Stuck importing books back into calibre on new pc

[book64]

I've just got a new pc . Followed the instructions to export my nearly 3000 book library to an external drive.
Today I followed the instructions to import the books back into calibre.
It starts and I view it naming all my books
But when I get to 100% it says its unable to do it
Chose another empty folder
I have created folders in my docs. Called calibre, calibre books, ebooks etc
But calibre will not import the books into anywhere
Help! I love my calibre but tried all afternoon to import back into it
No luck.

[theducks]

How did you do it (actual steps) 1) make the backup? 2) Do the restore?
There are many ways to get this done over the years that work BUT you can't pick some save steps from one and use others to restore. They will fail.

Simplest: Make a folder (the name will be your new Library name in the end) eg MainLib

DO NOT start Calibre

on your OLD PC copy EVERYTHING INSIDE the old Library folder over to the INSIDE of the new folder. If you have NOT added books to the New, Default Calibre Library, simply replace the contents in total. This is your books BUT NOT plugins or settings.

[stumped]

Windows defender, if used, now imposes security restrictions on folders in my documents. Try a new folder outside of there and see if problem goes away.
Or change from defender to an alternative security program.
If this is a wrong diagnosis please report back.
Are you using the menu options for export all calibre data, and then for import....

My preference is not to use that method. Instead do what previous post suggested. Copy the complete calibre library folder to external drive , using windows copy and paste, and also copy the calibre folder in app data. Then write those back to same locations on new pc

[DNSB]

I would agree that you are likely running into Controlled Folder Access. Instead of creating your destination folder in your Documents folder, create it in the root of your user folder (c:\users\yourname\calibre) and then restore your library to that folder.

You may have to then tell calibre to use the existing library/libraries in the folder. I haven't restored a calibre library from export/import in quite a while. It was faster to do my changed file sync to backup rather than backing up the entire calibre library each time I wanted a backup.

Much easier than mucking around in Windows Defender to un-protect your files/folders.

[book64]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I would agree that you are likely running into Controlled Folder Access. Instead of creating your destination folder in your Documents folder, create it in the root of your user folder (c:\users\yourname\calibre) and then restore your library to that folder.

You may have to then tell calibre to use the existing library/libraries in the folder. I haven't restored a calibre library from export/import in quite a while. It was faster to do my changed file sync to backup rather than backing up the entire calibre library each time I wanted a backup.

Much easier than mucking around in Windows Defender to un-protect your files/folders.

I tried to create a new folder under my username but no change.
It starts to copy them Gets to 100% then says it cant,

[book64]

This is what is says

[book64]

Originally Posted by theducks

How did you do it (actual steps) 1) make the backup? 2) Do the restore?
There are many ways to get this done over the years that work BUT you can't pick some save steps from one and use others to restore. They will fail.

Simplest: Make a folder (the name will be your new Library name in the end) eg MainLib

DO NOT start Calibre

on your OLD PC copy EVERYTHING INSIDE the old Library folder over to the INSIDE of the new folder. If you have NOT added books to the New, Default Calibre Library, simply replace the contents in total. This is your books BUT NOT plugins or settings.

I did it all through Calibre
Export Import

You say copy everything inside the old library folder....do you mean the actual calibre folder I always save a copy of?
Or the calibre files that were created when I exported in calibre on my old pc?

I really also need plug ins and settings if at all possible

[stumped]

the trouble with export import is when it does nto work 100% then its a black box which cannot easily be troubleshooted. its output was a collection of spanned zip files - not easy to see inside of those.
the DIY route is to (windows) copy two folders.
1. the calibre library folder which has all the books and the metadata.
2. the calibre folder in ...app data / roaming which has all the plugins and preferences
I have several times gone this route for new PCs, you simply place those folders onto the new PC using the same file paths , install calibre - it finds them... job done. all plugins will work, just like before
this also has the advantage that the folders you copied in part 1 pf the process are usable backups. You can retrieve books etc directly from those if you ever need to.

[book64]

Ok stumped questions lol....
Copy 2 folders...so the calbre folder full of my books is on my external.
Do I copy the whole folder and contents to Documents or somewhere?

Secondly sorry I dont know where to find the app data / roaming folder
Everything seems different on this windows 10 machine as opposed to my old one.

And do I copy that whole folder also into Documents too?

[stumped]

1. its best not to put the library in documents if you are using windows defender. but with diferent AV then yes, mine is at C:\Users\myusername\Documents\Calibre Library
if you have windows defender running, use C:\Users\uourusername\Calibre Library

2. app data is a hidden folder so you have to change folder view settings to be able to see it
then the calibre config folder is in C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\roaming ( which is also where it was in win7, from memory). use that same location on the new machine as that is the default location where calibre will expect to find it .
i am guessing that export- import may not work if the 2 machines are running different OS. are you going from win 7 to win 10 ?

PS with the config stuff. if in doubt then do this. 1 do a new calibre install, then close calibre, then look in app data/roaming and you should see [ check data and timestamp] that calibre has just created a folder. 2. Replace that folder with the one from your old PC ( while calibre is closed)

[book64]

Hi Stumped
Your solution worked and all books, columns, etc are in calibre.
So thanks very much!!!

But now I have a Calibre folder and a Calibre Library folder in documents
Not got a clue which one imported...it just did when I opened calibre!
How will I know which one to back up though?

I printed out instructions of export and import to do it correctly,but that was a waste of time!

But thanks to you I now have my books again in calibre!!!

[stumped]

in calibre , click top left calibre library icon. that shoudl tell you the name of the calibre library ( which is probably calibre library).
also, if you look in documnets, the actaul calibre library is the folder that has author subfolders
the " calibre2 folder is maybe a copy of the config data that you put there by mistake if so it will have lots of files of type json, pickle, py...

calibre - preferences - misc - open config directory will show the active config directory, and its location. if that is isn app data, then you can safely delete the one in documents as its not in use

once you get used to is, its not too complicated. many other apps use the same system: user preferences are stored in a folder in app data, and the relevant media ( books , music, videos etc) are stored elsewhere.

e.g.1. my music player for local files is foobar2000. the preferences for that are in app data/roaming/foobar.... the music files are in My music
so to install that app on a new PC, I copy over the app data folder, and I copy over my music files..

e.g. 2. My email program is mailbird. To copy that to a new PC, with all my settings and history, I copy over the app data roaming mailbird folder and I install the current version of that app

[theducks]

Forget about Calibre2 folder, that is put in place by the INSTALLER and only contains the program, nothing else.

Your FIRST step is to ALWAYS do a fresh install using the installer from the official source:. This puts ALL the pieces in place properly.

Then you shut down Calibre after first run (<< important step).

Then you will replace whatever -- wherever with the following 2 folders

The Calibre folder (in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming) is your custom USER settings, Plugins.

The Library which contains metadata.db, is your books. Make note of the path to this

One last step:
Start Calibre, (ignore any complaints about missing Library).
ONLY IF your books are not showing: Right-click the Library Icon: Switch-Create: USE EXISTING:<the path you noted above>:OK

Note, I have done Library moves between many PC's, on both Linux and Windows (XP, W7, W10:1909. Calibre runs fine on W10:2004)