Why Does SHUTDOWN Take So Long?!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by gxn1

Spoiler:

He was dismissive of this problem I am having and basically saying it doesn't happen -- while I have been having this constantly happen with Calibre for months now whenever I try to shut it down after using it.

That was NOT helpful. Nor was your response helpful.

And, as I said, I have read a lot of the comments and topics in this Forum and it has left me cynical about even bothering to report a BUG like this.

As far as being FREE, as I said, I have donated to Calibre, far more than I have paid for many other programs, because I like it -- overall -- and have used it for going on 2 decades.

AND FYI... I just restarted Calibre using the Start with NO 3rd-PARTY PLUGINS option and, golly-gee! it STILL took about 2 minutes to shutdown for me.

So it would seem this is NOT a 3rd-party plug-in problem. So, YES, I do think this is a Calibre Bug.

PLUS, I forgot to mention, when it is shutting-down, if I do anything else, even touch a key, Calibre -- in the process of shutting down, then become "Non-Responsive" -- and then I am forced to use the Task Manager to shut it down.

Because of that, I have just taken to using the Task Manager to shut Calibre down.

**

If it was a calibre bug, it would happen to most users. Based on the comments in this thread, that is not the case. So something must be interfering with calibre on your computer.

Is your library on a networked drive or on a cloud drive? Do you use a syncing or backup program that's running in the background? Those are the usual culprits for database issues.

[PeterT]

Gxn1: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help us track down the issue. Just run calibre in debug mode (you'll find that option in calibre preferences) and post the resulting log.

[BetterRed]

@gxn1 - restart in debug mode (there's an option in the Preferences drop down menu), then quit and wait, the log will display, copy it and post here - here's mine:

Spoiler:

ApplicationPaletteChange event ignored
Using calibre Qt style: True
ApplicationPaletteChange event received
calibre Debug log
calibre 8.16  embedded-python: True
Windows-10-10.0.19045-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.19045')
Python 3.11.14
Windows: ('10', '10.0.19045', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
EXE path: C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre-debug.exe
Successfully initialized third party plugins: BRMenu Menu (1, 2, 0) && Backup Configuration Folder (1, 1, 2) && Calibre Config Reports (2, 0, 9) && Count Pages (1, 14, 4) && Drop Search Results (1, 0, 15) && Favourites Menu (1, 3, 1) && Find Duplicates (1, 10, 9) && Job Spy (1, 0, 239) && Modify ePub (1, 8, 8) && Scroll Book Details (1, 0, 2) && View Manager (1, 10, 3)
calibre 8.16  embedded-python: True
Windows-10-10.0.19045-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.19045')
Python 3.11.14
Windows: ('10', '10.0.19045', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
EXE path: C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre-debug.exe
Successfully initialized third party plugins: BRMenu Menu (1, 2, 0) && Backup Configuration Folder (1, 1, 2) && Calibre Config Reports (2, 0, 9) && Count Pages (1, 14, 4) && Drop Search Results (1, 0, 15) && Favourites Menu (1, 3, 1) && Find Duplicates (1, 10, 9) && Job Spy (1, 0, 239) && Modify ePub (1, 8, 8) && Scroll Book Details (1, 0, 2) && View Manager (1, 10, 3)
QPA platform: windows
devicePixelRatio: 1.5
logicalDpi: 96.0 x 96.0
physicalDpi: 104.87741935483871 x 104.50285714285712
[0.00] Starting up...
[0.00] Initializing db...
[0.22] db initialized
[0.22] Constructing main UI...
[1.22] GUI main window shown
Job Spy has begun initialization...
orig_option = prefs.get[option_key]:  True
Tweak Library Name:  Books
'read_file_metadata' global.py file prefs.set  FROM:  True  TO:  True
'read_file_metadata' global prefs[option_key] value changed FROM:  True  TO:  True
author_sort_copy_method >>> default tweaks.py method is:  invert
current  tweaks['title_series_sorting']:  library_order
--->>>apply_title_series_sorting_by_library:   libname IS tweaked; new value for:  Books    is:  library_order
title_series_sorting changed FROM:  library_order  TO:  library_order
Calibre, and hence Job Spy, was gracefully shut down last time?  True
Last time daemon started:  never
Last time daemon failed:  never
Total daemon starts inception_to_date:  0
Total daemon failures inception-to-date:  0
Key 'Ctrl+Alt+A' for shortcut Discuss book with AI is already used by Show a menu of all available actions., ignoring
JS: ===>>> change_gui_alternating_row_colors()
Job Spy has finished initialization...
Key 'Ctrl+Alt+A' for shortcut Discuss book with AI is already used by Show a menu of all available actions., ignoring
Key 'Ctrl+Alt+A' for shortcut Discuss book with AI is already used by Show a menu of all available actions., ignoring
[1.66] main UI initialized...
[1.66] Started up in 1.66 seconds with 9 books
[22.44] Shutdown starting...
[22.73] [Backup Configuration Folder]: starting backup process
[24.09] [Backup Configuration Folder]: wrote config backup to C:\_AppData\Calibre\backup-Config_64bit\2025-12-06 -- 09-27-15.zip. Size: 15,491,103 bytes.
[24.11] [Backup Configuration Folder]: finished
[26.14] Shutdown complete, quitting...

