Again: Merging two Calibre Libraries

[Angelo]

Well I've been searching how to merge 2 calibre libraries and I found some threads, however I had some issues.

I simply switch to the other calibre library than I select all files and using the right button mouse I copy to the My Calibre default library. There is two options here, one is just to copy and the option is copy and the delete the original file after copy.

Here the problem happens , no matter how option is used to copy the books. For some reason, if calibre cannot copy the file due to some error a dialog window appears to let you know that. However if this happen Calibre stops and the copy process is canceled at all . I think it should continue to copy the remaining ebooks and at the end it could generate a list of the ebooks that caused problems.

Another problem occurs when the two calibre libraries have the same book ( with the same structure of metadata) and it always add a second copy in the main calibre library, i.e., calibre is not detecting the duplicates when merging using the method described above.

The two pŕoblems above results in a more complicated situation. If calibre stops the copy process due to some error, as above, I have to find problematic ebook unselect it and unselect all the ebooks that already have copied to the main library, if not, you will have duplicates ebooks always.


Does someone has a tip to avoid these problems ?


Regards...

[kovidgoyal]

The only way copying can fail is if you have incorrect permissions or some files open in another program. Simply create a dummy third library and copy all the books into it until you have sorted out all problems, then copy to your main library. And use the auto merge options in preferences->adding books to control how duplicates are treated.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Angelo

Well I've been searching how to merge 2 calibre libraries and I found some threads, however I had some issues.

I simply switch to the other calibre library than I select all files and using the right button mouse I copy to the My Calibre default library. There is two options here, one is just to copy and the option is copy and the delete the original file after copy.

Here the problem happens , no matter how option is used to copy the books. For some reason, if calibre cannot copy the file due to some error a dialog window appears to let you know that. However if this happen Calibre stops and the copy process is canceled at all . I think it should continue to copy the remaining ebooks and at the end it could generate a list of the ebooks that caused problems.

Another problem occurs when the two calibre libraries have the same book ( with the same structure of metadata) and it always add a second copy in the main calibre library, i.e., calibre is not detecting the duplicates when merging using the method described above.

The two pŕoblems above results in a more complicated situation. If calibre stops the copy process due to some error, as above, I have to find problematic ebook unselect it and unselect all the ebooks that already have copied to the main library, if not, you will have duplicates ebooks always.


Does someone has a tip to avoid these problems ?


Regards...

Perform the Library Maintenance function on Both Libraries before you start, fix the problems.
That should take care of the error part.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Angelo

For some reason, if calibre cannot copy the file due to some error a dialog window appears to let you know that. However if this happen Calibre stops and the copy process is canceled at all . I think it should continue to copy the remaining ebooks and at the end it could generate a list of the ebooks that caused problems.

The books didn't cause a problem the OS did as a safety feature. If you have your two libraries in Dropbox or other cloud folder/service simply exit the cloud service software prior to copying between libraries and you shouldn't have a problem.