Thinking About a kindle - But What Of My Existing Library

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by abookreader

I'm not sure what you mean buy upload time. It takes very little time to upload or download an eBook.

People with ADSL (which is by far the most common form of broadband internet in the UK) have very slow upload speeds. Eg, I have 7Mbit/sec download, but only 384kbit/sec upload speeds. That makes uploading GB of data rather impractical.

[GeckoFriend]

Originally Posted by ghostyjack

SugarSync does 5Gb for free.

I notice you have referral links for both Dropbox and SugarSync. Have you actually used both? Do you have any comparisons to offer?

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by abookreader

My system
1. Retailer site (not depended upon but there unless they go away)
2. My laptop computer. Every book gets disinfected and put into Calibre the moment I buy it.
3. My Kindle. Most books get loaded on when I buy them and I never really delete.
4. Dropbox. My Calibre library resides within the Dropbox folder and it happens automatically.
5. Mozy.com - periodic updates. This will change when my subscription runs out because their prices have gone way up since I purchased the initial subscription. It works well but I don't recommend them anymore due to price. I have unlimited storage on there right now and through sometime in 2013. This also backs up our movies and photos.

6. I also have a 2TB external hard drive but it is primarily used to store movies and photos. I occasionally copy my Calibre library onto it.

This is basically what I do. My Calibre Library is in my Dropbox folder. That way it updates automatically and I have access to it from all my computers. I also backup my Calibre Library to an external hard drive and a USB drive any time I add new books.

Carol

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by GeckoFriend

Can you suggest a good cloud service that offers 5 GB free?

I believe you get 5GB from Box.net, I have 50GB with them because i downloaded their Android app.
Amazon will also give you 5GB, I believe.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by sadievan

This is basically what I do. My Calibre Library is in my Dropbox folder. That way it updates automatically and I have access to it from all my computers. I also backup my Calibre Library to an external hard drive and a USB drive any time I add new books.

Carol

I hadn't thought about doing it that way. With Dropbox you can't upload a directory only individual files (Web interface). Can you redirect Calibre to a new location for the library if you move it to a Dropbox folder? Seems like such a no-brainer.

[abookreader]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I hadn't thought about doing it that way. With Dropbox you can't upload a directory only individual files (Web interface). Can you redirect Calibre to a new location for the library if you move it to a Dropbox folder? Seems like such a no-brainer.

Yep - click on the Library Icon (all the books). You'll see an option to move your library to a new location. Mine is in the My Dropbox/Public Folder.

Then whenever a book gets added to Calibre, Dropbox automatically backs it up. I have quite a bit of space built up in Dropbox via referrals and I think they just doubled to to 500mb per referral for everybody.

[Kumabjorn]

Nice, I'll be sure to do that in a day or two.

[GeckoFriend]

Originally Posted by abookreader

Yep - click on the Library Icon (all the books). You'll see an option to move your library to a new location. Mine is in the My Dropbox/Public Folder.

Then whenever a book gets added to Calibre, Dropbox automatically backs it up. I have quite a bit of space built up in Dropbox via referrals and I think they just doubled to to 500mb per referral for everybody.

This is what I also do but unfortunately I'm running out of space. I'm leaning toward switching to SugarSync and would apprecaite any feedback users can offer.

[ghostyjack]

Originally Posted by GeckoFriend

I notice you have referral links for both Dropbox and SugarSync. Have you actually used both? Do you have any comparisons to offer?

Yes, I use them all the time.

Dropbox is a very simple system, installing it puts a folder on your harddrive with a shortcut on your desktop (you do with windows, not sure about the other OS's). Anything you put in there is synced online and across however many other computers you have, this is all done in the background for you, it's dead easy. Also it has an Android and IOS app that allows you to access your files directly on your phone or tablet as well, you can also set this app to be able to automatically upload every photo and video you take on said phone or tablet. The latest desktop app also will import (if you wish it to) any photos or videos it detects when you connect your phone or tablet to the PC.

Sugarsync is basically the same (including Android and IOS apps), but with a bit more allowance to begin with.

Both are very stable and pretty quick to use and take all the hassle out of syncing your data across different devices.

