How to stop Viewer from modifying viewed ebook files?

[Marawan]

Hello,

Just got started with Calibre Viewer, First thing I noticed is that the Viewer modifies any book file loaded into it. I'm not sure why its doing this but this totally unacceptable for me, I don't want my books getting modified just by opening for viewing and nothing else.

Why on earth the viewer modifies the books being viewed?
How to stop the viewer from doing this?

[kovidgoyal]

Look in the viewer preferences.

[Marawan]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Look in the viewer preferences.

The option in preferences says:

Keep a copy of annotations/bookmarks in the e-book file, for easy sharing

I did not annotate nor bookmarked any pages, just opened the book file for
a quick view and it got modified instantly, date changed, md5 changed which I
rely on heavily to check integrity or discard duplicates...

The Viewer should not modify the book unless the user really annotated or
bookmarked something, That's the logical behavior the user is expecting and
that's what all other book readers I know of do.

Now I turned that option off because I don't want my books get modified just
by opening them for a quick view. But, I also lost the ability to save any annotations/highlights/bookmarks inside the file if I really wanted that.

I keep all my books in a safe place, When I want to read a book I don't read it from
where it safely stored, rather I make a copy to Desktop for example and open it
from there, do any highlights, comments, bookmarks and save them to this copy
only.

I think you know by now where I'm going with this; Your viewer, by default, shouldn't
alter any book unless the user made changes and opted to save them.

I hope this is implemented in next version.

Thanks for the efforts and taking time to read this!

[kovidgoyal]

If I had thought the viewer should not modify files by default, I would have made that the default. Since it is not the default, and I have obviously spent far more time thinking about it than you have, I have good reasons for my decision. I suggest you dont waste my time and yours trying to tell me things I already know.

[theducks]

Oh my. 2 posts and you raised the ire of one of the people that let stuff go by that would have me steaming.

Maybe you need to review your expectations? In all the years I have used Calibre, the viewer has never HARMED a file.
On rare occasions where things have gone really south, it usually was caused by me. That is why we make backups.

[JSWolf]

I've had the option to store the bookmark file in the eBook turned off for a very long time. I also don't have the editor update metadata when the eBook is loaded and I don't have save to disk modify the metadata.

Never once have I complained about the defaults for these.

[Marawan]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I suggest you dont waste my time and yours trying to tell me things I already know.

I came here because you invited users to get involved
https://calibre-ebook.com/get-involved

I came here as one of your users to discuss an issue I had!
I came here and asked nicely
and then all I got is a dry stubborn arrogant answer!!!

I'm sorry for being one of your users who tried to get involved and try making things better as you asked. I really am!, I got a disrespectful treatment for that.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by Marawan

I came here and asked nicely

[SuperDerpBro]

Originally Posted by Marawan

I came here because you invited users to get involved
https://calibre-ebook.com/get-involved

I came here as one of your users to discuss an issue I had!
I came here and asked nicely
and then all I got is a dry stubborn arrogant answer!!!

I'm sorry for being one of your users who tried to get involved and try making things better as you asked. I really am!, I got a disrespectful treatment for that.

ReeEEEeeEEeeEEeeeee

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Marawan

I'm sorry for being one of your users who tried to get involved and try making things better as you asked. I really am!, I got a disrespectful treatment for that.

You Really have high expectations about your importance. Did you look at the stats page?

Active installs: 2,902,993 (those that have started calibre at least once in the last 60 days)

And you are making a big deal about something that (almost?) no one else does. (they do have other issues with the viewer, but not that).
FWIW Kovid does make improvements all the time based upon user comments. But HE decides which are useful and will not break stuff (in different OS).

[chaley]

@Marawan: I agree that you weren't hostile or unfriendly. However, you did imply that your expectations are the only one-true-answer, and that your ideas should be implemented:

I think you know by now where I'm going with this; Your viewer, by default, shouldn't alter any book unless the user made changes and opted to save them.

I hope this is implemented in next version.

This sort of thing happens **a lot** here and sometimes people (me included) lose patience.

In fact this happened to me some 12 years ago. I asked about something, I don't remember what but it was something to do with a Sony PRS 300, and I didn't get satisfaction. I was pissed off enough to try to fix it myself, so I did. At that point Kovid helped me work through the issues and it worked -- I made calibre do what I wanted (mostly)! This has been true since then. I "fix" things, Kovid accepts the fixes or argues with me about them, and we move forward.

The moral of the story: if you want something in calibre that others seem not to care much about, fix it yourself. If your fix doesn't break anything then Kovid will consider it, often giving feedback that helps.