Calibre dropping 2nd name when there are multiple authors

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

Sorry... How do I upload a screenshot? I assumed all I need to do is click the "Image" icon above where I type my text, but that's asking me for a URL. It's not giving me the option to browse my desktop and select the image. Do I have to use TinyPic or something like that? (I used TinyPic in the past, but it's been years so I'd need someone to tell me what to do.)

Thanks in advance.

In Advanced mode click the paperclip icon, after you've uploaded the images, you can click it again and you get a list of them, if tou don't embed them in your post they'll be attached - either is fine by us.

BR

[A Lurker]

Here is my first screen shot. It's a sample of mobi files created by Calibre from 2014 through 2018. (Specifically, I'd imported Word docs and epubs, edited their metadata, and converted them into these mobi files).

The file names were auto-generated by Calibre. As you'll see, Calibre added both authors' names to the file. (You may noticed that they are Last-Name-Comma-First. There's a reason for that, but I don't want to get side-tracked on that issue right now.)

However, any ebook I create now has only the first author's name.

PLEASE NOTE: I'm providing this screen shot only to prove that I am not crazy (many people suggested I was wrong when I said Calibre would add both authors' names to the file). Ultimately, I don't care about file names. All I care about is the metadata. I mentioned the change in file naming convention merely only because I thought it may be related to missing metadata I'm experiencing. It's possible they have nothing to do with each other.

With that in mind, my next post will be the important one because it will provide screen shots of the missing metadata. So if people want to ignore this post, that's fine by me.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

With that in mind, my next post will be the important one because it will provide screen shots of the missing metadata. So if people want to ignore this post, that's fine by me.

Will it answer the question is asked in post 30, if it doesn't the I'm out of here.

BR

[A Lurker]

SCREENSHOT 1:

I imported a Word document, manually edited the metadata, and converted it to a mobi file. Here is the screenshot of the Calibre GUI as it appears. Everything looks fine -- both the "Author(s)" field and the "Author sort" have two names. You'd assume the file metadata is correct.

However, I test this with the following steps:

1.) I find the .mobi file in my Calibre Library. I right-click to copy it. Then I save the copy to my desktop.

2.) Then I add the desktop copy to my Calibre Library as though it's a new book. Note that this is the file as-created by Calibre. No further processing has occurred. I've not exported it to a device or directory. So all the metadata should be there. If any is missing, then Calibre didn't include the metadata when it created the new file...

...which you can see in SCREENSHOT 2 turns out to be the case.

Both authors' names are in the "Author(s)" field, but only the first author's name is in the "Author sort" field.

And if I load this book to a Kindle, only the first author's name will appear.

Perhaps in theory the missing second name from the "Author sort" field shouldn't matter... In terms of the information my Kindle displays, it should be relying on the "Author(s)" field, which has both names... The missing name in the sort field should, in theory, simply mean, at most that second name isn't used for sorting purposes... but I can assure you that my Kindle stopped displaying the second author's name and the same time the second name began disappearing from the "Author sort" field.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Will it answer the question is asked in post 30, if it doesn't the I'm out of here.

BR

Sorry, I've been concentrating on the screenshots and explanations.

I use Calibre's convert function to create the mobi file. If there are two different types of mobi files, I have no idea which type Calibre is creating. I assume whatever Calibre's default type is.

With respect to converting them to .azw3, I have tried that in the past. The problem is, when I email them to my Kindle Amazon won't recognize them. (Which is odd since it's their format.) The file gets bounced back with a message telling me it will only accept .mobi, PDF, Word documents and a couple other.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by stumped

Old link. But it is the best explanation I can find for how multi author metadata is handled in calibre, and how it should be set up
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=78973

Thanks. I'll give this a read through...

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by Bookstooge

Under the Adding Books menu (near the bottom, "control the adding of books"), under the "Reading Metadata" tab, do you have the box "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" checked or unchecked?

Yes, that box is checked.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As far back as I have used calibre. you needed to use the '&' or 'and' to separate multiple author names in the Author field. Anything else gives "interesting" results in the Author Sort field.

Yes, that is what I've always used and it always worked. But recently it stopped.

