Calibre update lost plugs and add ons

[Tarana]

I recently did an update and when I opened Calibre, all my plug ins and preferences were gone. In addition, lost were my extra files for removing DRM. Is there an easy way to recover this or do I need to find the stuff again and reinstall?

[BetterRed]

@Tarana - that sounds like your entire configuration folder was 'disappeared' (deleted or moved), I have no idea how. Do you use any third party install/uninstall tools?

Have you looked in the recycle bin/trash can?

Look across your file system for files named 'dynamic.pickle', if you can find more than one then maybe one of them is within the old, now moved, calibre configuration folder.

BR

[Tarana]

Ok, let me elaborate, because I still haven't fixed it. My computer crashed and the links must have broken. I need to know what to look for. I can only access one library and yes, I could add the other libraries, but I'm afraid of doing that and hopelessly losing the other stuff.

Calibre itself WORKS but it only has the library that was last open before the crash. The other libraries are there, but I will have to add them.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Ok, let me elaborate, because I still haven't fixed it. My computer crashed and the links must have broken. I need to know what to look for. I can only access one library and yes, I could add the other libraries, but I'm afraid of doing that and hopelessly losing the other stuff.

Calibre itself WORKS but it only has the library that was last open before the crash. The other libraries are there, but I will have to add them.

What operating system are you using? And how did you recover from the 'crash'?

If you use Windows, and you did a Reset or Refresh I think there is a good chance that operation would have wiped the configuration data.

Start calibre and press the Preferences->Miscellaneous->Open calibre configuration directory button, if you see something like this :



rather than something like this :



then that's probably what's happened.

If you didn't have it backed up explicitly, or you don't use the Windows File History Backup facility then there's probably no way to recover calibre's basic (global) configuration data, Preference settings, plugins, customisations etc.

You won't do any harm by rehooking your libraries via the Library Switch/Create tool. You'll have to reinstall and reconfigure plugins and reset Preference settings, tweaks and customisations. Some plugins (eg Reading List and View Manager) store settings at the library level, you should get those back once you reinstall the plugins.

Integrate the calibre configuration directory into your backup regime, and/or use the Windows File History Backup facility, I put a 64Gb thumb drive in one of my back-of-the-machine USB 3.0 ports for this purpose.

BR