How to Stop or Limit Calibre Scanning The SD Card on a Tablet

[Incanus]

Hello:

I'm using Calibre 7.23 on Windows 10 64bits and I'm attempting to configure a Samung Galaxy Tab A9+ (SM-X21O) running Android 14.

My objective is to use the tablet internal memory to store items from the library on the HDD of the same drive where Calibre is installed and not use the SD Card of the tablet at all as a target device for Calibre.

When I connect the tablet with a USB cable, Calibre readily recnognizes the tablet as a new device and then automatically starts to scan the whole tablet (internal memory and SD Card) for items to match against the current library.

I know that when that is done I can configure the device to not scan the tablet's SD Card in the future (which I can't do if the SD Card is not mounted on the tablet).

However, the SD Card has about 883.8Gb of more than 20 thousand comic files, which I'm not going to manage with Calibre, so this first scan of the tablet may take Calibre many hours: on some trials, after 30mins of scanning, Calibre had barely covered 1% of the SD Card content.

Is there a way to prevent Calibre from scanning the whole SD Card on the tablet or to at least a way to speed the first scan of the tablet?

Awaiting your kind reply,

[kovidgoyal]

No, I'm afraid there isnt. In order to exclude things calibre first needs to scan the device to present the user with the list of folders to exclude. Someday I might get around to implementing a fast initial scan mode that ignores files and so presents on a list of folders, but at the moment there is no way to avoid the full scan. What you can do today is temporarily move your comics off teh SD card and just leave an empty folder. Then connet calibre and tell it to ignore that folder and then move the comics back.

[Incanus]

Thanks for your prompt reply!

Alas, moving out the files and then putting them back after the initial scan might take as long (if not longer) as the initial scan.

Is there anyway to instruct Calibre not to scan for, say, CBR, CBZ or PDF files?

Or is there any file extennsion that Calibre would ignore while scanning? I could then rename the comic files, scan, and, after configuring Calibre, rollback to the original names (it just a pair of batch command files, really).

Regardless of the scan method used, is this configuration linked to the device? That is to say: is it done only once on Calibre for this tablet + comics SD Card?

Otherwise, it means it won't carry on to other Calibre instalations, needing a repeat of the process on an alternate/backup solution, like sending files to the same tablet + comics SD Card from, say, a pendrive Calibre solution of the same library.

Much obliged,

[INCANUS]

Enviado desde mi SM-X210 mediante Tapatalk

[kovidgoyal]

rename them to some non existent extension and they wont be read. And the ignore setting is based on device serial number.

[Incanus]

Again: my thanks for your quick reply!

My other question remains, though.

I keep this library in sync at other Calibre backup instalations (pendrive, other PC).

Is there a way to copy the tablet (modified) sync configuration from my main (current) Calibre instalation to every other Calibre backup instalation of this library?

Or will I perforce need to do this first scan procedure on every other Calibre backup instalation?

Awaiting your kind reply,

[INCANUS]

Enviado desde mi SM-A546E mediante Tapatalk

[kovidgoyal]

Copy the calibre config directory as well, thats wher such things are stored.

[Incanus]

Thank you very much!

I'll proceed as instructed and will report the results on this thread.

Gratefully,

[INCANUS]

Enviado desde mi SM-A546E mediante Tapatalk

[Incanus]

I just had a thought:

Is it possible to instruct Calibre to NOT scan for hidden (<.name>) folders on an SD Card?

Or to change a folder property so Calibre would ignore it on the device scan?

Hopefully,

[INCANUS]

Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk

[Dal Bhat]

I'm enjoying the discussion and I sincerely hope you get this resolved to your satisfaction.

Off topic from that, some feedback: please turn off the Tapatalk spam from your devices. Very distracting.

[kovidgoyal]

I dont recall if it default ignores dotted directories try it and see.

[Incanus]

Again, my thanks for your reply!

Calibre doesn't ignore dotted/hidden folders; it also scans the files regardless of their extension: I used a .xxx extension on all the comic files and Calibre still attempted to scan every comic file in the whole SD Card.

It would seem that the only way to do this is to:

1. Remove the files from the SD Card, keeping the folder that contained them
2. Allow Calibre to scan the device with the (slimmed down) SD Card
3. Configure Calibre to ignore the folders on the SD Card
4. Return the files to the SD Card
5. Then, proceed on sending content from Calibre library to the device internal memory.

I thank you all for your patience and kind help.

Gratefully,