Error downbloading metadata on Windows 11

[claus0731]

Downloading metadata does not work anymore (I think, since I updated to Windows 11). Already have reinstalled Calibre 5.33.0 on my Windows computer, but did not help. This perfectly worked fine about 1 month ago. I also have no problems with the same configuration on my macOS computer.

Apparently the same issue with the cover download. Disabling antivirus/firewall did not help as well (although it looks like a firewall issue).

Added both logs below.

Any help please?

Thanks,
Claus

calibre, version 5.33.0
ERROR: No matches found: <p>Failed to find any books that match your search. Try making the search <b>less specific</b>. For example, use only the author's last name and a single distinctive word from the title.<p>To see the full log, click "Show details".

Running identify query with parameters: 
{'title': '5S-Methode: Wie du deinen 5S-Workshop zur erfolgreichen Arbeitsplatzgestaltung durchführst', 'authors': ['Waldemar Trenkel'], 'identifiers': {'isbn': '9798653772627', 'asin': 'B08L4R179W'}, 'timeout': 30} 
Using plugins: Google (1, 0, 3), Amazon.com (1, 2, 21) 
The log from individual plugins is below 

****************************** Google (1, 0, 3) ****************************** 
Found 0 results 
Downloading from Google took 0.08607697486877441 
Making query: https://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=isbn%3A9798653772627&max-results=20&start-index=1&min-viewability=none
Failed to make identify query: 'https://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=isbn%3A9798653772627&max-results=20&start-index=1&min-viewability=none'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1236, in do_open
  File "http\client.py", line 1255, in request
  File "http\client.py", line 1301, in _send_request
  File "http\client.py", line 1250, in endheaders
  File "http\client.py", line 1010, in _send_output
  File "http\client.py", line 950, in send
  File "http\client.py", line 1424, in connect
  File "ssl.py", line 500, in wrap_socket
  File "ssl.py", line 1040, in _create
  File "ssl.py", line 1309, in do_handshake
ConnectionAbortedError: [WinError 10053] An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\google.py", line 374, in make_query
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 241, in open_novisit
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 287, in _mech_open
  File "mechanize\_opener.py", line 193, in open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 425, in _open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 414, in _call_chain
  File "calibre\utils\browser.py", line 29, in https_open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1240, in do_open
urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [WinError 10053] An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine> 

******************************************************************************** 

****************************** Amazon.com (1, 2, 21) ****************************** 
Found 0 results 
Downloading from Amazon.com took 0.07206511497497559 
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:84.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/84.0
Server: auto
Making google query: https://www.google.com/search?q=B08L4R179W+site%3Awww.amazon.com
Plugin Amazon.com failed
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1236, in do_open
  File "http\client.py", line 1255, in request
  File "http\client.py", line 1301, in _send_request
  File "http\client.py", line 1250, in endheaders
  File "http\client.py", line 1010, in _send_output
  File "http\client.py", line 950, in send
  File "http\client.py", line 1424, in connect
  File "ssl.py", line 500, in wrap_socket
  File "ssl.py", line 1040, in _create
  File "ssl.py", line 1309, in do_handshake
ConnectionResetError: [WinError 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\identify.py", line 46, in run
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\amazon.py", line 1489, in identify
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\amazon.py", line 1422, in search_search_engine
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\search_engines.py", line 288, in google_search
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\search_engines.py", line 68, in query
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 241, in open_novisit
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 287, in _mech_open
  File "mechanize\_opener.py", line 193, in open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 425, in _open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 414, in _call_chain
  File "calibre\utils\browser.py", line 29, in https_open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1240, in do_open
urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [WinError 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host> 

******************************************************************************** 
The identify phase took 0.20 seconds 
The longest time (0.086077) was taken by: Google 
Merging results from different sources 
We have 0 merged results, merging took: 0.00 seconds 


=======================================================================
COVER SEARCH
=======================================================================
Starting cover download for: 5S-Methode: Wie du deinen 5S-Workshop zur erfolgreichen Arbeitsplatzgestaltung durchführst 
Query: 5S-Methode: Wie du deinen 5S-Workshop zur erfolgreichen Arbeitsplatzgestaltung durchführst ['Waldemar Trenkel'] {'isbn': '9798653772627', 'asin': 'B08L4R179W'} 

