[Android] Calibre Companion Noob, Need Help Making Calibre Library Show Up on Shelf

[bookiebabe]

Ok, so to boil 3 days of frustration down to a simple question... I'm desperate for help to make my Calibre Companion show my Calibre library (currently linked through my Dropbox cloud, so it will display books in Calibre library as series, title or author, but each are broken down into A-Z folders, no way to view all) on a digital bookshelf.

I'm also using Moon+Reader Pro, and have FB Reader Premium.

Don't really care which series of programs I need to use... my goal is just to see my entire Calibre Library on a 'my shelf' viewable as book covers, so that I can 'browse' my library visually.

I'm not at all tech inclined, but my guy is, and neither of us have been able to come up with a solution. I'm grateful to be able to access my Calibre library via Dropbox cloud, but I KNOW there has to be a way to view it visually on a shelf, or people wouldn't be so thrilled with the program. lol

I've got a huge library, so 'send to device' or 'send to card' in Calibre really isn't a solution for me. Plus, I've had no luck seeing books on a shelf even trying that method.

Does anyone have an idiot-proof method of seeing Calibre library on a device shelf?

Thanks so much for any help... I'm officially frazzled.

rachel

[chaley]

I confess to being confused, so what I say here may be of no help.

I am not sure what you mean by "shelf". Do you mean CC's cover view, like this?


Or do you mean CC's list view, like this?


If you are seeing the list view and want the cover view then you must tap the "cover view" icon on the action bar (the 4 small squares marked in the second image).

From what you say I suspect that you are using the Cloud Connection with Dropbox. The Cloud Connection supports a hierarchical list view of books. In this connection the only thing you can do with a book is download it to CC's library so it will appear in the two views shown above. You download by long-pressing on a book, by tapping to get book details then choosing "Download", or by selecting the "Download all" menu option to get all the books in a category. Once you have downloaded as many books as you wish then you "Disconnect", which will take you to CC's library manager, where you can use the cover or list views. You can use the grouping drawer to select subsets of books. And you can launch a reader app.

If you want to browse Dropbox using a cover view then CC isn't your app. The reason: CC is designed to be offline as much as possible so it can be used when roaming or somewhere that has no service at all. It goes online only when you ask, using one of the connection types, in order to put books into its offline library. While online it uses a "tree" view, which seems to be what you are describing. Other apps stay online permanently and can show dropbox libraries in a cover view. If you bought the wrong app then you can ask for a refund.

As for having a "huge" library: many people keep their entire library in CC, where the "entire library" is thousands of books. The largest library we have seen is some 35,000 books. Many people have libraries of around 10,000 books.

[bookiebabe]

lol, Wow, 35K books would keep me busy for a looong, long time. I'm more like average size, but way too many for me to handle individually, clicking 'on device' to download each book.

Yes, you've nailed it... the "Cover View" similar to Calibre's cover view is exactly my goal. In Moon+Reader Pro and FB Reader Premium that same mode of display seems to be called 'Shelf' or 'My Shelf', from what I can see.

I'd be perfectly thrilled I could figure out how to get any of those programs to display my whole Calibre library in 'Cover View', somehow. Its fine with me if any of those programs can only accomplish the Cover View of my Calibre library when connected via Wifi.... I work from home, so am always here.

I'm going to play with your instructions later, but I suspect that my problem is exactly what you've guessed... I'm trying to see 'Cover View' in CC when connected, which isn't doable, apparently. I'll definitely keep the app, as I do like to manage chunks of 5 to 50 books regularly, so hitting the individual 'on device' button to download each, so it can display cover view when disconnected, isn't a problem.

Thank you SO much for your help. Now at least I know that CC might be a great handling app, but isn't my ideal browsing app, and can move toward a Moon+Reader or FB Reader solution from here. So far, I haven't been able to get either Moon+Reader Pro or FB Reader Premium to display the my Dropbox/Calibre library in Cover View, either. I seem to only be able to manage a file tree, but I'll keep looking for a solution.

Rachel

[chaley]

Originally Posted by bookiebabe

I'd be perfectly thrilled I could figure out how to get any of those programs to display my whole Calibre library in 'Cover View', somehow. Its fine with me if any of those programs can only accomplish the Cover View of my Calibre library when connected via Wifi.... I work from home, so am always here.

I'm going to play with your instructions later, but I suspect that my problem is exactly what you've guessed... I'm trying to see 'Cover View' in CC when connected, which isn't doable, apparently. I'll definitely keep the app, as I do like to manage chunks of 5 to 50 books regularly, so hitting the individual 'on device' button to download each, so it can display cover view when disconnected, isn't a problem.

Put your entire library into CC. You can do that by connecting to the cloud (Dropbox), going to "Latest", then selecting Download All. It will run at around 3 seconds per book. Once you have done that you have all your books in CC so you can use its cover view and grouping.

Alternatively, do it author-by-author using download all while looking at an author.

Thank you SO much for your help. Now at least I know that CC might be a great handling app, but isn't my ideal browsing app, and can move toward a Moon+Reader or FB Reader solution from here. So far, I haven't been able to get either Moon+Reader Pro or FB Reader Premium to display the my Dropbox/Calibre library in Cover View, either. I seem to only be able to manage a file tree, but I'll keep looking for a solution.

Rachel

My guess is that the apps CalibreBox and Calibre Cloud would be more to your liking. Calibre Box is newer and still maintained. Calibre Cloud hasn't been updated in 2 years. Both have a free version to try. Neither comes close to CC's searching & grouping capabilities and neither works well offline, but that might not matter to you.

[bookiebabe]

Ok, sir, that is seriously helpful. I looked at Calibre Cloud years ago, but haven't recently.. and Calibre Box is totally new to me. I'm sort of obsessed with organizing my collection in Calibre, so I handle all the grouping/series etc within that program. As long as I can search by series, author, or title, I've pretty much got what I need in terms of organization on my tablet.

... and you've just solved my problem! lol I had no idea there was a 'download all' option, somehow escaped my notice. That will work a treat, and be perfect for my needs. Will definitely check out Calibre box and cloud again, as well.

Thanks so much. I've been ripping my hair out for 4 days over this. Whew.

Happy Reading!

Rachel