Uploading a Lot of books using Calibre Companion

[AlbertaCowboy]

Another shout out for MoonReader+.
I used to be an Aldiko fan, but the more I started reading on my Tab, the less impressed I was with its native import requirements. I found that it ate up too much of my storage. After I began using CC, I had MoonReader recommended to me as it works nicely in concert with CC.

[crane3]

I don't think that the original question was answered. However, I did read in the FAQ that one can copy the Calibre directory in entirety onto a sub-folder in the SD card & CC will find/use it; seems reasonable for mass copy for an initial setup.

However, also read the CC will then consider the directory as the "Calibre place". But I still wan to use Calibre on the PC to catalog the books, etc; will CC see the new books on the PC & then add the book to the SD version of the Calibre directory? IOW, once the Calibre directory has been copied onto the SD, can that become CC's directory also or will CC still have its own directory for books.

I will be finished updating Calibre shortly & want to get away from using Aldiko & its library; Aldiko is nice but will not store its library on an SD card.

There should be a FAQ on how to mass create(?) a CC library onto an SD card especially if it is the same format(?). Would love to just put the Calibre library onto the SD card via a card reader & then CC can just use that as the CC library as well.

Not sure I'm making sense............but getting about 500 books into the CC library looks to be time consuming(?) unless it is just time used in the wireless connection & I don't have to do manual manipulation for a initial setup.

Haven't gotten CC yet as haven't finished doing what needs to be done on the Calibre side; may now be a few days longer as read about Calibre "collections" on one of the FAQs.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by crane3

Not sure I'm making sense............but getting about 500 books into the CC library looks to be time consuming(?) unless it is just time used in the wireless connection & I don't have to do manual manipulation for a initial setup.

It's really not that time consuming. Using CC to connect to Calibre as a wireless device and selecting the books to send to the device are all you have to do. CC will transfer everything over for you without any other work on your part.

It's been a while, but I don't recall sending 500 books to take all that long. I had about 4,000 at the time and did them in batches of 500 and the entire process for all 4,000 books wasn't what I considered lengthy.


EDIT: I decided to test it out. Sending 500 books to an empty install of CC took me just over 9 minutes (including launching Calibre and turning on the wireless connection). In my case I specified that Calibre only send ePub as I have some books in multiple formats.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crane3

I don't think that the original question was answered. However, I did read in the FAQ that one can copy the Calibre directory in entirety onto a sub-folder in the SD card & CC will find/use it; seems reasonable for mass copy for an initial setup.

I would be interested in knowing where you read that. CC doesn't work that way.

However, also read the CC will then consider the directory as the "Calibre place". But I still wan to use Calibre on the PC to catalog the books, etc; will CC see the new books on the PC & then add the book to the SD version of the Calibre directory? IOW, once the Calibre directory has been copied onto the SD, can that become CC's directory also or will CC still have its own directory for books.

Again, CC doesn't work this way. CC cannot directly use a calibre library as the device library.

CC can treat a copy of a calibre library on an SD card as a "cloud" library and add books from that copy to its own library. Perhaps that is what you are referring to.

There should be a FAQ on how to mass create(?) a CC library onto an SD card especially if it is the same format(?). Would love to just put the Calibre library onto the SD card via a card reader & then CC can just use that as the CC library as well.

CC does not support dropping a bunch of books onto a device then declaring those books to be a CC library. You must add books to CC's library using one of CC's connection methods: wireless device, content server, or cloud. The steps:

• Wireless device: do as AnemicOak described. This is the best way because calibre then knows what books are on the device, making future connections much faster.
• Content server: add the books one author/tag/category at a time. This would be tedious.
• Cloud connection: go to "Newest" and then "Download all". At some point in the future you might need to connect as a wireless device in order to update book metadata.

Not sure I'm making sense............but getting about 500 books into the CC library looks to be time consuming(?) unless it is just time used in the wireless connection & I don't have to do manual manipulation for a initial setup.

Transfers using the wireless device usually take between 0.5 and 2 seconds per book. In AnemicOak's test the average was 1.8 seconds. Of course, the time required depends on the sizes of the books and the quality of the network.

Haven't gotten CC yet as haven't finished doing what needs to be done on the Calibre side; may now be a few days longer as read about Calibre "collections" on one of the FAQs.

Was this a CC FAQ? If so, which one?

[crane3]

The Calibre subdirectory FAQ:

I have a copy of a calibre library on an SD card. Can CC use it?

