Remove pre-conversion file?

[JDThird]

Just found this app, and I have to say it blows me away. I'm a new Mac user who just converted after decades of windows, and found this when trying to find how to do conversions of my files for my Kindle. Love it, outstanding and very impressive.

My only question is if I'm just missing seeing an option somewhere that would let me remove the pre-conversion version of a file?

For example, I have my ebooks in folder A. I have the database for Calibre in folder B, so i don't need Calibre to keep, say, the TXT format of the file since I will always have that original in folder A where I archive the originals.

So am i just overlooking some way to tell calibre "remove all the other ebook files and just keep my kindle format files"? If that's not there, any plans on adding it in a future release?

Not that big a deal to go through and clean up after myself when I'm done converting in small batches, but would be sweet if part of the conversion process was an option to remove the original format file.

Keep up the great work - this app is outstanding. Such a different way than I was doing this before... Wish I knew about this app a while ago!

John

[pilotbob]

I don't think there is a way to do this... but I would say it is not necessary. We not delete your source file and keep the txt copy in the calibre database instead? This way, after importing all your books it is a simple matter to delete them using Finder.

BOb

[kovidgoyal]

No, it's not possible.

[JDThird]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I don't think there is a way to do this... but I would say it is not necessary. We not delete your source file and keep the txt copy in the calibre database instead? This way, after importing all your books it is a simple matter to delete them using Finder.

BOb

Because to me it's a waste to have every single ebook I convert kept also in the database as a format I will never use. That's the whole point of the app for me, to take a format that I can't put on the kindle and convert it to something I can. I have no desire to keep the original that is useless for my purposes on my laptop. I have a home server that I use to store the originals with redundancy as well as tape backups, so I don't need or want the originals on the Mac here.

And yes, I know I can manually delete, just seems strange that part of this process couldn't be to remove the unneeded original since I don't need thousands of useless files in the database after they've been converted to what I can use. And since I just found this, I have dozens of hours of work now to convert everything if I do it in a batch as I'd prefer, and having to manually nuke the old seemed a needless step when every other aspect is automated.

I'll just deal with the lack since while annoying, it's not as bad as having to deal with the worse apps out there for converting. I used to just do them one at a time with a windows app that had WAY too many steps involved and no automation and no integrated way to copy it to the kindle... I was just hoping with this, I could dump every single file I had into it and make one nice, organized library without having to deal with file operations manually.

Still the most impressive way I've found though to manage and convert and copy things to my Kindle.... I'll deal with it.

Thanks for writing this.

John

[itimpi]

If you want to remove all occurences of a particular format you could simply do a CTRL-A in the main Calibre Window (to select all), and then call up the Bulk Edit Metadata dialog which includes an option to remove specified formats.