Tags not stored when saving to disk?

[Phssthpok]

I recently re-imported a book I'd saved to disk after accidentally deleting my library copy, and noticed that it had no tags. A quick experiment (save book tagged "Fantasy" to disk and then re-importing) shows that tags are not being saved to disk. Other metadata (e.g rating) is being saved and restored correctly.

What spell do I need to incant to ensure that the saved book includes tag data along with the other metadata?

[theducks]

I created a Tag 'Testing' (not previously use anywhere in MY library)
Then I used Save To Disk and saved the book to a temp folder
I then open said book with the e-book viewer from Explorer
I the clicked the 'show book metadata' button (color spokes)
There it is:

Published:	Mar 2018
Tags:	Testing

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

I recently re-imported a book I'd saved to disk after accidentally deleting my library copy, and noticed that it had no tags. A quick experiment (save book tagged "Fantasy" to disk and then re-importing) shows that tags are not being saved to disk. Other metadata (e.g rating) is being saved and restored correctly.

What spell do I need to incant to ensure that the saved book includes tag data along with the other metadata?

BR

[theducks]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Attachment 167506

BR

That was set (or mostly Defaulted) so long ago, I had forgotten.
I know I turned OFF the separate cover and OPF, but I never would think of not updating metadata inside

[BetterRed]

Yes, by default its on.

I put what I want in a 'jacket' which I shift to the back of the book, strip out non-dc items with Modify, and then use the Sigil MDE to remove subjects, description and identifiers.

Less is better, least is best

BR

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Attachment 167506

BR

I already have "Update metadata in saved copies" checked, and ratings are saved, but tags are not.

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

I already have "Update metadata in saved copies" checked, and ratings are saved, but tags are not.

OK, further investigation reveals that it's not a save-to-disk problem but an "add books" problem.

Looking at the OPF using the editor, the tags appear as a series of <dc:subject> entries. These are also present in the saved copy, but they are stripped out when the book is re-imported.

Under "Adding Books" I have "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" checked. I can't find anything else that might cause the <dc:subject> entries to be stripped out.

Any ideas?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

OK, further investigation reveals that it's not a save-to-disk problem but an "add books" problem.

Looking at the OPF using the editor, the tags appear as a series of <dc:subject> entries. These are also present in the saved copy, but they are stripped out when the book is re-imported.

Under "Adding Books" I have "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" checked. I can't find anything else that might cause the <dc:subject> entries to be stripped out.

Any ideas?

Open the epub you're importing in the editor and look in the content.opf, do you see any dc:subject entries? If you do then I have no idea what the problem is.

But, maybe you are referring to a loose metadata.opf; if so, try adding it as a book, then add the epub to the the newly created book by dropping onto its details panel, then remove the OPF format file with the Remove Books->Remove specific format tool.

BR

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Open the epub you're importing in the editor and look in the content.opf, do you see any dc:subject entries? If you do then I have no idea what the problem is.

Yes I do. They're there in the saved file and they disappear when the file is imported. There is no saved metadata.opf; I'm just dragging & dropping a saved epub file into the Calibre library window.

I assume there's a tweak or something somewhere that's set wrongly, and I've looked and tried a couple of likely-looking ones (e.g. add_new_book_tags_when_importing_books) but nothing I've tried makes any difference.

[ilovejedd]

If you're on Windows try a brand new install of "Calibre Portable" and add the exported ebook to that. Don't change any settings on the portable install.

If the tags show up in portable, then there's something weird going on with your normal install.

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

If you're on Windows try a brand new install of "Calibre Portable" and add the exported ebook to that. Don't change any settings on the portable install.

If the tags show up in portable, then there's something weird going on with your normal install.

Aha. Tried this, and it seems there's something weird going on with my normal install.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Aha. Tried this, and it seems there's something weird going on with my normal install.

In that case, time to compare settings and tweaks on normal and portable (you can't run both at the same time so maybe take some screenshots?).

Are you using tag mapper? Any plugins installed on the normal install that might interfere with default behavior?

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Aha. Tried this, and it seems there's something weird going on with my normal install.

I finally found the problem. In Adding Books -> Adding Actions, there's a set of "Rules to filter tags read from metadata". In there, there is a rule "Remove the tag, if it matches pattern .*". I have no idea how it got there, and I cannot delete it -- clicking "Remove the rule" removes it, but if I click OK and then open it again, it's still there. In the end I changed it to "Remove the tag, if it does not match pattern .*" and all now seems to be well.

Can't understand how the rule got there, or why its unremovable...

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

I finally found the problem. In Adding Books -> Adding Actions, there's a set of "Rules to filter tags read from metadata". In there, there is a rule "Remove the tag, if it matches pattern .*". I have no idea how it got there, and I cannot delete it -- clicking "Remove the rule" removes it, but if I click OK and then open it again, it's still there. In the end I changed it to "Remove the tag, if it does not match pattern .*" and all now seems to be well.

Can't understand how the rule got there, or why its unremovable...

Did you click the Apply button in the Adding Books window after you removed offending rule or did you just hit Esc - I've been caught with that before. -- If an Apply button gets 'activated' maybe it should blink.

BR

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Did you click the Apply button in the Adding Books window after you removed offending rule or did you just hit Esc - I've been caught with that before. -- If an Apply button gets 'activated' maybe it should blink.

BR

You're right. What I did was remove the rule, click OK, then immediately open the dialog again to check (before clicking either Apply or Discard) and the rule was still there. What is needed is OK, then Apply, then go back to Adding Books, then Adding Actions, then re-open the dialog, and only then do you get to see that the rule has been deleted. Clicking OK basically just closes the dialog and activates the Apply button. A bit counter-intuitive IMHO.