Exclude timestamp when merging

[Polnocnica]

Hi, I have a question. Is there any option to merge two books in different formats (example: epub and mobi), so i could merge all metadata except timestamp (added to library date)?
Example: i have one .mobi ebook with nice metadata added some time ago, and some time later i add same book just in different format (.epub, wrong metadata), but when i marge them it copies everything, even the date when i added the first book.
Then I want to save all updated books to my smartphone, but i need to search them manually, because dates for the merged books are wrong, which is a little problematic
Maybe there is an option to exclude parts of automerge? Or a plugin?

Thank you for any help

[BetterRed]

@Polnonica - the Date column is editable - so you could change it back again.

Or, you could drag the format file from the 'bad' book's folder (e.g. the one with the EPUB) into the book details panel of the 'good' book; or copy the format to the clipboard with Ctrl+C, and then use the Add books->Add files to selected book from clipboard option. Then remove the 'bad' book.

Merge never seems to do as I expect, so I always do it as described with Ctrl+C and Alt+Shift+V (custom shortcut).

Tip: press 'O' to open the selected book's book folder.

BR

[Polnocnica]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@Polnonica - the Date column is editable - so you could change it back again.

Or, you could drag the format file from the 'bad' book's folder (e.g. the one with the EPUB) into the book details panel of the 'good' book; or copy the format to the clipboard with Ctrl+C, and then use the Add books->Add files to selected book from clipboard option. Then remove the 'bad' book.

Merge never seems to do as I expect, so I always do it as described with Ctrl+C and Alt+Shift+V (custom shortcut).

Tip: press 'O' to open the selected book's book folder.

BR

Thanks for the answer. I just hoped I could do it automatically, because i have a big number of books to add to my library and it is a little bit tedious to change it manually (update of old library, basically i have some new books, some old but in better version, and sometime duplicate (same book, different format) of old PDFs that i want to get rid off, or just copy of the same book in different places. Big mess.)

I think I just turn off auto merge then. It seems it will be easier.

And I found this on https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/customize.html

#: Exclude fields when copy/pasting metadata
# You can ask calibre to not paste some metadata fields when using the
# Edit metadata->Copy metadata/Paste metadata actions. For example,
# exclude_fields_on_paste = ['cover', 'timestamp', '#mycolumn']
# to prevent pasting of the cover, Date and custom column, mycolumn.
exclude_fields_on_paste = []


How do I do that? Where should I add it? exclude_fields_on_paste = ['timestamp']

[BetterRed]

I don't like automerge either, I prefer to do things manually, then I know they're done right, and if they're not I know who to blame.

A Find for 'exclude' in Preferences->Tweaks will find it what you're looking for. I use the copy/paste metadata feature a lot on a couple of my libraries - saves me heaps of time.

BR

[Polnocnica]

Thanks again You helped me a lot.