Something's modifying my files and I can't work out what

[Siavahda]

I have my ebooks arranged by Modified, but the last couple of days, the order is wrong. The ebooks Calibre is saying were most recently modified, weren't modified by me.

I'm assuming this is some plugin I've activated, but I can't figure out which. I just got my first Kobo, so probably it's something I enabled/installed for that. (I would list the plugins involved, but I do not remember. I know I didn't have to download anything outside of Calibre, and I don't think I enabled more than four or five plugins...)

Does the KoboTouch plugin do things behind the scene to modify files? Or any of the plugins used for downloading metadata and covers? I tried disabling Kobo Metadata and I removed the Goodreads metadata thing, but the weird modifications kept happening.

I ran calibre in debug mode and have the log, but I have no idea what I'm looking for. (I'd attach it here, but the file's too big.) Most of the log is clearly me sending chunks of my library onto my Kobo.

'Metadata sources cache was recently updated not updating again' is something that appears again and again. Is that it?

I realise this is horribly vague and I'm sorry. Really hope someone can help!

[pdurrant]

The modified date is updated whenever ANY metadata is changed. It's not the date the book file was modified.

Lots of things change the modification date. Adding or changing a column in the database, for example, updates the modification date for all books.

[BetterRed]

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔

Example if you deliberately or inadvertently change a tag from 'cat' to 'bat', all the books tagged with 'cat' with have the built-in "last-modified/Modified" flag set to 'Now'.

IMO the column is best ignored.

You might want to consider using the Last Modified plugin.

BR

[Siavahda]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The modified date is updated whenever ANY metadata is changed. It's not the date the book file was modified.

Lots of things change the modification date. Adding or changing a column in the database, for example, updates the modification date for all books.

I do understand that, but what I meant was, I am not editing the metadata manually. I have not changed any columns, or done anything else that ought to change the metadata. It's being changed by something that isn't me.

[Siavahda]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔

Example if you deliberately or inadvertently change a tag from 'cat' to 'bat', all the books tagged with 'cat' with have the built-in "last-modified/Modified" flag set to 'Now'.

IMO the column is best ignored.

You might want to consider using the Last Modified plugin.

BR

I do understand that, but I haven't done anything like that. I guess I didn't make that clear enough in the original post.

Thank you, I'll try that plugin!

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Siavahda

I do understand that, but what I meant was, I am not editing the metadata manually. I have not changed any columns, or done anything else that ought to change the metadata. It's being changed by something that isn't me.

Have you opened these books in the Editor or the Viewer?

[Siavahda]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Have you opened these books in the Editor or the Viewer?

No. I genuinely haven't touched them, except to send (some of them) to my kobo, using the send to device function.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Siavahda

No. I genuinely haven't touched them, except to send (some of them) to my kobo, using the send to device function.

Just to be looking at the correct symptom:
This is ONLY affecting on books sent on the date shown?
Did those books ALREADY have the format that arrived on the KOBO?
(FWIW when I send an EPUB to my KOBO, it arrives as a KEPUB, but the LIBRARY never changes. )

[theducks]

Do you have Action Chains? Did you set up some sort of logging that the book had been sent to the Kobo?
Kobo utilities can fetch and log reading status in the Library, (backup of the entire KOBO DB is external to Caliber, so not a per book action)

[Comfy.n]

There's an auto backup that Calibre does on some occasions, and IIRC this affects last_modified. It regenerates the backup OPFs inside each book folder.

Similar topic here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...43&postcount=9

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

You might want to consider using the Last Modified plugin.

BR

This is a must-have plugin. I recommend setting at least a Last Action column.

I have also 'favdate', which updates whenever I add a book to Favorites (yes/no column), and 'lac'. The 'lac' is Last Annotation Count date, which sets a new date whenever my annotations count changes for a given book. (the annotations count refers only to the calibre viewer highlights and annotations)

[Siavahda]

Originally Posted by theducks

Just to be looking at the correct symptom:
This is ONLY affecting on books sent on the date shown?
Did those books ALREADY have the format that arrived on the KOBO?
(FWIW when I send an EPUB to my KOBO, it arrives as a KEPUB, but the LIBRARY never changes. )

No - I'm pretty sure some of these books have NOT been sent to the kobo.

And after quite a lot of wrangling the last few days, everything on my kobo is now epub, NOT kepub. Most of the books already had an epub version, but some were converted from mobi or azw3.

[Siavahda]

Originally Posted by theducks

Do you have Action Chains? Did you set up some sort of logging that the book had been sent to the Kobo?
Kobo utilities can fetch and log reading status in the Library, (backup of the entire KOBO DB is external to Caliber, so not a per book action)

I have no idea what an action chain is in this context I've not even had my kobo a week yet. And re Calibre, I'm able to do the things I need to, but I'm not ANY kind of expert with it. (Or with tech in general.)

Please explain like I'm five, basically. Sorry!

[Siavahda]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

There's an auto backup that Calibre does on some occasions, and IIRC this affects last_modified. It regenerates the backup OPFs inside each book folder.

Similar topic here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...43&postcount=9

That only links to a single comment/reply, not the whole thread, so I don't know what was happening there?

Do you know what kind of occasions causes Calibre to make an auto backup like that?

[Siavahda]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

This is a must-have plugin. I recommend setting at least a Last Action column.

I have also 'favdate', which updates whenever I add a book to Favorites (yes/no column), and 'lac'. The 'lac' is Last Annotation Count date, which sets a new date whenever my annotations count changes for a given book. (the annotations count refers only to the calibre viewer highlights and annotations)

Attachment 223931

I love the idea of this, and I have installed it, but I haven't yet found any Instructions for the Tech Illiterate, so I'm going to be a while messing with it. (If anyone knows of any instructions like that, please link me!)