Review metadata: how to select a different book?

[ownedbycats]

I like to use the background metadata download because of the "review metadata" option. 97% of the time it works as intended.

The other 3%, though...I sometimes get eBooks (usually lacking ISBNs) where, for some reason, it selects an entirely different book with a vaguely similar title and/or author name even though the actual book is available as an exact match.

I can use the individual metadata download dialog to choose the right book, but as far as I can tell 'review metadata' isn't an option there.

Is there any way around this?

[kovidgoyal]

There is no seelct individual results in bulk metadata download. And in single metadata download, you can edit individual fields you dont like the changes for anyway. You can also long click the download metadata button and undo the results of the previous download metadata.

[droopy]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You can also long click the download metadata button and undo the results of the previous download metadata.

I don't see a "Download Metadata button" on the default toolbar nor in Preferences>Toolbars&Menus>Available_Actions.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by droopy

I don't see a "Download Metadata button" on the default toolbar nor in Preferences>Toolbars&Menus>Available_Actions.

But, there is one in the dialog that Kovid was talking about, the Edit metadata dialog.

[droopy]

Originally Posted by davidfor

But, there is one in the dialog that Kovid was talking about, the Edit metadata dialog.

Thanks.

[ownedbycats]

Is there any way to at least influence what book get selected as the best match by the bulk downloader? It's kind of silly adding a children's book and having it select some BDSM erotica novel instead. (Particularly egregrious is that this particular book actually had the ISBN in the identifier column, but somehow Calibre fell back to title/author instead.)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Is there any way to at least influence what book get selected as the best match by the bulk downloader? It's kind of silly adding a children's book and having it select some BDSM erotica novel instead. (Particularly egregrious is that this particular book actually had the ISBN in the identifier column, but somehow Calibre fell back to title/author instead.)

You probably need to look at the metadata sources you are using. Not all can use the ISBN for a search. Some must use title and author. Or just the title. And those that can use the ISBN, will usually do a title/author search if no result was found for the ISBN.

[kovidgoyal]

calibre will use title/author if isbn generates no matches. And no calibre has no control over what matches a website decides to return for any given query.

[droopy]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Is there any way to at least influence what book get selected as the best match by the bulk downloader? It's kind of silly adding a children's book and having it select some BDSM erotica novel instead. (Particularly egregrious is that this particular book actually had the ISBN in the identifier column, but somehow Calibre fell back to title/author instead.)

I can sympthatize. I sometimes have to run "Download Metadata" from inside a book's "Edit Metadata" window. This way, I can choose the metadata.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Is there any way to at least influence what book get selected as the best match by the bulk downloader? It's kind of silly adding a children's book and having it select some BDSM erotica novel instead. (Particularly egregrious is that this particular book actually had the ISBN in the identifier column, but somehow Calibre fell back to title/author instead.)

I had a similar issue with Kobo and a library book at one time. The author of the Portuguese soft core porn ebook had used an ISBN that belonged to the book I tried to borrow. Since the ISBN matched, I got the wrong book. Kobo was very good about correcting the issue.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by davidfor

You probably need to look at the metadata sources you are using. Not all can use the ISBN for a search. Some must use title and author. Or just the title. And those that can use the ISBN, will usually do a title/author search if no result was found for the ISBN.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibre will use title/author if isbn generates no matches. And no calibre has no control over what matches a website decides to return for any given query.

What's weird is that the exact book that I wanted (and it had the ISBN) was available, but the second match when I went through the individual metadata downloader.

The two books had completely different ISBNs, too:

Spoiler:

[kovidgoyal]

Tha certainly doesnt happen with any of the builtin plugins. If it does, then open a bug report.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

What's weird is that the exact book that I wanted (and it had the ISBN) was available, but the second match when I went through the individual metadata downloader.

The two books had completely different ISBNs, too:

Spoiler:

Attachment 181705

What metadata sources are you using? As I said, exactly what the search is done using depends on the source. I can see a Kobo identifier, so I assume that is what you are using. That will use the title and author if the ISBN isn't found.

I tried searching the Kobo store for "Catch Rider". The edition it found has the ISBN 9780544034303. But, that could be the edition available in Australia. When I searched on ISBN 9780547868714, it didn't find a match. As I wrote the Kobo metadata source plugin, I would be interested in seeing the logs from the search so I could see what exactly is happening.

[ownedbycats]

Ok this is really weird: I went into Calibre debug and added a copy of the original ePub to get the debug output. But now...it fetches the right book?

I don't remember if I changed any settings in between. I think I enabled the mobi-asin in the Amazon.com search, but the erotica novel came from Kobo so I don't think that has any affect.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Ok this is really weird: I went into Calibre debug and added a copy of the original ePub to get the debug output. But now...it fetches the right book?

I don't remember if I changed any settings in between. I think I enabled the mobi-asin in the Amazon.com search, but the erotica novel came from Kobo so I don't think that has any affect.

The metadata source plugins don't interact in any way. The will use the identifiers that exist when you start the download, but, are run separately. Afterwards, calibre does the merge and display.

I sometimes run the download twice. The first time sometimes doesn't get the best choices or merge as well as I would like. And if I didn't have an ISBN, and this is found, it gets better results the second time. In the cases where the books don't merge, especially where one site has the series as part of the title, I will choose the best match and copy the URL from the next best, and add the identifier for it (click the identifier button and it will parse the URL for a lot sources).

I should add I rarely use the bulk metadata download. I usually add books one at a time, so it isn't any point. Plus, I prefer to see the choices.