Calibre - add ZIP/RAR

ghayton48@hotmai · 10-29-2022, 08:52 AM

I have downloaded some books in the rar and zip format but when i try to open them in the Add Books in Calibre they dont appear to add
Can anybody help please?

Sirtel · 10-29-2022, 11:03 AM

You'll have to extract the books before adding them to Calibre.

ghayton48@hotmai · 10-29-2022, 02:52 PM

Hi Sirtel
Sorry for being thick but not sure exactly what you mean by that??

Karellen · 10-29-2022, 03:04 PM

These are the formats that Calibre supports...
https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...ersion-to-from

rar and zip are not ebook formats, so you need to extract whatever are in the zip and rar files and convert them to ebooks.

But I believe you can add additional file extensions for Calibre to recognise. I've never needed to do that, so I don't know where that is done in Calibre.

Sirtel · 10-29-2022, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghayton48@hotmai

Hi Sirtel
Sorry for being thick but not sure exactly what you mean by that??

.rar and .zip are compressed folders, not formats. The books themselves are in those folders. You need to open the .rar/.zip folders and copy/move the files inside out of them, before you can add the books to Calibre.

BetterRed · 10-29-2022, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghayton48@hotmai

I have downloaded some books in the rar and zip format but when i try to open them in the Add Books in Calibre they dont appear to add
Can anybody help please?

Did you try the Add books->Add multiple books from archive (ZIP/RAR) option:

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BR

ownedbycats · 10-29-2022, 06:19 PM

Shouldn't Archive Extract automatically unzip them? Unless it's disabled or, if I remember right, there's multiple files in the archive.

BetterRed · 10-29-2022, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Shouldn't Archive Extract automatically unzip them? Unless it's disabled or, if I remember right, there's multiple files in the archive.

Where do I disable Archive Extract?

BR

theducks · 10-29-2022, 07:58 PM

Calibre will add RAR or ZIP, as a book, BUT only if it does not contain another archive. eg Baen will send you a Zip with all formats of a book OR your entire order. You need to unwrap the order (level) zip before adding to calibre

ownedbycats · 10-29-2022, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Where do I disable Archive Extract?

BR

It's in the plugins.

kovidgoyal · 10-29-2022, 10:48 PM

calibre does various magic with zip/rar archives. If the archive contains only a single file in a known ebook format it is auto extracted. If it contains only image files it is added as a comic (cbz/cbr). These can be disabled by disabling the archive extract plugin.

And if you right click the add books button and choose add multiple books from archive it will even try to add multiple books from an archive.

ghayton48@hotmai · 10-30-2022, 10:01 AM

Thanks to all for your helpful replies and especially to kovidgoyal who confimed what a fabulous programme Calibre is and solved my problem quickly and easily
Thanks once again

Jacques Q. · Yesterday, 08:04 PM

Hello.
My problem is this : I have .zip files, each contains a single folder that in turn contains .txt files of each page of the book I want (each file being named as a number, one for each page), so there are some 300 text files per folder (but again only one folder per archive). I cannot find a way to add either the .zip files or the folder that's in it to Calibre, or to make Calibre collect the .txt pages into a single EPub file. Is this at all possible ?

kovidgoyal · Yesterday, 09:32 PM

No. Unzip your zip files and concatenate the text files intoa single larger text file, then add that to calibre.

retiredbiker · Yesterday, 09:44 PM

I ran into one of these recently. You need to do some work outside Calibre first...to get the myriad files into one single text file. It is actually easy.

Extract the zip, then put all the txt files into a working directory, (like "/work")

Then open a terminal and cd work, then run cat *.txt > mybook.txt

The result will be all that text in a single file called mybook.txt. Bring that into Calibre and take it from there. If the text is messy, you might want to do some cleanup with a text editor before trying to convert it to some other format.

(This is for Linux, but something very similar will work in Mac or Windows...search for how to concatenate text files on your system.)

10-29-2022, 08:52 AM	#1
ghayton48@hotmai Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2021 Device: kindle voyager	Calibre - add ZIP/RAR I have downloaded some books in the rar and zip format but when i try to open them in the Add Books in Calibre they dont appear to add Can anybody help please? Last edited by ghayton48@hotmai; 10-29-2022 at 08:55 AM.

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10-29-2022, 11:03 AM	#2
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,867 Karma: 243276973 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	You'll have to extract the books before adding them to Calibre.

10-29-2022, 02:52 PM	#3
ghayton48@hotmai Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2021 Device: kindle voyager	Hi Sirtel Sorry for being thick but not sure exactly what you mean by that??

10-29-2022, 03:04 PM	#4
Karellen Wizard Posts: 1,653 Karma: 9500498 Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2	These are the formats that Calibre supports... https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...ersion-to-from rar and zip are not ebook formats, so you need to extract whatever are in the zip and rar files and convert them to ebooks. But I believe you can add additional file extensions for Calibre to recognise. I've never needed to do that, so I don't know where that is done in Calibre.

10-29-2022, 06:19 PM	#7
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 11,253 Karma: 77935877 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	Shouldn't Archive Extract automatically unzip them? Unless it's disabled or, if I remember right, there's multiple files in the archive.

10-29-2022, 07:58 PM	#9
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,205 Karma: 60406678 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Calibre will add RAR or ZIP, as a book, BUT only if it does not contain another archive. eg Baen will send you a Zip with all formats of a book OR your entire order. You need to unwrap the order (level) zip before adding to calibre

10-29-2022, 10:48 PM	#11
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,566 Karma: 28548962 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	calibre does various magic with zip/rar archives. If the archive contains only a single file in a known ebook format it is auto extracted. If it contains only image files it is added as a comic (cbz/cbr). These can be disabled by disabling the archive extract plugin. And if you right click the add books button and choose add multiple books from archive it will even try to add multiple books from an archive.

10-30-2022, 10:01 AM	#12
ghayton48@hotmai Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2021 Device: kindle voyager	Thanks to all for your helpful replies and especially to kovidgoyal who confimed what a fabulous programme Calibre is and solved my problem quickly and easily Thanks once again

Yesterday, 08:04 PM	#13
Jacques Q. Zealot Posts: 110 Karma: 1544 Join Date: Jul 2020 Location: Paris Device: quite a few Kindles...	Hello. My problem is this : I have .zip files, each contains a single folder that in turn contains .txt files of each page of the book I want (each file being named as a number, one for each page), so there are some 300 text files per folder (but again only one folder per archive). I cannot find a way to add either the .zip files or the folder that's in it to Calibre, or to make Calibre collect the .txt pages into a single EPub file. Is this at all possible ?

Yesterday, 09:32 PM	#14
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,566 Karma: 28548962 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	No. Unzip your zip files and concatenate the text files intoa single larger text file, then add that to calibre.

Yesterday, 09:44 PM	#15
retiredbiker Evangelist Posts: 453 Karma: 3886916 Join Date: May 2013 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kindle KB, Oasis, Pop_Os!, Kobo Forma	I ran into one of these recently. You need to do some work outside Calibre first...to get the myriad files into one single text file. It is actually easy. Extract the zip, then put all the txt files into a working directory, (like "/work") Then open a terminal and cd work, then run *cat .txt > mybook.txt** The result will be all that text in a single file called mybook.txt. Bring that into Calibre and take it from there. If the text is messy, you might want to do some cleanup with a text editor before trying to convert it to some other format. (This is for Linux, but something very similar will work in Mac or Windows...search for how to concatenate text files on your system.)

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