Calibre library has its own copy of an added book?

[Dal Bhat]

Looking for some confirmation about what seems obvious by looking... But before I delete folders to mitigate duplication, please tell me that I have this right.

I just installed the program and it's working well for my needs. Prior to, when I acquired a new book (AZW3), I would save it to disk and then transfer it via USB. So I have an existing library of saved files.

Now I have Calibre and I see that in its own folders by author, the same files exist with the same file size. So the existing library of files appears to be duplicated there.

I don't need two copies. Have I got this right, that Calibre will always have its own copy and that's where I can download new files to henceforth? --And I can delete the pre-Calibre files?

[DNSB]

Correct. When you import a file to calibre, calibre has it's own copy in it's library.

[PeterT]

You actually don't download to the calibre library. Download as you are right now, then do an add to calibre and finally delete from where you downloadedcit.

[BetterRed]

@Dal Bhat - If you want to keep the downloaded original for whatever reason, the best place to store it is in the Book's 'data' folder where it will retain its original name and content, be easy to find, etc.

BR

[Dal Bhat]

Originally Posted by PeterT

You actually don't download to the calibre library. Download as you are right now, then do an add to calibre and finally delete from where you downloadedcit.

Yeah, I see that; I'm still getting used to the method and am working on getting the routine incorporated to how I think and talk about it. Adding, not direct download.

Which leads me to a related follow up: In the settings, there is "Automatic adding". I can ID my go-to download folder and have Calibre pick up the file from there. There is warning about it, that Calibre will delete the download after adding to its library.

Any reason not to take this route?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Dal Bhat

Any reason not to take this route?

Duplicates and backups are good. Single copies that can easily be edited or deleted is bad.

I'd only use that tool / feature if copying a load from "elsewhere" on the computer that's mysteriously inaccessible to Calibre.

I only worried about too much duplicates when HDDs 5 MByte to 200 Mbyte. My 2002 laptop (retired in 2016) has 120G Byte (120,000 Mbyte) HDD and was never a problem to have duplicate ebooks.

Of course I also backup Calibre and the duplicates outside calibre. The ones in Calibre might also get edited.

[Dal Bhat]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Duplicates and backups are good. Single copies that can easily be edited or deleted is bad.

I'd only use that tool / feature if copying a load from "elsewhere" on the computer that's mysteriously inaccessible to Calibre.

The Calibre library is in a folder synced to cloud storage, so that's not an issue. And the download file location is not in the Calibre folder.

Also, if I use "Automatic adding" and I see that the book doesn't show up correctly, even if it deleted the download, I can go straight back to Amazon and download it again. And add it manually.

[slm]

Originally Posted by Dal Bhat

Yeah, I see that; I'm still getting used to the method and am working on getting the routine incorporated to how I think and talk about it. Adding, not direct download.

Which leads me to a related follow up: In the settings, there is "Automatic adding". I can ID my go-to download folder and have Calibre pick up the file from there. There is warning about it, that Calibre will delete the download after adding to its library.

Any reason not to take this route?

It is inadvisable to set you standard download folder as the folder that Calibre checks for adding books. If you do, Calibre will try to grab everything in that folder that might conceivably be a ebook, such as files with at txt or html extension. It will then delete anything it grabbed. (Of course, a copy will exist in your Calibre folder.)

You may want to create a separate folder for downloading into Calibre. (If you do, you may have to change setting in your Browser to let it choose where to save downloads each time.)

[Dal Bhat]

Originally Posted by slm

You may want to create a separate folder for downloading into Calibre.

That is the purpose and function of the folder I'm discussing.

Any other potential gotchas?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Dal Bhat

The Calibre library is in a folder synced to cloud storage, so that's not an issue. And the download file location is not in the Calibre folder.

Hopefully, that is a one way sync and it is paused when calibre is running.

[un_pogaz]

Originally Posted by slm

It is inadvisable to set you standard download folder as the folder that Calibre checks for adding books. If you do, Calibre will try to grab everything in that folder that might conceivably be a ebook, such as files with at txt or html extension. It will then delete anything it grabbed. (Of course, a copy will exist in your Calibre folder.)

I do that from years without problems.
The "Automatic adding" has a list of files extension than you can exclude for the auto adding. Exclude all and choose only the format you want.