Why in the hell doesn't Calibre support proper alphabetization after all these years?

guspasho · 04-25-2018, 03:59 PM

5-6 years ago I asked how to get Calibre to import books to my Kindle and have them sort and display the author name properly, and the answer was to populate the Author Sort field, select "Use author sort for author" and reconvert *all* my books that I sideload with Calibre, and then remember to manually do the same to every book I want to add thereafter. Not only is this irritating and unintuitive, it appears that this no longer works, as I have been assiduously converting all my books in this way but when I upload them to my new Kindle Paperwhite (latest gen) they all still sort by author's first name.

NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND SORTS THIS WAY KOVID.

My books that I bought from Amazon all sort by last name as I would expect.

Why doesn't this solution work any more? What am I supposed to do now? Is it any more convoluted? Is there another product I should be using if I want this basic functionality to work consistently?

gbm · 04-25-2018, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guspasho

5-6 years ago I asked how to get Calibre to import books to my Kindle and have them sort and display the author name properly, and the answer was to populate the Author Sort field, select "Use author sort for author" and reconvert *all* my books that I sideload with Calibre, and then remember to manually do the same to every book I want to add thereafter. Not only is this irritating and unintuitive, it appears that this no longer works, as I have been assiduously converting all my books in this way but when I upload them to my new Kindle Paperwhite (latest gen) they all still sort by author's first name.

NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND SORTS THIS WAY DAVID.

My books that I bought from Amazon all sort by first name. Again. Why has this solution failed? What am I supposed to do now? Is it any more convoluted? Is there another product I should be using if I want this basic functionality to work consistently?

GIGO

Fix your meta data then make sure the tweaks in calibre are set as you perfer.

bernie

PeterT · 04-25-2018, 05:34 PM

Not sure WHO David is and why you expect him to give a damn

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

guspasho · 04-25-2018, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gbm

GIGO

Fix your meta data then make sure the tweaks in calibre are set as you perfer.

bernie

My metadata is fixed. I've been maintaining it for years. What do you mean? What does GIGO mean?

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterT

Not sure WHO David is and why you expect him to give a damn

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Kovid, the developer for Calibre. My bad.

DiapDealer · 04-25-2018, 06:07 PM

All I know is that dumber people than us have figured it out.

jhowell · 04-25-2018, 06:14 PM

When you use calibre to send books to your Kindle via USB the metadata in those books is updated to match what is currently in your calibre library. The default setting of "use author sort for author" set for MOBI format in Preferences -> Output Options -> MOBI output controls whether Author or Author Sort is used at that time. There is no need to re-convert.

(Note that the setting for MOBI output is used even if the book is in AZW3 format.)

--------

Kindles sort by whatever is in the author field of the copy of the book on the device, but will unwrap a name containing a comma for display purposes. For example:

"Smith, John" sorts by "S" and displays as "John Smith"

If the author field is instead set to "John Smith" it will sort by "J", but still display as "John Smith".

guspasho · 04-25-2018, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

When you use calibre to send books to your Kindle via USB the metadata in those books is updated to match what is currently in your calibre library. The default setting of "use author sort for author" set for MOBI format in Preferences -> Output Options -> MOBI output controls whether Author or Author Sort is used at that time. There is no need to re-convert.

(Note that the setting for MOBI output is used even if the book is in AZW3 format.)

It doesn't do this at all. Not even when I delete the books on the Kindle and sideload them again. It used to, but now my Kindle ignores author sort, whether I convert or not. This is the problem I'm having.

DiapDealer · 04-25-2018, 06:50 PM

Is there perhaps a plugboard (mis)configured that you've forgotten about which is interfering?

kovidgoyal · 04-25-2018, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guspasho

NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND SORTS THIS WAY KOVID.

NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND YELLS AT PEOPLE THEY ARE EXPECTING TO GET HELP FROM.

What happens when you do that, is they refuse to help you.

Divingduck · 04-26-2018, 02:31 PM

Five to six years calibre experience and still not able to utilize the tool. Can happen. Starting a post with blaming is ... not really intelligent.

Most people I know will usually master this during the first weeks e-reader experience.

04-25-2018, 03:59 PM	#1
guspasho Connoisseur Posts: 50 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: Kindle Touch	Why in the hell doesn't Calibre support proper alphabetization after all these years? 5-6 years ago I asked how to get Calibre to import books to my Kindle and have them sort and display the author name properly, and the answer was to populate the Author Sort field, select "Use author sort for author" and reconvert all my books that I sideload with Calibre, and then remember to manually do the same to every book I want to add thereafter. Not only is this irritating and unintuitive, it appears that this no longer works, as I have been assiduously converting all my books in this way but when I upload them to my new Kindle Paperwhite (latest gen) they all still sort by author's first name. NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND SORTS THIS WAY KOVID. My books that I bought from Amazon all sort by last name as I would expect. Why doesn't this solution work any more? What am I supposed to do now? Is it any more convoluted? Is there another product I should be using if I want this basic functionality to work consistently? Last edited by guspasho; 04-25-2018 at 06:29 PM.

04-25-2018, 06:14 PM	#6
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,496 Karma: 84420419 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Tampa Bay, Florida Device: Kindles	When you use calibre to send books to your Kindle via USB the metadata in those books is updated to match what is currently in your calibre library. The default setting of "use author sort for author" set for MOBI format in Preferences -> Output Options -> MOBI output controls whether Author or Author Sort is used at that time. There is no need to re-convert. (Note that the setting for MOBI output is used even if the book is in AZW3 format.) -------- Kindles sort by whatever is in the author field of the copy of the book on the device, but will unwrap a name containing a comma for display purposes. For example: "Smith, John" sorts by "S" and displays as "John Smith" If the author field is instead set to "John Smith" it will sort by "J", but still display as "John Smith". Last edited by jhowell; 04-25-2018 at 06:39 PM.

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04-25-2018, 05:34 PM	#3
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,165 Karma: 73448616 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Nexus 7, Clara, Touch, Tolino EPOS	Not sure WHO David is and why you expect him to give a damn Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

04-25-2018, 06:07 PM	#5
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 27,547 Karma: 193191846 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	All I know is that dumber people than us have figured it out.

04-25-2018, 06:50 PM	#8
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 27,547 Karma: 193191846 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Is there perhaps a plugboard (mis)configured that you've forgotten about which is interfering?

04-26-2018, 02:31 PM	#10
Divingduck Wizard Posts: 1,161 Karma: 1404241 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Germany Device: Sony PRS-650	Five to six years calibre experience and still not able to utilize the tool. Can happen. Starting a post with blaming is ... not really intelligent. Most people I know will usually master this during the first weeks e-reader experience.