Filename changed to one letter when importing from Calibre

[Demingy]

Sorry I have to resurrect this thread. I recently got a new Fire and imported my books as usual with the CC wireless connection with Calibre and ended up with a repeat of this problem with the truncated filenames creating duplicate files. The filenames are correct in Calibre and so is the meta data so I'm not sure where the problem occurred. For a quick fix I reset the CC option to use the book ID as a filename which of course works.

I tested the same books in CC on my Xperia Z1 compact phone and I had the same problem with the filenames being changed to just the first letter of the book title. So far it has only been these three books from the 600+ I've imported so it isn't a common problem. They are books with a very long list of authors, but I have other books with a long list of authors that don't have this problem and I have my Calibre settings as described previously in this thread to only use the first author's name.

I don't necessarily mind this work around of using the book ID as the filename in CC but I wanted to let you know in case you wanted to take a look at it or in case someone else runs into this problem and needs a solution.

[chaley]

Thank you for the debug log. I can clearly see the shortened name, but unfortunately I cannot see whether calibre shortened it or whether something in CC or Android did it.

Some questions/requests:
1) Did you uncheck "Replace books with same calibre id" in the wireless device settings in calibre?
2) Can you post the template you are using? Get it from the wireless device configuration.
3) A calibre debug log would be very useful because when sending a book it displays the path that it tells CC to use. Instructions for how to get one are here. What I would like you to do is:

1. Delete one of the offending book from CC using CC.
2. Start calibre in debug mode.
3. Connect CC to calibre.
4. Send the book you deleted in step 1 to CC.
5. Disconnect CC from calibre.
6. Quit calibre. Save the debug log so you can get it in the next step.
7. Verify that the path is incorrect in CC. If it is then send another CC debug log and the calibre debug log to me at cc_debug_logs [at] charles [dot] haleys [dot] org (the same address you used for the CC debug log.

Thanks for your help!

[Demingy]

1) Yes, I made sure that was unchecked from last time.
2) The template for both devices is {title} - {authors} ({id})
and use sub directories is checked (the only other item checked is Use metadata cache)

I'll email you the debug log(s) shortly once I've finished with your instructions.

Thanks!

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Demingy

1) Yes, I made sure that was unchecked from last time.
2) The template for both devices is {title} - {authors} ({id})
and use sub directories is checked (the only other item checked is Use metadata cache)

I'll email you the debug log(s) shortly once I've finished with your instructions.

Thanks!

That template is for all authors. You had used this one to get the first author only.

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

My problem was for books that have multiple authors - I had author as part of the folder name and as part of the book name. I changed it to use the first author name only. I think I used this in the template - {authors:list_item(0,&)}

[Demingy]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

That template is for all authors. You had used this one to get the first author only.

I actually just changed the Calibre file saving template, not the template for the devices. Didn't realize that until this happened again.

[chaley]

I found the problem. It is a years-old bug in calibre.

If:

• the save template generates a path longer than allowed, and
• the last segment of the path (the part after the last slash) contains a period such as an author with name "A. N. Author", and
• the text after the last period was also longer than allowed

then calibre generates a file name consisting of a single letter. In your case the generated path is very long, has only one segment (no slashes) and (I assume) there is an author early in the list with a dot in his/her name, triggering the bug.

I have submitted a fix to Kovid. The fix might require some discussion, but I expect it to be in the next calibre release.

Thanks again for your help.

[Demingy]

Thank you so much Chaley, I really appreciate all the time you took to look into this. I know most people would have just said "well, you've got this way to work around it" or "this is a Calibre problem so talk to them" (and you would have been absolutely justified saying this), so I truly do appreciate the fact that you took this further.

I wish I could edit the title of this thread to make it more helpful for others who may run into this problem.

[chaley]

I can edit the title. What do you want it to be?

And thanks for the kind words.

[Demingy]

Originally Posted by chaley

I can edit the title. What do you want it to be?

And thanks for the kind words.

Hmmm, I think it should be "Filename changed to one letter when importing from Calibre" or something similar since that was the real problem. Thanks!

[chaley]

The problem described in post 21 is fixed in calibre 2.14.

[Demingy]

You guys rock! No problems this time when I added the "problem books" to CC, I got the full filename just like the rest of my books.