I'll Ask Again

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

I have been totally unable to match any book that I have purchased from Amazon that is currently residing in my Calibre library no matter how I type in the search. In fact it often won't even show up the book when it shows every other possible book with that criteria.

I checked to confirm that the device is configured, and that the plugins all recognize it.

However, I have noticed that the books Amazon delivers no longer have the titles as they used to be. I don't know if this makes a difference, but here is an example of what the device shows when I look in the folders

Sweep of the Blade

E:\documents\Downloads\Items01\Sweep of the Blade (Innkeeper Chronicles Book 4)_B07T9257DJ.kfx

It's like any book that is a .kfx format won't match to Calibre. Do I need to have the .kfx plugin installed?

Could you go back and answer my question? I mean, I know the books aren't matching. What we need to know is what is happening and what you are actually doing. In detail.

As to the format, you don't need any format in the library to match the book. I add books with no formats for books that I borrow from the library that appear directly on my Kobo devices. That way I can track what I have read without actually having the book permanently.

Or, have I completely misunderstood this. Is the issue that the KFX books aren't appearing in the device list? That could explain things. But, that doesn't sound like the issue from what you have said. And that is why I ask questions and hope for detailed answers.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

It's like any book that is a .kfx format won't match to Calibre. Do I need to have the .kfx plugin installed?

Calibre has the ability to read metadata from KFX files on Kindle devices. That is built-in, without any added plugins.

Originally Posted by Rellwood

However, I have noticed that the books Amazon delivers no longer have the titles as they used to be. I don't know if this makes a difference, but here is an example of what the device shows when I look in the folders

Sweep of the Blade

E:\documents\Downloads\Items01\Sweep of the Blade (Innkeeper Chronicles Book 4)_B07T9257DJ.kfx

For that book you should see in the Device view a title of "Sweep of the Blade (Innkeeper Chronicles Book 4)". If that is not the same as what you have for that book in your calibre library then it won't be matched automatically. For example, if you have the series set separately and the title as only "Sweep of the Blade" it won't match.

Originally Posted by Rellwood

I have been totally unable to match any book that I have purchased from Amazon that is currently residing in my Calibre library no matter how I type in the search. In fact it often won't even show up the book when it shows every other possible book with that criteria.

From your other comments in this thread I assume that you are referring to what happens when you use "Match book to library". In that case a search dialog comes up that lets you enter a search string to find the book within your calibre library. By default the title of the book to be matched will be filled in here.

I believe you are stating that you can change the string to something that should match your calibre library, such as "Sweep of the Blade", and it is not showing the book in your library as a search result. If that is the case then something is failing in searching within your library. (If I am mistaken and you mean that something else is happening let me know.)

I suggest two things that you can try, after ejecting the device.

1) In the library view use the search bar to enter exactly the same search string that fails to find the book when using the Match books dialog. Whether or not the book comes up what way might give a clue to what is happening.

2) Use the Library maintenance / Check library function to see whether something is wrong with your calibre library.

[Rellwood]

It doesn't work.

Also, it seems that books in Device View may show up with a check mark indicating that they are in the libary, but when I click on them to "match" up - so the book shows up in Device View and not just the blank cover and title, many, many times it won't find a match. Even though it shows as being matched, I can't click on it and manually match it up.

I did notice that SOME books by Amazon will match up, but ONLY if they don't have a series. It seems that nothing I can do to manually type in anything that would possibly cause a match, even typing in "THE" will only net me a few choices, but not the book I am looking for.

I have never had this problem. I wish I knew what causes it and why because I am certain this is only affecting me.

[Rellwood]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Could you go back and answer my question? I mean, I know the books aren't matching. What we need to know is what is happening and what you are actually doing. In detail.

As to the format, you don't need any format in the library to match the book. I add books with no formats for books that I borrow from the library that appear directly on my Kobo devices. That way I can track what I have read without actually having the book permanently.

Or, have I completely misunderstood this. Is the issue that the KFX books aren't appearing in the device list? That could explain things. But, that doesn't sound like the issue from what you have said. And that is why I ask questions and hope for detailed answers.

Sorry. I just now saw this.


What am I doing exactly.

1. 1.Plugging in my device.
2. Waiting for the Device to update, books to list.
3. Clicking on Device View
4. Looking at the list of books
5. Clicking on a book that isn't listed in the library (no green check)
6. Clicking "Match to Library"
7. Clicking "Ok"
8. *no match* - *no books listed to match*
9. Shortening the title so that the series isn't listed
10. Click "OK"
11. *no match* - *no books listed as possible matches* - *blank*
12. typing in the Author Name
13. Click "OK"
14. *6 books by that author, but not the one I want*
15. Groan in frustration.
16. Update Cached metadata on device
17. open "Configure Device"
18. clear out "template to save books"
19. restart Calibre
20. Load books
    repeat

Note: Books that have already matched to the libary often will not match up manually.
Also, books from Amazon that have EXACT title and author MAY match, but never if they need to be retyped.

