Sort by "Date" does not equal import date?

[gandoe]

In comparing my Amazon digital purchases with my Calibre library, I discovered that the Calibre field "Date", which I believe should be the import date, does not match (even close to within the same year) the actual purchase date, for the majority of ebooks I obtained from Amazon.

Since I ONLY read epubs after converting, cleaning and importing into Calibre and then sync'd via CC to my Android tablet, I pretty confident that at least the month/year of Amazon purchase should match the month/year of Calibre import, for at least 99% of ebooks.

A quick forum search turned up this which seems directly related:
Calibre - displaying ONLY latest imported books?
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...+date+imported

So I'm assuming that the "Date" field should in fact be the import date.

Prior to actual reading the manual during my recent efforts to enhance my Calibre usage, I had my Calibre library on a NAS (since moved to "C")

Would that be enough to "tweak" the actual records? I would have expected a corrupted database file, not merely record errors, although I don't know enough about the backend to have an informed opinion.

I did run a Calibre Library Maintenance Check, and had no errors.

Any other ideas about what might have caused the error? How should I ensure future data is accurate?

Should I just export the entire db and then import into a new file structure?

Thanks in advance for your help
Ed

[BetterRed]

Are you sure you didn't do something to change it.

Whilst the Date column is set to current date & time when a Book record is added (imported), it's not immutable, i.e it can be changed by the user. FX: I clear it when I add a book, and set it to current date & time when I finish reading the book.

I doubt having your library on a NAS for a while would have caused this anomaly.

BR

[theducks]

Date is the DATE you created the record (line item). It could have been an Empty Book at that time and you latter UPDATED the entry with content. ( I use Empty Books as a Wish//Watch list)

[gandoe]

Thank you both for your suggestions

BetterRed - thanks for the tip. I have not systematically used the Date for some other purpose, nor do I believe I performed any global search and replace for that field. While I might have inadvertently changed one or two records, this problem occurs across most of the records I could check easily (comparing Amazon digital purchase date).


theducks - I have not used Calibre intensively enough to adopt a systematic approach such as yours; but its a very intriguing idea for combining the "Have" list with the "Want" list!

Over the past 10 years, I've used Calibre as an "out of the box" simple solution to "managing" my library, although I use that term loosely. I've done little other than import, convert to epub, and then sync with various devices. It is only now, after my purchase of an e-reader, that I am more actively designing and using Calibre as a library manager. One of the first tasks has been to clean the existing library: aligning titles, author names, sort orders, assigning source (where I got it), adding other custom meta data, etc. That is how I found this particular discrepancy.

A curious anomaly; I'm willing to accept that it's user error, and just wanted to be sure the library didn't need to be rebuilt before moving ahead with more changes.

Thanks again

[theducks]

You have been using Calibre about as long as I have. I started about a month before my EZReader pocket Pro was delivered.
I already had all the BAEN CD's and I wanted to be ready

If ??? You have not discovered these plugins...RUSH to the Preferences Icon: right click: Get Plugins.

#1-10) Quality check Plugin . I put the -10 because you will USE so many of the items that this does to FIND issues with your (stock) metadata.
Then the FIX section can flip those Authors the have comma issues . Reformat initials to your rules
#11 Find Duplicates
#12 Manage Series Allows re indexing and consistent name for the selected group
#13-17{now it get harder to choose}: Search the Internet (for details not in found metadata), Import List , Count Pages, Resize cover (I don't keep HD size covers), Generate Custom Cover (lots more options than the MDE one offers),
A bunch that are device specific (Kindle, Kobo)
and the one that is NOT here (See Alf for that one )

[gandoe]

Thanks for all the great tips....had #11 and #12, but none of the others. A great help!

So BAEN looks more and more promising. I'm looking to replace my physical collections of sci-fi / fantasy with digital collections. The Jules Verne suggestions were excellent, and exactly in line with my goals. Any idea if BAEN or others have published as well done versions of:
Asimov series: Foundation, Robot, glactic empire
Herbert: Dune
Tolkein: all
?

Thanks!

PS: BetterRed; you know, I can probably just go back and edit those dates to match the actual Amazon download date. Thanks for that info!

Ed

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by gandoe

BetterRed - thanks for the tip. I have not systematically used the Date for some other purpose, nor do I believe I performed any global search and replace for that field. While I might have inadvertently changed one or two records, this problem occurs across most of the records I could check easily (comparing Amazon digital purchase date).

Are the incorrect dates randomly distributed, if many books have the same incorrect Date (sort on Date to eyeball check), that would suggest something might have happened in Bulk metadata edit - such as

Before Apply or OK (the value in Date is from the last book in the selected list)



After Apply or OK



Whooska - all Dates set the same

BR

[gandoe]

BetterRed -

Thanks for the suggestion. I did check the Date entries, to see if that was what happened; but that's not the case. But still, thanks for your help!