[Mac - OSX] Help! I accidentally deleted my library!

[TashPerth]

I have a Mac, with 12,000 books stored in Calibre.

I have spent months editing my library, covers and notes, and then accidentally deleted my library. That Remove books icon is too close the Edit Metadata.

How can i get my library back the way i had it?

Seems the files that moved to my Trash haven't got my changes saved. Is there any way to bring back the files the way that i had them?

[BetterRed]

@TashPerth - from backup is the usual way - do you have a recent backup?

The book files in trash won't have had there embedded metadata updated unless you had run Polish or Embed Metadata, but the updated metadata will be in the metadata db file and the individual metadata.opf files. If you can see a metadata.db file and a lot of metadata.opf files in Trash then the library might be recoverable

I am not too familiar with Mac. On Windows when calibre removes books and puts them in the Recycle Bin (Trash) they can't be restored in the normal way. I suggest you 'leave' things alone until a Macxpert comes along.

I'll change the thread title to indicate you're on a Mac

Stay calm

BR

[kovidgoyal]

Are you saying you selected 12,000 books and then clicked remove books and then clicked ok on the confirmation prompt? Or are you saying your calibre library is blank?

[theducks]

OP
do absolutely nothing(with that 'trash' until the experts come up with a plan. Any, even tiny, changes could kill your chances of recovery

wouldn't metadata.opf ALSO be in the trash??


OP
DO NOT TRY this until Kovid supplies the Knowledgeable Answer

While Restoring all those files from Trash does not FIX the DB, it does FIX the structure and backup Metadata.

Shouldn't 'Recover', then be able to fix the DB?

[TashPerth]

Ok. I moved all the files out of the trash and into a new folder on my desktop. I think I went back to calibre and selected 'add books' and the second or third answer from the drop down menu (each sub-folder is a book). This seems to have gotten back my books with saved metadata. I will do a back up ASAP.

Thanks all.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by TashPerth

Ok. I moved all the files out of the trash and into a new folder on my desktop. I think I went back to calibre and selected 'add books' and the second or third answer from the drop down menu (each sub-folder is a book). This seems to have gotten back my books with saved metadata. I will do a back up ASAP.

Thanks all.

I would restore ALL confirmations, then NEVER hide a Delete confirmation again.

Preferences: Behavior: click Reset all disabled confirmation Dialogs (on right), just above Use Internal Viewer

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Are you saying you selected 12,000 books and then clicked remove books and then clicked ok on the confirmation prompt?

If the OP had previously unchecked the 'Show this warning again' option on the confirmation message then there would be no confirmation message

IMO that option should be removed from the Remove books confirmation message. There are occasions when we all need a nanny/guardian-angel, removing books is one of them

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by TashPerth

That Remove books icon is too close the Edit Metadata.

You can move it within the toolbar with Preferences/Toolbars, the green arrows on the right. Or even remove it from the main tool bar, I moved it out of harms way into the book list context (right click) menu.

Originally Posted by TashPerth

Ok. I moved all the files out of the trash and into a new folder on my desktop. I think I went back to calibre and selected 'add books' and the second or third answer from the drop down menu (each sub-folder is a book). This seems to have gotten back my books with saved metadata. I will do a back up ASAP.

Good choice - by doing what you did, the metadata would have been taken from the metadata.opf files. That's their raison d'être, to recover 'lost' metadata.

BR