Calibre questions re. 2 computers using same library

[slayda]

I have two computers on my network & sometimes I work on one and other times on the other. They both have Calibre & point to the same location (on Dropbox) for the library, i.e. I enter books sometimes via one & sometimes via the other.

Questions;

• How do I keep the two Calibre's in sync or can I?
• What happens to the DB if/when they're out of sync?
• Do they, maybe (hopefully), automatically stay in sync?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by slayda

I have two computers on my network & sometimes I work on one and other times on the other. They both have Calibre & point to the same location (on Dropbox) for the library, i.e. I enter books sometimes via one & sometimes via the other.

Questions;

• How do I keep the two Calibre's in sync or can I?
• What happens to the DB if/when they're out of sync?
• Do they, maybe (hopefully), automatically stay in sync?

Never have Both computers accessing the same Library at the same time.
1) Calibre was not designed to have this.
2) your dropbox should have time to sync

VNC or other remote control (RDC if Windows) software and you only have 1 computer running Calibre (the other is only a remote of the first) could be a solution if both are UP at the same time.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by slayda

How do I keep the two Calibre's in sync or can I?

Follow the advice about never running a calibre on more than one machine at a time, and give DropBox time to sync changes before either closing a machine that has just run on Calibre or starting Calibre on another machine.

[*]What happens to the DB if/when they're out of sync?

You will find that changes you make on one machine are not visible on the other machine as the different instances of Calibre will overwrite each others changes.

One good thing is that if you get into the state where the databases are out os sync youncan use the facility that allows Calibre to rebuild the database from the Metadat.opf file it stores with each book. This should get you back to a consistent state I believe (although I have not tried it myself)

[*]Do they, maybe (hopefully), automatically stay in sync?

As was mentioned earlier, only if you never run Calibre on more than one machine at the same time and give DropBox time to sync changes.

Development is under way to allow calibre to operate with multiple active clients against the same database, so when that is complete it will be possible to run multiple clients at the same time. Until that is ready (no ETA) then if you are careful and follow the guidelines above you should be OK.

[unboggling]

There are some workarounds even if you don't use DropBox or other FileHosting/Syncing service.

One way is to make a copy of the library, then make only that copy available to the other instance of calibre on the other computer. And remember to use it only as Read-Only, any changes made won't cross over to the original. That was the way I was doing it to have 2 different libraries open on side by side computers.