Lost or wiped library - ??

Anabana · 10-27-2018, 08:18 PM

Oh, HEL...p! I just updated from 3.30 to 3.33.1, then clicked get books and got three short stories (text files) from one of my computer doc files. They opened to a calibre library page with only those three stories. I was intent on getting them converted from text to pdf, so didn't think twice about it until the conversions just went back to my library of 3 books. My entire original library is gone... Any ideas how to find it? I can't recall how many books I had - maybe a couple hundred? In my documents folder, calibre library is just the 3 short stories from today. There are also two 'calibre library deleted' folders, each with just one book I had deleted ages ago when I created duplicates. I'm not totally illiterate, but certainly low-tech... :^(

theducks · 10-27-2018, 09:27 PM

Are you sure that tou are not looking at a Virtual Library or have a Search filter (the status bar at the bottom will say 3 of nnn)?

Search your whole computer for metadata.db, the folder those are in are LIBRARIES.
Use the Library Icon (right click) menu to Switch/create: USE EXISTING:<choose where the DB was found>

Anabana · 10-27-2018, 09:37 PM

OK, thanks. I'll try that. I checked the VL and it doesn't show any other libraries. I was viewing under All Books... Status bar shows 3 of 3. Bah...

Anabana · 10-27-2018, 10:00 PM

YES!! Total success -- thank you so much. metadata.db brought it right up. It was in a document folder I probably wouldn't have looked at for another few months. Dragged and dropped it in Calibre and all is well. All are there including my 3 new ones. You are a life-saver! OK, a book-saver, and that's right up there with breathing and heartbeats. :^)

theducks · 10-27-2018, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anabana

YES!! Total success -- thank you so much. metadata.db brought it right up. It was in a document folder I probably wouldn't have looked at for another few months. Dragged and dropped it in Calibre and all is well. All are there including my 3 new ones. You are a life-saver! OK, a book-saver, and that's right up there with breathing and heartbeats. :^)

If you did that, you probably have a Library of 'Empty books'
metadata.db is the Catalog part of the Library.

Try and view some of those from inside Calibre: Tap 'V'
The instructions I gave, just tells Calibre where to LOOK. The library can be anywhere on the Local Drive (

keep it closer to the root (\) level to avoid long file path shortening issues)

BTW if the test fails, put that metadata.db back and follow the instructions. That should work fine

10-27-2018, 08:18 PM	#1
Anabana Zealot Posts: 109 Karma: 2735606 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: San Diego, CA Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Fire 7" & 10"; 11"(?)-12" Lenovo laptop	Lost or wiped library - ?? Oh, HEL...p! I just updated from 3.30 to 3.33.1, then clicked get books and got three short stories (text files) from one of my computer doc files. They opened to a calibre library page with only those three stories. I was intent on getting them converted from text to pdf, so didn't think twice about it until the conversions just went back to my library of 3 books. My entire original library is gone... Any ideas how to find it? I can't recall how many books I had - maybe a couple hundred? In my documents folder, calibre library is just the 3 short stories from today. There are also two 'calibre library deleted' folders, each with just one book I had deleted ages ago when I created duplicates. I'm not totally illiterate, but certainly low-tech... :^(

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10-27-2018, 09:27 PM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,047 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Are you sure that tou are not looking at a Virtual Library or have a Search filter (the status bar at the bottom will say 3 of nnn)? Search your whole computer for metadata.db, the folder those are in are LIBRARIES. Use the Library Icon (right click) menu to Switch/create: USE EXISTING:<choose where the DB was found>

10-27-2018, 09:37 PM	#3
Anabana Zealot Posts: 109 Karma: 2735606 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: San Diego, CA Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Fire 7" & 10"; 11"(?)-12" Lenovo laptop	OK, thanks. I'll try that. I checked the VL and it doesn't show any other libraries. I was viewing under All Books... Status bar shows 3 of 3. Bah...

10-27-2018, 10:00 PM	#4
Anabana Zealot Posts: 109 Karma: 2735606 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: San Diego, CA Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Fire 7" & 10"; 11"(?)-12" Lenovo laptop	YES!! Total success -- thank you *so much. metadata.db brought it right up. It was in a document folder I probably wouldn't have looked at for another few months. Dragged and dropped it in Calibre and all is well. All are there including my 3 new ones. You are a life-saver!* OK, a book-saver, and that's right up there with breathing and heartbeats. :^)

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