Calibre Compatibility with Google Drive

[Icarus_2020]

Hello everyone,

this is my first post.

I read in the Calibre manual that Calibre is not compatible with Google Drive. I also read this forum post: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=205581

Since this article is seven years old I would like to ask if the information on it is current.

I had to switch from OneDrive to Google Drive due to the extra space Google Drive provides and I discovered this information afterwards.

Does anyone keep the Calibre Library in Google Drive? Any issues?

[theducks]

AFAIK Still current and *IF* they ever change, it would break all those current users. So don't expect that will ever BE compatible with Calibre's file names

(GD makes changes to file names and adds a (##). Both by themselves, would break Calibres ability to find the book again)

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Icarus_2020

Hello everyone,

this is my first post.

I read in the Calibre manual that Calibre is not compatible with Google Drive. I also read this forum post: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=205581

Since this article is seven years old I would like to ask if the information on it is current.

I had to switch from OneDrive to Google Drive due to the extra space Google Drive provides and I discovered this information afterwards.

Does anyone keep the Calibre Library in Google Drive? Any issues?

Keeping your working calibre library in any cloud storage is asking for problems. And Google Drive has not changed their versioning structure meaning it is even worse than most cloud storage suppliers who will accidentally damage your library -- Google will damage it on purpose.

Keep your library in local storage and back it up to cloud storage.

If you look through this forum, you will find quite a few examples of the "I used xxxxx cloud storage for years and now my library is corrupt! How do I fix it?" messages.

[Icarus_2020]

I see. Thank you both for your quick responses.

I was a bit reserved myself about onedrive but it proved itself 100% reliable. Provided that the "metadata.db" file was available locally and not stored in the only, everything has been fine. I am talking about a library 50GB big.

It is a shame that Microsoft doesn't provide a 2TB storage plan option.

[dmcritchie]

Originally Posted by theducks

AFAIK Still current and *IF* they ever change, it would break all those current users. So don't expect that will ever BE compatible with Calibre's file names

(GD makes changes to file names and adds a (##). Both by themselves, would break Calibres ability to find the book again)

I don't see how it can be true that GD changes the names of files, for two reasons: 1) if it did, then NO application could ever find the files that were stored on GD, since typically files are opened by filename. And 2), I have a "My Drive" folder on my Windows 10 PC that is mirrored (sync'd) to GD in the cloud (using GoogleDriveSetup.exe). Even if GD were to change the names of files under the hood in the cloud, they apparently do not change it in the My Drive folder on my PC. So applications can and do find them, including Calibre in the test I ran earlier today (which points to the library in my sync'd My Drive Windows 10 folder).

I'm not saying that bad stuff can't happen to files stored in the cloud. But file renaming does not appear to be one of them, even when using GD.

Dennis

[chaley]

Originally Posted by dmcritchie

I don't see how it can be true that GD changes the names of files, for two reasons: 1) if it did, then NO application could ever find the files that were stored on GD, since typically files are opened by filename. And 2), I have a "My Drive" folder on my Windows 10 PC that is mirrored (sync'd) to GD in the cloud (using GoogleDriveSetup.exe). Even if GD were to change the names of files under the hood in the cloud, they apparently do not change it in the My Drive folder on my PC.

Sorry, you are wrong. GD does change the name of files. Calibre puts a database id number enclosed in parentheses at the end of the file name. Under some mysterious conditions GD will interpret that number as a version number and change it. It has happened to me several times.

[dmcritchie]

Originally Posted by chaley

Sorry, you are wrong. GD does change the name of files. Calibre puts a database id number enclosed in parentheses at the end of the file name. Under some mysterious conditions GD will interpret that number as a version number and change it. It has happened to me several times.

Thanks for the explanation @chaley. I stand corrected. In 9/2016, GD implemented a new version control system that does not appear to depend on parenthetical suffixes. But now that I dig further, I still see reports after that time of mysterious "(1)" suffixes appearing (in non-Calibre contexts), possibly connected to multi-user conflict situations.

Oh well. I was hoping I could use GD because GD and Amazon Drive are the only 2 cloud services that offer a reasonably priced (in my view) upgrade to 100 GB for $20/year and $24/year respectively. Dropbox and OneDrive only offer TB-level upgrades. So maybe I'll take a look at Amazon Drive. Do you know of any problems w/r/t using it for Calibre library storage?

Thanks!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by dmcritchie

So maybe I'll take a look at Amazon Drive. Do you know of any problems w/r/t using it for Calibre library storage?

The only calibre user I personally know who used Amazon Drive dropped it after we spent a few "fun" hours recovering his library. He was successful using it for about 6 months before the crash. I suspect the issue was triggered by not pausing sync before opening calibre but he claimed that sync was stopped.

The good news was that between what we were able to recover from the remnants of his library and re-downloading the lost books from Amazon, Kobo, Google, etc., he didn't lose any of his books permanently.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by dmcritchie

So maybe I'll take a look at Amazon Drive. Do you know of any problems w/r/t using it for Calibre library storage?

I can't speak to Amazon Drive. However, using calibre on any network file system is strongly discouraged. See this FAQ entry.

YMMV. Some people have done it without problems. Unfortunately, many have had problems that can very much mess up your library. The safest is to put your library on a local file system then sync it to the network file system when calibre closes.

[JSWolf]

Use Free File Sync. You can sync your library to your cloud directory. But, that means you need to have twice the disc space for your library as your working library should never ever be in any directory cloud software is using.

[dmcritchie]

Originally Posted by chaley

However, using calibre on any network file system is strongly discouraged. See this FAQ entry. The safest is to put your library on a local file system then sync it to the network file system when calibre closes.

Thanks all for the helpful feedback. Upon reflection, I think that I am going to keep my library on my local disk (as recommended), and use the Calibre content server exclusively for remote access. For remote access outside of my home network, I previously set up a VPN server in my home network that affords me secure access to my home network from anywhere in the world. (I know I can just use port forwarding of 8080 and set up a username and password on the content server, but that is not all that secure in this day of proficient hacking. And a hack into Calibre potentially opens up my home network to intrusion as well. Hence the VPN server that I use for a number of other purposes.)

So if I need to access an ebook using Calibre Companion from a remote location, I would just run the VPN client on my phone or tablet, and then connect to the content server as I would within my home. This'll save me money too! :-)

Thanks to everyone for pointing me in the right direction.

Dennis