I thought that maybe my copy of Calibre was corrupt or maybe there's a bug in the latest version, so I uninstalled and and reinstalled an older version (4.0), but that didn't help.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by stumped

Ok thanks, so " create a book", in your terminology, means write a word document , docx? Save and add to calibre. Then convert to mobi
After the add to calibre but before the convert to mobi, what exactly do you see in the author and author sort metadata fields which calibre displays. I assume you set those 2 fields manually rather than expect calibre to extract them from docx

Yes, exactly -- I write a Word doc, add it to Calibre, then convert it to mobi.

Before I add the Word doc to Calibre, I typically go into the Word doc's properties and edit those. As a result, when I import it into Calibre the metadata for the title and author auto-populates.

However, if I've not edited the Word doc's properties, when I import it into Calibre the title and author fields are blank. Then I go in and manually add the information.

The screen shots I provided above show the title and author fields manually entered by me.

[theducks]

1 Author name per FOLDER inside the Library (has been that way since 2011, when I started understanding how it worked)

Note: If your Author entry looks has commas used any other way than Ln, Fn
then calibre treats that a a SINGLE name (comma is part of a name. & is a name separator )

[jhowell]

I did some testing and was able to duplicate some of what A Lurker is seeing with importing MOBI books into calibre.

I created two books in MOBI format by conversion in calibre with with two authors each. In one I chose the option to "Use author sort as author" and for the other I did not. I used a MOBI file dumper to verify that both author names were in both MOBI files. The first file has the names stored in "last, first" format and the second had the names stored in "first last" format. This is as expected.

I then copied the files from the calibre library and re-added them as new books. Both books imported with both author names shown in "first last" format in the author field (first1 last1 & first2 last2).

However the author sort field came out different in the imported books. The book that had names stored in "first last" format showed both names in the author sort field (last1, first1 & last2, first2). But the other book, with names stored internally in "last, first" format, showed only the first author in the author sort field (last1, first1) marked in red. So there does appear to be something going wrong with author sort during the calibre import of that book.


EDIT: Public domain book that demonstrates the problem attached.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

Sorry, I've been concentrating on the screenshots and explanations.

I use Calibre's convert function to create the mobi file. If there are two different types of mobi files, I have no idea which type Calibre is creating. I assume whatever Calibre's default type is.

With respect to converting them to .azw3, I have tried that in the past. The problem is, when I email them to my Kindle Amazon won't recognize them. (Which is odd since it's their format.) The file gets bounced back with a message telling me it will only accept .mobi, PDF, Word documents and a couple other.

Still didn't answer my question - never mind Ψ³

BR

[kovidgoyal]

@jhowell: This should take care of the author_sort issue: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...a396a74577603c

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Still didn't answer my question - never mind Ψ³

BR

Sorry, I missed your question about which model Kindle I'm using. I'm using both an Oasis and the Kindle app for iOS.

If you're referring to the question about "Mobidata MOBIs" versus "dual MOBI's", I have no idea. Calibre's convert function offers only one option for mobi, generically titled "mobi". It doesn't specify if it's creating a "Mobidata" or "dual", so I have no idea which type of mobi file is out-putted.

If you're referring to your question about trying .azw3 files, I did answer that. Kindle Cloud rejects those as unsupported file types (which I realize is odd).

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by jhowell

However the author sort field came out different in the imported books. The book that had names stored in "first last" format showed both names in the author sort field (last1, first1 & last2, first2). But the other book, with names stored internally in "last, first" format, showed only the first author in the author sort field (last1, first1) marked in red. So there does appear to be something going wrong with author sort during the calibre import of that book.

Thanks for taking the time to replicate it.

I just read your reply in the other thread. If I understand you correctly, a Kindle only recognizes the metadata in the "Author(s)" field and doesn't register anything I enter into the "Author sort" field (unless I check the option in advance settings to use it).

That makes sense (and I think it answers my question in the other thread), but it confuses me more on this issue.

The problem I described (and you replicated) results in a .mobi file with the correct metadata (i.e. both authors' names) in the "Author(s)" field, but deletes the second author's name in the "Author sort" field.

If I'm not using the "Author sort" field (i.e. I've not checked the box in advance settings to use it), then it shouldn't matter that it's missing metadata. My Kindle shouldn't be looking to that field.

Moreover, if the Kindle is looking to the "Author(s)" field, which does retain both authors's names, then why aren't both of them displaying on my Kindle?

In fact, my Kindle displaying only the first author name is what led me to believe it must be looking at the "Author sort" field rather than the "Author(s)" field.