Adding metadata to book already on device

[HGYLKCLB]

Hi there. I usually just add my books to my device manually. Sometimes i find out later that a book doesnt have a description in the metadata and i want to mediate that. Is there any way to update metadata on *all* the books on my device, all in one shot? or do i have to manually go through every book and, one at a time, "match to library"?

[theducks]

You only need to 'match to Library', if there is no tick along side.

I know of no speedy way (bulk) to do that (the tick indicates Calibre already did that on its own.)

I am interested in WHY folk think Calibre is too ??? to be the way to manage their device book transfers?
1) (My WAG) the laptop is so under powered, that starting Calibre takes forever to startup

2)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by HGYLKCLB

Hi there. I usually just add my books to my device manually. Sometimes i find out later that a book doesnt have a description in the metadata and i want to mediate that. Is there any way to update metadata on *all* the books on my device, all in one shot? or do i have to manually go through every book and, one at a time, "match to library"?

As @theDucks said, the "match to library" is only used if calibre cannot match the book on the device to the library. Or got it wrong.

Updating the metadata on the device after sending the book depends on the device. Some devices read the metadata from the book each time it is needed, so just resending the book will do it. Others build a database of some sort with it. For these, the database or files that contain the metadata needs to be accessible when the device is connected. Some are, some aren't. And someone needs to write code to update the metadata on the device. I don't know anything about the Pocketbook Touch Lux 4 that you list as your device, so I don't know how it manages the metadata. But, for most of the devices, the calibre support for them means you need to resend the book to update the metadata.

[HGYLKCLB]

Maybe i didn't explain properly.

I don't use calibre to send books to my device. I do that manually, because I like to sort my books myself by folder, rather than having a folder for each book/author/however calibre does it.

So after i have sent my book to my device, sometimes i look at the "book info" and there is no description/synopsis of the book. So i import the book to calibre and update the metadata in my library.

You can easily update the metadata for hundreds of books at once in your library. But if you want to match the book on your device to the ones in your library, therefor updating the metadata, you have to do that one-by-one.

Is that more clear? was i misunderstood in the first place? or is there really just no other way to do this?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by HGYLKCLB

Maybe i didn't explain properly.

I don't use calibre to send books to my device. I do that manually, because I like to sort my books myself by folder, rather than having a folder for each book/author/however calibre does it.

If you use send-to-device, the location of the book on the device is set by the save template in the driver for the device. This can be set to anything you want if there is appropriate metadata.

So after i have sent my book to my device, sometimes i look at the "book info" and there is no description/synopsis of the book. So i import the book to calibre and update the metadata in my library.

You can easily update the metadata for hundreds of books at once in your library. But if you want to match the book on your device to the ones in your library, therefor updating the metadata, you have to do that one-by-one.

Is that more clear? was i misunderstood in the first place? or is there really just no other way to do this?

I think you are saying that you want to match the books you have manually on the device to the the calibre library when you connect the device. If that is the case, calibre should be doing this automatically. But, it requires the book to have appropriate metadata. You need the book to contain the metadata, or the file name to contain the title and author for the automatic matching. There is an option in the driver to read metadata from the file. If that is not set, it will try to use the file name.

If the calibre matches the book in the library to the book on the device, it doesn't update the metadata on the device. This is a read-only process and doesn't update the book. It does update a file called metadata.calibre. Calibre stores the metadata for books it finds on the device in this file. And it is used for the book matching. When you do the manual matching above, you need to use the option to write this to the device for the next connection. But, it only updates this file, not the actual book. Unless the device you are using to read books actually reads this file, then it won't change the metadata seen when using the device. I know there are some ereader apps that use the metadata.calibre file, but, I don't know of any devices that do.

I think that if you want the metadata on the device updated, you will need to repeat your original process of putting the book on the device. Update the metadata in calibre, save-to-disk and copy to the device replacing the current copy on the device. Hopefully the device will reread the metadata the next time you look at the book.

I'll make a statement: By manually putting the books on the device, you are making life hard for yourself. The save template can be changed. And then, if you use calibre to do the send-to-device, does it really matter where the books are? Does the device care? Can you tell when actually using the device?