upgrade to 3.46 caused probs?

[BlackDogWhite]

Hi,
I have a vague problem to report, I think caused by 3.46.

I have been using Calibre for several years, happily upgrading as alerted and would periodically use the Count Pages plugin. When I got the last upgrade to 3.46, Count Pages quit working. I've posted questions in that sub forum, but there is no obvious answer. I also use Calibre Companion on an iPad and it is behaving differently (it will connect "to content server", but not "as wireless device"). OTOH, I've always felt CCompanion behaved a little iffy. OTOOH, not this iffy.

In my quest to get this working again, I realized I might have had a mix of 32 bit and 64 bit installs. Thinking that might be an issue, I uninstalled both and reinstalled 3.44/64 - what I'm currently running. I needed to reinstall Count Pages and some other plugin I use, but have not been able to get Count Pages to work.

Ordinarily I would just uninstall and start over, but really, I've done that, to 3.44. But I'm thinking uninstalling does not "fully" uninstall, as for example, it still knows where my library is.

Does anyone have thoughts on next steps? Should I uninstall the 64 bit and try the 32? Should I do some other more complete uninstall?

Ron

[Sirtel]

Works for me with 3.46 64-bit on Windows 10.

[BetterRed]

@BlackDogWhite - Calibre has three 'parts',

The Software which is normally installed in a directory named Calibre2 -- 64 bit will be in Programs Files, 32 bit wiil be in Programs Files(X86). When you update or uninstall this is gets updated or removed

The Configuration data which contains preferences, plugins, customisations etc -- on Windows its default location is %appdata%\calibre, it can be opened via Preferences->Miscellaneous->Open calibre configuration directory. It is not removed by an uninstall (the assumption being that you might reinstall) - but it is sometimes updated by a calibre update.

The Libraries or Libraries, which are wherever you put them, they are not touched by updates or uninstall.

You could try deleting the Configuration folder, when calibre is not running.

Calibre will create a fresh one when you restart it. I suggest you backup the %appdata%/calibre folder first, either by moving it elsewhere, or zipping it before deleting it.

You may have to 'reconnect' your libraries using the Library->Switch/create library->Use the previously existing library at the new location option.

You will have to reinstall and reconfigure any plugins.

If nuking the configuration data doesn't resolve the problem, close calibre, delete it and reinstate the backup.

Added - %appdata% is shorthand for c:\users\<BlackDogWhite>\appdata\roaming - unless you messed with Windows

I just saw your conversation with davidfor, in Count Pages. Should have looked there first

Count pages stores some of its config data in the Configuration data, and some in the Library. Have you tried using the Library Maintenance->Library Check or Restore database tools?

BR

[davidfor]

@BlackDogWhite: You have given no evidence that the Count Page is not working. The only error you posted is a normal one. It is an error that will occur if you attempt to use the download page count for a book that does not have an identifier. The configuration for the plugin that you posted had selected both Goodreads and lubimyczytac.pl for downloading the page count, and that you are defaulting to downloading from all sources. The error message you posted means that the book you were trying to download the page count for did not have an identifier for either of these sites. That is not an error in the plugin. That is an error in the data for the book.

If the book does have one of these identifiers, I need to see the OPF file from books directory to see exactly what is in it.

[BlackDogWhite]

@davidfor: I'll attache an OPF from a book that I was able to "count" before, but can no longer. I don't know if the act of "counting" messes with the OPF, and if it does, this is from after trying to count after my failure.

[BlackDogWhite]

@davidfor: so what are you looking for?

[BlackDogWhite]

@BetterRed: Thank you for your response!

Your suggestion about performing the Library Check seemed to have no effect or at least showed no errors.

With the Restore database operation, should that database be backed up first? Is that a file in %appdata%\calibre? Which? Or is it metadata.db in \CalibreLibrary?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by BlackDogWhite

@BetterRed: Thank you for your response!

Your suggestion about performing the Library Check seemed to have no effect or at least showed no errors.

