Updating database on Kobo Forma

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by maddz

How does it work with duplicates bearing in mind that it's quite likely they'll have different IDs?

If they have the same filename and author in both libraries, you'll get notified about duplicates before being copied.

However, it's also best to then use Find Duplicates to do a similar title and similar author so you can see if you do have any duplicates and then you can delete what you want to remove.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by maddz

How does it work with duplicates bearing in mind that it's quite likely they'll have different IDs?

How did you set it.
BTW Old {ID} does not come into play as it is Per Library. A new entry gets a new ID

[theducks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If they have the same filename and author in both libraries, you'll get notified about duplicates before being copied.

However, it's also best to then use Find Duplicates to do a similar title and similar author so you can see if you do have any duplicates and then you can delete what you want to remove.

Find Duplicate: Find Library Duplicates
I run that just prior to Copy To Library after reviewing the log.
Some will show the target as 'empty books', those I let process as the merge.
The CTL setting says what to do if the SAME format.
There are some fields that don't update (a merge would be required?)

IMHO anytime you do a Library wide activity, you should practice on a COPY

[DNSB]

The last time I helped consolidate multiple libraries from two computers into a single library on the new computer, we renamed the libraries before exporting them, imported them on the new machine as 4 separate libraries. We then created a new Main and Intake libraries (mimicking my setup). We then copied one library to the Main library (copy and delete), ran find duplicate against one of the old libraries, decided which book(s) we wanted to keep, copy/delete that library and repeat against the other libraries. It was a bit of a pain and took quite a bit of time but worked out in the end. We also added a new custom column which identified the old libraries and allowed a VL for each of them if ever needed.

The reason for the two libraries is Intake is where books are imported, metadata cleaned up, editing in either or both of Sigil and calibre's ebook-editor, etc. Once the book is cleaned up, it is moved to the Main library where changes are very rare.

[theducks]

I also use the Intake system.
The reason is the DB does not really remove a deleted field value. It marks it inactive.
The only way to clean a DB is to run Library Maintenance and that also resets {Last_modified}, which I use for sorting (do I want to send an updated version to my device or perform additional metadata updates).
I DO NOT keep my Library on my device. There is already more there than I will be able to read in the rest of my life.