Identifier field buggered

[kevincjp]

When attempting to update the identifier field in the metadata of a single book, I somehow added an incorrect isbn number to ALL of the books in my library. The result is that when looking at the 'ISBN' column on the main page, I see two isbn's joined as one <for ex 97800624530069780307496195> When opening up the individual 'edit metadata' window only the correct number 9780307496195 is visible but he errant isbn number is nowhere to be found. The errant ISBN (9780062453006) precedes all of the books (about 6000) in the library.

So, to sum up, I would like to delete the errant number for all of the mistaken occurrences.

If any idea available, help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[theducks]

BACKUP your Library before attempting

Bulk mode Search & Replace (S&R) might be the solution

Select all (or a few to test) bad books: Tap the 'E' (edit metadata Bulk mode):
Switch to the S&R tab: Regular Expression mode, replace field

Search field: Identifiers (form adjusts for context)
Identifier type: isbn: Search for: 9780062453006\s*(\d+)
Replace with: \1

Validate that the test samples (right) look sane

The theory (plan )
Looks for ISBN starting with 9780062453006 (optional space) and captures the remaining digits.
The replace sets the ISBN to those captured

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by theducks

BACKUP your Library before attempting

And, if you to it regularly you could just restore it if/when something like this happens again, which it probably won't -- because you've have a backup

Once you have the first copy, a daily incremental update typically takes a couple of minutes.

BR