****************************** Google Images Covers ****************************** 
Request extra headers: [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.87 Safari/537.36')] 
Failed to download valid cover 
Took 0.09308433532714844 seconds 
Search URL: https://www.google.com/search?as_st=y&tbm=isch&as_q=5S-Methode%3A+Wie+du+deinen+5S-Workshop+zur+erfolgreichen+Arbeitsplatzgestaltung+durchf%C3%BChrst+Waldemar+Trenkel&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&cr=&as_sitesearch=&safe=images&tbs=isz:lt,islt:svga,iar:t,ift:jpg
Failed to download cover from Google Images
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1236, in do_open
  File "http\client.py", line 1255, in request
  File "http\client.py", line 1301, in _send_request
  File "http\client.py", line 1250, in endheaders
  File "http\client.py", line 1010, in _send_output
  File "http\client.py", line 950, in send
  File "http\client.py", line 1424, in connect
  File "ssl.py", line 500, in wrap_socket
  File "ssl.py", line 1040, in _create
  File "ssl.py", line 1309, in do_handshake
ConnectionResetError: [WinError 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\covers.py", line 42, in run
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\google_images.py", line 78, in download_cover
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\google_images.py", line 108, in get_image_urls
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 257, in open
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 287, in _mech_open
  File "mechanize\_opener.py", line 193, in open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 425, in _open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 414, in _call_chain
  File "calibre\utils\browser.py", line 29, in https_open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1240, in do_open
urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [WinError 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host> 

******************************************************************************** 

****************************** Amazon.com Covers ****************************** 
Request extra headers: [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.87 Safari/537.36'), ('Accept', 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,*/*;q=0.8'), ('Upgrade-insecure-requests', '1')] 
Failed to download valid cover 
Took 0.09108257293701172 seconds 
No cached cover found, running identify
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.87 Safari/537.36
Server: auto
Making google query: https://www.google.com/search?q=B08L4R179W+site%3Awww.amazon.com
Failed to download cover from Amazon.com
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1236, in do_open
  File "http\client.py", line 1255, in request
  File "http\client.py", line 1301, in _send_request
  File "http\client.py", line 1250, in endheaders
  File "http\client.py", line 1010, in _send_output
  File "http\client.py", line 950, in send
  File "http\client.py", line 1424, in connect
  File "ssl.py", line 500, in wrap_socket
  File "ssl.py", line 1040, in _create
  File "ssl.py", line 1309, in do_handshake
ConnectionResetError: [WinError 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\covers.py", line 46, in run
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\amazon.py", line 1566, in download_cover
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\amazon.py", line 1489, in identify
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\amazon.py", line 1422, in search_search_engine
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\search_engines.py", line 288, in google_search
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\search_engines.py", line 68, in query
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 241, in open_novisit
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 287, in _mech_open
  File "mechanize\_opener.py", line 193, in open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 425, in _open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 414, in _call_chain
  File "calibre\utils\browser.py", line 29, in https_open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1240, in do_open
urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [WinError 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host> 

******************************************************************************** 

****************************** Open Library Covers ****************************** 
Request extra headers: [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.87 Safari/537.36')] 
Failed to download valid cover 
Took 0.24622321128845215 seconds 
Failed to download cover for ISBN: 9798653772627
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1236, in do_open
  File "http\client.py", line 1255, in request
  File "http\client.py", line 1301, in _send_request
  File "http\client.py", line 1250, in endheaders
  File "http\client.py", line 1010, in _send_output
  File "http\client.py", line 950, in send
  File "http\client.py", line 1424, in connect
  File "ssl.py", line 500, in wrap_socket
  File "ssl.py", line 1040, in _create
  File "ssl.py", line 1309, in do_handshake
ConnectionAbortedError: [WinError 10053] An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\openlibrary.py", line 30, in download_cover
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 241, in open_novisit
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 287, in _mech_open
  File "mechanize\_opener.py", line 193, in open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 425, in _open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 414, in _call_chain
  File "calibre\utils\browser.py", line 29, in https_open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1240, in do_open
urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [WinError 10053] An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine> 

********************************************************************************

[kovidgoyal]

Something is blocking calibre most likely an antivirus/firewall. Add exceptions for calibre.exe and calibre_parallel.exe to those.

