Multiple Authors on iPad

[GeekFreak]

Apologies if this is dealt with in another thread, but I searched and did not find what I was looking for. If this issue was dealt with previously, please point me to the correct thread.

I have many books, a few of which I have purchased from Apple. For this example, I will focus on the Woman’s Murder Club authored by James Patterson (1), James Patterson & Andrew Gross (2-3) and James Patterson & Maxine Paetro (4-21). Volumes 16 and 17 were purchased from Apple and have DRM, the rest are DRM free.

I used calibre to set the metadata with the correct authors, titles, covers, etc. and then copied them to my iPad via iTunes.

Now the issue: Under “Apple Books” on my iPad, the purchased books are listed under “Multiple Authors” and show the author as “James Patterson & Maxine Paetro”. All the rest of the books only show “James Patterson” as the author, even though calibre shows the correct authors for each book.

Now the question: Is there something I can set with calibre to get “Apple Books” to show the correct authors?

Adv-Thanks-ance,
Clancy

[itimpi]

Had you used one of the Calibre features (such as Polish Books) that updates the metadata inside the book files to match the Calibre database metadata? Simply updating the metadata in Calibre is not sufficient to achieve this.

[GeekFreak]

I have read (on this forum) about features like Polish Books but cannot find them. However, after I updated the megadata I ran Convert books and then removed the original. Doesn’t that update the megadata?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by GeekFreak

I have read (on this forum) about features like Polish Books but cannot find them. However, after I updated the megadata I ran Convert books and then removed the original. Doesn’t that update the megadata?

Yes, but it can do other things as well.

Polish (a whisk broom icon) does only what is configured at the start.
You might need to place the icon (preferences: Toolbars...)
Note: Toolbars change when a Device is attached.
FWIW Polish forces The LIBRARY copy to update. Send to... Updates the sent copy (only) on the fly

[GeekFreak]

Thank you for the information on Polish. I have added it to my main toolbar.

Now, back to the issue. I have done some additional experimentation. I compared the data that iTunes sees with two different volumes. I used the purchased (DRM) copy of 16th Seduction and the regular (non-DRM) 15th Affair. Both are shown in calibre as authored by “James Patterson & Maxine Paetro”. However, in iTunes, 16th Seduction shows the authors as “James Patterson & Maxine Paetro”, but 15th Affair as only “James Patterson”. When I checked the “Sort as” field in iTunes, I found 16th Seduction was shown as “James Patterson & Maxine Paetro” and 15th Affair as “James Patterson & Maxine Paetro”. Finally, when I checked the files in the directory for iTunes on my PC, both books are in the folder “…Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Books\James Patterson & Maxine Paetro”.

My conclusion? The issue is not anything calibre can address. The programmers of “Apple Book” have an issue they will probably never address since it does not concern eBooks purchased from their site. It is one of the issues I will address when I talk to the genius at Apple.