Calibre keeps putting wrong information on books

[Dragonhomer]

Started at least a month ago, when downloading metadata for a number of books (I do about 20 at a time).

Randomly, for some reason, the information about the book changes.

If I open the book, the information if correct. But viewing the Calibre database in the screen it shows the wrong information.

It may or may not change the title, the series, the author, the comments, etc.

The information it brings up if for the following book

Title: Fourth Wing
Series: The Empyrean
Author: Rebecca Yarros

Any idea why this is happening and how I can stop it from doing this?

[DNSB]

Quick questions would be which metadata sources are you using and how are they configured. Do you have any identifiers preset? I.e. isbn:9781649374080, amazon:B0BGDM197Q, kobo:fourth-wing for the book you mentioned.

Downloading metadata in bulk is iffy and getting worse. If you can easily be blocked from a site due to multiple requests triggering DDOS protection service. My last test showed Amazon blocking me after 5-7 consecutive requests.

My personal preference is downloading individually so I can see what is happening and having the chance to retry if the wrong book's metadata is fetched.

As for why it doesn't show in the ebook itself, unless you modify the metadata in the ebook using Polish or Modify Epub for example, the copy of the book sent to your device will be modified but the original is not changed.

[Quoth]

I find if I paste two links of amazon via chat inside a minute or more the chat link preview is only shown for 1st. The 2nd has either a recaptcha image or plain link.

So I agree. You need to check one ebook at a time.

Almost always now on many sites I get a text image recaptcha AFTER the user and password. That IMO is abusive, especially as the text can be so distorted as to need 3 attempts. Also the recaptcha in most cases breaks EU law by sending your info to USA 3rd party. Many are simply image "training" for automated driving and seem based on USA street scenes using poor images, so culturally and eyesight biased.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Dragonhomer

Started at least a month ago, when downloading metadata for a number of books (I do about 20 at a time).

Randomly, for some reason, the information about the book changes.

If I open the book, the information if correct. But viewing the Calibre database in the screen it shows the wrong information.

It may or may not change the title, the series, the author, the comments, etc.

The information it brings up if for the following book

Title: Fourth Wing
Series: The Empyrean
Author: Rebecca Yarros

Any idea why this is happening and how I can stop it from doing this?

Why do you need to download metadata for so many eBooks? Most eBooks have the correct metadata and don't need updating.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why do you need to download metadata for so many eBooks? Most eBooks have the correct metadata and don't need updating.

Are you actually trying to offer assistance? If so, you missed by the proverbial country kilometre.

Perhaps they have some time on their hands and are attempting to update old and incorrect metadata? Perhaps they are attempting to download consistent covers for series where all too often the covers for some of the series are inconsistent? Perhaps they managed to screw up when editing metadata in bulk? Perhaps they are still working on cleaning up their mother's calibre library.

And, yes, perhaps they are adding metadata to books from dubious sources though nothing so far has even suggested that that is the case.

As for most eBooks having correct metadata?

Perhaps in your world. In mine, a good chunk of the eBooks especially from Amazon have metadata that is pathetic at best.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps in your world. In mine, a good chunk of the eBooks especially from Amazon have metadata that is pathetic at best.

Amazon are terrible. Wrong series numbering (or none) is common. Yet unless you remove DRM and sideload on a Kobo you can't have corrected title, author, series, original publication date, traditional paperback cover art, and a sane blurb.
I tend to fix books as I get them, or not bother. Sometimes if an "important" book I'll fix everything. I always fix series numbering. Sometimes Wikipedia is good for that and often Goodreads and Amazon are useless. The various "books in order" sites can be better.