After a sudden power outage my calibre changed...

Mandabar · Yesterday, 02:32 AM

So yeah, I had a power interruption of a few seconds and my computer restarted. When I reopened my Calibre installation it was changed. For a moment I thought it lost the database... but no. It looks fine. Everything looks fine actually oddly enough. My books are still there. my database for the books is still there. my plugins are still there. even my custom columns are still there.

The only thing that changed and is bugging me (at least that I can tell) is my toolbars got reset (I've already tried to remake them from memory and I failed. They feel OFF but I can't remember what they were exactly from before. And the button on the bottom right labeled layout that gives a popup of different options like tag browser and etc. And the dimensions of the cover/metadata/description for the books. I hadn't installed an update to calibre afaik so I don't know why everything changed. As far as I can tell, the rest of my preferences are still intact.

https://i.imgur.com/NvUpBtm.png

So basically I want to know if a) there is a backup I can restore b) how to manualy go back to the old school style for the layout options on bottom right c) restore my toolbar from a backup or something

Oh! And I had a new copy of the quick start guide appear with today's date. Made me think it thought it was a fresh install. I've tried to restart and no change.

(I've obviously filtered my library just to show the quickstarts, don't need to see my books. I was in the process of (or finishing) a fanficfare book update but I think that was finished in the background possibly when the power flicker happened. Shouldn't have affected the layouts I'd think, but I could be wrong.)

Sirtel · Yesterday, 02:47 AM

If you didn't make a backup of your configuration folder yourself, there is no backup. Calibre doesn't automatically make one.

What exactly do you mean by "old school layout options"? There is an option "Show layout buttons" in Preferences -> Look & Feel, but I don't know if you meant that.

Mandabar · Yesterday, 02:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If you didn't make a backup of your configuration folder yourself, there is no backup. Calibre doesn't automatically make one.

What exactly do you mean by "old school layout options"? There is an option "Show layout buttons" in Preferences -> Look & Feel, but I don't know if you meant that.

Damn. Was hoping it had some auto backups I hadn't noticed. :fingerscrossed:

Where is the configuration folder?

Well, in my screenshot you can see the layout button next to the update notification and the "Jobs: 0" UI. Instead of a single button that popups this , I had several button that would open up the tag browser, the cover grid, the cover browser and so on with a single click. I'm not exactly lacking for space so I don't need this giant popup and second click to access these options.

And lets see if 'show layout buttons' is what I wanted...

Yes, that's exactly what I wanted! So it seems my look/feel got corrupted on the power outage? You have to forgive me. It's been probably a DECADE or more since I have touched settings in my calibre installation

I mean... it barely changed, but it affected my toolbar and layout button choice. and probably a few things I haven't noticed yet. But overall nothing else got affected in a major mechanical way.

Ooof. Just noticed my right click context menu is reset to defaults. None of the plugin functionality is showing there. Going to have to add those back in. Ugh It'll never be the same vibe i'm muscle memory used to, and yet don't have photographically memorized.

Oh the popup dialog windows and data entry are all the wrong sizes. Ugh. What a weird database corruption. I mean I guess I'm glad I didn't the library/data/plugins/settings... even if I did lose the apperance side of settings stuff.

Comfy.n · Yesterday, 02:56 AM

I won't enter into the specifics of what could have happened, that caused the new copy of QS guide and stuff, but if you can find a copy of gui.json, that's where toolbar data is stored. Then you would need to replace the current at

%APPDATA%\Calibre (C:\Users\<your-username>\AppData\Roaming\calibre

Mandabar · Yesterday, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

I won't enter into the specifics of what could have happened, that caused the new copy of QS guide and stuff, but if you can find a copy of gui.json, that's where toolbar data is stored. Then you would need to replace the current at

%APPDATA%\Calibre (C:\Users\<your-username>\AppData\Roaming\calibre

I mean I wouldn't mind, but I have to assume it would be too speculative, guessing and grasping at straws and in the end not matter at this point.
So here? https://i.imgur.com/hzriMUF.png. These seem to be the files at hand that might've been hit and recently modified. And the power outage was at 12:26am on the 21st, so it's a small subset of files there.

Hmm. I might have backups of these, if not too recent...

Sirtel · Yesterday, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mandabar

I mean I wouldn't mind, but I have to assume it would be too speculative, guessing and grasping at straws and in the end not matter at this point.
So here? https://i.imgur.com/hzriMUF.png. These seem to be the files at hand that might've been hit and recently modified. And the power outage was at 12:26am on the 21st, so it's a small subset of files there.

Hmm. I might have backups of these, if not too recent...

The entire folder there named calibre (which contains all those files in your screenshot) is what you want to back up. That's the configuration folder.

And yeah, a sudden crash while calibre is open can corrupt your settings. It happened to me too a while ago. I restored my configuration folder from backup.

