Every book in my database now appears twice!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by couponprof

. . .

It is backed up on Carbonite as well.

. . .

Which is probably the underlying source of your problems:

Carbonite Online Backup installs a client software program on the user’s computer that operates continuously in the background. This client software automatically seeks out new and changed files on the user’s computer and backs them up using incremental backup.

BR

[pdurrant]

From the description, Carbonite shouldn't cause any problems - it's only reading from the Calibre library for backup, not doing a synchronise.

I wonder if you set up auto-import into the calibre Library, and have it pointing to some folder that contains most/all of your books. I think it's definitely worth checking the auto-import settings before trying to tidy the library.

Preferences/Adding book/Automatic adding

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Karellen

And you might want to disable, or set to zero, the caltrash bin, otherwise every book you delete will end up cached for a period of time. (in case you change your mind and really wanted to keep the book.)

Right-click on the "Remove Books" icon, and select "Restore recently deleted" and set "Permantly Delete after" to zero.

All those duplicate folders, were they all added into Calibre on the same day? or maybe a small range of dates? (In the edit metadata screen check "Date:")
If they were you could do a search like date:=2024-02-07 for 7 Feb 2024, then simply delete all the listed items.

I disagree with disabling the calibre trash. You might want to set it to less then 2 weeks, but don't disable it. It's very useful if you incorrectly delete something or change your mind.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I disagree with disabling the calibre trash. You might want to set it to less then 2 weeks, but don't disable it. It's very useful if you incorrectly delete something or change your mind.

Sure, whatever the user wants to do, but wanted to make him aware of the caltrash cache. Deleting say 1,000 books in one hit, may make him wonder why his pc is working overtime as everything is shuffled into caltrash.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

From the description, Carbonite shouldn't cause any problems - it's only reading from the Calibre library for backup, not doing a synchronise.

See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...5&postcount=35

Bit old, but that user seems to have had issues with restore from Carbonite. There are other threads where Carbonite gets a mention, one mentions it creating hidden folders.

BR

[JSWolf]

Maybe the problem is Carbonite. The thing to do IMHO is to not let Carbonite near the active library. Use FreeFileSync to sync the library to another directory that Carbonite has access to. Then if it really is Carbonite messing things up, the FFS will show you there is something wrong with the destination library.