[GUI Plugin] OverDrive Libby

[mallomar]

Hi, I have some loans on my Libby account. I generated a code per the instructions and the plugin says Libby is configured, however no loans show. I tried restarting Calibre and clicking refresh under loans but nothing shows. Any idea?

[sgmoore]

There are several options on the 'customize plugin' to check

On the Loans tab check that none of these options are selected

• Hide Ebooks
• Hide Magazines
• Hide titles already in library

And on General network tab, check that the following is selected.

• Include titles without downloadable formats.

If that doesn't fix the issue, can you check what it shows on the status line when you first open the plugin. It only displays for a few seconds, but should show you the number of loans and holds found.

[mallomar]

Originally Posted by sgmoore

There are several options on the 'customize plugin' to check

On the Loans tab check that none of these options are selected

• Hide Ebooks
• Hide Magazines
• Hide titles already in library

And on General network tab, check that the following is selected.

• Include titles without downloadable formats.

Hi, thanks for the fast response. All of the hide options are unchecked. The include title options are checked.

Originally Posted by sgmoore

If that doesn't fix the issue, can you check what it shows on the status line when you first open the plugin. It only displays for a few seconds, but should show you the number of loans and holds found.

It says synced 0 loans, 0 holds, 0 cards and 0 magazines.

Under preferences it says Libby is configured in green.

When I open the website for Libby it says I have 5 cards and 4 loans.

[sgmoore]

Originally Posted by mallomar

It says synced 0 loans, 0 holds, 0 cards and 0 magazines.

0 cards would mean the setup procedure has not worked properly.

Can you try :

Delete the overdrive_libby.json file. You can find this by going to Preferences/Misc/Open calibre configuration folder and the switching to the plugins folder.

Then restart calibre in debug mode (i.e. Ctrl-Shift-R or else select the option from the preferences drop down menu).

Then open this plugin and go through the setup procedure again.

It will hopefully work properly this time, but if not close down calibre and it will open a log file which may give more details of what has gone wrong.

You may want to check that the file does not contain any private info before posting.

[Kairi30507]

Is it normal, that I don't see the books within the Loans tab, which only exists as "Libby-Book" and are not downloadable via OverDrive?

[sgmoore]

Originally Posted by Kairi30507

Is it normal, that I don't see the books within the Loans tab, which only exists as "Libby-Book" and are not downloadable via OverDrive?

It is unless you select "Include titles without downloadable formats." which is on the General/Network tab when you goto customize plugin

[Kairi30507]

Thanks again!
I search for something with "Hide" so I totally over looked this option.

[sgmoore]

I'm looking for some volunteers to try out a new test/beta version

See Message 2 of this thread or here for more details.

[BinaryTB]

Is there anyway to search by language? or able to search by "media id"? e.g., The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett is id 144602. Or search by series?

Language, because I've accidentally checked out books in the wrong language before.

Media id, because sometimes there are multiple versions of the same book, e.g., Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds, and I want a specific version of it. Not all books have ISBN to search by.

Series because, for example, I want to see all Discworld books and pick which ones I haven't read.

I just got this plugin and am still figuring it out and wasn't able to find the above info when searching this thread and skimming all the pages. Thanks.

[sgmoore]

Originally Posted by BinaryTB

Is there anyway to search by language?

No. In theory this is possible and when I tried to add it, I found that not all books had the language set and so these books would be skipped which I thought made the situation worse.

or able to search by "media id"? e.g., The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett is id 144602.

But I'm not really sure of the point. How do you know the media id unless you have already found the book on the website?

Or search by series?

Not quite, but if you search for books by the author, then the beta version of the plugin shows you the series and allows you to sort the books by series.

See Message 2 of this thread or here for more details of the beta version

For Terry Pratchett you would probably need to increase the maximum number of books returned by the search results (in config) or else use the 'Advanced Search' option which allows you to download more results.

[BinaryTB]

Originally Posted by sgmoore

No. In theory this is possible and when I tried to add it, I found that not all books had the language set and so these books would be skipped which I thought made the situation worse.

Oh didn't realize that, then in total agreement, language search is a no-go.

Originally Posted by sgmoore

But I'm not really sure of the point. How do you know the media id unless you have already found the book on the website?

I sometimes go to overdrive.com directly, search for the books I want since searching within my library won't show what books are available in Overdrive, since the results are limited to that specific library and Overdrive.com shows what books are available to all libraries. That way I can pick/choose the exact version of the book and just update the URL for it and voila. This also helps with the "notify" tag in Libby, since librarians have mentioned they use that to determine what books patrons want. Many times the book will show up for the library, but 0 out 0 books are available, I tag those in Libby as notify.

Originally Posted by sgmoore

For Terry Pratchett you would probably need to increase the maximum number of books returned by the search results (in config) or else use the 'Advanced Search' option which allows you to download more results.

Will give that a shot post-beta, thanks!

[WalkTheEarth]

now i can use my libraries libby thingy

[PeterT]

Does the plugin support borrowing of a "Skip the Line" book? I had one available earlier today and while the Hold tab showed the book with a 0 day in the Available column, the Borrow button was greyed out?

This was using the beta version from the 2nd post.

PS: You might like posting a new message when you update post 2; without the eMail I received I wouldn't have known of the beta release.

[sgmoore]

> Does the plugin support borrowing of a "Skip the Line" book?

I'm not sure. If this is just another name of the 'Lucky Day Copy' then it should be supported.

What happens if you try searching for that book on the advanced search tab? If the borrow button is still disabled there (but enabled on the website) would you mind saving the search results and either upload the json file or send it to me.

[PeterT]

Skip the line is a random occurrence when you have a hold on a book, and you're a long way back in the queue. It gives you a 7 day loan on the book (as opposed to my standard 21 day), and retains your queue position.

See https://help.libbyapp.com/en-us/6172.htm

I'm going to have to wait until I finish this book before I can experiment.