Downloading Metadata Question

[collin8579]

I have downloaded a few large archives of books, and I am currently in the process of cleaning, sorting, and properly tagging them within calibre,,

However,, I have tried to use the "Get Metadata" as a shortcut to cleaning some files,, hoping to let the program download the proper information,,
This works in some cases, but not in others

Example:
I Have book 1 by author 1 and some of the information is incorrect,, it doesn't have tags, comments, and the author name isn't spelled quite correctly,, However when I pull the metadata it accurately tags it, changes author to what it should be,, grabs cover,, etc

Book 2 - done in the same manner,, it does not pull correct metadata,, not that it pulls wrong data,, but just incomplete or based on what is already in the Metadata,, When I go in to edit individually in this case and pull the metadata,, it pulls 1 option, typically with the information exactly the same (incomplete and/or wrong) that's already in it..
Its like some of these archives were put on "wherever" it pulls the metadata from as accurate information for these books,,

Perfect example, One book I have is a star trek book, Dwellers in the Crucible,, fairly unique title
Currently the metadata has title correct and author as STAR TREK - TOS - 025
In the individual edit, I fetch metadata from server and it pops up with 1 hit,, with the exact metadata I have,, nothing but the name and the author as STAR TREK - TOS - 025
I go to amazon and search for "Dwellers in the crucible" and it comes up as first match with correct book
If I remove everything but the title it searches properly,, or more properly


Is there a way to fix this, aside from making sure the title and author are exactly correct and probably searching manually each time,, ?

Currently in plugins its set up to search Amazon, goodreads, google, and isbn

Collin

[itimpi]

There is no easy answer other than manual inspection of results.

I am afraid you are falling foul of the fact that servers do not store metadata in any consistent way in the first place. It can vary between books by the same author and publisher. It also depends for each book on what they have decided are search terms. That is why (as you have found) passing less information from Calibre often gives better results as if you provide too much and it does not match what the server has stored for that book it can erroneosly decide it is not a match.

[lgladen]

I believe this is a bug in the Goodreads plugin. Try disabling it. It seems to not "fail" properly when data does not exist for the book at goodreads, and instead pretends to have found exactly the title/author you were looking for. If there is isbn data, it works fine - fails properly, with an "isbn not found" error. But when just title/author are there, it puts an "empty" entry into the list of results - and when all the other plugins "fail" properly, it ends up as the only result in the list.

[lgladen]

Should also mention - with the Goodreads plugin off, you'll get errors - "no metadata found, try altering title, author or isbn" from your example. The metadata search is somewhat "fuzzy" - but the author/title has to be somewhat close, or empty, for a proper result.

[kiwidude]

@lgladen - That is the first I had heard of that issue with the Goodreads metadata plugin on the fetch metadata dialog. None of the other users/testers had reported it (I never use that dialog so had not noticed it, I just use ctrl+D instead).

I have uploaded a new release of the Goodreads metadata plugin that should address that issue and a couple of others. Further details on the changes posted here, download from the start of that thread or using the plugin updater.

I won't attempt to significantly improve the fuzziness match issue until Kovid releases the new metadata download API that is coming soon.

Thanks for posting the issues - though to guarantee I see them please be sure to put them on the thread for the plugin next time.

[lgladen]

Wow - Thanks very much, Kiwidude! I'm new to the Forums, so I didn't even think of posting the problem to the Plugin forum - I assumed it was a "known bug", and am well aware how much you and the others are putting into this project. I just caught the OP's post while lurking, and wanted to chime in with a possible reason for his problem. I'm impressed with the response time, here - I'll try to be a little more pro-active and post to the proper forums if I spot any other bugs. Thanks again!

[collin8579]

Thank you all,, this addresses the issue I was having!