Dealing with Multiple Calibre libraries

[samoanbiscuit]

Hi, I use multiple Calibre libraries, one for fanfic, one for novels/books, and one for comics. Currently, I only use Calibre Companion for syncing my fanfic library from my PC to my phone and tablet. I'm thinking about using it to sync my other Calibre libraries, but so far I haven't found a way to do it. Am I just dumb or does CC only support syncing with one library?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by samoanbiscuit

Hi, I use multiple Calibre libraries, one for fanfic, one for novels/books, and one for comics. Currently, I only use Calibre Companion for syncing my fanfic library from my PC to my phone and tablet. I'm thinking about using it to sync my other Calibre libraries, but so far I haven't found a way to do it. Am I just dumb or does CC only support syncing with one library?

CC syncs with whatever library calibre has open when you connect as a wireless device.

If your question is "does CC maintain multiple libraries" then the answer is no. Books sent from multiple calibre libraries are stored together in CC. If it is important to you to know which library a particular book came from then create the same custom column in each library and put the library name in it. The most automatic way to do this is to create a column "based on other columns" and use the template

{:'current_library_name()'}

You can add the new column to the grouping drawer by adding the lookup name of that column to the "make groups for custom columns" in settings.

EDIT: If you add the custom column and add it to CC's grouping drawer then a long press on a library name in the grouping drawer will act like selecting a virtual library in calibre. You will see only books from that library in CC, and can sort, group, or whatever on that subset.

[HarryT]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but a virtual library in Calibre is really just a restricted view of the whole library, is it not? If this is the case, could you not simply select the whole library in Calibre, rather than the restricted view of it?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but a virtual library in Calibre is really just a restricted view of the whole library, is it not? If this is the case, could you not simply select the whole library in Calibre, rather than the restricted view of it?

Is this question for me? Under the assumption that it is ...

You are correct. If the "multiple libraries" are in fact virtual libraries in the same physical library then the process is easier. In calibre you choose the virtual library you want to see and send books from it, or send books from the non-restricted library if that is more convenient. CC sees the books as if they came from the non-restricted library. However, I assumed that the OP has different physical libraries, which is why I answered the way I did.

The grouping drawer trick mentioned above also works with virtual libraries. You create a composite custom column with a template that invoked the "virtual_libraries" template function. That function returns the names of the VLs that the book is in. If you group by that column in CC and use the long-press feature, you in effect have your calibre virtual libraries in CC.

[samoanbiscuit]

Thanks for the response. I've elected to just use CC for my fanfic library only, as it's very useful for wrangling large amounts of books very quickly. For the fiction ebooks I like reading, I can easily manually manage them using my ebook reader.