Metadata download error. Over and over again

alacrity2005 · 03-15-2011, 09:30 PM

Hi All,

Newbie here.

I keep getting an error message when trying to use the "Fetch metadata from server" function. After a longish wait, I get a "The metadata download seems to have stalled. Try again later," error message 4 times out of 5. Is there some reason I might be getting this error message far more often than the metadata downloads correctly? When I first started using the program it worked most to all of the time, but seems to have gotten worse over time.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

spanishguy · 03-16-2011, 08:30 AM

This is very similar to what is happening to me, I've tried changing the order of the author names ie fnla then lnfn but only with (very) limited success. I've even deleted the author and/or the name of the book and tried with just one field but again no joy. I know Clive Cussler has written books but it wouldn't even give me a choice of his books. I end up putting the book title into Amazon and copy/pasteing the isbn code, even then some do not get any results so I look for hardback and they usually work. It's driving me nuts trying to catalogue my collection with summary, cover etc.

DoctorOhh · 03-16-2011, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanishguy

This is very similar to what is happening to me,

You never mentioned an error? Do you get the "The metadata download seems to have stalled. Try again later," error too?

If you don't get this error then it isn't similar to what is happening to you.

spanishguy · 03-16-2011, 10:57 AM

Yes I do get the error message, I never mentioned it because you already had and I thought it was obvious, sorry my mistake. I'm about to dl the latest version even though it's only 0.7.48 to 0.7.49 it may make a difference. Do any of your files download metadata? I found some do some don't as if there was an error in the way it's looking at the title, I've even found that just capitalising a T(he) has made a difference or adding the words "a novel" that to me is basic search engine failure type stuff. I'd have thought that it was more sophisticated than that judging by the way the rest of the program looks and feels.

DoctorOhh · 03-16-2011, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanishguy

Yes I do get the error message, I never mentioned it because you already had and I thought it was obvious, sorry my mistake.

I never heard of that particular error until this thread. The only other mention of this error is in this bug report, but he seemed to be having some network issues too.

Again, running in debug mode might get you more info.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanishguy

Do any of your files download metadata?

I updated around 120 books last night with out any problem.

Do you have the access key entered in the isbndb metadata plugin?

I also have the Goodreads metadata plugin installed.

spanishguy · 03-16-2011, 12:27 PM

Just had that error again looking for The Capitol Game by Brian Haig, I changed the "T" in the from lower to upper case and it then found several books by Brian Haig including the one I wanted. I do have the key inserted and I also have Goodreads installed.
I also have a lot of books from someone who decided to include the date 2010 in brackets in every title. I have to manually delete this before it finds anything is there a work around for this that you know of?

kiwidude · 03-16-2011, 12:42 PM

I don't know what is going on in your system, but I just created an empty book with the title "the Capitol Game" (lowercase t) and author "Brian Haig" (I also did "Haig, Brian"). In both cases hitting control-D with the Goodreads metadata download plugin found a match (as did using the Edit metadata dialog).

To get rid of the (2010) use the Search & Replace feature, there are loads of posts on the forum about it.

quantumkitten · 03-18-2011, 03:15 AM

I am having the same issue as the original poster. When I try to search for metedata, I nearly always receive an error message: "ERROR: Could not find metadata: The metadata download seems to have stalled. Try again later." Sometimes the search will be more likely to complete if I find the book's ISBN elsewhere and fill it in before searching, but even this doesn't always work. When I try to download metadata, on the rare occasions I'm able to get a search result, the download usually doesn't complete--no error message, it just keeps me waiting without a result until I cancel it. Upon hitting cancel, some of the fields sometimes do populate with downloaded metadata, but usually not in full.

Metadata searches and downloads used to work flawlessly for me, until these problems began within the past few months/Calibre versions. I don't believe I've changed anything on my system during that time that should have had any effect on the issue.

My details:
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, SP 1
Calibre v.0.7.49
Metadata download plugins enabled: Amazon 1.0.0, Goodreads Metadata 1.2.0, Google Books 1.0.0, IsbnDB 1.0.0 with access key (I've tried enabling and disabling many plugin combinations, with no improvement)

Please let me know if I can provide other information that may be of help.

drawltx · 03-20-2011, 01:58 PM

I'm having the same issues. I've also gone through and disabled/enabled the metadata plugins one-by-one and seem to see no difference in response. I get the "stalled" error, or after waiting for 45 seconds or more, I'll just cancel out of it.

Metadata fetches used to be pretty quick - now, painfully slow. It's almost always quicker to go directly to Amazon or B&N and do a search on the book, and then cut and paste the data to Calibre. I'm running Win7, 32 bit, Calibre 0.7.46.

Regards,
drawltx

quantumkitten · 03-22-2011, 04:13 AM

I've done some more experimenting, and it seems that my problem was being caused by one or more of the cover download plugins. Once I disabled them all, my metadata searches and downloads stopped timing out. With the openlibrary.org covers plugin re-enabled, things seem to be okay. When I add the Goodreads Covers plugin, searches still complete but are significantly slower. The amazon.com covers plugin definitely causes things to stall.

spanishguy · 03-25-2011, 12:58 PM

Since I updated to 0.7.49 I have noticed a difference, still have some glitches (who doesn't!) but on the whole it works a damn sight better than before. I've noticed that a lot of my books come with an e-isbn number on the copyright page and they almost always fail if I try to use them. I've also noted that like Quantumkitten some of my data does not load 1st time I just hit it again and it usually puts in the missing data, usually tags and series info. Other than that great prog.

