Trouble editing Project Gutenberg books

[gol8erl8]

Device: Kindle Paperwhite 4 (software up-to-date)
calibre 4.11.2

When I sideload .mobi ebooks from Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org), the changes I make to the metadata do not appear on my Kindle, namely the titles and authors. That is, the old metadata appears on my Kindle, while the updated metadata appears on Calibre. However, covers that I generate (with the updated metadata) do appear on my Kindle. Moreover, when I sideload .mobi ebooks from another website, the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/index.php), the changes I make to the metadata do appear on my Kindle. I note that I am doing any conversion and am saving to disk as a single file (Preferences > Saving books to disk > unchecked Save cover separately and unchecked Save metadata in a separate OPF file)

I am going crazy trying to understand why I can't edit Project Gutenberg ebooks specifically. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[gol8erl8]

Correction:

Originally Posted by gol8erl8

I note that I am not doing any conversion...

[theducks]

STD (Save to disk) is usually for devices that do not have drivers (thus the book, w/ metadata and cover as options)

Have you tries Send to device? Also note: Kindles use embedded (standard) metadata. If you wish more, use the Metadata Plugboard to wedge additional metadata into a standard field.
{series_index}-{title} -> {title}
is very common

[gol8erl8]

I did try Send to device, but no luck. I am new to Calibre, so I am not familiar with the metadata plugboard yet. I will look that up next!

[gol8erl8]

If I understand correctly, the metadata plugboard is for making templates of existing fields that overwrite a destination field when sending a specified format to a specified device. I added a plugboard (for any format and any device) that sets {title} to Title lol. However, that did not help.

One of the files giving me trouble: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61436.kindle.noimages . I want to change the title from
"Ancient legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland / With sketches of the Irish past" to
"Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, With Sketches of the Irish Past" on my Kindle.

[kovidgoyal]

THat will be because it is a dual MOBI metadata cannot be updated in those. Downoad EPBs from PG and let calibre autoconvert them. PG anyway generates the MOBI files by auto-conversion.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by gol8erl8

If I understand correctly, the metadata plugboard is for making templates of existing fields that overwrite a destination field when sending a specified format to a specified device. I added a plugboard (for any format and any device) that sets {title} to Title lol. However, that did not help.

One of the files giving me trouble: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61436.kindle.noimages . I want to change the title from
"Ancient legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland / With sketches of the Irish past" to
"Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, With Sketches of the Irish Past" [/B]on my Kindle.

That was not the Title. That was an EPIC
(and probably crashed the Indexer in the Kindle, which is why there was no change seen) <Not your fault. PG seems to have taken liberties )

This IS the title: (cut from the internal title page)
Ancient Legends Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland

This is the subtitle (not a default Calibre - or device field)
WITH SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PAST

I converted it to EPUB, making NO changes in Calibre. Then I opened it in the Viewer : Show metadata

Ancient legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland / With sketches of the Irish past
Authors:	Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde
Published:	Feb 2020
Languages:	eng

That tells me that 1 or 2 things happened.
1) YOU changed the title in Calibre (your plan) and the save location is now different (expected) You should have 2 versions of the book on your device. (Calibre will probably show 2-books when attached)
2) The ASIN Identifier is pulling Their version of the metadata from the big A's servers

FWIW
The plugboard is for modifying standard data by injecting additional stuff on its way to the device.
Download EPUB from PG, (optional edit) ,then convert to AZW3 (KF8) with Calibre. Mobi is Old and limited. All Kindle tablets do the New format

[hobnail]

I have a similar problem when downloading EPUBs where the metadata needs fixing; sometimes the author sort is given in the metadata in all caps or some other nonsense. If I edit the metadata in Calibre and then do an Open Containing Folder and open the EPUB in Sigil, Sigil's metadata editor shows the original unchanged stuff. I'm guessing that Calibre is only changing stuff in the metadata.opf file on my hard drive (calibre's library) in the folder where the cover.jpg and epub file are. I haven't tested it but it may be that everything will be correct when I transfer the book to my kobo but being naturally paranoid I've taken to always editing the book's metadata in Sigil.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

THat will be because it is a dual MOBI metadata cannot be updated in those. Downoad EPBs from PG and let calibre autoconvert them. PG anyway generates the MOBI files by auto-conversion.

For the OP, I think Kovid meant EPUBs where he typed EPBs.

Given the choice of formats to download from any site my theory has been that downloading EPUB is always a safe bet and Calibre will do an excellent job of converting it to Kindle format (most likely you'll want AZW3, not MOBI unless your Kindle is ancient). Additionally during the conversion you can have Calibre fix any wonky formatting that may be present in the EPUB, which in the case of Project Gutenberg (and probably the other sites as well), will also be present in their Kindle version.

[BetterRed]

@hobnail - yes, when you Send to Device or Save to Disk you can send/save with the current metadata - IIRC StD metadata setting is device dependent. You can also inject the current metadata into the library copies of EPUBs (and AZW3s) with the Polish Books tool. There's also an Embed Metadata tool.

And this may save you a bit of time: I press Shift+S to open an EPUB in Sigil, no plugins, no closing explorer windows. You can also get at calibre's Open With via the View Specific Format option, but a shortcut is easier. I had Edge as an EPUB Open With option, until MS . . .



BR

[retiredbiker]

You can also inject the current metadata into the library copies of EPUBs (and AZW3s) with the Polish Books tool. There's also an Embed Metadata tool.

For years my workflow has been add book, fix metadata, Polish. For some small change if I spot a rock, like changing a tag, immediately hit Embed Metadata. Doing this, I've never had a problem with what is actually in the book compared to what I see on the Calibre screen.

(I keep Polish set to update the metadata, and also update the cover, smarten punctuation, and remove unused css rules. Keeps everything nice and clean.)

This seems to keep coming up over and over again...maybe a sticky about how Calibre handles metadata, and Polishing?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

This seems to keep coming up over and over again...maybe a sticky about how Calibre handles metadata, and Polishing?

We have too many, not being read , stickies already.
Remember when new software came with a README (and sometimes READ1st) file? And we actuall READ THEM

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

...

This seems to keep coming up over and over again...maybe a sticky about how Calibre handles metadata, and Polishing?

Being able to to configure a toolbar from itself via a right click option or a fixed icon at left edge might encourage users to be a bit more adventurous in exploring the built in tools.

BR

[gol8erl8]

Wow! Thank you kindly for all of your responses and apologies for replying late. Before addressing them individually, I note that I've since found converting from .MOBI to .AZW3 lets me change the titles for my Kindle (which is consistent with the above responses). I was concerned that conversion would be a destructive, but it seems my .AZW3 files are close enough to the originals. They are also much smaller (about a third of the file size in all)! However, I have new questions that I'll begin a new thread for.

[gol8erl8]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

THat will be because it is a dual MOBI metadata cannot be updated in those. Downoad EPBs from PG and let calibre autoconvert them. PG anyway generates the MOBI files by auto-conversion.

Thank you and any other developers for calibre. It is great software. I'm curious what a "dual" MOBI format is. Since other MOBI files did work, I had reason to believe there might be multiple types.