[theducks]

Also, there have been other issues with 5.33.0
You might want to force an update to 5.33.2 (latest hot fix) by going to the download page (there is no notification for minor release)

[claus0731]

Thanks for the quick advice. I updated to 5.33.2 and again disabled both my antivirus program (Kaspersky) and the firewall. Unfortunately, same behavior. I also added both calibre.exe and calibre_parallel.exe to the exception lists (both Kaspersky and Defender (inbound and outbound)) - still not working.

I have not changed anything in my configuration - so wonder if Windows 11 behaves different. But then others would have issues as well ... If it is related to the firewall/antivirus (as it looks like) - disabling both should solve the problem - which is not the case.

What else could I try?

Thanks,
Claus

calibre, version 5.33.2
ERROR: No matches found: <p>Failed to find any books that match your search. Try making the search <b>less specific</b>. For example, use only the author's last name and a single distinctive word from the title.<p>To see the full log, click "Show details".

Running identify query with parameters: 
{'title': 'Strategische Positionierung und Kundenzufriedenheit', 'authors': ['Armin Töpfer'], 'identifiers': {'isbn': '9783658320188', 'amazon_de': '3658320184'}, 'timeout': 30} 
Using plugins: Google (1, 0, 3), Amazon.com (1, 2, 21) 
The log from individual plugins is below 

****************************** Google (1, 0, 3) ****************************** 
Found 0 results 
Downloading from Google took 0.06806206703186035 
Making query: https://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=isbn%3A9783658320188&max-results=20&start-index=1&min-viewability=none
Failed to make identify query: 'https://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=isbn%3A9783658320188&max-results=20&start-index=1&min-viewability=none'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1236, in do_open
  File "http\client.py", line 1255, in request
  File "http\client.py", line 1301, in _send_request
  File "http\client.py", line 1250, in endheaders
  File "http\client.py", line 1010, in _send_output
  File "http\client.py", line 950, in send
  File "http\client.py", line 1424, in connect
  File "ssl.py", line 500, in wrap_socket
  File "ssl.py", line 1040, in _create
  File "ssl.py", line 1309, in do_handshake
ConnectionResetError: [WinError 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\google.py", line 374, in make_query
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 241, in open_novisit
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 287, in _mech_open
  File "mechanize\_opener.py", line 193, in open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 425, in _open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 414, in _call_chain
  File "calibre\utils\browser.py", line 29, in https_open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1240, in do_open
urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [WinError 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host> 

******************************************************************************** 

****************************** Amazon.com (1, 2, 21) ****************************** 
Found 0 results 
Downloading from Amazon.com took 0.06706047058105469 
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:86.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/86.0
Server: auto
Making google query: https://www.google.com/search?q=3658320184+site%3Awww.amazon.de
Plugin Amazon.com failed
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1236, in do_open
  File "http\client.py", line 1255, in request
  File "http\client.py", line 1301, in _send_request
  File "http\client.py", line 1250, in endheaders
  File "http\client.py", line 1010, in _send_output
  File "http\client.py", line 950, in send
  File "http\client.py", line 1424, in connect
  File "ssl.py", line 500, in wrap_socket
  File "ssl.py", line 1040, in _create
  File "ssl.py", line 1309, in do_handshake
ConnectionResetError: [WinError 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\identify.py", line 46, in run
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\amazon.py", line 1489, in identify
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\amazon.py", line 1422, in search_search_engine
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\search_engines.py", line 288, in google_search
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\search_engines.py", line 68, in query
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 241, in open_novisit
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 287, in _mech_open
  File "mechanize\_opener.py", line 193, in open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 425, in _open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 414, in _call_chain
  File "calibre\utils\browser.py", line 29, in https_open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1240, in do_open
urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [WinError 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host> 

******************************************************************************** 
The identify phase took 0.20 seconds 
The longest time (0.068062) was taken by: Google 
Merging results from different sources 
We have 0 merged results, merging took: 0.00 seconds

[kovidgoyal]

reboot in safe mode and see if it still fails.

[claus0731]

Rebooted in safe mode and tried again. Same problem with a slightly different error message. It's now an error in the socket library and [Errno 11003] instead of [WinError 10054].

Trying both URLs https://books.google.com/books/feeds...ewability=none and https://www.google.com/search?q=3658...Awww.amazon.de in a browser (Chrome) - works perfectly fine.