As can be seen my shut down time is 3.7 seconds,


Aside: why do I get the messages about Ctrl+Alt+A?

As soon as I installed 8.16 I set the Discuss book with AI shortcut to None.

additional Environment variable CALIBRE_NO_NEW_DEFAULT_SHORTCUTS

BR

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by gxn1

I don't use the "Backup configuration" plug-in, whatever that it.

About the only plug-ins I have installed are ones to get more metadata and additional covers.

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but take a close look at the message you saw during calibre's shutdown which you posted in your first message:

Shutting down
Running database shutdown plugins. This could take a few seconds...

The line in which I've bolded part of the contents is produced by the Backup Configuration Folder plugin by Charles Haley. When you look at the plugin, it's description is "Backup the current calibre configuration folder when calibre is closed"

I tried disabling that plugin on my calibre install and the Running database shutdown plugins message disappeared. Re-enabled it and the message re-appeared.

The first attached image shows the plugin in Preferences => Plugins under the Library closed header. The second and third show what I see when the plugin is enabled and when it is disabled.

"To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture."—Thomas Paine

And yes, I do like the full form of the quote, not the more often seen:

"To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."—Thomas Paine

[gxn1]

Originally Posted by Martinoptic

Whilst I appreciate your annoyance, have you actually tried it in safe mode? And checked antivirus and your configuration folder? You haven't said.....
Do you have a debug log you can post?
I'm using a 2020 i5 and it closes within a few seconds FWIW.
Good luck.

=====

I regret taking so long to respond to this, but I have ongoing health problems that affect a lot of things in my life.

Thank you for your interest in trying to solve this! I really do hate having to use this forum when I have a Calibre problem, because even when I have posted screenshots and other things, I've repeatedly had people say there ISN'T a problem -- when I am certainly am having a problem.

I've tried safe mode. Same problem with a LONG shutdown. I just tried the Restart without 3rd Party Plugins. Same long shutdown and I had to use the Task Manager to shut Calibre down. I did the Restart with Debug -- and again I had the long shutdown AND then the message that Calibre was "Not Responding". I often get that with these minutes-long shutdowns and it happens so often now I just use Task Manager to shut Calibre down after I try to close it and it goes into it's LONG shutdown.

FYI: I deleted some of the Plugins I have been using to see if one of them might have been causing the shutdown problem; I think I deleted 4-5 of them, but that still did not change this long shutdown problem. I did leave some of them in -- but as I said above, I did the Restart Without the 3rd Party Plugins option -- and STILL the long shutdown happened.

AND -- this problem started after some Calibre update; I don't remember which one; I wish I had noted it; I think that might have help solve this. And I hadn't added any other 3rd party plugins than the ones I already had, though I had update a few of them. And, as I just wrote above, I deleted some of the Plugins I had, hoping that might fix the problem -- but, it didn't.

