Major Bug in Author Management?

msr · 12-04-2010, 02:58 AM

I'm pretty sure the following happened, but I don't want to do a test to confirm. I was doing some basic library maintenance and decided to check on author sorts. I went into the "Manage Authors" and fixed the sort order for a few authors whose auto-sort wasn't correct (i.e., those with Jr. appended to their names).

I then noticed, more or less by accident, that all of the books for those exact same authors were missing every format. The folder still existed with the metadata.opf file, but there were no actual book files or covers.

Thankfully, I had a not-too-distant backup of the library and was able to re-add all of the books. I can't think of anything else I did that could have affected that same group of authors (and only those authors as far as I can tell), which is why I think this was a very bad unintended consequence of the author management system.

Windows Vista
Calibre 0.7.32

chaley · 12-04-2010, 03:57 AM

I have used manage_authors extensively, and have never had this problem. Yesterday while testing in my 5000 book library I changed the author sort for all authors, some authors, and no authors, and didn't lose any formats. I tested again just now, doing similar things, but didn't see this happen.

At this point there is nothing I can do except wait for someone to provide a scenario that fails for me.

msr · 12-04-2010, 03:25 PM

Strange. I don't know what else I could have done that would have eliminated the books for those specific authors and (as far as I can tell) no others. I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens.

12-04-2010, 02:58 AM	#1
msr Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: Kindle2	Major Bug in Author Management? I'm pretty sure the following happened, but I don't want to do a test to confirm. I was doing some basic library maintenance and decided to check on author sorts. I went into the "Manage Authors" and fixed the sort order for a few authors whose auto-sort wasn't correct (i.e., those with Jr. appended to their names). I then noticed, more or less by accident, that all of the books for those exact same authors were missing every format. The folder still existed with the metadata.opf file, but there were no actual book files or covers. Thankfully, I had a not-too-distant backup of the library and was able to re-add all of the books. I can't think of anything else I did that could have affected that same group of authors (and only those authors as far as I can tell), which is why I think this was a very bad unintended consequence of the author management system. Windows Vista Calibre 0.7.32

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12-04-2010, 03:57 AM	#2
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,327 Karma: 8012652 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	I have used manage_authors extensively, and have never had this problem. Yesterday while testing in my 5000 book library I changed the author sort for all authors, some authors, and no authors, and didn't lose any formats. I tested again just now, doing similar things, but didn't see this happen. At this point there is nothing I can do except wait for someone to provide a scenario that fails for me.

12-04-2010, 03:25 PM	#3
msr Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: Kindle2	Strange. I don't know what else I could have done that would have eliminated the books for those specific authors and (as far as I can tell) no others. I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens.

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