"Remove all formats from selected books" not working?

[HeatherMC]

I'm trying to clear up my library but when I try to remove books, only the actual "Remove Books" option works. But that only deletes one format, leaving behind the same books in different formats. I've tried using "Remove all formats from selected books" but that does nothing at all. Is there any way I can make that work?

[MartyTX]

Heather,

Welcome to the forum.

Have you clicked the small arrow to the right of the "Remove books" button and selected "Remove all formats from selected books, except ..."?

This option works for me.

[eschwartz]

Do you want to remove the library record, or leave it there but as an empty book, or what?

[HeatherMC]

Originally Posted by MartyTX

Heather,

Welcome to the forum.

Have you clicked the small arrow to the right of the "Remove books" button and selected "Remove all formats from selected books, except ..."?

This option works for me.

Thank you. I haven't tried that, but because I want to delete all copies, I'm not sure that'll work.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Do you want to remove the library record, or leave it there but as an empty book, or what?

I want to remove it from my library and delete the file from the My Documents > Calibre Library folder. I had to download a ton of books for school and I don't want them on my hard-drive anymore. I have a DVD backup, but I don't want them on my computer cause they are all taking up way too much space.

[theducks]

There are 2 kinds of remove:

The Basic Delete (the recycle icon in Library view): Applies to selected books and needs a confirm.
This removes Everything About the book as well.

Then there is what we call 'The Empty Book'.
This leaves the entry in the list, but has no actual book files (except cover.jpg and metadata.opf, which are fairly small)
To create this from a former entry (with a format)
Select Books: Right-click:Remove:All Formats (confirm)

Since you have a DVD backup, why not apply a tag 'On DVD ###'

[HeatherMC]

Originally Posted by theducks

There are 2 kinds of remove:

The Basic Delete (the recycle icon in Library view): Applies to selected books and needs a confirm.
This removes Everything About the book as well.

Then there is what we call 'The Empty Book'.
This leaves the entry in the list, but has no actual book files (except cover.jpg and metadata.opf, which are fairly small)
To create this from a former entry (with a format)
Select Books: Right-click:Remove:All Formats (confirm)

Since you have a DVD backup, why not apply a tag 'On DVD ###'

It's the basic delete that I'd like, but isn't working. It deletes one copy (for example, a epub) but leaves another (like a mobi). So I have to keep going into the Windows Explorer to the Calibre Library and manually deleting the files. It's taking forever.

[BetterRed]

@HeatherMC - to remove a book from the library hit the delete key in calibre. To remove a file from the My Documents folder, hit the delete key in Windows/File explorer (shift/del to delete permanently). In both cases you can select multiple items.

Calibre doesn't have a permanent delete capability - ie no shift/del - its always deletes to the Recycle bin. When calibre does book deletions it moves the data to transient folders which are then sent to the Recycle bin. So to get that space back you must either delete those folders from the Recycle bin, or empty the Recycle bin entirely.

BR

[HeatherMC]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@HeatherMC - to remove a book from the library hit the delete key in calibre. To remove a file from the My Documents folder, hit the delete key in Windows/File explorer (shift/del to delete permanently). In both cases you can select multiple items.

Calibre doesn't have a permanent delete capability - ie no shift/del - its always deletes to the Recycle bin. When calibre does book deletions it moves the data to transient folders which are then sent to the Recycle bin. So to get that space back you must either delete those folders from the Recycle bin, or empty the Recycle bin entirely.

BR

That's basically what I've been having to do. "Remove Books" from Calibre, then delete from the My Documents>Calibre Library folder separately. It all goes into the Recycle Bin. I don't mind that. I just empty that every couple days. I wish calibre let you delete the physical file. =\

[theducks]

Originally Posted by HeatherMC

That's basically what I've been having to do. "Remove Books" from Calibre, then delete from the My Documents>Calibre Library folder separately. It all goes into the Recycle Bin. I don't mind that. I just empty that every couple days. I wish calibre let you delete the physical file. =\

You should never delete anything inside a Library folder with the OS.

Check the folder Ownership/Rights (use the OS for this).
You must have full rights to All folders inside a Library.
Something odd might of happened during Library creation (or did you transfer from a CD/other media) The Library must not be connected to the cloud while running Calibre.

Once proper rights are settled, run library maintenance and complete fixing any identified errors . If you have been manually doing things, there will be errors.

[BetterRed]

Select the book in the book list and hit the delete key. The book folder and the book's database records will be deleted, and if the author folder is now empty it will go too, along with its database records.



Maybe you changed the keyboard assignment for Remove selected books from the default 'Del' to something else, if so it should display where I've drawn a green box.

BR

[HeatherMC]

Originally Posted by theducks

You should never delete anything inside a Library folder with the OS.

Check the folder Ownership/Rights (use the OS for this).
You must have full rights to All folders inside a Library.
Something odd might of happened during Library creation (or did you transfer from a CD/other media) The Library must not be connected to the cloud while running Calibre.

Once proper rights are settled, run library maintenance and complete fixing any identified errors . If you have been manually doing things, there will be errors.

I do have full rights. I ran the Maintenance and didn't have any Error on the first part but I did have some "Extra Titles" and "Extra Authors".

Right now it seems like I have no choice but to delete the files in the Library folder. Calibre isn't doing it.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by HeatherMC

It's the basic delete that I'd like, but isn't working. It deletes one copy (for example, a epub) but leaves another (like a mobi). So I have to keep going into the Windows Explorer to the Calibre Library and manually deleting the files. It's taking forever.

So the book record is removed (and calibre hasn't got a clue why that folder even exists) but you still see files in Explorer?

Sounds like the book is being locked by some other process. Is it open in a reader of some sort, or are you using Dropbox by any chance?

[HeatherMC]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

So the book record is removed (and calibre hasn't got a clue why that folder even exists) but you still see files in Explorer?

Exactly. But only with one of the files types (it will normally delete epub or pdfs but keep mobis), even though I select "Remove all formats".

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Sounds like the book is being locked by some other process. Is it open in a reader of some sort, or are you using Dropbox by any chance?

Nope to both. I don't have my Dropbox linked to it at all. And Windows lets me delete it, so I don't think it's open, hidden somewhere (it's happened with numerous files).