Should I delete all my Mobi files?

[Loosheesh]

With Amazon no longer supporting .mobi files, I'm wondering if I should delete them from my Calibre library. Is there any need for me to keep them? I rarely transfer books to my Kindle via USB and I can always convert on the fly if I had a sudden need for such a transfer. What are you doing with your .mobi files?

[Karellen]

The only version I keep is epub. All others are deleted once I know the epub version is in good order.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by Karellen

The only version I keep is epub. All others are deleted once I know the epub version is in good order.

Now I'm wondering if I should also delete the AZW3 ones because I keep an .epub format (along with a TXT format) for all my book files (except the PDF ones).

[DNSB]

For myself, excluding PDFs, I keep an epub as the master version in calibre. Other formats are generated as needed from the epub. The tools for managing and editing epubs are, IMSHO, superior to the tools for editing other ebook formats. PDF files are excluded since the ones I have tend to be tech manuals which I need but do not convert well to any other format.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by DNSB

For myself, excluding PDFs, I keep an epub as the master version in calibre. Other formats are generated as needed from the epub. The tools for managing and editing epubs are, IMSHO, superior to the tools for editing other ebook formats. PDF files are excluded since the ones I have tend to be tech manuals which I need but do not convert well to any other format.

I'm leaning towards keeping only epubs (and my few PDFs) and getting rid of everything else. I initially made TXT copies for search purposes (for Agent Ransack) but today I upgraded to Calibre 6; with its full text search function, I'll probably no longer need to keep these TXT files. But I must decide on what I'm keeping before I start indexing.

[Sarmat89]

EPUB is a direct upgrade for MOBI, LIT and AZW, so you should not lose anything during the conversion.

[JSWolf]

I keep the original source format be is Mobi, KF8, or ePub and I also keep the ePub if I convert it to ePub or clean it up if it's ePub.

[haertig]

I store everything in my Calibre library redundantly - both as an AZW3 and as an EPUB. If the original was a MOBI (which is rare), I convert that to my preferred two formats then delete the MOBI. These conversions are done as part of my input process into Calibre, not on-the-fly later. I do not keep track of which file was the original format. But if I really need that info, I could look at the file timestamps in Calibre's directory structure to determine which file came first.

Is this a waste of disk space? I currently have 8900 novels stored in both AZW3 and EPUB format. This takes 8Gb of disk space for the redundant storage. That is not an amount that I am going to worry about.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by haertig

Is this a waste of disk space? I currently have 8900 novels stored in both AZW3 and EPUB format. This takes 8Gb of disk space for the redundant storage. That is not an amount that I am going to worry about.

It's not a space issue for me but I have just over 10,000 books in Calibre and my library size is 25GB. Half of the books are empty files (for books in a proprietary format in another application) and the books in the remaining half (except for ~200 PDFs) each have 3 formats - epub, mobi/azw3, and txt. I set up my library this way and it never bothered me before, but if I don't need these formats anymore, why keep them? That's the question I'm asking myself, anyway.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

...but if I don't need these formats anymore, why keep them? That's the question I'm asking myself, anyway.

You're the only one who knows if you need them of not. The rest of us can tell you what WE need/want, but we can't tell you what YOU need/want.

For all of us, I'll bet mostly it is want and not need that has us keeping things. For example, I have Moby Dick in my collection. That's because I want it, not because I need it. I'll never read it. I tried once, made it a few pages, then gave up. Not for me. But I want it in my collection because it just seems it should be in everybody's collection, for some reason that I can't figure out. Maybe I would just feel stupid and uneducated if it wasn't there, even though it's little digital 1's and 0's on my computer are not going to be disturbed any time soon.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by haertig

You're the only one who knows if you need them of not. The rest of us can tell you what WE need/want, but we can't tell you what YOU need/want.

Of course. I mostly wanted to assure myself there wasn’t a good reason out there (I hadn’t thought of already) why I should keep them, and by now I’m mostly satisfied there isn’t any for me.

[Sirtel]

I don't keep the mobis, even if they are the original format. They can't be easily edited and so I converted them even back in my Kindle days. As I never read an unedited book on any of my devices, I don't want or need mobis cluttering my library. YMMV.

[Loosheesh]

Thank you to everyone who chimed in. My final decision was to delete all formats except the EPUBs (and the PDFs).

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

Thank you to everyone who chimed in. My final decision was to delete all formats except the EPUBs (and the PDFs).

Maybe this is a bit late, but one caveat: if you have any Calibre-converted periodicals there, keep the mobi for those, since only the mobi reader on the Kindle supports the special article-by-article features for periodical display.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by NullNix

Maybe this is a bit late, but one caveat: if you have any Calibre-converted periodicals there, keep the mobi for those, since only the mobi reader on the Kindle supports the special article-by-article features for periodical display.

This is no longer an issue for me; thanks, though.