Duplicate Books named "Unknown", Why created anyway & How to get rid off them safely?

[KWhytte]

Using Calibre 0.8.66 Portable and just upgraded to 0.8.67 portable

Hi there,

I'm new to this program and I have a problem of duplicate book files such as "unknown" in so many "unknown" folders after I change the author name from unknown to a specific one or change the author name from a wrong one to a new one.

Is there any steps I have done wrong doing so therefore I ended up so many folders like "unknown" or something else where the duplicate book files exist?

Or I cannot find a proper way to get rid off these "orphan" folders if there is a method for that since the program itself should not have duplicated them in the first place

I have the following ultimate questions:


1) How can I safely remove the "orphan" folders and its duplicate books without damaging or deleting the original copies of the books?

2) How can I make sure it doesn't happen again in future author name changes?

3) I need a "find duplicates" plugin also searches orphan folders and get rid off them with their contents safely as the current "find duplicates" plugin doesn't handle them. Any suggestions please?

Kind Regards



Kimberley

[theducks]

Originally Posted by KWhytte

Using Calibre 0.8.66 Portable and just upgraded to 0.8.67 portable

Hi there,

I'm new to this program and I have a problem of duplicate book files such as "unknown" in so many "unknown" folders after I change the author name from unknown to a specific one or change the author name from a wrong one to a new one.

Is there any steps I have done wrong doing so therefore I ended up so many folders like "unknown" or something else where the duplicate book files exist?

Or I cannot find a proper way to get rid off these "orphan" folders if there is a method for that since the program itself should not have duplicated them in the first place

I have the following ultimate questions:


1) How can I safely remove the "orphan" folders and its duplicate books without damaging or deleting the original copies of the books?

2) How can I make sure it doesn't happen again in future author name changes?

3) I need a "find duplicates" plugin also searches orphan folders and get rid off them with their contents safely as the current "find duplicates" plugin doesn't handle them. Any suggestions please?

Kind Regards



Kimberley

Read this sticky for why you should not be doing it 'your way'
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=119175
Unknown is what you get when you have no Author set in the Library

[KWhytte]

Originally Posted by theducks

Read this sticky for why you should not be doing it 'your way'
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=119175
Unknown is what you get when you have no Author set in the Library

Thank you for your prompt answer.
I've just read the link.
I understand the structure on the other hand I cannot justify why I should have 600 mb and growing more unwanted duplicate I have to accomadate

Can you please tell me why you are happy to keep extra junk duplicate in your storage?

kind regards

kimberley

[davidfor]

I can see why theducks posted that link, but from your posts, I don't know what you are doing and what is happening.

As the theducks said, you will have directories called "unknown" if the books in the library do not have an author or title. To fix this, you need to fix the author and titles in calibre. calibre will then rename the directories and files as appropriate. If after doing this, the "unknown" files and directories still exist, then there is a problem.

If you directly edit the directory and file names, then you will break things.

So, what are you actually doing when these extra files appear? Or don't disappear.

[KWhytte]

Originally Posted by davidfor

you will have directories called "unknown" if the books in the library do not have an author or title. To fix this, you need to fix the author and titles in calibre. calibre will then rename the directories and files as appropriate. If after doing this, the "unknown" files and directories still exist, then there is a problem.

If you directly edit the directory and file names, then you will break things.

So, what are you actually doing when these extra files appear? Or don't disappear.

Thank you David,
I may have been doing something wrong and now I am trying to find a way to correct it by finding out where I went wrong.

What I did was I cleared the author field and enter the real author field in the calibre interface

right click on the individual book
edit metadata
edit metadata individually

clear the wrong Author field
Enter the new Author field
then OK it to save the " edit metadata individually"
that's it.

Please correct me if I went wrong and tell me the steps for the
correct way

and I ended up so many "orphan" author folders where I have
extra copy of the original books

That's amount to 600mb+ and ever growing due to correcting the author
fields

I now have an extra 600mb+ ever growing junk of duplicates in the "Calibre Library" folder

I definatelly need help to clean the junk as well as find a way not
to create more and more

kind regards

Kimberley

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by KWhytte

Thank you David,
I may have been doing something wrong and now I am trying to find a way to correct it by finding out where I went wrong.

What I did was I cleared the author field and enter the real author field in the calibre interface

right click on the individual book
edit metadata
edit metadata individually

clear the wrong Author field
Enter the new Author filed
then OK it to save the " edit metadata individually"
that's it.

Please correct me if I went wrong and tell me the steps for the
correct way

That is the correct way to do it. I have never had books left behind. I just checked it was OK on one of my libraries with 0.8.67.

and I ended up so many "orphan" author folders where I have
extra copy of the original books

That's amount to 600mb+ and ever growing due to correcting the author
fileds

I now have an extra 600mb+ ever growing junk of duplicates in the "Calibre Library" folder

I definatelly need help to clean the junk as well as find a way not
to create more and more

It sounds like something else is going wrong. The first thought is that the files are marked as read only. calibre actually does a copy followed by a delete, so if the original are read only, it might not be able to delete them.

Another possibility is the file system is damaged somehow and the deletes aren't working. Running a check on the drive would be a good idea.

The only other thing is if this happened with the previous version. The changes for 0.8.67 include a change in how larger books are copied. Are the books bigger than 3MB?

[KWhytte]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That is the correct way to do it. I have never had books left behind. I just checked it was OK on one of my libraries with 0.8.67.



It sounds like something else is going wrong. The first thought is that the files are marked as read only. calibre actually does a copy followed by a delete, so if the original are read only, it might not be able to delete them.

Another possibility is the file system is damaged somehow and the deletes aren't working. Running a check on the drive would be a good idea.

The only other thing is if this happened with the previous version. The changes for 0.8.67 include a change in how larger books are copied. Are the books bigger than 3MB?

Yes I have books over 3Mb.

I don't know what to do at this stage.

Any suggestions please on the followings?

a) How to get rid off the duplicates?
b) What should i do from now on, so it does not happen again?

kind regards

Kimberley

[itimpi]

You might want to run the Calibre- Library->Maintenance option (available via the Library icon on the main toolbar). This will check the library file structure against the Calibre database and provide options for correcting any errors found. This should help with eliminating orphan folders.

[KWhytte]

Originally Posted by itimpi

You might want to run the Calibre- Library->Maintenance option (available via the Library icon on the main toolbar). This will check the library file structure against the Calibre database and provide options for correcting any errors found. This should help with eliminating orphan folders.

Amazing. I run the library maintenance
library database and I marked all the extra authors etc (while I made a back up copy, scared to hell)
deleted the marked ones
it has cleaned all the orphans for me
run a check again
no problem

I have checked the folders through windows explorer, all the extra junk disappeared


Thank you itimbi

You have solved my problem

all the best

Kimberley

[itimpi]

Glad to hear that it helped.

I guess it does not explain why the situation arose in the first place, but at least it reduces the effect.

[KWhytte]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Glad to hear that it helped.

I guess it does not explain why the situation arose in the first place, but at least it reduces the effect.

Yes, the junk has gone without knowing the existence in the first place.

I need to watch out next time if it happens again and under what circumstances

And If that happens again, at least I know how to clean it safely,

thank you again and all the best

kimberley