Help please - Library management for dummies

[lburg801]

I have asked before and garnered enough info to reliably back up Calibre and all my libraries, but I still have questions.

I run Calibre in Win7 and have no real understanding of what this is about:
Library Maintenance > Library Metadata backup status > Queue all books for backup. What does queuing the books actually do?

I did this once long ago and it took forever. If it had renumbered the books to compress the folders and eliminate gaps left when I delete books, this alone would have tempted my anal retentive desire for order. It did not appear to do anything, however, and since that time I have backed up my books and metadata using FreeFileSync.

Am I failing to properly maintain Calibre if I do not queue the books?

Thanks.

[theducks]

That just refreshes the METADATA.OPF in the title folder. That is a backup of the DATA you see, just in case the DB gets damaged,

You need to back up your Library someplace OFF the computer / hard drive to save your books with their metadata.


Export/Import on the Library Icon can do this, but it always does a FULL, which can be time/space consuming. IMHO do that whenever you make changes or install new Plugins (those are in the config folder)
Use a file sync program to incrementally update a separate Library copy.
Freefilesync seems to do a fantastic job.
Always STOP Calibre to do a Mirror (1 way) sync
Don't have sync active while Calibre is running.. avoid 2 way sync. it fights changes

[lburg801]

Originally Posted by theducks

That just refreshes the METADATA.OPF in the title folder. That is a backup of the DATA you see, just in case the DB gets damaged,

You need to back up your Library someplace OFF the computer / hard drive to save your books with their metadata.


Export/Import on the Library Icon can do this, but it always does a FULL, which can be time/space consuming. IMHO do that whenever you make changes or install new Plugins (those are in the config folder)
Use a file sync program to incrementally update a separate Library copy.
Freefilesync seems to do a fantastic job.
Always STOP Calibre to do a Mirror (1 way) sync
Don't have sync active while Calibre is running.. avoid 2 way sync. it fights changes

Thank you. I appreciate knowing for certain that I should not have Calibre open when doing a mirror sync. I back up the books on a portable hard drive and do a separate back up of the config file on another portable hard drive.

I do have a conundrum related to backups. What I really am doing is managing the book libraries for my grandchildren. I found that if I sent them books to add on a flash drive that the info that I had created for these books did not get transferred. Instead, I have a portable drive for each family that I update by mirroring my data. They just plug it in and copy books to their devices. This has a downside if they make changes or add columns as I believe my mirror update will erase these. Doing a two-way update, however, led to corruption of the files ultimately. Why I don't know, but FreeFile Sync ran into problems deleting files and then stopped, reporting that the drive was "dirty". I had to reformat the drive and so am now only using the mirror option. My knowledge and understanding of these softwares that I use is frustratingly inadequate. I like that my grandchildren want to personalize the records with their own ratings and other comments, but don't know how to preserve this. Suggestions?