Where are custom metadatas stored?

[Dan__]

Hello,
I use calibre on my laptop and also read on an iPad. I have the calibre server running. I use Dropbox to keep the library in sync between the laptop and the server since I often add books from the laptop.

I have created a custom metadata {Status: Unread|Reading|Read} and have created a saved search [search:"#status:Reading" ]. This allows me to find the books I am currently reading from the ipad.

Lately, as I update the status of various books, the status changes are being propagated correctly through Dropbox to all of my machines EXCEPT the server. On the server, the books that still show as "reading" are books that have long since been marked as read. (I never use the GUI on the server to make any changes to the library to avoid creating sync inconsistencies with Dropbox.)

I'm trying to understand where the custom (per book) metadatas are stored in the hope that this will help me diagnose the problem with Dropbox on the calibre server machine.

Thank you

[DaltonST]

All metadata for a particular Calibre Library is stored in a single SQLite database with a file name of "metadata.db".

In case the metadata.db becomes corrupted, each Book's specific metadata is (or should be) backed up to a file named "metadata.opf" that resides in the Calibre directory structure for each respective book. You can restore the metadata.db using those individual metadata.opf files via Calibre's tools to do so.

In the same top level folder as metadata.db there is a file named "metadata_db_prefs_backup.json". This is used to restore Library-specific customization options lost because of a metadata.db corruption.

Backing up metadata.db and metadata_db_prefs_backup.json routinely is always an excellent idea.

[Dan__]

Thank you for the information. That's exactly what I was looking for.