CC Cloud & Google Drive

[Dhevi]

@Chaley: if you would like another party to also look at the APK, I have some free time over the next few days. If yes, I'll send a PM with my email where by CC is tied to on the Play Store.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Dhevi

@Chaley: if you would like another party to also look at the APK, I have some free time over the next few days. If yes, I'll send a PM with my email where by CC is tied to on the Play Store.

Sure, that would be a help.

[Agama]

Installed but got error on cloud connection. Retried with same result.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Agama

Installed but got error on cloud connection. Retried with same result.

(Various rude words spoken at myself)

I did the same thing with that APK that I did once before. I sent you an APK that fixes it.

Thanks much for your patience and for your help!

[Agama]

No problem. I'll have to go via my PC again. My Android antivirus has now found the new CC and wants to delete it as a "threat". At least it shows that my AV is doing its job.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Agama

No problem. I'll have to go via my PC again. My Android antivirus has now found the new CC and wants to delete it as a "threat". At least it shows that my AV is doing its job.

It must have found the bit in CC where it tells you that your email address has been picked by Natwest and you have won £954,000. All you need to do to claim your prize is to send your complete banking details to our agent in Nigeria.

[Agama]

OK, it now connects but sends a new authentication code to my mobile phone with every connection. I can browse down to My Drive / LIB / Calibre but it doesn't recognise this as a calibre library. I copied 4 sub-folders, (10 books), from my main PC libray to this Google Drive sub-folder rather than copying my entire library. Have I missed a step?

(I thought the £954,000 would probably ruin me so I didn't respond.)

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Agama

OK, it now connects but sends a new authentication code to my mobile phone with every connection. I can browse down to My Drive / LIB / Calibre but it doesn't recognise this as a calibre library. I copied 4 sub-folders, (10 books), from my main PC libray to this Google Drive sub-folder rather than copying my entire library. Have a missed a step?

CC defines a calibre library as a folder containing the calibre database file metadata.db. Be sure to copy that. You don't need to copy all the book folders. Of course, you won't see covers for the books you didn't copy and you won't be able to download them. Reasonable, given that they aren't there.

[Agama]

Ah! metadata.db - completely ignored that one. Let's see what happens...

Is the repeating authentication expected?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Agama

Is the repeating authentication expected?

Yes, in the situation you are in. Canceling the folder navigator is how you tell CC that you want to change accounts. Once you find and select a library the repeated authentication should stop.

And yes, using the folder navigator to change accounts isn't obvious. Here is what I said in the CC FAQ:

I have more than one account at cloud provider X. How do I change accounts?

[Agama]

Success! No authentication messages on re-connect - and it found a new book that I'd forgotten about. Downloaded it with cover, no problem.

The Index of cloud library has icons which are on the jumbo size, (maybe there's a setting), but they all seem to work.

Is there a calibre option for keeping my cloud library up to date - assuming that the PC holds my master library?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Agama

Success! No authentication messages on re-connect - and it found a new book that I'd forgotten about. Downloaded it with cover, no problem.

Excellent.

The Index of cloud library has icons which are on the jumbo size, (maybe there's a setting), but they all seem to work.

The icon/thumbnail size used is the same as used in CC base list view, controlled by the same setting. There isn't a separate setting for the cloud thumbs.

Is there a calibre option for keeping my cloud library up to date - assuming that the PC holds my master library?

No. You need to do the sync yourself. Best would be to use a sync program that can "mirror" your library into GD. There are several available, such as Microsoft's synctoy and Free File Sync. The latter (FFS) is very well regarded but has been reported to contain adware, although people say that if you are careful about what boxes are checked then you can control it.

The wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...ation_software provides a reasonable overview.

[Agama]

I'll write a command script to identify new and changed folders/files and then simply upload them. I wonder if Google Drive has an API that's callable from Windows scripting?

Will do some more testing in the week but gotta get ready for another week at work.

[Dhevi]

Everything looks good so far.

Cloud connection and authentication worked like a charm first go around and located by Calibre library with no issues.

Is there any option that I'm overlooking that allows for selecting which fields to show in the Metadata view for the cloud library? Similar to the "Choose items to display" option in Book Details of CC?

I did have an issue, but I believe I know the cause. I attempted to download an ebook and was returned an error indicating CC "Cannot save book ... to device memory". I presume, like Calibre, CC cloud connection is displaying the book because it's reading the metadata.db entries? When I opened the google drive app, the particular file had not yet been synced to google drive cloud, so that made sense.

I did have an home network issue that occurred when attempting to "Connect - to Cloud" that required me to essentially re-establish the connection/2-step authentication for the cloud connection to google drive. Only a minor nuisance, but not one that I can fault CC for.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Dhevi

Everything looks good so far.

Cloud connection and authentication worked like a charm first go around and located by Calibre library with no issues.

Good!

Is there any option that I'm overlooking that allows for selecting which fields to show in the Metadata view for the cloud library? Similar to the "Choose items to display" option in Book Details of CC?

No. It shows everything. I was hoping that adding field selection wasn't necessary because implementing it would be a pain.

I will look at it again.

I did have an issue, but I believe I know the cause. I attempted to download an ebook and was returned an error indicating CC "Cannot save book ... to device memory". I presume, like Calibre, CC cloud connection is displaying the book because it's reading the metadata.db entries? When I opened the google drive app, the particular file had not yet been synced to google drive cloud, so that made sense.

Yes, CC believes that the metadata.db accurately describes the library so it shows books in the db. As you noticed, it is able to deal with the "surprise" that covers and formats aren't really there. The way the cloud file systems work it isn't practical to check for existence until the user does something where CC really needs the file.

I did have an home network issue that occurred when attempting to "Connect - to Cloud" that required me to essentially re-establish the connection/2-step authentication for the cloud connection to google drive. Only a minor nuisance, but not one that I can fault CC for.

I am not sure what happened, but it sounds like you and CC tolerated the error. Did CC do something strange or did it nicely tell you that you needed to re-authenticate?