Yes. The CC Cloud Connection includes the ability to use calibre libraries stored on the device either in main memory or on an SD card. See CC Settings / Cloud Connection / Cloud Provider / Library on device or SD card.

More Details

For purposes of the "local library" connection, a "calibre library" is defined by the presence of the file "metadata.db", which is calibre's database. If you put that file in a directory on an SD card then CC will see it as a library. However, it won't be particularly useful library because none of the book covers or files are there. To make it useful, simply copy the calibre library directory on your PC to a sub-directory on the SD card. Don't put the calibre library in the topmost (root) directory; CC won't find it there. Don't pick and choose what you copy -- copy everything in the calibre library. When you are finished you should have a directory on the SD card containing a lot of author directories and the metadata.db. This directory is the one to use as the "calibre library on device or SD card".

=============================================

FAQ collections reference:

Grouping, sorting, and searching

ID #1036
Why does the sort menu disappear when I select User Collections (Sony-style collections)?

Collections are sorted by calibre, and Calibre Companion must respect that order. Although it would be possible to add yet another sort type to the list, we thought that the need would be too rare to compensate for the extra confusion about what it means.
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Don't know if the "collections" really mean collections the same way as done by Aldiko & Mantano. Haven't looked into it yet.

Guess will do the wifi thing for the initial load of CC onto my tablets.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crane3

The Calibre subdirectory FAQ:

I have a copy of a calibre library on an SD card. Can CC use it?

Yes. The CC Cloud Connection includes the ability to use calibre libraries stored on the device either in main memory or on an SD card. See CC Settings / Cloud Connection / Cloud Provider / Library on device or SD card.

Ahhh, that is in the Cloud Connection part of the FAQ, but it isn't clear from the text that it works only as a CC library source. I have changed the text to (I hope) make things clearer.

FAQ collections reference:
Grouping, sorting, and searching
ID #1036
Why does the sort menu disappear when I select User Collections (Sony-style collections)?

Collections are sorted by calibre, and Calibre Companion must respect that order. Although it would be possible to add yet another sort type to the list, we thought that the need would be too rare to compensate for the extra confusion about what it means.

I think I will remove that FAQ entry. Sony-style "collections" have been obsolete in CC for years. People shouldn't use them unless they have a very good reason.

Don't know if the "collections" really mean collections the same way as done by Aldiko & Mantano. Haven't looked into it yet.

With the exception of the now-deleted FAQ that you referred to, CC doesn't use the word "collections". The equivalent is the information in CC's grouping drawer, which is 100% controlled by calibre's metadata. If you put a tag on a book, that tag appears in the grouping drawer and can be tapped to select books with that tag. Same with authors, series, publishers, calibre custom columns, etc. The only thing you need to do is tell CC that you want to see some calibre column in CC's grouping drawer. The default (title, authors, series, tags, publishers, rating, read) may be enough.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by chaley

With the exception of the now-deleted FAQ that you referred to, CC doesn't use the word "collections". The equivalent is the information in CC's grouping drawer, which is 100% controlled by calibre's metadata. If you put a tag on a book, that tag appears in the grouping drawer and can be tapped to select books with that tag. Same with authors, series, publishers, calibre custom columns, etc. The only thing you need to do is tell CC that you want to see some calibre column in CC's grouping drawer. The default (title, authors, series, tags, publishers, rating, read) may be enough.

OK, have finished consolidating & found that I had left out some books on the Aldiko library for some dumb reason or other.

Was pondering whether to do the tagging after getting the books onto CC or do it on Calibre. Looks like will be doing some tagging & have it done in 2 or 3 days.

Have used Calibre for dis-infection of ebooks so far & haven't looked into what it can do. Aldiko & Mantano's method of adding books to a "collection" is quite simple & easy in that a list of known collections for one just to checkmark it (helps for misspelling also).

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by crane3

Was pondering whether to do the tagging after getting the books onto CC or do it on Calibre. Looks like will be doing some tagging & have it done in 2 or 3 days.

Use calibre to tag your books and when you connect CC to calibre as a wireless the device the books in CC will automatically have their tags updated.

Originally Posted by crane3

Aldiko & Mantano's method of adding books to a "collection" is quite simple & easy in that a list of known collections for one just to checkmark it (helps for misspelling also).

All metadata maintenance, tags, author, series, etc... is done via Calibre.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crane3

Was pondering whether to do the tagging after getting the books onto CC or do it on Calibre. Looks like will be doing some tagging & have it done in 2 or 3 days.

