Changing Library Folder

miguel_roboso · 09-11-2010, 08:57 PM

Hi everyone.
I just searched for an entire afternoon how to change the library folder for calibre, and I really feel dumb. Am I wrong or somewhere there is an option such as "Choose the folder" and all the library would be moved there?
Anyone can help me?

desertgrandma · 09-11-2010, 09:38 PM

Welcome to MobileRead, Miguel.

Hopefully someone will step in soon with an answer.

DoctorOhh · 09-11-2010, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miguel_roboso

Hi everyone.
I just searched for an entire afternoon how to change the library folder for calibre, and I really feel dumb. Am I wrong or somewhere there is an option such as "Choose the folder" and all the library would be moved there?
Anyone can help me?

Click on the Library icon in the top row (see attached). If you click the dropdown arrow next to the icon you can rename your library, which should also rename the directory.

miguel_roboso · 09-13-2010, 04:06 PM

Nooo it was so easy...guess I am to used to looking in the configuration...
Thanks!

DoctorOhh · 09-13-2010, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miguel_roboso

Nooo it was so easy...guess I am to used to looking in the configuration...
Thanks!

Calibre is ever changing, the renaming library feature was first seen in version 0.7.17 because people like you thought it would be a good idea and wondered how to do it.

Two weeks ago your question wouldn't have had an simple answer and it would have helped spark a change in calibre. Today the question has an answer that just seems too easy.

polly · 09-14-2010, 08:57 PM

While we're on the topic of libraries, I noticed in a recent update that Calibre supports multiple libraries.

Even better, that included the ability to move libraries to elsewhere on the computer. So I had the bright idea of doing a little housekeeping by putting all three of my Calibre libraries into the same folder. Somehow, housekeeping never turns out as well as one might hope.

My problem is that I told Calibre to move my main library and pointed to the folder where I wanted it to go. Calibre appeared to accept the idea of moving my library, claimed to be moving the library, and was left alone until it finished. Alas, when it finished, I noticed in Calibre that I was missing lots of covers and some records that used to have book files and comments are now empty. What was left behind in the old library seems pretty random. In a few cases the folder, comments, and book were all left behind. In other cases an empty folder is all that's left. When I navigate to where Calibre used to be, I find 15 authors with 112 files in 84 folders. Some of these folders are empty. Others have a .jpg +/- book files. In a few cases, some formats of an ebook moved to the new location while other versions of the same ebook were left behind. Comparing with Calibre, some of the folders that still contain book files did move to the new location. Did I go wrong someplace along the way? Was my library too big (used to be 921 books, now 906)? I moved the two smaller libraries first, but they appeared to move without problem. I suspect that I just need to spend Saturday going through and cleaning up, but would cheerfully accept suggestions on how to make that easier.

DoctorOhh · 09-14-2010, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by polly

What was left behind in the old library seems pretty random. In a few cases the folder, comments, and book were all left behind. In other cases an empty folder is all that's left. When I navigate to where Calibre used to be, I find 15 authors with 112 files in 84 folders. Some of these folders are empty. Others have a .jpg +/- book files. In a few cases, some formats of an ebook moved to the new location while other versions of the same ebook were left behind.

No, you did not do anything wrong. In theory the items left behind were not part of calibre's database according to the metadata.db file. That is to say that calibre moved everything its database currently understood to be part of its library.

I don't know why you had so much unclaimed stuff, I'm guessing this was your first library. Don't use explorer to just move the folders to the new location. None of the items left behind are known to calibre so if you need to add them back in to your library make sure you do it via the GUI.

The good news is after this you will have a clean database.

polly · 09-14-2010, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

No, you did not do anything wrong. In theory the items left behind were not part of calibre's database according to the metadata.db file. That is to say that calibre moved everything its database currently understood to be part of its library.

I don't know why you had so much unclaimed stuff, I'm guessing this was your first library. Don't use explorer to just move the folders to the new location. None of the items left behind are known to calibre so if you need to add them back in to your library make sure you do it via the GUI.

The good news is after this you will have a clean database.

But that's the funny thing. They were known to Calibre before I made the move. They appeared in Calibre, they had metadata and covers, Calibre converted some of them to other formats, and even put them on my reader. In fact, I use tags to indicate when a book has been converted or transferred to my reader and some of those books stayed behind. I know Calibre converted them because I have Calibre put the cover and comments at the beginning of each book. When I put something into Calibre, I've always used Calibre to manage it and I've always done the metadata and covers immediately so that the records are as clean as possible.

