Calibre dropping 2nd name when there are multiple authors

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by stumped;3980695 i think its because in my counter example the separator is a comma, whereas for others the separator will be an ampersand
so that calibre thinks that the good omens author is one guy with 4 name components, ( filed under T in the alphabetical sort) not 2 authors with 2 each ?
i will try correcting that now...
done, replaced [I

comma [/I]with & in author, created author sort from author.... book now has 2 authors.... and calibre has refiled it in a folder called terry Pratchett

I use an ampersand. That has always worked in the past. Nevertheless, I tried some other formats to separate the names and see one of those would solve the problem (e.g. using "and", a semi-colon, and a plain comma). But none fixed it.

[Bookstooge]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

Previously, these Calibre-generated folders within my library contained both authors' names. I'm not mistaken about this. There are at least 50 auto-generated folders in my Calibre library with two names

Can you show us a screen shot?

And you do realize we are trying to help you, right? What you're describing doesn't seem to fit any normal (mis)behavior so we're knocking things off a big fat list one by one and asking specific questions because we can't read your mind or see the problem on a screen. So take a breath and just work with us. It might take some time but that is just fine.

[Bookstooge]

I just took the book I was talking about that had 2 authors (Don Pendleton and Jim Peterson), converted it to mobi format, copied that to my desktop, added that mobi file as a new book and voila, it had both authors.

So we have to nail down why it isn't working for you. I realize this is what you've been saying all along, but like I wrote above, there's a ton of things to potentially work through.

Speaking of screenshots, can you also take a screenshot of your calibre gui showing a book that has 2 authors in the gui in mobi format but doesn't get added with the second author?

[stumped]

Also a screenshot showing a calibre folder with two author names please..you say you have 50+ instances?
i suspect with those folders, that two names have been concatenated, like in the good omens example I described a few posts ago
Where calibre is actually seeing 2 authors there will be 2 hyperlinked (clickable) authors in the right hand book details panel. If it has concocenatted to say "nameA,nameB" that will be a single link.

I suspect that part of the problem maybe due to invalid separators syntax.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by Bookstooge

Can you show us a screen shot?

I can supply a screen shot if you think it will help. My fear is that we're getting side-tracked.

Again, the problem I'm looking to solve is that that the metadata associated with the .mobi files is missing the second author.

The only reason I raised the issue of the inconsistent naming conventions for the Calibre-generated files and folders within my Calibre library is that I thought this could be related to (or a symptom of) the missing metadata.

If one has nothing to do with the other, we might be going down a blind alley. Then again, if they are connected then figuring out one issue could help us figure out the other...

[stumped]

Maybe you can find an example of a multi author public domain or free book which goes wrong in your workflow, so that others can try to replicate exactly what is happening

It may also be necessary at various steps to look inside such books with an editor to see exactly what metadata is in the book, as opposed to other places in the database

I don't use sources like gutenberg, maybe someone who does can suggest some good examples

I am also puzzled by how you Create a book in calibre. Do you mean create a database placeholder entry or do you mean create an actual epub? Book from scratch. There is no way to directly type in a mobi format book, mobi has to be the output of a conversion, or the result of an add book operation on a purchased or downloaded mobi file?

If you can give us an idiots guide to create a 2 author book, as you do it, we can try to emulate your exact process

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by Bookstooge

I just took the book I was talking about that had 2 authors (Don Pendleton and Jim Peterson), converted it to mobi format, copied that to my desktop, added that mobi file as a new book and voila, it had both authors.

So we have to nail down why it isn't working for you. I realize this is what you've been saying all along, but like I wrote above, there's a ton of things to potentially work through.

Speaking of screenshots, can you also take a screenshot of your calibre gui showing a book that has 2 authors in the gui in mobi format but doesn't get added with the second author?

