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Old 02-04-2025, 04:33 AM   #1
Ezra
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Question Backing Up my Library in Google Drive

I want to backup my Calibre library to my Google Drive account, and I understand that Google Drive can cause problems for Calibre libraries.

I have kept my Calibre library in a folder that is synced to OneDrive for the past couple of years. However, I've grown tired of the persistent glitches in Microsoft products, particularly the way Outlook loses my emails, so I want to transfer my online storage to Google Drive for easier compatibility with Gmail. Is there a safe way to backup my Calibre library to Google Drive? If I use the Google Drive app to sync the Calibre folder from my computer will that corrupt it?

Scrivener has a system that will allow you to backup a zipped file. Would a zip file be less susceptible to corruption? Is there a way to set that up with Calibre?

Last edited by Ezra; 02-04-2025 at 04:36 AM. Reason: I forgot part of the question
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Old 02-04-2025, 05:51 AM   #2
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It's only safe if you zip your whole library up and save it as a .zip file. Keeping your unzipped library in Google Drive will corrupt it.

There's no way to do that automatically from within calibre. You'll just have to do it manually.

If you want to use file syncing tools, then Dropbox + FreeFileSync creating and updating a mirror copy of your library is one option. Not Google Drive. And never use two-way sync or keep any syncing tools running on your active library. Close calibre first, then run the sync.

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Old 02-04-2025, 06:24 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirtel View Post
It's only safe if you zip your whole library up and save it as a .zip file. Keeping your unzipped library in Google Drive will corrupt it.

There's no way to do that automatically from within calibre. You'll just have to do it manually.

If you want to use file syncing tools, then Dropbox + FreeFileSync creating and updating a mirror copy of your library is one option. Not Google Drive. And never use two-way sync or keep any syncing tools running on your active library. Close calibre first, then run the sync.
OK. It sounds like I will need to designate a part of my local drive that I will not sync. Thanks for the help.
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Old 02-04-2025, 08:22 AM   #4
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And Google scans the uploaded content for their AI. Use encrypted ZIP.
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Old 02-04-2025, 09:44 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezra View Post
I want to backup my Calibre library to my Google Drive account, and I understand that Google Drive can cause problems for Calibre libraries.

I have kept my Calibre library in a folder that is synced to OneDrive for the past couple of years. However, I've grown tired of the persistent glitches in Microsoft products, particularly the way Outlook loses my emails, so I want to transfer my online storage to Google Drive for easier compatibility with Gmail. Is there a safe way to backup my Calibre library to Google Drive? If I use the Google Drive app to sync the Calibre folder from my computer will that corrupt it?

Scrivener has a system that will allow you to backup a zipped file. Would a zip file be less susceptible to corruption? Is there a way to set that up with Calibre?
Even if you make a copy of your library to sync with Google Drive, the copy on Google Drive will become corrupt. It's because of the numbers in parenthesis. Google dries takes them as version numbers. If the library then syncs back to the computer, the copy of your library will become corrupt.
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Old 02-04-2025, 09:53 AM   #6
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Even if you make a copy of your library to sync with Google Drive, the copy on Google Drive will become corrupt. It's because of the numbers in parenthesis. Google dries takes them as version numbers. If the library then syncs back to the computer, the copy of your library will become corrupt.
A zip file is safe though, right? If so, I will just do it manually.
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Old 02-04-2025, 03:40 PM   #7
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A zip file is safe though, right? If so, I will just do it manually.
Because it is 1 (Spanned) file. GD does not change anything inside it and Calibre does not use the wrapper (zip). YOU unpack that zip as your restore.
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Old 02-04-2025, 08:57 PM   #8
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I've used calibre for 10+ years. since day one I've done incremental backups of its data (libraries, as of today 10, and its config) to a USB attached drive on a daily basis. And an over the wire disaster recovery copy on a weekly basis, initially to a commercial FTP server and since that left town to Onedrive. I've been using GoodSynch to backup all my data since 2007.

I have never needed to restore an entire library (not even my shambolic much abused Test library), I've only ever needed to restore a 'book' folder or a book's format file because of a blunder on my part. And I do it using the calibre GUI… the backup is a calibre library, so I can use Copy to Library to restore a 'book' and Add files to selected book records to restore a format file.

Using archive formats like ZIP/TAR/7Z/RAR etc for backing up data is a remnant of the 20th century. Just for fun I created a max compression RAR4 of 35 video clips who total size was 2,344,850,345 bytes. The archive is 2,328,232,052 byte, a saving of 16,618,293 - less than 1%. Firstly, why would I bother. Secondly, if I add a 36th clip what then, do I create another 2.5Gb archive and copy that wherever.

BR

Last edited by BetterRed; 02-04-2025 at 09:00 PM.
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Old 02-04-2025, 09:32 PM   #9
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The problem is, the OP wants to keep their backup on Google Drive and they cannot do that without zipping the library up. GD will corrupt the library otherwise.
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Old 02-04-2025, 09:46 PM   #10
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Old Yesterday, 05:41 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezra View Post
I want to backup my Calibre library
...
I have kept my Calibre library in a folder that is synced to OneDrive
Is it a backup solution you want, or a sync? They are very different things, especially when it comes to the kind of database that Calibre uses. Backing up this kind of database to a cloud service or networked drive is fine (bearing in mind the comments about google drive further down this thread). Syncing is not. If you sync your library, you will, sooner or later, have problems.

For a backup, I'm not seeing what "compatibility with gmail" benefit there is, so you might think about considering other cloud services for your backup.
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