My entire Calibre library just disappeared

[KristaG]

I opened Calibre this morning, and all my book files were gone! I have no idea what happened to them, the database is EMPTY. I checked my Calibre Documents folder, and there are NO book files in it. I don't see a tool within Calibre to recall deleted files, and I had recently emptied my Trash too, so that's a bust. I back up my computer regularly, but I've added books since my last backup, is there any way to retrieve those?

[theducks]

The FAQ has a suggestion

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....libre-is-blank

To Alll
The FAQ is the first place to go BEFORE you do any issue recovery attempt and make a possible simple fix, difficult.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by theducks

The FAQ has a suggestion

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....libre-is-blank

To Alll
The FAQ is the first place to go BEFORE you do any issue recovery attempt and make a possible simple fix, difficult.

The OP is clearly saying that the files are gone from the calibre documents folder. It's not a case of database corruption or misplaced library.

A month ago I had the same problem: my calibre library suddenly disappeared, all the folders inside the "calibre library" directory were gone. I noticed the problem some days after I had backed up the "calibre library" folder. At the time, I thought that maybe instead of copying and pasting, I had cut and pasted. I will never know.

I am using calibre portable and I keep my library in the same pendrive as the program.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Pablo

The OP is clearly saying that the files are gone from the calibre documents folder. It's not a case of database corruption or misplaced library.

A month ago I had the same problem: my calibre library suddenly disappeared, all the folders inside the "calibre library" directory were gone. I noticed the problem some days after I had backed up the "calibre library" folder. At the time, I thought that maybe instead of copying and pasting, I had cut and pasted. I will never know.

I am using calibre portable and I keep my library in the same pendrive as the program.

This may be a symptom of either a Drive (sector) failure (note flash drives have limited write cycles), filesystem corruption (you might recover lost sectors) or an rogue Antivirus intervention.

Check the event viewer and/or A/V logs for ideas of what might have happened.
Note that removable drives are subject to accidental early removal caused errors

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KristaG

I opened Calibre this morning, and all my book files were gone! I have no idea what happened to them, the database is EMPTY.

@KristaG - can you elaborate on this - ie what do you mean by an empty database?

Technically the database is the 'metadata.db' file in the library folder - is it there?

Originally Posted by KristaG

I checked my Calibre Documents folder, and there are NO book files in it.

Are there any author folders and within them any book folders. If there are then what files are present in the book folders?

Originally Posted by KristaG

I don't see a tool within Calibre to recall deleted files, and I had recently emptied my Trash too, so that's a bust.

There isn't one

When a book is 'Removed' calibre moves book folder to a randomly named temporary outer folder and sends that to Trash, so a restore from Trash must be done manually - if it hasn't been emptied meanwhile.

Originally Posted by KristaG

I back up my computer regularly, but I've added books since my last backup, is there any way to retrieve those?

Not unless you've kept a copy elsewhere

FWIW - I keep everything I add to calibre in their original locations until I do my weekly off site backup. Then I delete them, by which time I have 3 copies in one in the calibre library and on its daily and weekly backups.

What operating system and version do you use and which version of calibre ?

BR

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by theducks

This may be a symptom of either a Drive (sector) failure (note flash drives have limited write cycles), filesystem corruption (you might recover lost sectors) or an rogue Antivirus intervention.

That's what I thought. I checked for faulty sectors with chkdsk, but no bad sectors or filesystem corruption was reported.

Originally Posted by theducks

Note that removable drives are subject to accidental early removal caused errors

I always remove my pendrives "safely".

[BetterRed]

@Pablo - FWIW : if Windows, rather than cut and paste consider putting a shortcut to destination into Send To folder. Then use right-click->Send To->destination. Not only safer also avoids 'navigating' from source to destination, hence quicker. Send To a folder is always a copy, even on same drive.

BR

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@Pablo - FWIW : if Windows, rather than cut and paste consider putting a shortcut to destination into Send To folder. Then use right-click->Send To->destination. Not only safer also avoids 'navigating' from source to destination, hence quicker. Send To a folder is always a copy, even on same drive.

BR

Thanks!