Thank you! I trust you do understand what the problem describing. I will take some screenshots, but I have to run out now. I'll post them later this evening or tomorrow.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by stumped

Maybe you can find an example of a multi author public domain or free book which goes wrong in your workflow, so that others can try to replicate exactly what is happening

Unfortunately, in trying to fix this problem I deleted my Calibre Library and reinstalled it. When I did that, it appears to have created all new folders with single author names. So despite my earlier protest, I'm not sure that I can replicate the dual-named folders. I'll double-check...

However, I still have the original .mobi files and they do have both author's names. So I definitely can take a screen shot of the dual-named mobi files (but it will have to wait until later tonight or tomorrow).

I could even take two screen shots: one of the original mobi files with two names, and one recreating those files with only one name.

But as I mentioned above, I don't want to get side-tracked with file names (or folder names) because those are unimportant to me. It's the metadata in the file itself that matters because that controls how it sorts on my Kindle. I just thought the folder and file names could be related. Perhaps they're not...

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by stumped

I am also puzzled by how you Create a book in calibre.

That's a good question. I should have described that earlier. Sorry.

I import a Microscoft Word Document into Calibre. I convert that to a .mobi file.

Originally Posted by stumped

If you can give us an idiots guide to create a 2 author book, as you do it, we can try to emulate your exact process

Well I shouldn't need a guide, right? It should be as simple as me typing two names into the "Author" field. For the five previous years that's all I needed to do. Worked perfectly. Not sure why it's not working now.

[stumped]

Old link. But it is the best explanation I can find for how multi author metadata is handled in calibre, and how it should be set up
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=78973

[stumped]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

That's a good question. I should have described that earlier. H calibre displaysSorry.

I import a Microscoft Word Document into Calibre. I convert that to a .mobi file.



Well I shouldn't need a guide, right? It should be as simple as me typing two names into the "Author" field. For the five previous years that's all I needed to do. Worked perfectly. Not sure why it's not working now.

Ok thanks, so " create a book", in your terminology, means write a word document , docx? Save and add to calibre. Then convert to mobi
After the add to calibre but before the convert to mobi, what exactly do you see in the author and author sort metadata fields which calibre displays. I assume you set those 2 fields manually rather than expect calibre to extract them from docx

[Bookstooge]

One thought, to pile it on deeper:

Under the Adding Books menu (near the bottom, "control the adding of books"), under the "Reading Metadata" tab, do you have the box "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" checked or unchecked?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

Well I shouldn't need a guide, right? It should be as simple as me typing two names into the "Author" field. For the five previous years that's all I needed to do. Worked perfectly. Not sure why it's not working now.

As far back as I have used calibre. you needed to use the '&' or 'and' to separate multiple author names in the Author field. Anything else gives "interesting" results in the Author Sort field.

     Author                           Author Sort result
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle    Niven, Larry & Pournelle, Jerry
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle  Niven, Larry & Pournelle, Jerry
Larry Niven Jerry Pournelle      Pournelle, Larry Niven Jerry
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle     Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Larry Niven; Jerry Pournelle     Pournelle, Larry Niven; Jerry

None of the other half dozen ways I've seen multiple author names separated worked.

[A Lurker]

Sorry... How do I upload a screenshot? I assumed all I need to do is click the "Image" icon above where I type my text, but that's asking me for a URL. It's not giving me the option to browse my desktop and select the image. Do I have to use TinyPic or something like that? (I used TinyPic in the past, but it's been years so I'd need someone to tell me what to do.)

Thanks in advance.

[BetterRed]

@A Lurker - what model is your kindle?

@other responders - as previously implied I know diddlysquat about MOBI and Kindles, but I have read enough here to know that there are plain ol' Mobidata MOBIs, and there are dual MOBI's - which contain a MOBI format and an AZW3 (KF8) format. It's not immediately apparent to me which of the two we're dealing with here.

If the OPs Kindle can read AZW3 (files), would he/she not be better off converting to that, then the Book Editor could be used to examine the AZW3's innards?

Apologies if I'm on the wrong side of the road. Stay safe everyone

BR