Merging Books is Losing Data

john_es · 12-19-2010, 09:10 PM

A) I have a book that is in epub and mobi.
B) I have another identical book entry that has epub and prc.

I am seeing strange things with the new version of Calibre, where when I merge one into the other, I see one of two things:

If I merge B into A:

- It works OK, and I see epub mobi and prc
- I end up with the epub and mobi, and B) is gone

Unfortunately, this is happening better than 50% of the time. Now I am back to exporting to a new folder, deleting, and re-importing. A PITA, but at least I am not losing data.

Hopefully someone else can try to confirm...

John

john_es · 12-19-2010, 10:08 PM

Wanted to mention that this is on XP, SP3.

DoctorOhh · 12-19-2010, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_es

A) I have a book that is in epub and mobi.
B) I have another identical book entry that has epub and prc.

I am seeing strange things with the new version of Calibre, where when I merge one into the other, I see one of two things:

If I merge B into A:

- It works OK, and I see epub mobi and prc
- I end up with the epub and mobi, and B) is gone

I'm confused. You say it works OK then you say you just get epub and mobi, I suspect there were words written in your brain that didn't make it to the post.

Manichean · 12-20-2010, 04:00 AM

Apart from what dwanthny already said, when merging a book into another one that already has a certain format, the format of the book being merged is discarded in favor of the one in the master copy. In your example, you'd find the ePub from entry A, and the only thing being merged would be the PRC from entry B.

john_es · 12-20-2010, 07:11 AM

Yeah, I didn't say it as well as I could have, for sure.

Bottom lin eis that half the time I merge, I end up with just epub and mobi (no formats from the 2nd book are moved at all), and the 2nd book is deleted.

theducks · 12-20-2010, 07:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_es

Yeah, I didn't say it as well as I could have, for sure.

Bottom lin eis that half the time I merge, I end up with just epub and mobi (no formats from the 2nd book are moved at all), and the 2nd book is deleted.

Are you using the Menu (which has Merge options) or just typing M ?

Starson17 · 12-20-2010, 10:55 AM

This sounds like:

1) a permissions issue, or
2) the missing format isn't really there.

The merge code has three options. In one, nothing is deleted, and in the other two, you should always get all of the formats in all of the selected records. The format list is provided by other code in Calibre, and that list of formats is used in several places, so if the list of formats was wonky, I think you'd see other wonky behavior.

I'd look closely at the records before attempting to merge. I'd also run a database integrity check. Finally, I'd see if I could reproduce this failure on a copy of the records (made using ALT-M safe merge).

I can't think of anything in the merge code that could be broken this way.

12-19-2010, 09:10 PM	#1
john_es Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Nook	Merging Books is Losing Data A) I have a book that is in epub and mobi. B) I have another identical book entry that has epub and prc. I am seeing strange things with the new version of Calibre, where when I merge one into the other, I see one of two things: If I merge B into A: - It works OK, and I see epub mobi and prc - I end up with the epub and mobi, and B) is gone Unfortunately, this is happening better than 50% of the time. Now I am back to exporting to a new folder, deleting, and re-importing. A PITA, but at least I am not losing data. Hopefully someone else can try to confirm... John

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12-19-2010, 10:08 PM	#2
john_es Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Nook	Wanted to mention that this is on XP, SP3.

12-20-2010, 04:00 AM	#4
Manichean Wizard Posts: 3,130 Karma: 91256 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Germany Device: Cybook Gen3	Apart from what dwanthny already said, when merging a book into another one that already has a certain format, the format of the book being merged is discarded in favor of the one in the master copy. In your example, you'd find the ePub from entry A, and the only thing being merged would be the PRC from entry B.

12-20-2010, 07:11 AM	#5
john_es Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Nook	Yeah, I didn't say it as well as I could have, for sure. Bottom lin eis that half the time I merge, I end up with just epub and mobi (no formats from the 2nd book are moved at all), and the 2nd book is deleted.

12-20-2010, 10:55 AM	#7
Starson17 Wizard Posts: 4,004 Karma: 177841 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: WinMo: IPAQ; Android: HTC HD2, Archos 7o; Java:Gravity T	This sounds like: 1) a permissions issue, or 2) the missing format isn't really there. The merge code has three options. In one, nothing is deleted, and in the other two, you should always get all of the formats in all of the selected records. The format list is provided by other code in Calibre, and that list of formats is used in several places, so if the list of formats was wonky, I think you'd see other wonky behavior. I'd look closely at the records before attempting to merge. I'd also run a database integrity check. Finally, I'd see if I could reproduce this failure on a copy of the records (made using ALT-M safe merge). I can't think of anything in the merge code that could be broken this way.

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