Also, I read the manual before I started building my Calibre library and I lurk here, so I've known from the start to treat the Calibre library like a black box and leave it alone. I've never mucked around in the Calibre library folders. Some of the items left behind were added as recently as last month, so it wasn't all my early stuff either. It's easy enough to fix, just puzzling why it happened.

Starson17 · 09-15-2010, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by polly

But that's the funny thing. They were known to Calibre before I made the move. ... Some of the items left behind were added as recently as last month, so it wasn't all my early stuff either. It's easy enough to fix, just puzzling why it happened.

How do you have the option "If books with similar authors and titles found, merge..." set? It's in Prefs | Import/Export|Adding.

I suspect that may explain what you are seeing.

theducks · 09-15-2010, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by polly

Also, I read the manual before I started building my Calibre library and I lurk here, so I've known from the start to treat the Calibre library like a black box and leave it alone. I've never mucked around in the Calibre library folders. Some of the items left behind were added as recently as last month, so it wasn't all my early stuff either. It's easy enough to fix, just puzzling why it happened.

I was playing around with a backup copy on another machine and made some observations.
Somehow Calibre has forgotten that/failed to really delete, some formats that were NOT displayed in the library for existing books (same index#).
I used the a/b notation above because I have deleted 'rotten or obsolete' formats via the Meta-data GUI on occasion. One of the many updates may have caused this process to burp.

(Yes I run "check DB Integrity" from the advanced options tab.

kovidgoyal · 09-15-2010, 12:15 PM

One way this can happen is if you delete a book entry or book formats and the OS prevents calibre from actually deleting the file (because it is open in another program or something like that). In that case calibre just deletes the listing in its database and leaves the files lying around.

polly · 09-15-2010, 08:47 PM

But what if I haven't deleted the book entry? I really like covers for my books, to the point of searching the internet for a jpeg if Calibre doesn't return anything. I add books in small batches and get everything in properly before I add more. I've learned the hard way about finding dirty data when you're not careful about how you enter stuff. I have at least thirty-five books that used to have covers and don't anymore, with those covers in the old Calibre directory. Also, I have entries that used to have books in them that are now empty. I think everything was left behind and simply needs to be reimported. My main library is over a year old now. Maybe I need to be checking database integrity more often?

polly · 09-15-2010, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starson17

How do you have the option "If books with similar authors and titles found, merge..." set? It's in Prefs | Import/Export|Adding.

I suspect that may explain what you are seeing.

I have it unchecked. Way to much of a control freak to let new stuff mix in automatically with stuff that I've already sorted. One goal with Calibre is to organize lots of stuff, including duplicates, while weeding out the more poorly formatted ones. I'd been downloading from Project Gutenberg for years before finding better formatted books here, so I have lots to sort.

My current problem is an easy fix. I'm more interested in knowing if there's something I should be doing or not doing to avoid this sort of problem in the future.

Starson17 · 09-16-2010, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by polly

I have it unchecked.

I'm glad. The failure scenario I envisaged didn't seem likely anyway.

Quote:

My current problem is an easy fix. I'm more interested in knowing if there's something I should be doing or not doing to avoid this sort of problem in the future.

Taking another tack on an area of the code I know about, is it likely that the leftovers previously were involved in a Merge operation?

I'm thinking of cases where you might be checking books before a Merge: a book might be open in a reader (perhaps to check contents) then the record for that book is Merged into another record - or Windows has the source folder open (perhaps by clicking the Open folder button or using "O"). In both cases, Calibre would be unable to delete the folder and leave it hanging around. DB integrity checks would show nothing and all would appear correct during use, but the leftover folder/files would remain after a library Move.

cybmole · 09-16-2010, 02:19 PM

i have a related problem - I want to make a duplicate of my existing library and use it to test some batch processes, but I can't get it to work.

i tried the obvious - make a calibre library 2 folder & copy everything into it, then point calibre at that new folder - but it says no books!. so then I tried "save to disc" to save all books from original library into new folder - still get no books when I tell calibre to use that new folder as a library.

so what the proper way to do this - I assume there is one ?

as for why - well I set up the original library to store separate covers. when I send books to kindle 3 the covers don't show up, so I figure I have to re-convert every book from mobi to mobi but with save separate covers turned off in preferences. I wanted to run this on a duplicate library in case anything went horribly wrong. so now I'm having to run it on original library & hope for the best. did I miss a better solution ?

