03-19-2016, 09:41 PM | #1 |
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add books to calibre without copying?
Is it possible to add ebooks to the calibre database without copying the files to a calibre 'library"? I already have all of my ebooks organized on my harddrive. It seems silly - and redundant - to have all of those files copied to another location just for calibre to interact with them. Can the program not just use the files I already have in the location in which they are currently stored? I have looked at the online user manual (which was no help there) as well as all of the preference settings, but unless I am missing it, I can't see anyway to do this.
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03-19-2016, 09:51 PM | #2 |
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Nope. calibre is designed to copy ALL content into it's own data-store.
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03-19-2016, 10:22 PM | #3 | |
null operator (he/him)
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Quote:
And had you looked amongst the sticky posts at the top of this sub-forum you would have found this thread BR Last edited by BetterRed; 03-19-2016 at 10:32 PM. |
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03-19-2016, 10:51 PM | #4 | |
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Thanks for the help. By the way... as per the FAQ "... that is much more efficient than any possible directory scheme you could come up with for your collection." .... pretty darn presumptuous isn't it! |
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03-20-2016, 07:42 AM | #5 |
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Probably, it's the reaction to the years-long, endless discussion of "why won't calibre add books from my location?", which has been answered time and again by Kovid. As Kovid has explained, doing away with the database would imply an important re-write of the program. He prefers to devote that time to more productive things.
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03-20-2016, 06:28 PM | #6 | |
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Quote:
If Kovid thought there was some other, more efficient way, he would use that instead. Is it "pretty darn presumptuous" to declare that your application works as designed and fulfills its mission parameters? That isn't being presumptuous, that is having self-confidence. |
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03-21-2016, 10:41 AM | #7 | |
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Quote:
That said, while I prefer Lr's way of working for my massive digital photo library, I much prefer calibre's library method for my ebooks. My Lr library is not portable. Moving the files to a new larger HD (a periodic chore as HD's seem to become smaller with age) takes some manual library repair to reconnect the files at their new locations with their database records. Calibre's library is completely portable. I can copy it to another computer intact, something I do regularily, with no real effort. |
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03-21-2016, 11:18 AM | #8 |
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The single most important advantage of the Calibre Library storage: Integrity
When media is spread willy-nilly, Auditing becomes a significant obstacle. Those pesky users, move/rename/delete things all the time. Unlike MP3's, all user metadata is NOT kept inside the books (or even remotely standard on what THEY save) |
03-21-2016, 02:33 PM | #9 | |
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Calibre is a strick taskmaster, but it protects the user from himself as a result. I like and can deal with Lr's "freedom", but prefer to let calibre handle my ebooks. At least calibre doesn't actually hide my ebooks in some archive like MacOSX Photos does. If calibre ever goes belly up, I can still get to my ebooks easily. |
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03-21-2016, 03:06 PM | #10 |
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I could theoretically conceive of calibre being extended to allow a user-configured metadata template as an alternative to {author}/{title} ({id})/{title} - {authors}.{FMT} for the internal structure.
But the people who actually care (and insist they have the skills, even) are perfectly happy complaining bitterly rather than doing anything about it, and raising philosophical objections against doing the work themselves -- go figure... ... The chances of calibre being changed to accommodate a willy-nilly mess are zero to none, of course. One of Kovid's mission parameters I believe is to avoid the support mess that occurs when hapless users (of which there are many) are encouraged to touch the files in a database. |
03-21-2016, 03:48 PM | #11 | |
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Quote:
Any time you need a bunch of books in a set of directories built certain way, for putting on a reader, for example, you just program Calibre to build an elaborate system of directory and file-names based on any metadata you have put into database. And you can populate the metadata in database in various ways - by reading existing filenames and directory structures of imported files, existing metadata, querying Internet in a semi-automatic manner ... |
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03-21-2016, 05:57 PM | #12 |
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One trick I like to do in my libraries is to use a custom hierarchical field to store a pseudo directory structure in Calibre. It requires a little work to populate the field, but once you do, you can use the tag browser as something like the Folders pane of Windows Explorer.
This addressed most of my complaints about not being able to look up the files the way I wanted when I first started using Calibre. You still do all your work within Calibre, but at least you have a nice, familiar hierarchical structure to work with. It also makes save-to-disk templates easier. |
11-13-2017, 07:37 PM | #13 |
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For years now, I keep coming back to this app hoping this flaw has been fixed. I have a massive external hard drive for eBooks that I don't want to copy to my other hard drives. Kodi (for films and TV shows) has no problem using other folders without copying anything. I don't understand why Calibre can't do the same. While many users don't know how to keep track of their files under Windows, some of us would prefer to be in complete control of what goes where. Does anyone here have a recommendation for another app for PC that will do what we need it to?
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11-13-2017, 09:37 PM | #14 | |
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Quote:
That is the ADVERTISED way it works. (It is in the FAQ) No one insists you use Calibre. Use it or Don't. |
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11-14-2017, 01:18 AM | #15 | ||
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Quote:
This statement is a little disingenuous because I'm sure you do understand why it can't do the same, because it wasn't written to do the same. Calibre was designed with the book handling / database organization at its foundation. Since it is at its foundation to change it would require too much effort and man hours. Calibre does this for quality control, the same reason after years itunes changed its default behavior to copy the added mp3s to its media area vice simply indexing them. This happened to reduce trouble reports from users. Now you do have the option in iTunes to do it the way you like, but that is because they started out with this system. Kovid is basically a one man team and already fields enough user error questions as it is. No need to open a giant can of potential user error questions. Since the way calibre handles books isn't going to change, I suggest you stop coming back to this app with the hope that it has changed, because it won't happen. Quote:
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