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Old 05-06-2016, 05:58 PM   #1
MadDogJoey
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Looking for metadata location for book sort info

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I've spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong here. I need someone's help. BTW, I am not a novice; I'm a computer technician, but I'll admit this has me stumped:
I've adjusted all the title and author sort info in Calibre (version 2.54.0) to display individual books, series and authors in perfect order. But when I import my 1900 epubs into iPad, they are all scattered -- author info is inconsistent (last first, first last, etc) and title sort info seems to be quite arbitrary, sometimes with series sort names added, sometimes not, etc etc.
I've tried editing the book and looking at "container.xml" and "content.opf" and "toc.ncx" folders and editing lines found there, but I can't believe it should be this hard!
Am I missing something simple? Why does Apple sort the books based on data that I can't easily find? Where is this data? HELLLLP!
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Old 05-06-2016, 06:21 PM   #2
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I seem to recall Apple caches the information even after you delete the ebook and add the updated copy, resulting in it being literally impossible to fix.

Apple is awesome.

...

The solution would therefore be to not let iBooks see the book until you are sure the metadata is perfect.
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Old 05-06-2016, 06:43 PM   #3
BetterRed
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@MadDogJoey - the metadata is stored in the library database (metadtadat.db).

Quote:
Originally Posted by MadDogJoey
But when I import my 1900 epubs into iPad, they are all scattered -- author info is inconsistent (last first, first last, etc) and title sort info seems to be quite arbitrary, sometimes with series sort names added, sometimes not, etc etc.
That suggests you may be copying directly from the calibre library author/book folder tree. That's not how calibre should be used.

If you use calibres Send to Device or Save to Disk features then a copy of the file(s) are Sent/Saved with the current metadata embedded. You control the folder and file names Sent/Saved via the Preferences->Sending books to devices/Saving books to Disk->Save Templates value.

In a nutshell, use calibre's export facilities.

If I used iTunes I would export via Save to Disk, and try importing into iTunes from there.

BR
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Old 05-06-2016, 10:24 PM   #4
MadDogJoey
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Thank you for your reply, BetterRed -- I will do what you suggest and see if it has the desired effect.
I'm still curious, though, where the data is that Apple is seeing. There are book titles showing up on the iPad that are sometimes quite different from any data I can find anywhere in the book's metadata files that I access through Calibre. It's the strangest thing.
Thanks again!
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Old 05-06-2016, 11:14 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MadDogJoey View Post
Thank you for your reply, BetterRed -- I will do what you suggest and see if it has the desired effect.
I'm still curious, though, where the data is that Apple is seeing. There are book titles showing up on the iPad that are sometimes quite different from any data I can find anywhere in the book's metadata files that I access through Calibre. It's the strangest thing.
Thanks again!
@MadDogJoey - You're probably seeing what's in the epub in the library - open one with the calibre viewer and press the blue 'i' and see if they match.

When you update the metadata, the format files are not updated. That's because as it would mean reading and writing each format file (some people have multiple formats for the same book), which would make calibre very slow.

If you want the library copies updated use the Embed Metadata (most file formats) feature, or the Polish Book feature (EPUB and AZW3 only) or the Modify EPUB plugin. You would probably want to add Embed and/or Polish to a toolbar/menu, you do that in Preferences->Toolbars. Because its an optional plugin Modify will offer to add itself to toolbars when you install it.

BR
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Old 05-13-2016, 01:30 AM   #6
MadDogJoey
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Thank you again, BetterRed, for your informative reply.
*Whew!* Calibre is really hard to use at this level -- the Help resource isn't all that intuitive, and even with your excellent direction, it took me almost an hour to figure out how to do what you were suggesting. I got stuck in the Pugins section trying to figure out how to activate the plugin, before I wised up and eventually customized my toolbar (just as you told me to).
But I think I've got it now, thanks to you. As I write, Calibre is embedding the metadata in all my book files (15% complete so far) and I have high hopes.
But, God, I would never have figured out how to do that on my own....
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