I also de-installed all various versions of Python (Anaconda, Python 3.8.5 and Python 3.10.0) from the computer, removed all PATH settings and reinstalled Calibre 5.33.2 again - with a restart after every task. No change. Disabled again Kaspersky and Windows Defender Firewall - also no change.

Running out of ideas...

calibre, version 5.33.2
ERROR: No matches found: <p>Failed to find any books that match your search. Try making the search <b>less specific</b>. For example, use only the author's last name and a single distinctive word from the title.<p>To see the full log, click "Show details".

Running identify query with parameters: 
{'title': 'Strategische Positionierung und Kundenzufriedenheit', 'authors': ['Armin Töpfer'], 'identifiers': {'isbn': '9783658320188', 'amazon_de': '3658320184'}, 'timeout': 30} 
Using plugins: Google (1, 0, 3), Amazon.com (1, 2, 21) 
The log from individual plugins is below 

****************************** Google (1, 0, 3) ****************************** 
Found 0 results 
Downloading from Google took 0.05317187309265137 
Making query: https://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=isbn%3A9783658320188&max-results=20&start-index=1&min-viewability=none
Failed to make identify query: 'https://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=isbn%3A9783658320188&max-results=20&start-index=1&min-viewability=none'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1236, in do_open
  File "http\client.py", line 1255, in request
  File "http\client.py", line 1301, in _send_request
  File "http\client.py", line 1250, in endheaders
  File "http\client.py", line 1010, in _send_output
  File "http\client.py", line 950, in send
  File "http\client.py", line 1417, in connect
  File "http\client.py", line 921, in connect
  File "socket.py", line 787, in create_connection
  File "socket.py", line 918, in getaddrinfo
socket.gaierror: [Errno 11003] getaddrinfo failed

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\google.py", line 374, in make_query
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 241, in open_novisit
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 287, in _mech_open
  File "mechanize\_opener.py", line 193, in open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 425, in _open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 414, in _call_chain
  File "calibre\utils\browser.py", line 29, in https_open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1240, in do_open
urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [Errno 11003] getaddrinfo failed> 

******************************************************************************** 

****************************** Amazon.com (1, 2, 21) ****************************** 
Found 0 results 
Downloading from Amazon.com took 0.05317187309265137 
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/89.0.4389.82 Safari/537.36
Server: auto
Making google query: https://www.google.com/search?q=3658320184+site%3Awww.amazon.de
Plugin Amazon.com failed
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1236, in do_open
  File "http\client.py", line 1255, in request
  File "http\client.py", line 1301, in _send_request
  File "http\client.py", line 1250, in endheaders
  File "http\client.py", line 1010, in _send_output
  File "http\client.py", line 950, in send
  File "http\client.py", line 1417, in connect
  File "http\client.py", line 921, in connect
  File "socket.py", line 787, in create_connection
  File "socket.py", line 918, in getaddrinfo
socket.gaierror: [Errno 11003] getaddrinfo failed

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\identify.py", line 46, in run
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\amazon.py", line 1489, in identify
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\amazon.py", line 1422, in search_search_engine
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\search_engines.py", line 288, in google_search
  File "calibre\ebooks\metadata\sources\search_engines.py", line 68, in query
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 241, in open_novisit
  File "mechanize\_mechanize.py", line 287, in _mech_open
  File "mechanize\_opener.py", line 193, in open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 425, in _open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 414, in _call_chain
  File "calibre\utils\browser.py", line 29, in https_open
  File "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py", line 1240, in do_open
urllib.error.URLError: <urlopen error [Errno 11003] getaddrinfo failed> 

******************************************************************************** 
The identify phase took 0.21 seconds 
The longest time (0.053172) was taken by: Google 
Merging results from different sources 
We have 0 merged results, merging took: 0.00 seconds

[kovidgoyal]

getaddrinfo failing means looking up the IP address for a server such as google.com is failing. THere is definitely some blocking going on either on the machine itself or in the network path between the machine and the internet.

[claus0731]

I really wonder what else could block. Both my Windows machine and my Mac Mini are on the same switch, connected to the same router. My Mac works without any problems, my Windows computer also never had any problems over all the years (and Windows versions). This only started until upgrading to Windows 11. What could still block in safe mode? I have not faced any other issues yet (with all my other programs connecting to various sources).