03-15-2011, 09:30 PM	#1
alacrity2005 Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: none	Metadata download error. Over and over again Hi All, Newbie here. I keep getting an error message when trying to use the "Fetch metadata from server" function. After a longish wait, I get a "The metadata download seems to have stalled. Try again later," error message 4 times out of 5. Is there some reason I might be getting this error message far more often than the metadata downloads correctly? When I first started using the program it worked most to all of the time, but seems to have gotten worse over time. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

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03-16-2011, 08:30 AM	#2
spanishguy Member Posts: 24 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Was Liverpool now Torrox Spain Device: kindle	This is very similar to what is happening to me, I've tried changing the order of the author names ie fnla then lnfn but only with (very) limited success. I've even deleted the author and/or the name of the book and tried with just one field but again no joy. I know Clive Cussler has written books but it wouldn't even give me a choice of his books. I end up putting the book title into Amazon and copy/pasteing the isbn code, even then some do not get any results so I look for hardback and they usually work. It's driving me nuts trying to catalogue my collection with summary, cover etc.

03-16-2011, 10:57 AM	#4
spanishguy Member Posts: 24 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Was Liverpool now Torrox Spain Device: kindle	Yes I do get the error message, I never mentioned it because you already had and I thought it was obvious, sorry my mistake. I'm about to dl the latest version even though it's only 0.7.48 to 0.7.49 it may make a difference. Do any of your files download metadata? I found some do some don't as if there was an error in the way it's looking at the title, I've even found that just capitalising a T(he) has made a difference or adding the words "a novel" that to me is basic search engine failure type stuff. I'd have thought that it was more sophisticated than that judging by the way the rest of the program looks and feels.

03-16-2011, 12:27 PM	#6
spanishguy Member Posts: 24 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Was Liverpool now Torrox Spain Device: kindle	Just had that error again looking for The Capitol Game by Brian Haig, I changed the "T" in the from lower to upper case and it then found several books by Brian Haig including the one I wanted. I do have the key inserted and I also have Goodreads installed. I also have a lot of books from someone who decided to include the date 2010 in brackets in every title. I have to manually delete this before it finds anything is there a work around for this that you know of?

03-16-2011, 12:42 PM	#7
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,637 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	I don't know what is going on in your system, but I just created an empty book with the title "the Capitol Game" (lowercase t) and author "Brian Haig" (I also did "Haig, Brian"). In both cases hitting control-D with the Goodreads metadata download plugin found a match (as did using the Edit metadata dialog). To get rid of the (2010) use the Search & Replace feature, there are loads of posts on the forum about it.

03-18-2011, 03:15 AM	#8
quantumkitten Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: Kindle 2	I am having the same issue as the original poster. When I try to search for metedata, I nearly always receive an error message: "ERROR: Could not find metadata: The metadata download seems to have stalled. Try again later." Sometimes the search will be more likely to complete if I find the book's ISBN elsewhere and fill it in before searching, but even this doesn't always work. When I try to download metadata, on the rare occasions I'm able to get a search result, the download usually doesn't complete--no error message, it just keeps me waiting without a result until I cancel it. Upon hitting cancel, some of the fields sometimes do populate with downloaded metadata, but usually not in full. Metadata searches and downloads used to work flawlessly for me, until these problems began within the past few months/Calibre versions. I don't believe I've changed anything on my system during that time that should have had any effect on the issue. My details: OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, SP 1 Calibre v.0.7.49 Metadata download plugins enabled: Amazon 1.0.0, Goodreads Metadata 1.2.0, Google Books 1.0.0, IsbnDB 1.0.0 with access key (I've tried enabling and disabling many plugin combinations, with no improvement) Please let me know if I can provide other information that may be of help.

03-20-2011, 01:58 PM	#9
drawltx Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: nook	I'm having the same issues. I've also gone through and disabled/enabled the metadata plugins one-by-one and seem to see no difference in response. I get the "stalled" error, or after waiting for 45 seconds or more, I'll just cancel out of it. Metadata fetches used to be pretty quick - now, painfully slow. It's almost always quicker to go directly to Amazon or B&N and do a search on the book, and then cut and paste the data to Calibre. I'm running Win7, 32 bit, Calibre 0.7.46. Regards, drawltx

03-22-2011, 04:13 AM	#10
quantumkitten Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: Kindle 2	I've done some more experimenting, and it seems that my problem was being caused by one or more of the cover download plugins. Once I disabled them all, my metadata searches and downloads stopped timing out. With the openlibrary.org covers plugin re-enabled, things seem to be okay. When I add the Goodreads Covers plugin, searches still complete but are significantly slower. The amazon.com covers plugin definitely causes things to stall.

03-25-2011, 12:58 PM	#11
spanishguy Member Posts: 24 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Was Liverpool now Torrox Spain Device: kindle	Since I updated to 0.7.49 I have noticed a difference, still have some glitches (who doesn't!) but on the whole it works a damn sight better than before. I've noticed that a lot of my books come with an e-isbn number on the copyright page and they almost always fail if I try to use them. I've also noted that like Quantumkitten some of my data does not load 1st time I just hit it again and it usually puts in the missing data, usually tags and series info. Other than that great prog.