Even paranoids have real enemies - Need help with tidy up please

[WaggaSteve]

Background is that I have just been arrested, jailed and deported from Angola after working there for 6 years. Why do I mention this ?. There was no English bookshop in the country so I came to rely on my Kindle and the wonderful Calibre program to feed my voracious reading needs. However, as I left on such short notice, I dont have all my "stuff" and my Calibre files are a mess (my fault, not the program) as my fear of losing files meant I have them scattered all over various hard-drives, USB memory sticks, CDs (yeah I know). The tidiest version is still in Angola

I seek advice on a one off tidy up (which I will then of course back up).

In the good old days of DOS /early Windows, I would have just copied/moved all the files to one directory allowing Windows "file already exists - overwrite ??" process to eliminate duplicates.

Can I do something similar taking into account calibre's filing process which appears to create a directory for each book and associated files eg cover.jpg. Note I am not concerned about losing cover pictures as I dont really use them but am worried about the impact (if any) of losing *.opf files.

Appreciate any assistance on an idiots guide to tidying up whilst being cognizant of Calibre's process/needs

TIA
Steve

[pdurrant]

Drag them all into calibre and let calibre create copies in its library, then use the sorting/searching in calibre to find any duplicates and merge them.

[WaggaSteve]

I obviously should have capitalised the Idiots Guide section of my request. More details please. My total experience with Calibre is to set new import locations and copy books to Kindle PW1

[Lynx-lynx]

WaggaSteve pop down into the Calibre sub forum and you will likely receive the help you're after. Govid pops into the calibre forums regularly, but there are many many generous people there who will help you.

Wow you've had an interesting time of it of late by the sound of it. Were you working with an Aid Agency in Angola?

You back in Wagga Wagga now? Huge difference between the two, eh!

[WaggaSteve]

Will do

Not aid but oil company. I am not in Wagga yet - when I got deported, there was a chance it was a short hiatus/mistake so got them to fly me to France where I have a little place I have been doing up whilst on vacation from Angola.
Still there but heading back to Wagga (and then Anna Bay) end of next month now I know it was a conscious decision to get rid of me as I was stopping too many people from stealing big chunks of money

[Dr. Drib]

Moved to the calibre forum.


Don
(Moderator)

[WaggaSteve]

Thank you Don.
My current thinking is to create folders for each type of file (eg azw vs txt vs rtf) on a separate drive and search the main locations by file type, then move them to the new folders, choosing to not create duplicates as I go.

I would then need to list ALL files in those directories alphabetically (to catch those books which are in more than 1 format and manually review/delete (not a lot of fun but cant think of a better way - open to suggestions btw)

I would then have Calibre create a new Library of the resultant cut down and relatively non duplicative files.

Issues:
No covers - who cares
No OPF - Dont know if this is important or not

What have I missed or is there a smarter way

TIA
Steve

[pdurrant]

It seems to me that you're doing tasks manually that are much better done in/by calibre.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WaggaSteve

Thank you Don.
My current thinking is to create folders for each type of file (eg azw vs txt vs rtf) on a separate drive and search the main locations by file type, then move them to the new folders, choosing to not create duplicates as I go.

I would then need to list ALL files in those directories alphabetically (to catch those books which are in more than 1 format and manually review/delete (not a lot of fun but cant think of a better way - open to suggestions btw)

I would then have Calibre create a new Library of the resultant cut down and relatively non duplicative files.

Issues:
No covers - who cares
No OPF - Dont know if this is important or not

What have I missed or is there a smarter way

TIA
Steve

There is a better way. Since not all of these files will have proper metadata, the best way is to dump them all into one directory (no, it's not a folder), and look at the list of file alphabetically with your file browser (with Windows, that would be Windows Explorer) and then you can see which ones are the same (or similar enough filenames) and deal the ones you don't want.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It seems to me that you're doing tasks manually that are much better done in/by calibre.

@WaggaSteve - I would get the files into calibre, correct the author names and titles there, use the Find Duplicates PI to weed out true duplicates, and use the extract ISBN PI where possible and then download metadata, covers etc.

Did you tread on a Chinaman's toes in Angola Maybe when you get to Anna Bay you could swap stories with Clive Palmer You might be able to get him to declare war on Angola as it has done on China - figuratively speaking, of course

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@WaggaSteve - I would get the files into calibre, correct the author names and titles there, use the Find Duplicates PI to weed out true duplicates, and use the extract ISBN PI where possible and then download metadata, covers etc.

Did you tread on a Chinaman's toes in Angola Maybe when you get to Anna Bay you could swap stories with Clive Palmer You might be able to get him to declare war on Angola as it has done on China - figuratively speaking, of course

BR

Problem is that there are formats that usually and definitely don't have metadata like RTF and TXT. So doing it the way I suggested is the best way to do it.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Problem is that there are formats that usually and definitely don't have metadata like RTF and TXT. So doing it the way I suggested is the best way to do it.

There is no BEST way to do anything, there are just different ways Ψ². I made no reflection on your post, I simply posted what I would do...

BR

[WaggaSteve]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There is a better way. Since not all of these files will have proper metadata, the best way is to dump them all into one directory (no, it's not a folder), and look at the list of file alphabetically with your file browser (with Windows, that would be Windows Explorer) and then you can see which ones are the same (or similar enough filenames) and deal the ones you don't want.

I am not clear on the difference between what you are suggesting and what I proposed in my para 2- Could you elucidate please

[WaggaSteve]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It seems to me that you're doing tasks manually that are much better done in/by calibre.

I dont disagree because as mentioned I dont know Calibre well enough to comment. Would appreciate details of what you mean

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by WaggaSteve

I dont disagree because as mentioned I dont know Calibre well enough to comment. Would appreciate details of what you mean

Import everything into calibre. Once they're in calibre you can easily add metadata (if not automatically picked up) for title and Author, and then merge books that are the same. Calibre's good at picking up metadata and sorting on title, author, etc.

It is perhaps calibre's merge capability that you're unfamiliar with. See the manual, but also experiment a bit yourself. When merging records, duplicates of the same format can be kept or discarded.