Upgrade 3.x to 5.0.1 lost books

[Rick DeBay]

My library on a NAS has been working fine using version 3.x on Windows 7. I have a new Windows 10 computer and I installed 5.0.1. When I open calibre only 204 authors out of 248 are in the library.
How do I fix this? If I tell calibre to Add books and point it to the existing directories, will it add the books it thinks are missing and ignore the others that it already knows about?

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Rick DeBay

My library on a NAS

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...rked-drive-nas

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Rick DeBay

My library on a NAS has been working fine using version 3.x on Windows 7. I have a new Windows 10 computer and I installed 5.0.1. When I open calibre only 204 authors out of 248 are in the library.
How do I fix this? If I tell calibre to Add books and point it to the existing directories, will it add the books it thinks are missing and ignore the others that it already knows about?

Rick - you need to read this, it has been in the FAQ since version 0.something ==>> https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...rked-drive-nas.

You can find many threads where users have run into problems after years of storing libraries on network storage (NASes, servers, cloud spaces etc).

Put your library on a local drive, then make sure you have the Add Books preferences set to ignore duplicates, and test on a couple of books before letting it rip.

BR

[Rick DeBay]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

...make sure you have the Add Books preferences set to ignore duplicates, and test on a couple of books before letting it rip.

Would that be the Adding books dialog, Adding actions tab, When using the "Copy to library" action check for duplicates?

[Rick DeBay]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Add Books preferences set to ignore duplicates, and test on a couple of books before letting it rip.

Loading from the existing library location duplicated every directory. Was this expected?

09/26/2020 07:21 PM <DIR> Expanse 0.1 - Drive (1234)
07/21/2020 11:34 PM <DIR> Expanse 0.1 - Drive (4156)
09/26/2020 07:22 PM <DIR> Expanse 0.25 - The Churn (1246)
07/21/2020 11:33 PM <DIR> Expanse 0.25 - The Churn (4151)
09/26/2020 07:22 PM <DIR> Expanse 0.5 - The Butcher of Anders (1243)
06/20/2020 07:40 PM <DIR> Expanse 0.5 - The Butcher of Anders (4153)
09/26/2020 07:22 PM <DIR> Expanse 01 - Leviathan Wakes (1241)
06/20/2020 07:40 PM <DIR> Expanse 01 - Leviathan Wakes (4160)
09/26/2020 07:21 PM <DIR> Expanse 02 - Caliban's War (1238)
06/20/2020 07:39 PM <DIR> Expanse 02 - Caliban's War (4155)
09/26/2020 07:22 PM <DIR> Expanse 02.5 - Gods of Risk (1245)
07/21/2020 11:34 PM <DIR> Expanse 02.5 - Gods of Risk (4157)
09/26/2020 07:22 PM <DIR> Expanse 03 - Abaddon's Gate (1239)
06/20/2020 07:39 PM <DIR> Expanse 03 - Abaddon's Gate (4154)
09/26/2020 07:21 PM <DIR> Expanse 04 - Cibola Burn (1235)
06/20/2020 07:40 PM <DIR> Expanse 04 - Cibola Burn (4159)
09/26/2020 07:21 PM <DIR> Expanse 05 - Nemesis Games (1236)
06/20/2020 07:40 PM <DIR> Expanse 05 - Nemesis Games (4152)
09/26/2020 07:22 PM <DIR> Expanse 05.5 - The Vital Abyss_ An (1240)
07/21/2020 11:33 PM <DIR> Expanse 05.5 - The Vital Abyss_ An (4150)
09/26/2020 07:22 PM <DIR> Expanse 06 - Babylon's Ashes (1244)
06/20/2020 07:39 PM <DIR> Expanse 06 - Babylon's Ashes (4161)
09/26/2020 07:22 PM <DIR> Expanse 06.5 - Strange Dogs (Expans (1237)
06/20/2020 07:39 PM <DIR> Expanse 06.5 - Strange Dogs (Expans (4149)
09/26/2020 07:22 PM <DIR> Expanse 07 - Persepolis Rising (1242)
07/21/2020 11:32 PM <DIR> Expanse 07 - Persepolis Rising (4158)

[Rick DeBay]

After adding the James S.A. Corey directory in the library, each book was added with the correct custom tags. Where would it have found these if the records were lost/corrupted from the database?

[BetterRed]

Au contraire - that's was what I'd hoped you'd be able to avoid

Try, creating an empty library on local storage based on your old library:



Then add the books from the old NAS library to it.

BR

[Rick DeBay]

The books were already on the device, but are not found after they were re-added to the library. How does calibre correlate books on the device to the library? Are the books on the device tagged with a hidden ID?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Rick DeBay

After adding the James S.A. Corey directory in the library, each book was added with the correct custom tags. Where would it have found these if the records were lost/corrupted from the database?

Maybe the metadata opf files or from the book, what's in first Add Books->Reading metadata check box

Long time since I did this

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Au contraire - that's was what I'd hoped you'd be able to avoid

Try, creating an empty library on local storage based on your old library:

Attachment 182248

Then add the books from the old NAS library to it.

BR

What I suggest that should work better is to create a local directory and then copy all the other directories that you want to this directory and then build a new database. That way all the info in the metadata.opf files will get read and your data kept.

[BetterRed]

Calibre is driven by its database, not the folder structure - that's metadata.db file in the library folder.

Adding the books from the old NAS library to a fresh local library with the Add from directories and subdirectories option and duplicates disallowed is probably the best way.

Jon and I saying the same thing - I think

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Calibre is driven by its database, not the folder structure - that's metadata.db file in the library folder.

Adding the books from the old NAS library to a fresh local library with the Add from directories and subdirectories option and duplicates disallowed is probably the best way.

No it's not the best way (IMHO). The best way is to rebuild the database so the data in all those metadata.opf files can populate this database.

[Rick DeBay]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Maybe the metadata opf files or from the book, what's in first Add Books->Reading metadata check box

"Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" is checked.
You are correct, it pulled it from metadata.opf inside the <subject> element.

In that case I'm surprised there is no "rescan library" option to compare the database to the contents it's indexing.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Rick DeBay

Would that be the Adding books dialog, Adding actions tab, When using the "Copy to library" action check for duplicates?

simply copy the Library FOLDER from the NAS.
If you have a (empty of books) default Calibre Library folder. You could PASTE the contents of that Library folder into it (this loses anything that was in there. Do not try this to merge 2 libraries)

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

No it's not the best way (IMHO). The best way is to rebuild the database so the data in all those metadata.opf files can populate this database.

I think we're saying the same thing - fresh local database

BR