I *did* get the Debug Log however. This is from today, Friday, December 19th.
I think the best thing for me would just post the text from the Debug below, because I'm NOT sure how to attach things here. So, this is it:
===============
ApplicationPaletteChange event ignored
Using calibre Qt style: True
ApplicationPaletteChange event received
calibre Debug log
calibre 8.16.2 embedded-python: True
Windows-10-10.0.26200-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.26200')
Python 3.11.14
Windows: ('10', '10.0.26200', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
EXE path: C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre-debug.exe
Successfully initialized third party plugins: Apple Books covers (1, 1, 0) && Backup Configuration Folder (1, 1, 2) && Barnes & Noble (1, 5, 7) && Count Pages (1, 14, 4) && Fantastic Fiction (1, 7, 2) && Fantastic Fiction Adults (1, 3, 1) && FictionDB (1, 4, 2) && Find Duplicates (1, 10, 9) && Goodreads (1, 8, 3) && Hardcover (0, 5, 0) && ISFDB3 (1, 4, 6) && Kindle hi-res covers (0, 5, 1) && LanguageTool (0, 1, 3) && Quality Check (1, 14, 6) && SmartEject (2, 6, 0) && WordDumb (3, 35, 4)
calibre 8.16.2 embedded-python: True
Windows-10-10.0.26200-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.26200')
Python 3.11.14
Windows: ('10', '10.0.26200', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
EXE path: C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre-debug.exe
Successfully initialized third party plugins: Apple Books covers (1, 1, 0) && Backup Configuration Folder (1, 1, 2) && Barnes & Noble (1, 5, 7) && Count Pages (1, 14, 4) && Fantastic Fiction (1, 7, 2) && Fantastic Fiction Adults (1, 3, 1) && FictionDB (1, 4, 2) && Find Duplicates (1, 10, 9) && Goodreads (1, 8, 3) && Hardcover (0, 5, 0) && ISFDB3 (1, 4, 6) && Kindle hi-res covers (0, 5, 1) && LanguageTool (0, 1, 3) && Quality Check (1, 14, 6) && SmartEject (2, 6, 0) && WordDumb (3, 35, 4)
QPA platform: windows
devicePixelRatio: 1.0
logicalDpi: 96.0 x 96.0
physicalDpi: 92.53889943074003 x 92.67567567567568
[0.00] Starting up...
[0.00] Showing splash screen...
[1.16] splash screen shown
[1.16] Initializing db...
[1.28] db initialized
[1.28] Constructing main UI...
[2.83] GUI main window shown
[2.98] main UI initialized...
[2.98] Hiding splash screen
[2.98] splash screen hidden
[2.98] Started up in 2.98 seconds with 4164 books
===============

I have NO IDEA what any of that means. My knowledge doesn't extend that far. I hope SOMEONE -- maybe you -- can read it and find out WHAT is causing this problem, because I am at a total loss of what to do and, as I've said, my experiences here have not been good ones.

*cross fingers*

P.S. Gees, I logged in to post, and then after I wrote my post, I went to post it AND this forum made me sign in AGAIN! I really do NOT LIKE this site. *sigh*

**

[Sirtel]

Disable the backup configuration folder plugin. That likely is what causes the long shutdown. Yes, you said you started calibre without any plugins, but try just by disabling that one plugin - and make sure it really is disabled.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by gxn1

I've tried safe mode. Same problem with a LONG shutdown.

That indicates to me that the problem probably has nothing to do with third party startup tasks - except maybe antivirus. Do you use a third party AV (e.g. Symantec, Avira, Kaspersky etc) ?

Originally Posted by gxn1

Restart without 3rd Party Plugins. Same long shutdown and I had to use the Task Manager to shut Calibre down.

And that indicates to me that it is highly unlikely that your long shutdowns have anything to do with the Backup Configuration Folder plugin. To prove that: make a note of how you've configured it, remove it and then restart calibre.

BR

[Sirtel]

And you also didn't say if your library is on a cloud/networked drive, or if you have any syncing or backup programs running in the background while calibre is open.

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by gxn1

=====
[2.98] Hiding splash screen
[2.98] splash screen hidden
[2.98] Started up in 2.98 seconds with 4164 books
===============

I think we need a more complete log. Here's the bit that might be helpful (not present in your log):

[24.72] Shutdown starting...
[27.06] Shutdown complete, quitting...

The above lines should be recorded if you do:

press windows key + R, then type calibre-debug -g

do some stuff in calibre then restart it a couple of times.

Problem is I don't know if you would be able to copy the output in the cmd prompt (have to select all text and right-click the output)

So my recommendation is:

1. Save the attached bat script made by the MR community, can't remember from which post I got it, in a folder of choice. Could be My documents, downloads or even Desktop for easy access.