09-11-2010, 08:57 PM	#1
miguel_roboso Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Kindle 3 wi fi	Changing Library Folder Hi everyone. I just searched for an entire afternoon how to change the library folder for calibre, and I really feel dumb. Am I wrong or somewhere there is an option such as "Choose the folder" and all the library would be moved there? Anyone can help me?

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09-11-2010, 09:38 PM	#2
desertgrandma Enjoying the show.... Posts: 14,270 Karma: 10462841 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Device: A K1, Kindle Paperwhite, an Ipod, IPad2, Iphone, an Ipad Mini & macAir	Welcome to MobileRead, Miguel. Hopefully someone will step in soon with an answer.

09-13-2010, 04:06 PM	#4
miguel_roboso Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Kindle 3 wi fi	Nooo it was so easy...guess I am to used to looking in the configuration... Thanks!

09-14-2010, 08:57 PM	#6
polly Evangelist Posts: 454 Karma: 270240 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: Sony PRS 650, PocketBook 360, Astak PocketPro (RIP), Tungsten T3	While we're on the topic of libraries, I noticed in a recent update that Calibre supports multiple libraries. Even better, that included the ability to move libraries to elsewhere on the computer. So I had the bright idea of doing a little housekeeping by putting all three of my Calibre libraries into the same folder. Somehow, housekeeping never turns out as well as one might hope. My problem is that I told Calibre to move my main library and pointed to the folder where I wanted it to go. Calibre appeared to accept the idea of moving my library, claimed to be moving the library, and was left alone until it finished. Alas, when it finished, I noticed in Calibre that I was missing lots of covers and some records that used to have book files and comments are now empty. What was left behind in the old library seems pretty random. In a few cases the folder, comments, and book were all left behind. In other cases an empty folder is all that's left. When I navigate to where Calibre used to be, I find 15 authors with 112 files in 84 folders. Some of these folders are empty. Others have a .jpg +/- book files. In a few cases, some formats of an ebook moved to the new location while other versions of the same ebook were left behind. Comparing with Calibre, some of the folders that still contain book files did move to the new location. Did I go wrong someplace along the way? Was my library too big (used to be 921 books, now 906)? I moved the two smaller libraries first, but they appeared to move without problem. I suspect that I just need to spend Saturday going through and cleaning up, but would cheerfully accept suggestions on how to make that easier.

09-15-2010, 12:15 PM	#11
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,842 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	One way this can happen is if you delete a book entry or book formats and the OS prevents calibre from actually deleting the file (because it is open in another program or something like that). In that case calibre just deletes the listing in its database and leaves the files lying around.

09-15-2010, 08:47 PM	#12
polly Evangelist Posts: 454 Karma: 270240 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: Sony PRS 650, PocketBook 360, Astak PocketPro (RIP), Tungsten T3	But what if I haven't deleted the book entry? I really like covers for my books, to the point of searching the internet for a jpeg if Calibre doesn't return anything. I add books in small batches and get everything in properly before I add more. I've learned the hard way about finding dirty data when you're not careful about how you enter stuff. I have at least thirty-five books that used to have covers and don't anymore, with those covers in the old Calibre directory. Also, I have entries that used to have books in them that are now empty. I think everything was left behind and simply needs to be reimported. My main library is over a year old now. Maybe I need to be checking database integrity more often?

09-16-2010, 02:19 PM	#15
cybmole Wizard Posts: 3,720 Karma: 1759970 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	i have a related problem - I want to make a duplicate of my existing library and use it to test some batch processes, but I can't get it to work. i tried the obvious - make a calibre library 2 folder & copy everything into it, then point calibre at that new folder - but it says no books!. so then I tried "save to disc" to save all books from original library into new folder - still get no books when I tell calibre to use that new folder as a library. so what the proper way to do this - I assume there is one ? as for why - well I set up the original library to store separate covers. when I send books to kindle 3 the covers don't show up, so I figure I have to re-convert every book from mobi to mobi but with save separate covers turned off in preferences. I wanted to run this on a duplicate library in case anything went horribly wrong. so now I'm having to run it on original library & hope for the best. did I miss a better solution ?

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