Calibre not showing all books in library

[Louby]

My calibre library is only showing about 700 of the 4500+ books in the database, I've checked the path and it is correct, I've checked that the folder does contain the entries, I've run maintenance and it still only has 700 books rather than the 4500+. Is anyone able to guide me in what to try next please? I'm running the latest update, thanks

[BetterRed]

I'm guessing a) you have one or more Virtual Libraries (VLs), b) you don't use VL Tabs, and c) you toggled the search bar off.

Try toggling the Search Bar back on with Shift+Alt+F.

BR

[Louby]

Thanks for your reply, no I don’t use a virtual library, I can see all my books when I look in windows explorer, the files are there. Search bar is in place and all the books are in the same place, but it’s only showing 700 of the 4500

[Sirtel]

Is the library on a cloud drive or a network drive?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Louby

Thanks for your reply, no I don’t use a virtual library, I can see all my books when I look in windows explorer, the files are there. Search bar is in place and all the books are in the same place, but it’s only showing 700 of the 4500

Is that what it says at the bottom? That means a Search or VL is in force.

If it says 700 (of 700), then your library (DB) may be damaged.

Be sure you are NOT keeping the (working) Library on a networked drive of any kind.
Come back with the answers, then we can figure the fastest-less painful restore Before YOU do things that force the long way with metadata loss

[BetterRed]

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔

What we need to know is what's in the red-boxes :



The Title Bar tells me I am looking the physical library Test virtual library Has Location. The Status Bar tells me the Has Location virtual library has 16 books, of which 4 are selected, and that the Test physical library has 74 books.

BR

[Louby]

Library is not on a network, it's on my C drive in the Calibre folder in Documents, the parts you marked in red read, Calibre/Calibre and 703 books.
I've tried to add a screenshot, I hope that helps, thanks

[BetterRed]

OK that verifies a) there are no virtual libraries in play, and b) that the data base does indeed only have 703 book records.

Do the Book folders have metadata.opf files in them? Check a few that are missing from the database and a few that recorded in the dattabase.

Assuming the metadata.opf files are present, and after ensuring I had a backup copy of the library I would use the Library Maintenance->Restore database option, viz:



That will reconstruct the database… the metadata.db file in the library folder… from the metadata.opf files… that's why they exist. It will take a while for 7,000 books - watch a movie or have a snooze.

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Assuming the metadata.opf files are present, and after ensuring I had a backup copy of the library I would use the Library Maintenance->Restore database option, viz:

Attachment 195104

That will reconstruct the database… the metadata.db file in the library folder… from the metadata.opf files… that's why they exist. It will take a while for 7,000 books - watch a movie or have a snooze.

BR

I suggest that the OP run both parts of Library Maintenance->Check Library. If the books are in the library folder with syntactically correct names then part 2 of Check Library will show them in various ways (see screen capture). If it does not then Restore Database won't do anything useful.

Don't actually "fix" anything using "Check library". That will result in data loss.

EDIT: The screen capture notwithstanding, any of the lines in Check library can have content (the sideways triangle). The library is OK only if no line has the triangle.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Louby

Library is not on a network, it's on my C drive in the Calibre folder in Documents, the parts you marked in red read, Calibre/Calibre and 703 books.
I've tried to add a screenshot, I hope that helps, thanks

Is the Documents folder syncing to OneDrive? If not, have you added files to the library folder manually, not using Calibre?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

I suggest that the OP run both parts of Library Maintenance->Check Library. If the books are in the library folder with syntactically correct names then part 2 of Check Library will show them in various ways (see screen capture). If it does not then Restore Database won't do anything useful.

Don't actually "fix" anything using "Check library". That will result in data loss.

EDIT: The screen capture notwithstanding, any of the lines in Check library can have content (the sideways triangle). The library is OK only if no line has the triangle.

I was planning to get the OP to run the Check after the Restore; there may be some books that are recoverable and others that are not recoverable.

Does Restore destroy unrecoverable book folders - e,g book folders with no metadata.opf? I've never had to run it in anger.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Is the Documents folder syncing to OneDrive? If not, have you added files to the library folder manually, not using Calibre?

Good pickup, I missed that - I don't keep anything I value in Documents too many application use it as a dumping ground.

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I was planning to get the OP to run the Check after the Restore; there may be some books that are recoverable and others that are not recoverable.

I suggested running it first because a) it is quick which restore is not, and b) if it doesn't find errors then restore won't do anything useful. If it does find errors then they can be instructive. For example, "Extra" authors are folders that don't contain syntactically valid book folders, which probably indicates external tampering of the library. There is something similar for title folders, checking the syntax of the folder name.

Does Restore destroy unrecoverable book folders - e,g book folders with no metadata.opf? I've never had to run it in anger.

Restore doesn't delete anything except metadata.db, which it replaces. The old database is saved as metadata_pre_restore.db. Restore checks several things to be sure that the folder structure is semantically correct. The check involving metadata.opf also checks that the book ID in the containing folder name matches the book ID in metadata.opf. If it does not then the folder is ignored (and reported as ignored).

Perhaps the best solution is to back up the library then try restore. The list of errors might be instructive, and the library can be recovered if needed.

Another option is one I think I have seen you suggest: create a new library, do a "Copy books to library w/delete", then see what is left behind.

[gbm]

I bet he is, remember the default widows setting is to not keep documents locally in Documents folder but to send them to bad drive. He is running a non standard calibre settings with his library in \User\Documents

bernie

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Is the Documents folder syncing to OneDrive? If not, have you added files to the library folder manually, not using Calibre?

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I was planning to get the OP to run the Check after the Restore; there may be some books that are recoverable and others that are not recoverable.

Does Restore destroy unrecoverable book folders - e,g book folders with no metadata.opf? I've never had to run it in anger.

BR

[Louby]

No not syncing documents to OneDrive, no manually added files. It seems to be the much older files that are missing from the database