Before I mess up, need some advice

[gandor62]

Hi all

Can someone advise me on a best method to do the following. Sorry for long post (and spelling errors) but I cant be clear in a few lines of what i'm trying to accomplish.

History first
I have a library of 300+ books and they are stored with Epub and Mobi formats. I was using Stanza on the iPhone but due to, I think being unable to create chapters or smaller chunks of the book,with Calibre (I don't know how to) it takes a couple of minutes to start reading any book on stanza. As I may read for a few minutes then have to do some work I go back in and have to wait a few minutes till it loads the book again and often have to turn off before I can read anything. I literally read in 5 minute blocks, So I purchased Iphonebookshelf (apparently it handles both formats, but didn't) as it automatically breaks the book up into manageable chunks having a fast start-up time. But with both the Mobi and Epub formats it will not download a book. (Yes i have been onto support for it on iphone bookshelf and Stanza, but no answers, got pointed back here for chapter/chunk help by Stanza)

So I have a need to temporarily drop the epub formats with calibre library but don't want to lose them as my wife's reader requires them and we will be upgrading readers in the future and I think the Epub format is going to be required.

1. So I think I need to back up the library
2. Delete all the Epub files
3. Back up the Folder with the Mobi Files
4. Then get all the Epub files back
5. have the Calibre library back to original condition with Epub and Mobi files

6. Maybe a way to break up the book for Epub and stanza in to smaller chunks.

I dont have time to use bulk metadata and remove a format and then convert them all again to the deleted format. I did do it once but lost some books for some reason.

Next of course I will buy another book then have to do it all again, we purchase or download (Pub Domain) up to 7 books a month, usually in Epub format. There are 5 reader devices (Kids actually read as well) in my household that all spin off Calibre library, so need a fast safe method.

I tried a while back and totally lost the library, I messed the metadata.db somehow with the back and forth coping of it and had to redo everything again. The 300+, setting up series, downloading metadata and missing covers takes a long time. So I'm asking what's the best method or solution here so I don't destroy my library again.

[Leep]

Originally Posted by gandor62

Hi all

Can someone advise me on a best method to do the following. Sorry for long post (and spelling errors) but I cant be clear in a few lines of what i'm trying to accomplish.

History first
I have a library of 300+ books and they are stored with Epub and Mobi formats. I was using Stanza on the iPhone but due to, I think being unable to create chapters or smaller chunks of the book,with Calibre (I don't know how to) it takes a couple of minutes to start reading any book on stanza. As I may read for a few minutes then have to do some work I go back in and have to wait a few minutes till it loads the book again and often have to turn off before I can read anything. I literally read in 5 minute blocks, So I purchased Iphonebookshelf (apparently it handles both formats, but didn't) as it automatically breaks the book up into manageable chunks having a fast start-up time. But with both the Mobi and Epub formats it will not download a book. (Yes i have been onto support for it on iphone bookshelf and Stanza, but no answers, got pointed back here for chapter/chunk help by Stanza)

So I have a need to temporarily drop the epub formats with calibre library but don't want to lose them as my wife's reader requires them and we will be upgrading readers in the future and I think the Epub format is going to be required.

1. So I think I need to back up the library
2. Delete all the Epub files
3. Back up the Folder with the Mobi Files
4. Then get all the Epub files back
5. have the Calibre library back to original condition with Epub and Mobi files

6. Maybe a way to break up the book for Epub and stanza in to smaller chunks.

I dont have time to use bulk metadata and remove a format and then convert them all again to the deleted format. I did do it once but lost some books for some reason.

Next of course I will buy another book then have to do it all again, we purchase or download (Pub Domain) up to 7 books a month, usually in Epub format. There are 5 reader devices (Kids actually read as well) in my household that all spin off Calibre library, so need a fast safe method.

I tried a while back and totally lost the library, I messed the metadata.db somehow with the back and forth coping of it and had to redo everything again. The 300+, setting up series, downloading metadata and missing covers takes a long time. So I'm asking what's the best method or solution here so I don't destroy my library again.

I'm confused about the issues that you are having with your epub books on the Iphone. I have an iTouch and also use Calibre. I regularly access my ebooks list (epubs) from Calibre, however before I start to read a new book, I download it. Then whenever I resume reading it only takes a second for the book to start up where I left off so I'm confused about you're having to wait so long.

As an alternative for accessing epubs via Calibre, I have used oreillys bookworm site where you upload your epubs and then download them into Stanza. This also produces instant resume reading. Guess I need to better understand why you have to wait so long to resume reading.

cheers

[gandor62]

I assumed my problem lay in the fact that Stanza reloads the entire book whenever I turn it on to continue reading. There are no chapters so it pulls the entire book. I can wait up to two or three minutes each time, I might only read 4 pages and then come back to it after 10 minutes and it reloads all over again, maybe its some other problem. Iphone bookshelf is almost instant with the same book in Mobi format.

[itimpi]

Even when there are no formal chapters, Calibre should break an ePub file into manageable size chunks. As Stanza loads the current "chunk" each time it starts you do want those chunks to be of reasonable size and not the whole book. Have you tried looking inside the ePub file (it is basically a ZIP archive) to see if the book has in fact been broken up into chunks. You may have more control over the chunking parameters in the 0.6.x series of Calibre which is currently in beta - I have not checked.

Despite all the above, I could not understand the requirement you stated to remove the ePub formats from the Calibre library. Why not just leave them there? Calibre is quite happy to have multiple book formats simultaneously in its library.

[gandor62]

I need to remove epub as iPhonebookshelf won't download to iphone if there is epub book in the folder.

[kovidgoyal]

One thing when you create EPUB files in calibre, what profile are you using? If you set the profile to None, calibre wont split the EPUB file, try setting it to prs505, that should create EPUB files that load faster in Stanza