Mandabar · Yesterday, 03:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The entire folder there named calibre (which contains all those files in your screenshot) is what you want to back up. That's the configuration folder.

And yeah, a sudden crash while calibre is open can corrupt your settings. It happened to me too a while ago. I restored my configuration folder from backup.

And yes, I was backing up the folder, just not one way synced in a while...

Figures I've been too lazy to fix my over datalimits issue with dropbox, so the last backup of that is feb 26. Probably fine. Much larger file too. Lemme backup the current, even if it is probably just newly generated defaults barring a few last few hours modifications by me, and replace any of those pictured if smaller than my older version.

Huh.. my dropbox has 6gb free.. why am I not using it again? Rhetorical.

Went thru those files with modified times since power outage. Only one had significant difference and 1/7th the size vs my old backups, the gui.json. A small peek at the visual code compare.

Adding back in...

Ok that worked out nicely! I probably lost some minor changes between now and feb, but this is a lot better than a clean slate!

Appreciate the help folks. Saved me lots of time trying to figure out where to look, and quite possibly making it harder on myself messing up the modified times worse. Now I need to make sure my backups are working again :sweat:
the old quickstart had a more flashy cover

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

I won't enter into the specifics of what could have happened, that caused the new copy of QS guide and stuff, but if you can find a copy of gui.json, that's where toolbar data is stored. Then you would need to replace the current at

%APPDATA%\Calibre (C:\Users\<your-username>\AppData\Roaming\calibre

Thanks, that was the exact file I needed to restore! Appreciate it greatly!

BetterRed · Yesterday, 04:03 AM

I use this plugin ==>> Backup configuration folder(s)

BR

Mandabar · Yesterday, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I use this plugin ==>> Backup configuration folder(s)

BR

Appreciate it! Never hurts to have another backup method for precious things. And automated is best -mated.

JSWolf · Yesterday, 05:46 AM

Even though you are using the plugin to make backups, make a backup of one of the ZIP files in case you change something or an updated plugin needs fixing. You might not find out something is wrong until after all the previous backups are gone. So if you have a backup of a back, you can use that if you ever needed to.

Yesterday, 02:32 AM	#1
Mandabar Fanfiction Devourer Posts: 56 Karma: 539564 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Android: Moon+ Reader Pro	After a sudden power outage my calibre changed... So yeah, I had a power interruption of a few seconds and my computer restarted. When I reopened my Calibre installation it was changed. For a moment I thought it lost the database... but no. It looks fine. Everything looks fine actually oddly enough. My books are still there. my database for the books is still there. my plugins are still there. even my custom columns are still there. The only thing that changed and is bugging me (at least that I can tell) is my toolbars got reset (I've already tried to remake them from memory and I failed. They feel OFF but I can't remember what they were exactly from before. And the button on the bottom right labeled layout that gives a popup of different options like tag browser and etc. And the dimensions of the cover/metadata/description for the books. I hadn't installed an update to calibre afaik so I don't know why everything changed. As far as I can tell, the rest of my preferences are still intact. https://i.imgur.com/NvUpBtm.png So basically I want to know if a) there is a backup I can restore b) how to manualy go back to the old school style for the layout options on bottom right c) restore my toolbar from a backup or something Oh! And I had a new copy of the quick start guide appear with today's date. Made me think it thought it was a fresh install. I've tried to restart and no change. (I've obviously filtered my library just to show the quickstarts, don't need to see my books. I was in the process of (or finishing) a fanficfare book update but I think that was finished in the background possibly when the power flicker happened. Shouldn't have affected the layouts I'd think, but I could be wrong.) Last edited by Mandabar; Yesterday at 02:35 AM.

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Yesterday, 02:47 AM	#2
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 15,302 Karma: 247608055 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	If you didn't make a backup of your configuration folder yourself, there is no backup. Calibre doesn't automatically make one. What exactly do you mean by "old school layout options"? There is an option "Show layout buttons" in Preferences -> Look & Feel, but I don't know if you meant that.

Yesterday, 02:56 AM	#4
Comfy.n want to learn what I want Posts: 2,283 Karma: 7971785 Join Date: Sep 2020 Device: Libra Colour	I won't enter into the specifics of what could have happened, that caused the new copy of QS guide and stuff, but if you can find a copy of gui.json, that's where toolbar data is stored. Then you would need to replace the current at %APPDATA%\Calibre (C:\Users\<your-username>\AppData\Roaming\calibre

Yesterday, 04:03 AM	#8
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 22,712 Karma: 33014156 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	I use this plugin ==>> Backup configuration folder(s) BR

Yesterday, 05:46 AM	#10
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 83,857 Karma: 153649587 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Even though you are using the plugin to make backups, make a backup of one of the ZIP files in case you change something or an updated plugin needs fixing. You might not find out something is wrong until after all the previous backups are gone. So if you have a backup of a back, you can use that if you ever needed to.