Save to Disk Long Title Problem

[benwj]

Thanks to this forum I have sorted out a few of problems with calibre but am having difficulty finding a solution to this one:
When saving books with very long titles to disk, the directory for the author becomes truncated and first and last names joined. The sub-directories and book filename are good.
There are many answers regarding the title being truncated when adding to the library, and I now understand this not to be an issue.
Does anyone know of this saving to disk problem?

[Adoby]

Calibre often truncate parts of the path in the calibre library. And adds a numerical ID to the path.

But typically you should not directly use the books that are stored in the calibre library. Instead you should use the save to disk or the send to device feature.

There are several reasons for this:

* The book files inside the calibre library may not have been updated with the latest metadata and cover.
* If you accidentally modify, rename or move a file inside the calibre library, calibre may loose track of it.
* You don't have control over the path and the filename.

When you use the save to disk feature calibre will update the book(s) with the latest metadata and you can also modify the path and the filename used when saving the ebook.

Some operating systems have limits on how long a filename and a path may be. That is a problem with the operating system, not calibre. Typically Windows. Try to save the books to a folder near the root to minimize the length of the path. Also there are functions in calibre that allows you to specify how the path or the filename should be truncated.

I use Linux and have never experienced any problems with long paths and filenames.

You can save yourself a lot of trouble if you regard the calibre library as a "black box" and don't even look inside it. Instead use only the calibre GUI to save books to disk or send to device, or even email.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by benwj

... When saving books with very long titles to disk, the directory for the author becomes truncated and first and last names joined.

The sub-directories and book filename are good.

There are many answers regarding the title being truncated when adding to the library, and I now understand this not to be an issue.
Does anyone know of this saving to disk problem?

Can you give us an example - Author Name(s) and Title, and the path where you are saving the book?

BR

[benwj]

Adoby,
agree with everything you say. But "save to disk" is not as fool proof as advertised.

BetterRed,
I am saving books to an external hard drive.

I don't have my hard drive handy, but heres an idea of what is happening:

Author: Joe Bloggs
Title: The life story of Joe Blogs: and how he became one of the most famous men of all time

Save to disk result

Directory: Blogoe
Sub-directory: The life story of Joe Blogs and how he became one of the most famous men of all time
Filename: The life story of Joe Blogs and how he became one of the most famous men of all time - Joe Bloggs.mobi

Not too many books have titles this long, so a workaround is to shorten the title, but I would prefer to use the title that is provided with the metadata.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by benwj

When saving books with very long titles to disk, the directory for the author becomes truncated and first and last names joined. The sub-directories and book filename are good.
...
Does anyone know of this saving to disk problem?

This is not a calibre issue it is an OS or file system limitation. What I mean by this is when you use the Save to disk feature calibre will never truncate the output in any way, shape, or fashion. The same can not be said for your OS or file system which if required will truncate the Path as needed to fit in under the Max Path limitation.

Google path or filename character limit for your OS or file system to learn more.

Originally Posted by Adoby

Calibre often truncate parts of the path in the calibre library. And adds a numerical ID to the path.
But typically you should not directly use the books that are stored in the calibre library. Instead you should use the save to disk or the send to device feature.
...~~~...
You can save yourself a lot of trouble if you regard the calibre library as a "black box" and don't even look inside it. Instead use only the calibre GUI to save books to disk or send to device, or even email.

As indicated by the title of this thread "Save to Disk Long Title Problem" the question by the OP has nothing to do with the internal calibre structure or how calibre truncates its internal file names.

[PeterT]

Actually I believe calibre DOES shorten file names / directory names to ensure they stay under the O/S imposed maximum path length.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Actually I believe calibre DOES shorten file names / directory names to ensure they stay under the O/S imposed maximum path length.

I would be surprised and I could be wrong, but I do not believe calibre truncates anything when using the Save to disk feature. Why would calibre care, path / file naming management at that point belongs to the OS.

[BetterRed]

@benwj - I am using Windows 7

I just used your example verbatim

Author: Joe Bloggs
Title: The life story of Joe Blogs: and how he became one of the most famous men of all time

Just for the record, in the Library the path to the 'epub' is

E:\Calibre Libraries\Test\Joe Bloggs\The life story of Joe Blogs_ and how (52)\The life story of Joe Blogs_ an - Joe Bloggs.epub

I saved the epub to the root of the drive, and here's the full path

E:\Joe Bloggs\life story of Joe Blogs_ and how he became one of the most famous men of all time, The\life story of Joe Blogs_ and how he became one of the most famous men of all time, The - Joe Bloggs.epub

Author folder not truncated and everything else is just as I would expect it to be

And for extra measure I also saved it to the documents folder of my home directory, here's its path

C:\Users\BetterRed\Documents\Joe Bloggs\life story of Joe Blogs_ and how he became one of the most famous men of all time, The\life story of Joe Blogs_ and how he became one of the most famous men of all time, The - Joe Bloggs.epub

All of which appears to be testament to what DoctorOhh just said

BR

[theducks]

IMHO the example book was misfiled.

The book has a TITLE and a subtitle (which calibre has no place for by default). There should be no problem with the real title:
Title: The life story of Joe Blogs

But then I also trim out the series name (it goes into Series ) when it is included as part of the title on metadata downloads.

[benwj]

Doc is correct.

I am using XP which has a 260 char limit and truncates the path to fit it in.

Here is a real life example that you can try:

Author: Arthur Herman
Title: How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It

Problem solved, but looks like I need a new OS.

Geez, I didn't expect this to ever be an issue again since moving on from the dos 8 char limit.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by benwj

I am using XP which has a 260 char limit and truncates the path to fit it in.

I suspected that might the case

Rather than getting a new OS you could add a custom column (eg. strapline).

Originally Posted by benwj

Here is a real life example that you can try:

Author: Arthur Herman
Title: How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It

Louis XV and his successors might have had something to say about that proposition - especially in respect of how adept some Scots are at creating of property bubbles. They've been at it since John Law bankrupted the Banque Générale in 1720 thru to ex-Sir Fred Goodwin's doing the same to the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2001-09. Unlike Queen Elizabeth II, King Louis had no solvent taxpayers to bail out his bank.

BR

[benwj]

BR,
I haven't read the book yet but the title certainly invites ridicule.
Thanks for the help.
Ben