Best setup for desktop Calibre & hosted Calibre-web?

[Retromantic]

Hi everyone

I've been using Calibre on my Mac laptop for ages and love it. I have a large library.

I've since setup a home server, using yunohost from which I run a Mastodon instance and some other things.

So, I wanted to use Calibre-web on that, but I already have a local library on my laptop.

What's the best way to organise this? I imagine I should move my library to the calibre-web server. Can I then use Calibre on my laptop to access that library?

Then, I can use the web UI on my server when I'm away from home, and I'm told I can even browse it from my Kobo Libra Colour 2...

Does anyone run their setup at all like this? What's the best way to achieve something like this?

[theducks]

Calibre (desktop) is not really compatible with a remote (NAS or Share). See the FAQ's

Put a Library (folder) COPY on your server (and never 2-way sync)

[cybebob]

theducks is right that desktop calibre and a library on a remote share dont mix, calibre wants the library folder local or it can corrupt metadata.db when two things touch it at once. so treat your mac as the master and the server as the published copy, rather than sharing one folder both ways.

what works in practice: keep editing on the mac like you do now, thats your source of truth, then push the library up to the server one direction only, syncthing or a scheduled rsync both do this fine. calibre-web on the server points at that copy for the browse and read in browser side. since youre on a kobo libra the handy bit is calibre-web has a kobo sync feature, you point the libra at it over wifi and your books show up on the device like a normal store sync, no cable needed. you dont really edit through calibre-web, its a reading and serving frontend, so the loop becomes edit on mac, sync up, read on the kobo or in a browser, no two way headaches.

for getting at it away from home you just need it reachable over https with a login rather than exposed raw. full disclosure i help build an open source project called syncloud, calibre-web is a one click install on it with the https and per-user logins handled, runs on a pi or mini pc or a vps. youre already on yunohost though and it has calibre-web in its catalog, so you can do all this without switching a thing. syncloud is just the route id point you at if you ever want the hands-off version. either way the key bits are the one-direction sync so the mac stays boss of the metadata, and the kobo sync so reading away from home just works.