Strange behavior when removing a plugin

[dunhill]

I received an inquiry because a plugin icon wasn't appearing in the toolbar when calibre started. My suggestion was to add it manually from Preferences/Toolbars. It still didn't appear, although it was listed in the installed plugins. I thought the plugin was deactivated, but there was no message saying "This plugin has been deactivated." The next step was to uninstall and reinstall the plugin, without any result.

Then I decided to check the calibre configuration folder and the plugin folder. Remember that we removed a plugin, restarted calibre, reinstalled it, and uninstalled it again. We went into the config/plugin folder and there were traces of the deleted plugin (shouldn't removing a plugin remove all traces of it?).

At this point, I deleted the files with the plugin's name, restarted calibre, and reinstalled the plugin, which then reappeared in the toolbar.


calibre 9.8 on Windows

[BetterRed]

Which plugin, if it was Book List Plus (BLP), read the BLP thread - Comfy.n omitted something from V1.2.2 that caused similar behaviour, which he fixed in V1.2.3.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

removing plugins does not do anything other than remove the plugins code. It does not remove any config files/db settings etc the plugin creates.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by dunhill

(shouldn't removing a plugin remove all traces of it?).

In an ideal world yes, or at least offer do so. But plugin related data is sprinkled through baseline configuration files (e.g. gui.json), library databases, subfolders within and without the calibre config folder.

I have entries in gui.json for plugins I installed and removed many years ago - e.g. Quality Check, Generate Cover, Open With, Action Chains….

It's a testament to calibre's robustness that it is able to cope with so much crud in its configuration data.

BR

[dunhill]

The plugin was ebook translator

kovidgoyal, BetterRed. Thank you for the clarification.