Library empty in Calibre

evamaria · 01-29-2011, 06:37 PM

I've been using Calibre for a year or so, with no real problems - but when I opened it today, not having changed anything since my last use yesterday, the library appeared empty.

I checked, and the files are still there (in my Dropbox folder for back-up purposes), the location is still selected correctly, but the books simply do not show up in Calibre. I upgraded to the latest version (0.7.43) in the hopes that this would fix the issue, but no luck. It doesn't seem to recognize that there are books in the folder. I also tried running the set-up wizard again.

I'd appreciate any help - considering all files are in Calibre's archive structure, having to re-add them would be a huge pain in the butt...

DoctorOhh · 01-29-2011, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evamaria

I checked, and the files are still there (in my Dropbox folder for back-up purposes), the location is still selected correctly, but the books simply do not show up in Calibre. I upgraded to the latest version (0.7.43) in the hopes that this would fix the issue, but no luck. It doesn't seem to recognize that there are books in the folder. I also tried running the set-up wizard again.

Close calibre, open the dropbox website from the dropbox icon and review previous versions of the metadata.db file (in the main folder of your library). If you are seeing 0 books then this file got corrupted. Restore the last version (most likely larger then the current size) of this file that worked for you and start calibre. If you go back to too old a version you will lose database entries for books you added after that time. See attached for clarification.

itimpi · 01-30-2011, 12:47 AM

An alternative is to use the calibredb command with the restore-database option to rebuild the database from the calibre library folders and files.

This does require you to have previously been running a recent enough version of Calibre for the book folders to contain a metadata.opf file to get all metadata recovered, but the generation of that file has been a feature of Calibre for some time now.

evamaria · 01-30-2011, 08:27 AM

Thanks to both of you!

You were right, metadata.db had been corrupted somehow. For some reason Dropbox didn't have a functioning version stored, but the command line solution restored almost all of my library, it seems like.

Again, thanks for your help!

01-29-2011, 06:37 PM	#1
evamaria Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505	Library empty in Calibre I've been using Calibre for a year or so, with no real problems - but when I opened it today, not having changed anything since my last use yesterday, the library appeared empty. I checked, and the files are still there (in my Dropbox folder for back-up purposes), the location is still selected correctly, but the books simply do not show up in Calibre. I upgraded to the latest version (0.7.43) in the hopes that this would fix the issue, but no luck. It doesn't seem to recognize that there are books in the folder. I also tried running the set-up wizard again. I'd appreciate any help - considering all files are in Calibre's archive structure, having to re-add them would be a huge pain in the butt... Attached Thumbnails Last edited by evamaria; 01-29-2011 at 06:41 PM. Reason: Typo

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01-30-2011, 12:47 AM	#3
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	An alternative is to use the calibredb command with the restore-database option to rebuild the database from the calibre library folders and files. This does require you to have previously been running a recent enough version of Calibre for the book folders to contain a metadata.opf file to get all metadata recovered, but the generation of that file has been a feature of Calibre for some time now.

01-30-2011, 08:27 AM	#4
evamaria Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505	Thanks to both of you! You were right, metadata.db had been corrupted somehow. For some reason Dropbox didn't have a functioning version stored, but the command line solution restored almost all of my library, it seems like. Again, thanks for your help!

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