Rebuilding library from device

esuli · 11-14-2011, 11:48 AM

Hi all,

this is my first post on the Forum, though I read it from a relatively long time.
I have unsuccessfully searched on Google before posting here.

I have reinstalled my computer after a crash and I have lost my Calibre library.
I still have all my books on my PRS-650, each one properly tagged and with metadata properly corrected by hand along the time. It was a long activity I routinely carried out with Calibre before the crash, and I would like not to waste it.

Now I have reinstalled Calibre and I have connected the PRS-650 to it. Calibre correctly shows all of my books on the device, with my hand-assigned tags and metadata.
So I thought that it would be enough to copy all the books back from the device to the library to have it rebuilt.

But if I select all of them (or just one, is the same) and click "Add books to library" the library is not populated with the correct tags and metadata.
Metadata fields in library are populated the same way it results from adding just a book file from a directory on the hard disk, metadata info on the device is ignored (even though Calibre itself shows them to me).

Is there a way to import metadata back from the device to Calibre?

Thank you for any help you can provide me,

Andrea.

DoctorOhh · 11-14-2011, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by esuli

But if I select all of them (or just one, is the same) and click "Add books to library" the library is not populated with the correct tags and metadata.
Metadata fields in library are populated the same way it results from adding just a book file from a directory on the hard disk, metadata info on the device is ignored (even though Calibre itself shows them to me)..

Metadata, whether from a book being added from the hard disk or your device is set depending on what you have checked in Preferences - Adding books. Go to this section of preferences and check the box next to "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" and redo the Add books to library from device.

esuli · 11-15-2011, 06:35 AM

Thank you for the suggestion but it does not work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Metadata, whether from a book being added from the hard disk or your device is set depending on what you have checked in Preferences - Adding books. Go to this section of preferences and check the box next to "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" and redo the Add books to library from device.

The "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" is checked, and in fact the library is populate with metadata contained in the file rather than just the name of the file. The problem is that Calibre does not fetch metadata info from the "metadata.calibre" file on the root of the device.

For example, a file name "X.pdf" contains some metadata that specifies that the author name is "J.D.", and in "metadata.calibre" it is better specified that the author is "John Doe".
The "device" book list on Calibre properly shows "John Doe" as the author, adding the book to the library results in "J.D." to be set as the author in the "library" book list.

DoctorOhh · 11-15-2011, 06:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by esuli

The "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" is checked, and in fact the library is populate with metadata contained in the file rather than just the name of the file.

When you add any book to the library with this setting checked it is going to add the metadata it finds in the book.

Quote:

Originally Posted by esuli

The problem is that Calibre does not fetch metadata info from the "metadata.calibre" file on the root of the device.

This is not a problem nor a feature expected to work as you would like it to work. That file is never a part of adding books to the library.

Quote:

Originally Posted by esuli

For example, a file name "X.pdf" contains some metadata that specifies that the author name is "J.D.", and in "metadata.calibre" it is better specified that the author is "John Doe".
The "device" book list on Calibre properly shows "John Doe" as the author, adding the book to the library results in "J.D." to be set as the author in the "library" book list.

"J.D." would be the expected outcome. The PDF should have had the metadata written to the book when it was transferred to the device. I'm guessing the metadata in calibre was "J.D." when you originally added the book to the device and you changed it in the library later. Or you disabled the PDF metadata writer plugin sometime ago. Either way at this time you can only expect to get the metadata that is stored in the book when you add it to your library.

Maybe a developer will come along with another idea/trick to transfer the data from the "metadata.calibre" file to your library but such an action is not currently part of calibre.

theducks · 11-15-2011, 10:02 AM

I am curious why that file exists if it can't be used as the OP desires? (Recover Library Items from Device)

That (xml) file is HUGE, bigger than metadata.db for a smaller count of books. AFAIK, it exists just to put the initial On Device tick marks in the main library.

Metadata writing on Save/Send, to PDF is not happening per Kovid, so the user is stuck with the original (lame?) metadata.

esuli · 11-15-2011, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

"J.D." would be the expected outcome. The PDF should have had the metadata written to the book when it was transferred to the device. I'm guessing the metadata in calibre was "J.D." when you originally added the book to the device and you changed it in the library later. Or you disabled the PDF metadata writer plugin sometime ago. Either way at this time you can only expect to get the metadata that is stored in the book when you add it to your library.

I didn't even know there was a PDF metadata writer

Thank you for the hint, I will make some experiments to check how it works.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Maybe a developer will come along with another idea/trick to transfer the data from the "metadata.calibre" file to your library but such an action is not currently part of calibre.

I supposed the only way to solve this was a trick...

DoctorOhh · 11-15-2011, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Metadata writing on Save/Send, to PDF is not happening per Kovid, so the user is stuck with the original (lame?) metadata.

Metadata writing to PDF on Save to disk and Send to device does work, it is just limited to certain metadata. Metadata writing via the content server though is limited to ePub and Mobi.

esuli · 11-16-2011, 03:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

I am curious why that file exists if it can't be used as the OP desires? (Recover Library Items from Device)

That (xml) file is HUGE, bigger than metadata.db for a smaller count of books. AFAIK, it exists just to put the initial On Device tick marks in the main library.

You exactly got my point.
Now that we have clarified that this behavior is not implemented in Calibre, I would like to see it implemented in a future release.
The idea is to have a third option in the "add to library" function:
1 - determine metadata from file name.
2 - extract metadata from the metadata section contained in file.
3 - copy metadata from the metadata file on device.

This would also enable to better handle metadata for file formats that cannot contain metadata information, e.g., txt files.

11-14-2011, 11:48 AM	#1
esuli Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: PRS-650	Rebuilding library from device Hi all, this is my first post on the Forum, though I read it from a relatively long time. I have unsuccessfully searched on Google before posting here. I have reinstalled my computer after a crash and I have lost my Calibre library. I still have all my books on my PRS-650, each one properly tagged and with metadata properly corrected by hand along the time. It was a long activity I routinely carried out with Calibre before the crash, and I would like not to waste it. Now I have reinstalled Calibre and I have connected the PRS-650 to it. Calibre correctly shows all of my books on the device, with my hand-assigned tags and metadata. So I thought that it would be enough to copy all the books back from the device to the library to have it rebuilt. But if I select all of them (or just one, is the same) and click "Add books to library" the library is not populated with the correct tags and metadata. Metadata fields in library are populated the same way it results from adding just a book file from a directory on the hard disk, metadata info on the device is ignored (even though Calibre itself shows them to me). Is there a way to import metadata back from the device to Calibre? Thank you for any help you can provide me, Andrea.

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11-15-2011, 10:02 AM	#5
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 30,887 Karma: 59840450 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	I am curious why that file exists if it can't be used as the OP desires? (Recover Library Items from Device) That (xml) file is HUGE, bigger than metadata.db for a smaller count of books. AFAIK, it exists just to put the initial On Device tick marks in the main library. Metadata writing on Save/Send, to PDF is not happening per Kovid, so the user is stuck with the original (lame?) metadata.

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