadata once I'm 'done' with it?

[theducks]

Not really.
1)have a custom column to mark Metadata is now Golden. Use a VL to exclude these titles, when working on metadata updates. (outa-sight...out-harms way)

2)Embed Golden metadata into the book. Allows recovery FROM the book. (the brown book icon in the MDE)

3)Backups for those moments.

4)Plain old care. IMHO BULK (many books) operations are a chance to mess up and include a couple of wrong ones (those you did not want to change).

5)Use the content server for tasks where no changes are needed

6)A second batch of backups (different media and location)

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by theducks

Not really.
1)have a custom column to mark Metadata is now Golden. Use a VL to exclude these titles, when working on metadata updates. (outa-sight...out-harms way)

2)Embed Golden metadata into the book. Allows recovery FROM the book. (the brown book icon in the MDE)

3)Backups for those moments.

4)Plain old care. IMHO BULK (many books) operations are a chance to mess up and include a couple of wrong ones (those you did not want to change).

5)Use the content server for tasks where no changes are needed

6)A second batch of backups (different media and location)

Yep, the above. #1 is especially helpful.

Additions to my library are automatically marked with a [new] tag. I have a virtual library based on this tag and set it as the default VL to open (Preference > Behavior > Virtual library to apply when the current library is opened). Once I'm done editing metadata, that's when I remove the [new] tag.

I have two sets of backup scripts (backing up to two different folders), one I run before I change anything and the other I run after I get all the metadata and conversions fixed to my liking.

On top of the before & after full library backups, I also make it a habit to create a copy of metadata.db (with a descriptive filename) for any major library refactoring/reorganization.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by theducks

Not really.
1)have a custom column to mark Metadata is now Golden. Use a VL to exclude these titles, when working on metadata updates. (outa-sight...out-harms way)

2)Embed Golden metadata into the book. Allows recovery FROM the book. (the brown book icon in the MDE)

3)Backups for those moments.

4)Plain old care. IMHO BULK (many books) operations are a chance to mess up and include a couple of wrong ones (those you did not want to change).

5)Use the content server for tasks where no changes are needed

6)A second batch of backups (different media and location)

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔️

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Yep, the above. #1 is especially helpful.

Additions to my library are automatically marked with a [new] tag. I have a virtual library based on this tag and set it as the default VL to open (Preference > Behavior > Virtual library to apply when the current library is opened). Once I'm done editing metadata, that's when I remove the [new] tag.

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔️

I add books to an Intake library and get the basics (title, authors, publisher, pubdate, subtitle, subtitle and primary tags) right before moving to target library. I have an Admin Tags custom column which is where I put a new tag, I use the built in Tags column strictly for subject tagging.

And I add a customised (all columns) book jacket to the final version of EPUBs, which I move to the back of the book with Sigil. Sigil because I can remove superfluous metadata easier in it (F8), than I can in the calibre editor (text edit content.opf).

BR

[TrentWell]

I've already tried a variety of methods (most similar to what you've already listed) I was just hoping there was a way to make metadata changes 'read only' so that if I tried to update something, it would prevent me, or at a minimum notify me about overwriting approved changes.

Columns and tags and such are OK, but it'd be easier to have a checkbox somewhere that says "Prevent Metadata changes" and set that once done. That's the kind of thing I was hoping for.

[PeterT]

Maybe look at [GUI Plugin] Audit Log