Library Maintenance - Missing Books

[theducks]

Originally Posted by iwaddo77

OK, so perhaps I understand that an empty book might be useful, however, I still would have expected that a library maintenance tool would allow me to remove all references from the database to entries (I mean folders and files, or do I mean books and formats) that no longer exist.

If there is a reason for there to be empty books then perhaps there ought to be options in the library maintenance routines.

Regards

Type into the search bar: formats:false
Enter
Select all
Tap Delete

[speakingtohe]

Easiest fix is to restore the backup you probably made when you decided to go the OS way.

However the books you had deleted should easily be found by sorting on the date added column. If you had deleted books from a date range, select all books in that date range and either try to view them or run the bulk convert to see if these are the ones you want to delete. (you should get errors if they are missing or have them come up in the viewer or conversion log
if they are not.)

Then remove them. If you do it all at one go or in batches of 25-100 still should not take long.

Helen

[theducks]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Easiest fix is to restore the backup you probably made when you decided to go the OS way.

However the books you had deleted should easily be found by sorting on the date added column. If you had deleted books from a date range, select all books in that date range and either try to view them or run the bulk convert to see if these are the ones you want to delete. (you should get errors if they are missing or have them come up in the viewer or conversion log
if they are not.)

Then remove them. If you do it all at one go or in batches of 25-100 still should not take long.

Helen

He does not need to do that.
The above will remove ' All Empty books' (Assuming that the OP does not use that feature )

[speakingtohe]

Ahh it didn't work for me but that was two weeks ago with 8.33

Library checked ok but some books had no format and the format was listed in the book details window. And I did the library check both parts 3 times.
Did not show with formats:false

I did not modify the database or file structure or manually touch anything, just copied the database to USB drive and then to new laptop, and there they were-gone. Original library was still fine. Has happened to me before using both calibre copy and windows 7 copy. Now I archive and unarchive which is more reliable in only my experience.

Helen

[theducks]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Ahh it didn't work for me but that was two weeks ago with 8.33

Library checked ok but some books had no format and the format was listed in the book details window. And I did the library check both parts 3 times.
Did not show with formats:false

I did not modify the database or file structure or manually touch anything, just copied the database to USB drive and then to new laptop, and there they were-gone. Original library was still fine. Has happened to me before using both calibre copy and windows 7 copy. Now I archive and unarchive which is more reliable in only my experience.

Helen

Formats:false queries the DB
If the DB thinks you have a format, it is not on the list.
Library maintenance (fix), can correct the entry (to nil), then the search will return a true empty book.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Ahh it didn't work for me but that was two weeks ago with 8.33

Library checked ok but some books had no format and the format was listed in the book details window. And I did the library check both parts 3 times.
Did not show with formats:false

While investigating this issue I found that check library would not mark formats as missing if the folder that should contain the formats was missing. This was fixed in check library was in 0.8.45.

[iwaddo77]

formats:false only works if you have preceded it with a Library Check, to give Calibre chance work out you have entries in your database with no formats on disc. formats:false used immediately after deleting the folders from disc does not work.

Whilst I understand how empty books work and their purpose and that in each case when you add an empty book Calibre creates a folder into which you may subsequently put formats. This makes sense.

I still maintain that a novice user like myself would not unreasonably expect that Library Check and Maintenance routines would identify database entries with no corresponding folders or formats on disc and give the user chance to update the problem.

Please note that I am not complaining, I love Calibre and this small niggle only came about because I noticed a problem and decided to share it and now I know the workarounds it will not be a problem going forward.

Regards

Ian

[chaley]

Originally Posted by iwaddo77

I still maintain that a novice user like myself would not unreasonably expect that Library Check and Maintenance routines would identify database entries with no corresponding folders or formats on disc and give the user chance to update the problem.

Given that calibre specifically supports creating books without formats (Add -> Add empty books), this isn't going to happen, at least by me.

There is no reliable way to distinguish between user-created empty books and books made empty by manipulations of the file system. When libraries are moved between case-sensitive and case-insensitive systems, formats may appear to be gone but are really still there. Deleting the book from the database would be the wrong thing to do, because after that the user has no way to fix the problems. No restore from backup, no change name of folders to match case, nothing. If you want some confirmation of the support difficulties that might arise, do a search for threads from people who are upset that when they told calibre to delete a library, it actually deleted it.

Given the fix I did last week to remove format information from the database in the case where folders are gone, the user has the information needed to take the steps that s/he thinks necessary. I am not going to add features that make it easier to do unintended damage. Of course, someone else might choose to add such features and submit them to Kovid.

[iwaddo77]

If all empty books that have been deliberately created have a corresponding folder on disc then a simple routine which compares the database to the disc and produces a report, showing database entries with no corresponding folder on disc which gives the option of updating the database to match the disc might be a very simple way forward.

I say simple, as I assume you would find this a simple routine to write based on your experience, for me it would be like trying to climb Everest :-)

Maybe this could be an additional option within Library Maintenance called 'database to disc check'

Regards

Ian

[theducks]

Calibre goes to great pains to prevent foot shooting.
This happened after users did a really some really poor practice, like store the Library on the Desktop, and later cleaned the desktop ,. They howled that it was Calibres fault.



If you delete a (alternate) Library from the Create/Switch menu, you now have to use the OS to remove the folder and books..
The list of user induced problems is endless. Removing Empty books, that many use, other than by the Library view will not happen.

[iwaddo77]

I agree that it is not possible to cover everything the user can do but a disc to database check would be a simply thing to do.

[soultech76]

I did the same thing( removed book formats outside of calibre). what I'm doing now is I deleted the database in the library folder and re-adding the library. I'll let you know if it works...that is if you haven't already figured out a way.

edit- btw I have almost 6k books so its painfully time consuming. Well, I just gotta wait a long time. Its still going, but I just did it 4 min ago.


follow up- Everything worked out fine. Even found a few duplicates I had in the process. It did take til now to re-add it all though.