To reiterate what DoctorOhh said, you must tag in calibre. You cannot do it in CC.

I suggest you install the free demo version of CC. That way you can verify that CC works on your network (rarely it doesn't) and also see what CC does. You might save yourself some grief.

[crane3]

I had "tried" CC a long time ago but never used it & so uninstalled. My wifi is setup OK as I do connect with my tablets to download books from Calibre library to the Aldiko library/catalog.

The info to do all my ebooks changes in Calibre is very important to me as I most likely do something with CC a some point (might still do something stupid).

I'm at 143 of 528 now; not too bad going as 90% have been books from Manybooks/Gutenberg; had to redo the tags as don't want that much to use as "collections" as in if a tag says "fiction, mystery, humor, romance", I would just use "mystery".

Now back to retag...

[crane3]

I'm now "CC'ed"; hope I didn't mess thing up as somehow I had 3 Calibre jobs doing the same thing in sending all 527 boooks to CC; did a disconnect in the middle to stop the 2nd & 3rd jobs.

I do see a "problem" in that the PDF files go loaded in the memory instead of the external SD like the epub files. Is this supposed to happen? or a is it a bug & is there a way to move all the PDF files from the memory to the external SD.

And can the books reside in "/storage/external_SD/xxxx" instead of "/storage/external_SD/Android/Data/xxxxxx"???

And I thought that the "tag" was equal to "groups"? & so when CC got the books, it showed no grouping!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by crane3

I do see a "problem" in that the PDF files go loaded in the memory instead of the external SD like the epub files. Is this supposed to happen? or a is it a bug & is there a way to move all the PDF files from the memory to the external SD.

And can the books reside in "/storage/external_SD/xxxx" instead of "/storage/external_SD/Android/Data/xxxxxx"???

It would appear that you told CC to store Epubs on the SD card but did not do the same for PDFs. Check out this FAQ for more info.

Originally Posted by crane3

And I thought that the "tag" was equal to "groups"? & so when CC got the books, it showed no grouping!

By default there is no group selected. You have to open the grouping drawer and choose which item you wish to use to group your books, authors, tags, series, etc... See this FAQ for more info.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

It would appear that you told CC to store Epubs on the SD card but did not do the same for PDFs. Check out this FAQ for more info.

Thanks. Did finally find that CC has ability to have different formats stored at different places! I had just thought that doing it "once" did it all for everything. Think I should slow down & take a breath even when I see "daylight" to the finish.


By default there is no group selected. You have to open the grouping drawer and choose which item you wish to use to group your books, authors, tags, series, etc... See this FAQ for more info.

Ah, my misunderstanding of "groups". Even was not happy that the tags only displayed the 1st letter. After a couple of tries to have groups, I found that there was a box with a check mark to have only the 1st letter of the tag displayed; unchecked & now very happy to be able to use the tags as my "collection" types.

Will create a directory with a better & shorter name to store the books & see what happens. Shorter path names are easier find for backups, etc.

Will still be using Aldiko to get/read/return the library books tho. Also have "hidden" the MoonReader & Mantano apps since CC will let me select which reader I want to use.

So far, liking it very much as have gotten the reminder about the Calibre sending rather than CC getting from Calibre.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crane3

And can the books reside in "/storage/external_SD/xxxx" instead of "/storage/external_SD/Android/Data/xxxxxx"???

Not in CC V4 (what you have). CC V5 (still in beta test) supports putting the books anywhere on the SD card for Android 5 (Lollipop) and higher. Android 4.4 (Kitkat) will still have the limitation.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by chaley

Not in CC V4 (what you have). CC V5 (still in beta test) supports putting the books anywhere on the SD card for Android 5 (Lollipop) and higher. Android 4.4 (Kitkat) will still have the limitation.

Found that out after having made a directory with Total Commander & had to set permissions to allow TC to write to the SD card.

Won't nag about when the ver 5.x will be released...

Had something strange/good happen & don't why. I had a misspelling of a tag on Calibre & didnt' notice until I had unchecked the 1st alpha thing on CC. Went to Calibre to change the tag, reconnected then don't remember if I did anything, but CC got the misspelled tag name changed.

So, on stuff CC already has, when a connect is done, is there a "sync" of have the changes on C to get the change implemented on CC? I'm quite certain I didn't do a "send to device" on Calibre...

I'll be changing some file names on Calibre to go from single digit to double digit for vol numbers as in "1 to 01", etc so that the books will be listed in a good sequence.