I have to verify, if my Python program I've written some time ago is still working (it connects to an external REST API). Maybe the internal URLs are somehow blocked - I'm puzzled

[chaley]

Originally Posted by claus0731

I really wonder what else could block. Both my Windows machine and my Mac Mini are on the same switch, connected to the same router.

Check the DNS configuration. As an experiment, change it to one of the public DNS servers.

[claus0731]

I have the following configuration in my router:

DNS servers used	
 
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
2003:180:2:9000::53 (currently used for standard queries)
2003:180:2:7000::53

This configuration is used from both my Windows and my Apple Mini (and all the other devices on the network). Calibre on the Apple works, so I don't think this is the problem.

Nevertheless, I changed my DNS configuration manually on my Windows computer as well to give it a try:

IPv4 DNS servers:        8.8.8.8 (Encrypted preferred)
                                   8.8.4.4 (Encrypted preferred)

Also checked with ipconfig /ALL and retried with Calibre on Windows - same issue.

Somehow I have the gut feeling this is related to the way the Python programs are called (http\client.py). How does this work and is this something I can verify? The first call that usually fails is "mechanize\_urllib2_fork.py". Maybe there is something in Windows 11 which blocks this communication.

Otherwise, there is not much left. It worked before on Windows, it still works on my Apple Mini, and I did not change anything in my network configuration. If I manually enter the URLs (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=3809...Awww.amazon.de into a browser, they are working fine. I think something is blocking the internal Python URL calls (even in Windows Safe Mode), so I think it must be OS related.

Any clues where to look?

What really puzzles me is that this worked perfectly fine for many years on my Windows computer as well, with the same configuration, same AV program, same network settings, same router configuration, ... and it still works in the same network with my Apple Mini. And I have not changed anything- except I updated to Windows 11. I can't even blame Kaspersky, because I have the same issues in safe mode.

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions. Any further ideas I more than welcome

Regards,
Claus

[DNSB]

For what it's worth, I've been running calibre under Windows 11 since the first WIP beta releases. I did not see the behaviour you are seeing with metadata downloads with the preview releases nor with the general availability release.

Personally, I tend to agree that one of the programs (antivirus, antimalware, anti-whatever, firewall, etc.) you have installed are causing your issue.

I'm tempted to suggest that you uninstall calibre and delete the calibre2 directory, then re-install.

[PeterT]

Or try a simpler test. Install a copy of calibre portable (which will be using it's own set of settings), create a new library with it and see what happens with it.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[davidfor]

Also, the two errors shown are different. The first is something going wrong after the connection to the server has started. The second is the DNS not being able to resolve the host name. As the second is happening when running Windows in safe-mode, it is very likely that the network configuration in safe mode is different. That it could be using a different DNS, or none at all.

Searching for the error, this could be a network timeout and Windows is closing the connection with this error. Which could also be caused by the usual suspects (anti-whatever or a firewall) getting in the way. I think it could also be a proxy timing out.

Can you test a different network path? Using the phone as a hotspot is usually good as that usually changes a lot of the network path.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Also, the two errors shown are different. The first is something going wrong after the connection to the server has started. The second is the DNS not being able to resolve the host name. As the second is happening when running Windows in safe-mode, it is very likely that the network configuration in safe mode is different. That it could be using a different DNS, or none at all.

A distinct possibility is that the OP was running in safe mode without networking. The default for safe boot using msconfig on Windows 11 is minimal. To use the network, you need to select the network radio button. See attached image.

[claus0731]

Thanks for all the great suggestions, here an update:

@DNSB: Tried that already before, even deleted all Calibre related folder under Users/<myuser>/AppData/Local. Same behavior. I agree with your second post, I have forgotten to verify the network settings in safe mode.

@PeterT: Installed a portable version on my Windows computer and linked to a local directory. Great surprise - it worked! Re-linked to my database on Dropbox - and it's still working - which are great news! There is nothing interfering on my Dropbox account, because my Calibre Apple version is using the same database (and it's always either/or).

@davidfor: Have not tried this, but the portable version of Calibre is working, so I don't think anymore this is a network (or AV/firewall) related issue. And I had the same behavior with Kaspersky switched off.

I will next try to find out the differences between the installed version of Calibre and the portable version. I'm still wondering why the normally installed version stopped working on Windows (but not on macOS), with Calibre versions in-sync.

Thanks again for all your help, suggestions and support!

Claus