Also if you have an android phone or tablet, there are apps that can take advantage of Dropbox's and Sugarsync's API to incorporate access to your cloud storage from within it, therefore reducing the number of apps on your device. I use ES File Explorer and have set it up to access my Dropbox, Sugarsync and Box accounts directly, this makes them appear as just another folder on my phone and tablet.

My setup is to use Sugarsync for storing my photo's and video's I've made on my phone and have Dropbox for my books, therefore I can have access to all my content on the move without filling up my phone or tablet and also not needing to sync with my PC when I get home.

The choice is yours, but (to me) both Dropbox and Sugarsync are very good (and very similar now), and will provide a good extra level of safety to loss of data. They are especially helpfull for the constant traveler as you get significant storage for documents that you pretty much have an extra storage card's worth of space now all for free.

[GeckoFriend]

Originally Posted by ghostyjack

Yes, I use them all the time..........
The choice is yours, but (to me) both Dropbox and Sugarsync are very good (and very similar now), and will provide a good extra level of safety to loss of data. They are especially helpfull for the constant traveler as you get significant storage for documents that you pretty much have an extra storage card's worth of space now all for free.

Thank you so much for the detailed reply; I really appreciate it. My needs are much simpler than yours; just backup for my calibre library. I think I'll be switching to SugarSync and if so I'll use your referral link. I can then use Dropbox for my much smaller other backup needs.

Just to add before anyone responds, I also backup on flash drives and soon on an external hard drive.

[ghostyjack]

Originally Posted by GeckoFriend

Thank you so much for the detailed reply; I really appreciate it. My needs are much simpler than yours; just backup for my calibre library. I think I'll be switching to SugarSync and if so I'll use your referral link. I can then use Dropbox for my much smaller other backup needs.

Just to add before anyone responds, I also backup on flash drives and soon on an external hard drive.

SugarSync is a good choice thanks to its large starting amount, don't forget to complete its getting started section on the website after you've registered as this will net you up to 750Mb extra for free.

BTW, thanks for the Karma.

Edit: If you also use it on a phone or tablet, completing the Introduction Game of the mobile app will get you a further 250Mb as well.

[polly]

I use both Dropbox and Sugarsync. The nice thing about Sugarsync is that you don't have to move the data into a particular folder. Simply right click on the folder or file, go to Sugarsync in the drop down menu and then "add folder to Sugarsync." For me, that meant that I didn't need to move my Calibre folder into the Dropbox folder.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by HarryT

People with ADSL (which is by far the most common form of broadband internet in the UK) have very slow upload speeds. Eg, I have 7Mbit/sec download, but only 384kbit/sec upload speeds. That makes uploading GB of data rather impractical.

I use CrashPlan (cloud backup) as my offsite backup. I have 530 GB backed up; with my 20Mb down, 2 Mb up, it took about a month to get it all uploaded. But it was trivial to do - it's smart about uploading and just does it when you're not using the computer. It then does incremental backups whenever the computer is free; this, obviously, isn't really an issue.

(They also give you the option of mailing in a HD to get started.)

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The benefit of cloud storage is "universal access". Sure, you can carry 5GB (or 30GB, for that matter) on an SD card or a USB stick, but that's of no benefit to you if you're unable to transfer it to the reading device. Bear in mind that many readers do not have SD card slots, and many of those that do are not good at dealing with multi-GB of data.

Exactly. I have a copy of my books on each computer I have installed dropbox on, and can access dropbox from my kindle fire. My Calibre library is set up for dropbox (now that they have increased free storage). I have 4000 books, and it is about 7 gbs. That is because most are epub, and I convert to kindle, and keep both. So it is actually 8000! If you use dropbox for calibre, you will automatically back up your books to the cloud and every other computer with dropbox installed, as soon as you import the book into Calibre.

Just be carefull - you can mess up the metadata.db file if you don't log out on one computer before you start working on another. Then you will not be able to see any of your books. Just take a deep breath, and find the old file. All will be fine.

Oh, and it took 48 hours to upload my books. It went a little faster once I forced everyone else off the network, and actually powered down our main computer. Luckily, my husband wasn't home!

[Jazzy_Jeffaz]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Who gives a damn? If anyone wants to see what books I'm reading they're very welcome to see.

Honestly, I think one can take paranoia a little too far. You have to accept, I think, that professional companies who offer cloud services will be professional when it comes to data protection.

I agree. I mean if you are that paranoid you may as well just stay off the internet.