Frequently Asked Questions

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Over

To backup al my ebooks and all the metadata and covers I've added, I just have to copy the Calibre's library folder, right? All books, including the two metadata files, true?

Yes. It is sufficient to copy the library folder and all its content. It is best if calibre is not running during the backup process, so there is no chance of inconsistency.

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by Over

Hi!

I just want to be sure.

To backup al my ebooks and all the metadata and covers I've added, I just have to copy the Calibre's library folder, right? All books, including the two metadata files, true?

If you copy the library folder including the metadata.db file, then your entire library, including custom columns and saved searches, get saved.

[Over]

Thanks, good to know

[JaneD]

Originally Posted by chaley

right click on the book in the device view and choose add book to library

Thank you, chaley! Karma coming your way!

[jangell2]

When converting books, under Structure Detection, there is an option to "Insert metadata as page at start of book." I have checked this, but have also converted many books before discovering this.

Does the insertion of metadata only occur at conversion time or will it also occur when sending the books to the kindle? If only the former, then I have to go back convert books.

If only the former, what about books that I have that are already in the mobi format? They don't need conversion. Can I convert mobi to mobi to force the metadata insertion?

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by jangell2

If only the former, what about books that I have that are already in the mobi format? They don't need conversion. Can I convert mobi to mobi to force the metadata insertion?

Yes, you can.

[moriarty777]

I'm a new Kobo user (my first eReader) and I think that using Calibre is a necessity. It's a great program and I'm thankful for it! I have a few questions...

1) When I updated to version 0.7.23, I found I could no longer edit/rename entries such as Title or Author for the contents on my device (the kobo) where as I used to be able to with a slightly earlier version (either 0.7.20 or 0.7.21) when I last updated a couple of weeks ago? Is this a bug... a case of functionality deliberately removed... or some other issue that might of arisen (I'm a Windows 7 user)?

2) I noticed that there was a column for the status of the book... being READ or READING... is there a 'flag' for UNREAD or is this a case of just having that entry 'blank'?

3) The inability to view native kobo format books because of the sqlite database issue... is this something that might one day be added as a feature? Could there be a possibility of backing up kobo-bought books. My understanding is that these are 'epubs' but I was surprised to find out that I couldn't back them up or anything.

Many thanks for the hard work being done on this fantastic program.

[jangell2]

I have these two books that are .html books, part of a series. The other books are rtf or htm. When I add these two books Calibre makes them zip files and I'm wondering why it does that? The other books in the series do not get added as zip files.

Can I convert the zip files to mobi within Calibre?

Edit: I got it slightly wrong. Both the htm and html files are adding as zips.

[jangell2]

Ok, I'm guessing that Calibre automatically creates zip files for htm and html because there are multiple files per book. And it looks like Calibre does convert zip files to mobi.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by jangell2

Ok, I'm guessing that Calibre automatically creates zip files for htm and html because there are multiple files per book.

Correct

And it looks like Calibre does convert zip files to mobi.

Calibre opens up the zip and if there is an ebook inside, it converts that.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by jangell2

Ok, I'm guessing that Calibre automatically creates zip files for htm and html because there are multiple files per book. And it looks like Calibre does convert zip files to mobi.

Yes you are correct. As well as possibly having multiple HTML/htm files any ebook based on these is likely to have other file types such as .jpg and .CSS associated with them. Calibre collects all these into the Zip file, correcting the paths in any links if required. Having done this the zip file can then be managed as a single entity at the level of the underlying file system just like other ebook formats.

[jlonghurst]

I have deleted this therefore - sorry.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by jlonghurst

What do I do?

Exactly in how many threads are you going to post the same message? In case you aren't sure about this it is rude to spam multiple threads with the same question.

In reply to this very question I asked a question in the other thread.

[stranjer]

I keep having these issues of Calibre not detecting my e-reader and having to reinstall an old version, or install the new version a couple of times until sometimes it detects

.I've not been on the forum lately so, I'm not sure if I missed some sort of an update or upgrade for my 505 and this is why i keep having troubles.

any comment is appreciated

[lamparty]

That is strange! I also have the Sony PRS-505 and have never had a problem with it detecting my reader, except when I tell Calibre to eject device, after which you have to unplug it and plug it back in to be detected! I am running Ubuntu Linux so your experience might not be the same with a different OS! Though I do have to call up Nautilus and tell it to safely remove device to get it to quit charging, haven't removed the 505 without doing that since I found it left ghost devices in my media folder from just unplugging it after it was eject from Calibre!