What's the best file naming convention for CC?

[PatNY]

Specifically, is there any reason I should check "Use calibre file names?" in preferences which automatically adds the book number to the file name versus simply using the default and simple Title-Author?

The reason I ask is that I just discovered there is a lot of inconsistency in the file names among my 3 android devices -- and even within one device -- with maybe a third of the tiles just having the title-author while the rest had an added book number. This caused some failures when trying to sync bookmarks and reading positions between devices in Moon Reader. Some titles synced perfectly while others not at all.

So, I have to fix these inconsistencies on all 3 devices. But before I spend a lot of time doing it, I want to make sure I am not choosing the option which could lead to more problems in the future.

I am leaning toward the simple default title-author convention. The only potential pitfall I see to that is if there are two books with the same exact title-author, but I am pretty careful about keeping duplicate titles out of my main calibre library.

The main reason I am leaning toward taking out the book numbers from the file names is because sometimes I relocate magazine titles to different calibre libraries where they then get a new book number. In such cases, if I reimport a title into CC on one device, it would not sync in Moon Reader with the same title on another device that was imported when the title was in the previous calibre library. The two titles would have different book numbers.

Is there any potential pitfall I should know about before changing everything to just Title-Author?

--Pat

[theducks]

I used to use {id} within my template on my PEz (c2010)

If you Rebuild or use copy to Library x (now using x), those change .
When you send again (because of edit/updated metadata), every book that was on the device will be duplicated rather than overwritten

[chaley]

@PatNY: this is complicated. The "Use book ID as filename" option came about because apps like moon+ can sync reading position across devices, but only if the book file name is exactly the same. The book ID is guaranteed to be the same as long as the books come from the same library. Nothing else is.

When you send books using the wireless device you use the template defined there. If you pull a book over the content server, you get a form of "author - title" that isn't guaranteed to be the same as generated by the template, especially if the names are long. Checking the "Use calibre's file names" helps but does not guarantee the names will be identical because the content server might not be running using the same config as the calibre GUI. And to make matters worse, the new "cloud" connection can not respect that option in any event.

My recommendation: if consistency is important for some reason such as syncing then the only real solution is "Use book ID". The downside is that the file names are useless, but that doesn't bother me because I never see them.

[PatNY]

Hello ducks,

I'm not sure I understand your answer. I have never used a custom template for naming book files in calibre. I've always just stuck with the default. And I have no plans to change anything in calibre.

The question is whether there is any good reason in CC to check "Use calibre file names" or is the simple default of Title-Author perfectly fine for most uses -- including and most importantly for syncing bookmarks and reading positions in Moon Reader?

To fix the current inconsistencies I have, I plan to simply go into the directories in android where the book files are kept and just delete either all the books with book numbers or all those without. Then tell CC to delete books with missing files. Then I would simply reimport the books I needed back into CC making sure the proper option is selected.

--Pat

[theducks]

Pat
If you have never used {id} in a template, you will not have any of the issues I ran into

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by chaley

@PatNY: this is complicated. The "Use book ID as filename" option came about because apps like moon+ can sync reading position across devices, but only if the book file name is exactly the same. The book ID is guaranteed to be the same as long as the books come from the same library. Nothing else is.

When you send books using the wireless device you use the template defined there. If you pull a book over the content server, you get a form of "author - title" that isn't guaranteed to be the same as generated by the template, especially if the names are long. Checking the "Use calibre's file names" helps but does not guarantee the names will be identical because the content server might not be running using the same config as the calibre GUI. And to make matters worse, the new "cloud" connection can not respect that option in any event.

My recommendation: if consistency is important for some reason such as syncing then the only real solution is "Use book ID". The downside is that the file names are useless, but that doesn't bother me because I never see them.

Hi Charles,

I was afraid of an answer like this. I really don't want to use the book ID because (a) it makes it difficult to clean up folders and directories. For example, when you delete from Moon Reader a book which was previously synced, its sync file remains in dropbox. Over time, the dropbox folder may compile lots of obsolete files that would be hard to identify, and (b) if I move titles from one calibre library to another, which I tend to do with magazines, they would get new Book IDs, and a title could cease to sync with the same title on another device that was imported earlier from the previous calibre library.

My preference is still to use just simple Title-Author. Without any book number or Book ID. IOW, I would uncheck both options under "File Names" in CC's preferences. However, I did some testing and noticed with both options unchecked and using the "wireless" connection, a book number is still being given to the file name. Is that intended? It does say if unchecked, CC will use the template Title-Author which I take to mean only that.

So is it possible to get just Title-Author all the time whether I use wireless or the content server? I use both about equally.

--Pat

[chaley]

Originally Posted by PatNY

So is it possible to get just Title-Author all the time whether I use wireless or the content server? I use both about equally.

The correct answer is no. The probably-usually-works answer is maybe.

The first thing to do is change the wireless device template so that the {id} is not there. The second thing to do is to check the "Use calibre file names" box. The third, fourth, and fifth thing to do is never use a content server that isn't running in the GUI and never use the new cloud connection, because these can possibly generate names that are different from the one generated by the calibre template. When you have three different programs generating names it is certain that Murphy will intervene to ensure that the names are sometimes subtly different.

TBH I have used calibre IDs for book names for 2 years and haven't had any of the problems you describe. Perhaps I am not as picky.

[PatNY]

Charles, thanks very much for the tips and advice. I went ahead and tweaked the save template in calibre and then changed over all filenames to the simple Title-Author convention and now all books are syncing seamlessly in Moon Reaader via dropbox on all 3 android devices. Before that it was very hit-and-miss getting some books to sync up. I had just wrongly assumed Moon Reader would sync by title and author, that its syncing was finicky, and never thought file names would be the key. I've just abandoned Mantano for good, so working with Moon Reader is relatively new for me.

As for never using the content server that isn't running in the GUI, I'm not sure I would even know how to do that. I've always used it from calibre's standard interface. I also don't anticipate using the cloud for storing books anytime in the near future. And I'm very careful not to replicate titles in my Calibre library. So I believe I'm good to go, though I will do so with fingers crossed and keep an eye out for any further syncing issues in Moon Reader.

--Pat

[chaley]

@PatNY: could you take a look at this thread and tell me what you think?