How to merge 2 Calibre Libraries?

[Tolkamp]

A friend of my has a Calibre library with books.
Is it possible to add (merge) this library to my own Calibre library?

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by Tolkamp

A friend of my has a Calibre library with books.
Is it possible to add (merge) this library to my own Calibre library?

Yes. Copy his library to your computer, connect to it using the black triangle to the right of the library icon, then select all of the books you want merged and right click, choosing Copy to Library and send them to your library. You can then connect back to your library and delete his library, if desired.

Before doing this, decide if you want duplicate books automatically merged by author/title matching. If so, turn on Automerge in Import/Export|Adding Books. If you want to get all of his books in your library, and manually merge any duplicates (using the Duplicate Finder plugin) turn off AutoMerge.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Tolkamp

A friend of my has a Calibre library with books.
Is it possible to add (merge) this library to my own Calibre library?

Follow Starson's Advice to Import.
but a Warning: When copying the other Library to your HD. Make it a NEW folder location outside of the existing Calibre Library.

Never, Never place (or delete) files or folders inside the Calibre Library.

Think of Calibre as a Governmental office.
It has to fill out all the forms, dot all the "i's" before it will store your book.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by theducks

Warning: When copying the other Library to your HD. Make it a NEW folder location outside of the existing Calibre Library.

Never, Never place (or delete) files or folders inside the Calibre Library.

There have been a few cases where the library contents (all the folders named for the authors plus the metadata.db file) have been copied into an existing folder having valuable content. That's also bad, as Calibre considers everything in that folder to be its property and will remove it all if you tell Calibre to do that. A "Calibre Library" is a single folder, and you should move that folder, not just its contents. I put all my libraries adjacent to one another (at the same level) and just name them differently. You can name the library folder anything you want, then switch to it.

[Tolkamp]

Thank you for your solution.
For me it is still not yet completey clear what to do.
I have copied the friends library to my computer (map name: Calibre library friend).
My own libray is called Calibre library.

You say: "connect to it using the black triangle to the right of the library icon"
I don't understand this sentense, may be you can describe it in others words.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Tolkamp

Thank you for your solution.
For me it is still not yet completey clear what to do.
I have copied the friends library to my computer (map name: Calibre library friend).
My own libray is called Calibre library.

You say: "connect to it using the black triangle to the right of the library icon"
I don't understand this sentense, may be you can describe it in others words.

There is a Menu if you click the Black Triangle
The first choice (US English version) is Create/Switch
Use the browse button to Locate the Friends Library

[Tolkamp]

Thank you, I found it and the library of my friend is copied now.

[juanlfm]

Originally Posted by theducks

There is a Menu if you click the Black Triangle
The first choice (US English version) is Create/Switch
Use the browse button to Locate the Friends Library

I found this topic while looking for an answer to Merging libraries.
I know it is an old topic but could do with help identifying where the black triangle is. I can not see it.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by juanlfm

I found this topic while looking for an answer to Merging libraries.
I know it is an old topic but could do with help identifying where the black triangle is. I can not see it.

On the Library Icon on the Main Menubar. BTW the Skin changes may make it a Downward arrowhead

[juanlfm]

Thank you most useful. So I open my library, then go to Switch/create to locate the new library.
There are three options:

Use previously ....
Create empty .....
Move current .......

How do I import (merge) the new library into my library please?

[Adoby]

You don't.

You always copy from the current library into another. So change to the source library and copy to the destination library.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by juanlfm

Thank you most useful. So I open my library, then go to Switch/create to locate the new library.
There are three options:

Use previously ....
Create empty .....
Move current .......

How do I import (merge) the new library into my library please?

You switch to the source Library:
Select books:
Right-click on the selected books: Copy to Library (there are 2 variations. The second is in effect a merge)
Depending on other preferences set, duplicate books may or may not be overwritten.

[juanlfm]

Thank you both very much. Maybe some clever programmer can include a Merge function in the toolbar.

[me10lee83]

Originally Posted by theducks

You switch to the source Library:
Select books:
Right-click on the selected books: Copy to Library (there are 2 variations. The second is in effect a merge)
Depending on other preferences set, duplicate books may or may not be overwritten.

Thank you, this is exactly what I needed!

[j.appleseed]

When I right-clicked, I didn't see any "Copy to Library" option in context menu.