With the Restore database operation, should that database be backed up first? Is that a file in %appdata%\calibre? Which? Or is it metadata.db in \CalibreLibrary?

The latter, i.e. the metadata.db file in the library folder.

If library check showed no errors then the database is probably okay.

And yes I'd ensure I had a back up before doing a restore, then I can be sure nothing will go wrong What the restore does is to rebuild the metadata.db from the metadata.opf files in the book folders, and the metadata_db_prefs_backup.json file in the library folder.

BR

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by BlackDogWhite

@davidfor: so what are you looking for?

Something that isn't in that file. Which is exactly what I expected and explained in before. But, Please go back and read my posts in the Count Pages plugin thread. You need to have identifiers set for the sites you want to download the page count from. This file shows there are no identifiers set for this book. Getting the "no identifier" message is not a bug. It is the expected result without the identifier.

If you don't understand what I posted in the other thread, then you need to state what it is you don't understand so that I, or someone else, can explain it better.

[BetterRed]

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔️

@BlackDogWhite - what's missing is lines similar to those I've highlighted here:



The Count Pages (CP) plugin can't get page/word counts from a site without an identifier for a site it knows how to 'read', - e.g. Goodreads. You need to download the metadata from such a site before using CP.

Good Omens has a page at Goodreads.

IMO: getting the plugin to count words and calculate pages is less of a hassle and universally applicable.

BR

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

IMO: getting the plugin to count words and calculate pages is less of a hassle and universally applicable.

I generally agree, but, on the occasion that I borrow a book, I add an entry to calibre to track what I've read. In that case, downloading is the way to go.

[BlackDogWhite]

Ohhh, thank you for showing an example of the OPF identifier! Now I understand what is missing. Not why, but at least what.

However, I'm not sure how CP ever worked in this case. I've gone back and looked at a couple other book's OPFs and none have a Goodreads identifier. In fact many books don't even have an OPF. Yet in all those cases, I was able to successfully run CP.

How/when is the OPF created? When a book is added to Calibre? Well maybe that doesn't matter. But if there is no OPF, will CP not run or always fail?

If I have a book with an OPF but the OPF does not have a Goodreads identifier, how do I get that line in the OPF? Is that a function of downloading metadata? It does not appear to be, since the metadata download does not grab from Goodreads either.

It appears the only (English) page count source is Goodreads, which I'm selecting exclusively now, having unchecked lubimyczytac.pl. Is there a way to add a different page count source?

When you say "getting the plugin to count words and calculate pages is less of a hassle...", do you mean the word count would come from Goodreads and the page count is "Custom (Chars Per Page)" ?? That's immaterial at this point, but I'm still interested.

[stumped]

i have been using count pages for ages, but AFAIK it never downloads the answers it estimates? calculates ? them using an algorithm based on Adobe ADE.
for me it just works, on all epubs, however sourced, even ones that I have made myself.
i am not fussed about it needing to agree with some printed book value though - I just need an idea of long a book is
until this thread came around, I was not even aware of the download options, though I see them now when I look. have they always been there ?
and i see that lubimyczytac.pl option is there but unticked. what's its relevence, if any to non polish people ?

[BlackDogWhite]

@stumped: Well, that has sort of been my experience. It just seemed to work. And as I said in my last response, many (most?) of my books don't have OPFs.

So maybe I have messed up my customization of Count Pages.

@stumped, I assume you have for pages: use ADE algorithm?? What do you have for word count? Really, the only option is Use (or not) ICU algorithm.

As @davisfor said a while back, if you're not having Polish books, there is no sense in checking lubimyczytac.pl.

[BlackDogWhite]

Something @stumped said finally made the quarter drop.

I unchecked both Goodreads and the .pl site. Now I'm getting the page counts!

Since I didn't remember how I had it set up originally, I thought I had not done that much customization, and just took defaults.

Thanks to @stumped, @davidfor, and @BetterRed for all your help in getting my back on track!