Copy just one format to another library?

[Ripplinger]

I decided to keep separate epub and mobi libraries to lessen syncing time and space to the cloud and my netbook since I really only read epubs, but I don't want to just delete the paid for mobi/azw files.

How I've been doing it is to copy the book to the other library, which copies both formats. Is there a way to copy just one format to another library? So I could copy just the mobi/azw file to the other library?

I guess I could do the copy process before I convert the Kindle format to epub, but for those books already converted, I was hoping there is a way to do it that I'm just missing.

[JimmyR]

You could copy the library or specific books and then select all, Remove books > Remove files of a specific format...

[Ripplinger]

That's what I ended up doing and then bulk removing a certain format from each library.

But I was still hoping for a way to transfer just one file type to another library.

[cybmole]

if the paid for modbi/azw3 were bought from amazon, then there will always be a copy of what you bought in your account/ on their servers, and you have unlimited re-download rights. so it should be safe to delete all your local copies if you need the space.

to get them back, even if you don't have an amazon reader device, jsut install kindle for PC or KIndle for MAc & download to that.

[Ripplinger]

Yes, I know they're always available to download from Amazon again, and I always have Kindle for PC on all my computers, but 1) I don't trust that there will never be glitches or they decide I no longer own the books; and 2) I'd hate to have to download almost 1000 ebooks in the event I should ever lose my mind and buy a Kindle . So I will always prefer to also keep my own copies available, especially since space isn't a problem for ebooks.

[cybmole]

that makes sense, so why not just keep everything as-is. A good syncing program will only take a few seconds to spot that nothing much has changed so your re-synching speed should be unaffected, and like you say - ebooks don't take much space ?

syncing: i use freeware freefilesync. When I re-synch my book or my mp3 collection it only needs a few seconds to deduce that 99% of files have not changed since the last sync. (the synchromagic shareware solution that I used to use was much slower at that ).

if you split your library into two, by format, then you will duplicate much of your metadata & thus using more space ?

as a test, I'll time running freefilesync for my calibre library, and synching to 2 backup locations: dropbox and to another external drive location. So, i launch the program - there is a a few seconds wait for the external drive to spin up then it counts up to ~28,000 items checked, and copies a few recent changes, all in ~30 secs. That's for a 2+ Gb calibre library which holds a mix of formats

[BetterRed]

what cybmole says

I synch my 2 data drives daily, totalling about 2.2TB of data. Logs indicate typically 1-2 minutes to Analyze a drive, and less than a minute to Synch a drive. I normally do it in my shutupShop script, so for me the time taken is zilch.

A disadvantage of format specific libraries is if you add a column or change some metadata on your EPUB library then you must/should/could do the same on your MOBI library.

BR

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by cybmole

...syncing: i use freeware freefilesync. When I re-synch my book or my mp3 collection it only needs a few seconds to deduce that 99% of files have not changed since the last sync. (the synchromagic shareware solution that I used to use was much slower at that )...

as a test, I'll time running freefilesync for my calibre library, and synching to 2 backup locations: dropbox and to another external drive location. So, i launch the program - there is a a few seconds wait for the external drive to spin up then it counts up to ~28,000 items checked, and copies a few recent changes, all in ~30 secs. That's for a 2+ Gb calibre library which holds a mix of formats

Oooo, thanks cybmole, freefilesync looks excellent, I'll look into it. Previous sync software I tried was slow and performance intensive.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by cybmole

that makes sense, so why not just keep everything as-is. A good syncing program will only take a few seconds to spot that nothing much has changed so your re-synching speed should be unaffected, and like you say - ebooks don't take much space ?

syncing: i use freeware freefilesync. When I re-synch my book or my mp3 collection it only needs a few seconds to deduce that 99% of files have not changed since the last sync. (the synchromagic shareware solution that I used to use was much slower at that ).

if you split your library into two, by format, then you will duplicate much of your metadata & thus using more space ?

as a test, I'll time running freefilesync for my calibre library, and synching to 2 backup locations: dropbox and to another external drive location. So, i launch the program - there is a a few seconds wait for the external drive to spin up then it counts up to ~28,000 items checked, and copies a few recent changes, all in ~30 secs. That's for a 2+ Gb calibre library which holds a mix of formats

I've been actually thinking about going back to having them all lumped together. The only time I'm concerned about the time and space is when syncing to my ditzy netbook, which I only use for travel and there space is definitely limited and a concern. So that's why I originally decided to split up the books. But it's starting to be a hassle in other ways, so the space saved on the netbook might end up taking a backseat to all else.

And another big endorsement for FreeFileSync, I've been using it for a long time now and I absolutely love it. I've tried probably most of the free syncing programs out there and FreeFileSync is just the best in every way possible... speed, ease of setting it up, able to set various tasks and then run them with Windows Task Scheduler if you choose, it's just superb. I can't recommended it enough to anyone looking for a file syncing program. I don't even think there's a better paid option out there.

[cybmole]

when I switched from kindle to sony reader, ages ago, I did what you are considering, moved all my mobi to a separate library.... a year or so on from that I realised I'd never once touched that library & decided to zap it.
So far, no regrets, and no plans to return to Kindles either