Importing existing Calibre + database?

jphphotography · 10-08-2010, 05:57 PM

On my main PC I've recently moved my Calibre library to my Dropbox folder, I also have Calibre installed at my folk's place and would like to do the same thing. Since my dropbox folder is synced between computers I have my full database ready to go but I don't know how to import the library. I don't want to "break" my existing library by doing the wrong thing and having Calibre somehow overwrite the database file.

Any suggestions? Am I overthinking this and it's as simple as "import from directory"?

jphphotography · 10-08-2010, 06:09 PM

Nevermind, I backed up the folder and just threw caution to the wind

Importing the folder worked.

chaley · 10-09-2010, 03:35 AM

A small word of caution: sharing libraries on dropbox like this opens the possibility of the dreaded 'conflict' problem. If by chance you and your parents open calibre at the same time, then the metadata.db file will likely change differently in both places. Dropbox signals this (very discretely) as a 'conflict', and starts creating files ending in .1, .2 etc. The result will be confusion, because the two locations won't be using the same metadata database. Books could disappear, metadata changes won't be visible, etc.

I do something similar with dropbox, but with another step to avoid the conflict problem, and also to avoid someone else making changes to my library. My master copy of my library is not shared by dropbox. From time to time I use a sync program to copy the library to a dropbox-shared folder, and off it goes. If I get a conflict problem (hasn't happened yet because I update at weird times), I just rebuild my master and tell dropbox to remove the .1/.2 etc conflicts.

The dropbox copy is also where I run calibre2opds, embedding my library web site in it. My server (running in a data center on a VPS) is a dropbox client, so it gets the library updates, including the calibre2opds files. Voila -- my library on the web, without having to run calibre-server or open my home network.

10-08-2010, 05:57 PM	#1
jphphotography Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 27246 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Saskatoon SK, Canada Device: Kindle 3 6" 3G + wifi, Sony PRS-300, iTouch 4G, Galaxy S Vibrant	Importing existing Calibre + database? On my main PC I've recently moved my Calibre library to my Dropbox folder, I also have Calibre installed at my folk's place and would like to do the same thing. Since my dropbox folder is synced between computers I have my full database ready to go but I don't know how to import the library. I don't want to "break" my existing library by doing the wrong thing and having Calibre somehow overwrite the database file. Any suggestions? Am I overthinking this and it's as simple as "import from directory"?

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10-08-2010, 06:09 PM	#2
jphphotography Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 27246 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Saskatoon SK, Canada Device: Kindle 3 6" 3G + wifi, Sony PRS-300, iTouch 4G, Galaxy S Vibrant	Nevermind, I backed up the folder and just threw caution to the wind Importing the folder worked.

10-09-2010, 03:35 AM	#3
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,741 Karma: 6997045 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	A small word of caution: sharing libraries on dropbox like this opens the possibility of the dreaded 'conflict' problem. If by chance you and your parents open calibre at the same time, then the metadata.db file will likely change differently in both places. Dropbox signals this (very discretely) as a 'conflict', and starts creating files ending in .1, .2 etc. The result will be confusion, because the two locations won't be using the same metadata database. Books could disappear, metadata changes won't be visible, etc. I do something similar with dropbox, but with another step to avoid the conflict problem, and also to avoid someone else making changes to my library. My master copy of my library is not shared by dropbox. From time to time I use a sync program to copy the library to a dropbox-shared folder, and off it goes. If I get a conflict problem (hasn't happened yet because I update at weird times), I just rebuild my master and tell dropbox to remove the .1/.2 etc conflicts. The dropbox copy is also where I run calibre2opds, embedding my library web site in it. My server (running in a data center on a VPS) is a dropbox client, so it gets the library updates, including the calibre2opds files. Voila -- my library on the web, without having to run calibre-server or open my home network.

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