If a book can be clicked on and have a match show up in the first attempt, then fine, but if I have to retype it then it won't match. Only books purchased outside of Amazon and sent to my Kindle seem to match. Also, books that have a green check mark indicating a match in the libary will not manually match up if I want to have them show up in the device view.

Meaning: A book has a green checkmark indicating it is in the libary. However, in Device View it is shown as a blank book, maybe the name or some metadata, but until I "match this book to the libary" it won't show anything else. I am unable to "match this book to the libary" even if there is a green checkmark.

LAST THING:

Does having Calibre run in two different instances (4.7 32 and 4.23 64) for the same libary make a difference? I looked at the Calibre Metadata or Drive Metadata files on my device, and made sure that the same Calibre version was the one I was trying to match up in my libary.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Sorry. I just now saw this.


What am I doing exactly.

1. 1.Plugging in my device.
2. Waiting for the Device to update, books to list.
3. Clicking on Device View
4. Looking at the list of books
5. Clicking on a book that isn't listed in the library (no green check)
6. Clicking "Match to Library"
7. Clicking "Ok"
8. *no match* - *no books listed to match*
9. Shortening the title so that the series isn't listed
10. Click "OK"
11. *no match* - *no books listed as possible matches* - *blank*
12. typing in the Author Name
13. Click "OK"
14. *6 books by that author, but not the one I want*
15. Groan in frustration.
16. Update Cached metadata on device
17. open "Configure Device"
18. clear out "template to save books"
19. restart Calibre
20. Load books
    repeat

I'm assuming that in the above 'Click "OK"' is a typo. I hope you mean 'Click "Search"' as that is what I need to do here to get the list of candidates to match. Then I select the book I want and press OK.

Note: Books that have already matched to the libary often will not match up manually.
Also, books from Amazon that have EXACT title and author MAY match, but never if they need to be retyped.

If a book can be clicked on and have a match show up in the first attempt, then fine, but if I have to retype it then it won't match. Only books purchased outside of Amazon and sent to my Kindle seem to match. Also, books that have a green check mark indicating a match in the libary will not manually match up if I want to have them show up in the device view.

Meaning: A book has a green checkmark indicating it is in the libary. However, in Device View it is shown as a blank book, maybe the name or some metadata, but until I "match this book to the libary" it won't show anything else. I am unable to "match this book to the libary" even if there is a green checkmark.

LAST THING:

Does having Calibre run in two different instances (4.7 32 and 4.23 64) for the same libary make a difference? I looked at the Calibre Metadata or Drive Metadata files on my device, and made sure that the same Calibre version was the one I was trying to match up in my libary.

Very little of what you describe is what happens here. The search in the match books dialog works. Any time it doesn't find the book I want is because search wasn't correct, usually because the title wasn't actually what I was thinking of. And if want to change an existing match, I can do this in exactly the same way as for an unmatched book.

So, it looks like the search is broken. The search is the same from the search bar in library. You can use 'author:"=fred the author"'. And it follows the general search preferences. Have you changed these? These are on the "Searching" page of the preferences. Changing these will change how any search anywhere works. Turning on the case sensitive searching option will mean you need to get the case right. But, I suspect the change you have is to turn on the "Limit searched metadata" option and changed the list of columns for non-prefixed searches. If you have removed "title" from this option, it would explain most of what you have described. You can test this by taking what ever you searched for in the "Match books" dialog and try that search in the library. You should get the same results. Or, copying the title of the book in the library (copy to clipboard to prevent typos) and in the "Match books" dialog use 'titile:"=pasted book title"'

Of course, after typing all that, I thought of a simpler explanation. Are you using a virtual library? The search the match does is restricted to the current virtual library.

[Rellwood]

Thanks so much for looking into it. And yes, "ok" meant "search for books".

ALso, you hit it on the head! I had the search terms limited. I had two columns, the original file name and the comments listed as the columns to add to the search. No I understand why the books that came from Amazon (ie books with original titles like B00ZW35_EBOK) won't be found no matter what I typed, and books I purchased outside where their original file name is similar to the one in Calibre would show up.

This is also why I can't match up books when importing lists, this is also why typing titles or authors in the search bar wasn't working. It was so frustrating that when I would click "search" the little blue circle that indicated Calibre was actively searching wouldn't even show up. It used to feel as if Calibre was crossing its arms over it's chest sayin "NO" when I searched because I would click "search" and it would just be blank, not even attempting to look.

Now when I click "search" there is an actual attempt to look for the book - and I am getting the results the first time.

Such a relief for this.

Thanks so much!