[GUI Plugin] Restart Servers: one click restart of the Content server and wireless de

[snowminal]

Restart Servers

Version: 0.1.0
Released: 27 October 2026
Author: danihrndzld
calibre: 7.0 or newer, written against 9.17 on macOS
Languages: English, Spanish
License: GPL v3

What it does

Restart Servers adds a toolbar button that restarts the Content server and the wireless device connection, and it doesn't show any dialog while it does it. I wrote it because my Kindle, which runs KOReader, often can't connect to calibre over Wi-Fi until I stop and start both servers.

Doing the restart from the Connect/share menu takes five clicks and two dialogs. When you stop the wireless device connection, calibre asks whether it should keep starting automatically, and when you start it again, calibre opens the "Smart device control" window with the settings you already saved. The plugin calls the same calibre functions as the menu, so it skips both dialogs and keeps your password, port and autostart setting as they are.

What happens when you click the button

1. The plugin stops the wireless device connection, if it's running.
2. It stops the Content server and waits up to 60 seconds for it to shut down.
3. It starts the Content server, and then it starts the wireless device connection with your saved settings.
4. It shows "Servers restarted" and the port number in the status bar for 8 seconds. If a server fails to start, you get an error dialog with the message calibre returned.

Requirements

• Set up the wireless device connection once from Connect/share > Start wireless device connection, so calibre has a saved password and port for the plugin to reuse.

Installation

1. Download the zip attached to this post.
2. In calibre, open Preferences > Plugins, click "Load plugin from file", and pick the zip.
3. Restart calibre.
4. Open Preferences > Toolbars & menus, choose "The main toolbar", and move "Restart servers" to the list on the right.

Translations

The plugin follows the calibre interface language and ships with English and Spanish. If you'd like to add a language, send me a .po file made from translations/messages.pot in the source and I'll include it in the next version.

Version history

Spoiler:

Version 0.1.0, 27 October 2026

• Initial release.
• Toolbar button that restarts the Content server and the wireless device connection with no dialogs.
• Status bar message on success, and an error dialog with details on failure.
• English and Spanish translations.

Source code: github.com/danihrndzld/calibre-restart-servers