Need Help in Downloading Lots of Books

[skidawayme]

Hi:

I'm trying to find an easier, less time-consuming way of downloading books to Calibre. I have about a thousand books in my archive, about 1500 altogether. Here's what I'm doing now:

I buy a book and have it sent to my K4PC. Then I click on the book in K4PC to download it. Then I go to the My Kindle Content folder and I drag items individually (unidentified items so I can't tell if I've downloaded them before) to Calibre.

This is very cumbersome. It's bad enough to have all these steps but there are actually more since the default on my Amazon download is to my regular Kindle, so I have to change that with every purchase. And downloading a book in K4PC takes quite a while, too.

I can't find any batch method of entering my books in Calibre. Surely, there must be one and there must be a less complicated way of doing all this.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Jane

[Synamon]

Since you have a Kindle, you can cut out a few steps. Calibre (0.8.38 and later) can automatically load books from a folder on your computer, set that up using the tab within the Add Books section of Preferences. To transfer all your archived books choose Download & transfer via USB as the Action for each book in your Kindle Library, using the folder you set up for automatic transfers as the destination. The books will show up in calibre and be deleted from the folder as they download. When you buy new books, choose the Transfer to Computer option from the one click menu.

[skidawayme]

Originally Posted by Synamon

Since you have a Kindle, you can cut out a few steps. Calibre (0.8.38 and later) can automatically load books from a folder on your computer, set that up using the tab within the Add Books section of Preferences. To transfer all your archived books choose Download & transfer via USB as the Action for each book in your Kindle Library, using the folder you set up for automatic transfers as the destination. The books will show up in calibre and be deleted from the folder as they download. When you buy new books, choose the Transfer to Computer option from the one click menu.

Synamon, I'm running into some trouble with this. I've gone to Add Books and tried to make something happen by clicking Add Books from a single directory and the 2 options for adding books via multiple directories. They all default to the My Kindle Content folder, which has about 30-40 entries. When it defaults, it wants me to select one of the files. As far as Download and Transfer via USB, it doesn't appear at all on the add books menu.

I seem to be stuck in the starting gate. Suggestions?

Thanks,
Jane

[BookJunkieLI]

Originally Posted by skidawayme

Synamon, I'm running into some trouble with this. I've gone to Add Books and tried to make something happen by clicking Add Books from a single directory and the 2 options for adding books via multiple directories. They all default to the My Kindle Content folder, which has about 30-40 entries. When it defaults, it wants me to select one of the files. As far as Download and Transfer via USB, it doesn't appear at all on the add books menu.

I seem to be stuck in the starting gate. Suggestions?

Thanks,
Jane

First, what version of Calibre are you running? You can find this out by looking at the bottom left of the Calibre screen. If it's a version before 0.8.38 you will need to update to take advantage of the automatic download feature.

Second, you can select multiple books in single directory by doing one of two things. If you want to select multiple books in a row, say the entire directory. Click on the first book. Then while holding down the Shift key click on the last book you want to select. All of the books between the first and last one selected will now be highlighted. You can now add them all. Or, alternatively, by holding down the CTRL key while clicking each book you want to select you can choose multiple books without having to select all of them. Again once you're done the books you want will be highlighted and you can now Add them.

Third, Download And Transfer Via USB will not be found under the Add Books menu on the Main Toolbar. You need to go to Preferences then Add Books where you set your options for Add Books.

I hope this helps.

Beth