personalized metadata not showing in new computer

[mlb77]

hello,

i have been using calibre on my old computer (xp pro) for a while and love its flexibility. i have about 500 books and have edited the metadata on most of them, e.g. instead of 'title' i have 'series - number is series - title'. i recently got a new computer (win 7) and did the following:

1. copied the whole folder from the old pc (incl. metadata.db)
2. pasted to new pc
3. installed, and pointed calibre to the copied folder on the new pc

my books are all showing. but non of my customized metadata is! just in case, i copied again only the metadata from the old to the new - no change.
i would really, reeeeaaaally like to avoid having to re-enter again custom metadata for almost 500 books...

any suggestions?

thanks!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by mlb77

hello,

i have been using calibre on my old computer (xp pro) for a while and love its flexibility. i have about 500 books and have edited the metadata on most of them, e.g. instead of 'title' i have 'series - number is series - title'. i recently got a new computer (win 7) and did the following:

1. copied the whole folder from the old pc (incl. metadata.db)
2. pasted to new pc
3. installed, and pointed calibre to the copied folder on the new pc

my books are all showing. but non of my customized metadata is! just in case, i copied again only the metadata from the old to the new - no change.
i would really, reeeeaaaally like to avoid having to re-enter again custom metadata for almost 500 books...

any suggestions?

thanks!

It sounds like you copied the Library correctly
metadata.db contains the metadata you should see.


Were these in custom columns?
Custom Display coloring?
Save Templates?
Are the details just not showing in the Details pane, but show if you try and edit (via the edit form)?

[mlb77]

hey,
thanks for replying
title edits are missing, for example i have a series of john grisham books that i want to read in order of publication so i had renamed them as follows 'The Bleachers' -> '1 - The Bleachers', 'The Last Juror' -> '2 - The Last Juror', etc. after the move to the new pc they are back to their original names... additionally, i noticed that some of the authors' names are mixed up, for lack of better word. for example one couple of books john grisham is 'john grisham' and on the rest he is 'grisham, john'.... originally they were all 'john grisham'. very strange...
also, i just tried the following: backed up the metadata on the old pc (where is still appears all nice and neat, as i had created it), emailed the file to myself and copied it on the new pc replacing the existing file. i uninstalled calibre, reinstalled it, pointed it to the correct folder, held my breath and....same thing
starting to visualize spending the weekend redoing it all... grrrrr

[theducks]

You can not (usually) use a metadata.db from another (time wise) collection.. Things contained, may have changed.

The Series column, not the book name, sets the (book number/reading) order used by the template on export.

Series_name[series_index_value]

I thought you said had you copied the CALIBRE Library folder? That should always work.

[mlb77]

update: after repeating the process two more times (uninstall, copy, re-install and point library to folder (which by the way i changed to see if that would help), i now have about half correct entries. the rest, inexplicably, are still the original, unedited versions. the old library that i have been copying still shows all edited correctly. as i said, very strange.
will be correcting 250 entries by hand. oh joy.
thanks to the ducks the replies!

[mlb77]

and to theducks, since i did not clearly answer before: the only things i changed in the original library were titles and authors ('last name, first' to 'first last'). no columns, nothing else...

[theducks]

Originally Posted by mlb77

and to theducks, since i did not clearly answer before: the only things i changed in the original library were titles and authors ('last name, first' to 'first last'). no columns, nothing else...

If you want to Zip (the board does not accept db) up you metadata.db ONLY (will be an 'empty library' to me and not violate copyright) an PM it to me, I will give it a look-see and see what I spot that is odd.

[mlb77]

thanks for the offer ducks but i already made peace with re-doing half the books.
have a great weekend and thanks again!

[speakingtohe]

Have you tried rebuilding the library from the opf files?
Helen