Does Calibre store actual copy of the book or just a link to it?

catsknit · 04-14-2022, 07:19 PM

I have 2 large folders on my hard drive - one for Kindle books downloaded and one for epubs bought elsewhere. Those books are then imported into Calibre and if needed, converted. Calibre is backed up both on my external SSD and in the cloud. Is there any reason I need to keep the original copies of books I downloaded, ie, the folders which house the originals before importing into Calibre? My laptop's SSD is pretty full and I would like to delete them if possible. I could also back them up as is on the external SSD but really feel like I have enough redundancy.

Unless Calibre's database is actually just links to the originals but I don't think it is, right?
thanks

DNSB · 04-14-2022, 07:24 PM

calibre copies the book into it's library directories when it is imported. You can safely delete the original file once you are satisfied with the copy in your calibre library.

catsknit · 04-14-2022, 09:42 PM

Thank you, good to know for certain.

04-14-2022, 07:19 PM	#1
catsknit Addict Posts: 224 Karma: 34036 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kobo Glo HD, Samsung tablet, Kobo Libra, InkPad 3 Pro	Does Calibre store actual copy of the book or just a link to it? I have 2 large folders on my hard drive - one for Kindle books downloaded and one for epubs bought elsewhere. Those books are then imported into Calibre and if needed, converted. Calibre is backed up both on my external SSD and in the cloud. Is there any reason I need to keep the original copies of books I downloaded, ie, the folders which house the originals before importing into Calibre? My laptop's SSD is pretty full and I would like to delete them if possible. I could also back them up as is on the external SSD but really feel like I have enough redundancy. Unless Calibre's database is actually just links to the originals but I don't think it is, right? thanks

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04-14-2022, 07:24 PM	#2
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 46,181 Karma: 168983734 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	calibre copies the book into it's library directories when it is imported. You can safely delete the original file once you are satisfied with the copy in your calibre library.

04-14-2022, 09:42 PM	#3
catsknit Addict Posts: 224 Karma: 34036 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kobo Glo HD, Samsung tablet, Kobo Libra, InkPad 3 Pro	Thank you, good to know for certain.

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