|  02-05-2020, 09:36 AM | #1 | 
| Member  Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: ipad | 
				
				Slow with large library
			 
			
			Hello. Is there any way to optimize existing indices as Calibre (latest version on Mac OSX 10.14) is now quite slow with a very large library of various books. Moving to SSD is no option for the storage side of things, but if Calibre's indices can live on an SSD that may make things faster?!? Adding new books has a noticeable delay whilst the computer (an otherwise powerful Mac Pro with lots of memory) does its stuff. I did not find any obivous pointers with search at least ! | 
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|  02-05-2020, 09:55 AM | #2 | 
| creator of calibre            Posts: 45,604 Karma: 28548974 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various | 
			
			calibre keeps its indice in RAM. Hide the Tag browser. Dont use columns built from other columns.
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|  02-05-2020, 10:02 AM | #3 | |
| Member  Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: ipad | Quote: 
 I do not have tag browser visible. I use only default columns and have not tried to make any custom views. Tags is shown as one of the (default) view columns in the view where you see what books are available (but I only have a few different tag names, I don't extensively use the tagging feature/more for internal source signposting). I have 128Gb of RAM on this Mac Pro so it shouldn't be complaining about memory fortunately. Is there anything else I can do/or a report to submit that may help you with further development of this excellent application? Thank you! | |
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|  02-05-2020, 10:04 AM | #4 | 
| creator of calibre            Posts: 45,604 Karma: 28548974 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various | 
			
			The tag browser is the panel on the left of the book list. Have you hidden that? And how large is "large library". i.e. how many books.
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|  02-05-2020, 10:12 AM | #5 | 
| Well trained by Cats            Posts: 31,251 Karma: 61360164 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A |  and Tame your Anti-whatever. Those (book) files have been already scanned, so turn off Real time scanning on your Library folder (I leave it for the whole system scan) FWIW I just got a new PC. I copied my Library over my LAN. Pausing the A/V on the new PC DOUBLED THE TRANSFER SPEED | 
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|  02-05-2020, 10:40 AM | #6 | 
| Member  Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: ipad | |
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|  02-05-2020, 03:29 PM | #7 | |
| null operator (he/him)            Posts: 22,012 Karma: 30277294 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none | Quote: 
 53,000+ items is not a particularly big library, I have one that's 180,000+, I've seen others users mention libraries of a million items. What sort of files (formats) are you adding, and how big are they? The files added get copied into the library sub-folders. My experience is that the time taken to add an item is a function of the size of the file being added, e.g. a 100K epub novel/biography takes a couple of seconds, whilst a 1G video clip might take 10-20 seconds. BR | |
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|  02-05-2020, 03:38 PM | #8 | 
| Grand Sorcerer            Posts: 13,983 Karma: 243829945 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2 | 
			
			Well, HDD is slow, nothing to be done about that. Why not move to SSD? I have over 20 000 books in my library and it takes less than a tenth of my 500 GB SSD. SSD is not so expensive today as it once was.
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|  02-05-2020, 06:11 PM | #9 | 
| Resident Curmudgeon            Posts: 80,746 Karma: 150249619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3 | 
			
			@luoto how any eBooks do you have in this slow library?
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|  02-05-2020, 07:00 PM | #10 | 
| Bibliophagist            Posts: 48,100 Karma: 174315444 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos | |
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|  02-06-2020, 02:16 AM | #11 | 
| Member  Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: ipad | 
			
			Thanks for the other comments folks, that are noted. The books vary in size from maybe a megabyte for an ePub or less to say 20-50 megabytes if a PDF, taking about 680Gb of disk space. Moving to SSD for that drive is not presently a viable option as it is a much larger HDD with other items on that would need rehoming and already the drive bays are maxed out space-wise.
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|  02-06-2020, 03:16 AM | #12 | |
| Grand Sorcerer            Posts: 13,983 Karma: 243829945 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2 | Quote: 
 Your only option would seem to be splitting the library. Put the books you rarely need on an external drive and the rest on a SSD. | |
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|  02-06-2020, 04:04 AM | #13 | 
| Member  Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: ipad | 
			
			Thank you all, once again, for the advice given.
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|  02-06-2020, 04:26 AM | #14 | |
| null operator (he/him)            Posts: 22,012 Karma: 30277294 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none | Quote: 
 BR | |
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|  02-06-2020, 04:34 AM | #15 | 
| Member  Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: ipad | 
			
			About 14-20 seconds for a 25mb PDF (just tested one) and about 25 seconds for a 40mb ePuB. The status bar sits at zero percent for a time then rushes to 100 per cent and sits there for a second or two. All other file accesses on the system seem to be normal, e.g. opening Word documents, moving the files with Finder and the like. I guess I just must split the library until a move to a larger capacity SSD is possible and practical (the last time I looked multiple tb drives were very expensive).
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