Merge Formats library into Metadata library? Or, Add Format in bulk?

[Sabardeyn]

Is there any way to take the book formats from Library1 and add them to the existing metadata in Library2? Please note I'm trying not to add a bunch of records that I need to delete or merge afterwards.

1. If you do an Add Books (any type) with automerge, newly available formats are not merged into the existing book records of Library2.
2. If you Highlight multiple book records and try to Add Formats, a warning appears stating you will add all the files to each and every book record.
3. Attempting to Copy to Library with automerge does not merge new formats into the existing book records of Library2.
4. Using the standard OS copy file method moves the file into calibre's file structure. However, both Check Library and Restore Database fail to recognize the addition of these files. (Yes, I know it's not recommended, but I've got back-ups.)

So can anyone offer assistance on how I can merge Library1's files into Library2's metadata without lots of manual effort?

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Sabardeyn

Is there any way to take the book formats from Library1 and add them to the existing metadata in Library2? Please note I'm trying not to add a bunch of records that I need to delete or merge afterwards.

So can anyone offer assistance on how I can merge Library1's files into Library2's metadata without lots of manual effort?

Hm. If neither Add Books nor Copy to Library see the incoming books as duplicates (which is what you want, in this case), you're pretty much out of luck, I think. So you'd have to make sure that they do.

Perhaps a Save to Disk with a fitting save template, followed by an Add Books with a matching template in 'Configure metadata from file name' would work? IIRC, author and title must match for a book to be considered a duplicate when adding/copying.

New formats get added to the existing record, duplicate formats get handled as configured under Adding Books -> Automerge.

[Sabardeyn]

The Template idea might work, but it's not really feasible for me.

I would have to spend a lot of time and effort to correct all the titles and authors in the book records in Library1 to make them exactly match Library2. This effort is immediately wasted once the libraries are merged as it makes no sense to keep two sloppy, partial libraries rather than one neat library.

It's more effective to spend my time adding the file formats to the cleaner Library. Especially since Library2's metadata needs to be cleaned up as well. Library2 is better, but by no means perfect.

I guess I was hoping someone could show me how to get a miracle performed on demand.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Sabardeyn

I guess I was hoping someone could show me how to get a miracle performed on demand.

Yeah, pretty much . If the metadata can't be trusted, all bets are off. GIGO and all that...

[Sabardeyn]

Yeah I know. Doesn't mean that one of the fine geniuses here had not come up with a complete or partial solution to the problem. After all, calibre can perform pretty much everything else anyone could want.

So why not a mix of cybertelepathy and artificial intelligence?

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Sabardeyn

So why not a mix of cybertelepathy and artificial intelligence?

. Well, if the metadata is totally borked, perhaps this plugin could help after merging? That's as close as you're going to get...