2. Click to run CalibreDebugLog.bat

3. Do some stuff in calibre (e.g update some book metadata, run some plugin, etc.)

4. Press Ctrl + R to restart calibre. Do this a couple of times.

Then close calibre. *Don't close the cmd prompt window*, just close calibre.

The complete log will be in the folder you saved the .bat script, filename will look like this: calibre-debug-log-2025-12-20, 8_01_42.txt

[gxn1]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but take a close look at the message you saw during calibre's shutdown which you posted in your first message:

The line in which I've bolded part of the contents is produced by the Backup Configuration Folder plugin by Charles Haley. When you look at the plugin, it's description is "Backup the current calibre configuration folder when calibre is closed"

I tried disabling that plugin on my calibre install and the Running database shutdown plugins message disappeared. Re-enabled it and the message re-appeared.

==========

As I mention in another post, I have ongoing health issues which is why I am now replying to this post and this thread a month-and-a-half later.

I check my Calibre program to see what plugins I had installed -- and there was the "Backup Configuration Folder" plugin!

It said it was installed in February 2025 -- which I do NOT remember doing -- and the problem with the seemingly never-ending shutdown only started to happen 3-4 months ago. So there was an over 6-month period when that plugin was installed and NOT causing the endless shutdown.

AND, YES, the "Backup Configuration Folder" WAS the cause of the forever shutting-down problem. I deleted it; restarted Calibre (using the restart button), and then clicked the "X" to shut Calibre and it fully closed within a second. I never even got any kind of shutdown message at all. Just *BLINK* Calibre fully closed!

So my apologies to those whom I said this seemed to be a Calibre problem and NOT a plugin problem. You were correct and I was wrong. It was that "Backup" plugin that WAS causing this problem.

As I said, I removed it and now shutdown happens in a second. No more endlessly waiting (I let it shutdown once on its own and it took 3-4 minutes to do so!) -- and, DAMN, I was getting really, really tired of having to use Task Manager to shutdown Calibre. That was so annoying.

So, THANKS TO ALL AND ESPECIALLY TO THE FROG DNSB / Bibliophagist!

**

[Mr_H_Poirot]

I backup simply by using the export function. I do it once a month and save the file in Google Drive. If I get a new computer I use the import function and my library, all plugins, all preferences are automatically replicated in seconds.

Maybe some people add books more frequently than me but I find a month is fine. If it broke mid-month I would just re-download any books from Standard e-books or wherever I have got them from

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Mr_H_Poirot

I backup simply by using the export function. I do it once a month and save the file in Google Drive. If I get a new computer I use the import function and my library, all plugins, all preferences are automatically replicated in seconds.

Maybe some people add books more frequently than me but I find a month is fine. If it broke mid-month I would just re-download any books from Standard e-books or wherever I have got them from

I back up by keeping manually created copies of my library and configuration folders on external drives and in Dropbox, and using FreeFileSync to update them whenever needed. I add new books and make changes to the existing books often, plus my main library is huge, so using the export function would be way too slow and time-consuming for me.

Installing both the libraries and the settings on a new computer from backup is pretty fast even without using the export/import function - it's a matter of just copy/pasting the relevant folders and pointing calibre to them.

I don't use the config backup plugin, as I have no need for it - using FreeFileSync is faster.

[Mr_H_Poirot]

Interesting. I probably only have 300 books in my library (I only add books as I read them. And I read a lot - most - books via Libby so these never touch calibre as they are library loans). So the export only takes 10 seconds or so for me

I hadn't appreciated that the function for those of you with vast libraries would take so much longer I guess

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Mr_H_Poirot

Interesting. I probably only have 300 books in my library (I only add books as I read them. And I read a lot - most - books via Libby so these never touch calibre as they are library loans). So the export only takes 10 seconds or so for me

I hadn't appreciated that the function for those of you with vast libraries would take so much longer I guess

I use freefilesync. It takes about 3 times longer to determine what needs doing (Add, delete, update) that the actual file updates. This is on a wired network and both libraries are on spinning rust. I believe it is the rust, that is the slow part.

[Mr_H_Poirot]

Out of interest, how long does the export function take for those of you with massive libraries? (I get that it's not a solution for those of you that may make lots of changes each week and you want it all kept in lock-step)