How to preserve original ebook file

[kartyaim]

Possibly a basic question, but I'm using Calibre and I want to keep the EPUB files I import unchanged. I've noticed that as long as I'm just modifying the metadata and the cover, the EPUB file remains unchanged. However, when I open it in the eBook editor without saving or making any changes, just by opening some XML of the eBook and then closing the edit window, the EPUB file in the library appears to be altered with the cover inside overwritten by the external cover. Is there a way to prevent this? Also, even though the "save_original_file" options are set to "true," no .original_epub file is created either during import or after editing the cover or metadata.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by kartyaim

However, when I open it in the eBook editor without saving or making any changes, just by opening some XML of the eBook and then closing the edit window, the EPUB file in the library appears to be altered with the cover inside overwritten by the external cover. Is there a way to prevent this?

Disable this setting in the Editor preferences...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kartyaim

Possibly a basic question, but I'm using Calibre and I want to keep the EPUB files I import unchanged. I've noticed that as long as I'm just modifying the metadata and the cover, the EPUB file remains unchanged. However, when I open it in the eBook editor without saving or making any changes, just by opening some XML of the eBook and then closing the edit window, the EPUB file in the library appears to be altered with the cover inside overwritten by the external cover. Is there a way to prevent this? Also, even though the "save_original_file" options are set to "true," no .original_epub file is created either during import or after editing the cover or metadata.

What I do is I have a library for all of my eBooks. I then copy the ones I want to do anything with to another library. That way I have one library that's got my eBooks untouched.

As for getting calibre not to make changes when you don't want it to...

Here is how to set Calibre to not update the metadata when Saving to disk, using the viewer, and using the editor

Saving books to disk
Preferences > Saving books to disk
Uncheck Update metadata in saved copies

Viewer
Preferences > Miscellaneous
Uncheck Keep a copy of annotations/bookmarks in the e-book file , for easy sharing

Editor (this only works for ePub)
Load an ePub in the editor
Edit > Preferences > Integration with calibre
Uncheck metadata in the book when opening
Exit the editor without saving the eBook.

[kartyaim]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Disable this setting in the Editor preferences...

Thank you. It's exactly the setting I was looking for.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Here is how to set Calibre to not update the metadata when Saving to disk, using the viewer, and using the editor

Thank you. Are there any other settings to prevent changes to the original file? Also, is it normal that, even though I have

save_original_format = True
save_original_format_when_polishing = True

Calibre doesn't create a copy of the imported eBook with the _original.epub suffix when I import an EPUB, preserving the original file unchanged?

[ownedbycats]

unless I'm mistaken, save_original_format only makes an original_epub for epub->epub conversions.

[Wiggo]

Originally Posted by kartyaim

Calibre doesn't create a copy of the imported eBook with the _original.epub suffix when I import an EPUB, preserving the original file unchanged?

Of course not, because importing doesn’t change anything - as you already have noticed.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by kartyaim

Calibre doesn't create a copy of the imported eBook with the _original.epub suffix when I import an EPUB, preserving the original file unchanged?

No, only if you convert epub -> epub.
I keep all the files added to Calibre. Those are the originals. Especially if you edit an imported azw3 or epub in calibre, because it's up to you to have an original copy somewhere else. Editing changes the file Calibre has without changing the suffix. So you might want to Export to Disk first if you already edited it.
One place for PD, one for bought, one for equipment manuals, one for reference PDFs (mostly old scans), one for PDF data sheets and one place for content I create. Only some of the content I create is added to Calibre (and docx is deleted in Calibre as soon as epub conversion done) and only PDFs I want on an ereader are added.

With documents I create (images, vectors, photos, text, spreadsheets) I do a Save As with an incremented version number before deleting or rearranging content, or before major edits. I edit native versions (odt, xcf etc) and Save As or Export exact copies if PDF, docx, png, jpg etc are needed.