N0-format books not handled by calibre

[Big Library Guy]

Hi everyone.
This is my first post so if I am doing this wrong somehow let me know..
I have been using Calibre for 3 years now with various libraries totalling 65,000 books.
Calibre is great to use but it does have some issues where obvious functions do not work or are missing.

#1 Books with no formats : this happens for many reasons.

for example a given library shows 20000 books at the base of the page BUT if you go to the formats menu option and add together all the individual formats you only get 17000 which means 3000 books have no format.

calibre has nothing to work with just those no-format books.

the only work around is to create a new library (lets call it backup) and copy ALL the books from each format from your library to this new backup library
the result will be that only the 3000 no-format books left in the original library which you can then move or delete.

once the original library is empty you can move the books back again.

this can take hours to copy every book to a backup and then back again especially for libraries with over 20,000 books and only 1 no-format books !!!

what should remove this problem is to go to the format menu and add a NONE category which works exactly like any other format. Using this on the 20000 book library in the example would mean that simply selecting the “NONE” format would show only the non-format books

Now there would be no need to have to do any files copying and then copying back at all, and it is easy to edit/replace the non-format books on a regular basis.

[chaley]

Search for formats:false

Edit: alternatively, click twice on "Formats" in the tag browser so that the minus sign appears next to it.

[darryl]

Chaley has given you sound advice to save using your import/export procedure. However, adding the formats together does not equal total books, as books may have more than 1 format. The total seems to be the number of book records in the database. Sounds like your database is corrupt or there is something amiss with your configuration. Book entries with no ebook files can exist and I suppose are useful if you want to use Calibre to catalogue, say, a library of physical books. However, so far as I am aware you would need to actually import these records or tell Calibre to create them. Someone more knowledgeable about Calibre than I may be able to cast more light on the matter.

I am curious what files actually exist in the 3,000 records you are talking about. Presumably no files are snown on the interface. What files are in the actual directories?

[Terisa de morgan]

The number of books, at the end is formats:false plus formats:true. The last one doesn't take into account the number of formats in the record.

[Big Library Guy]

Thanks
the no-format books were created accidentally mainly by programs to eliminate duplicates from a massive 1,4 million book directory structure made up of random files and a lot of zip files.

for example if you have 2 copies of book x, both in mobi, then one mobi (A) will be eliminated by Duplicate Cleaner Pro but the other mobis (B) folder still has the cover and the opf left in it.

Calibre will end up adding the B folder as a book with no-format. which when you start with 1.4 million books this can generate A LOT of no-format books.

Now i have the problem of books with multiple formats. I want to end up all mobi format only. any ideas ??

[Terisa de morgan]

Yes. Select all the books and use the option "Remove all formats except...."

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Big Library Guy

Thanks
the no-format books were created accidentally mainly by programs to eliminate duplicates from a massive 1,4 million book directory structure made up of random files and a lot of zip files.

for example if you have 2 copies of book x, both in mobi, then one mobi (A) will be eliminated by Duplicate Cleaner Pro but the other mobis (B) folder still has the cover and the opf left in it.

Calibre will end up adding the B folder as a book with no-format. which when you start with 1.4 million books this can generate A LOT of no-format books.

Now i have the problem of books with multiple formats. I want to end up all mobi format only. any ideas ??

To get rid of the database records and folders in library that have no actual book files you can check database and then continue with repair in a dialog box with the check results.

Then you want to eliminate duplicates.
Use plugin "find duplicates", let if find all duplicates and then merge those manually. It is a slow process, but still much quicker than finding duplicates manually.

Then look at the formats you have and select records that only have txt AND do not have mobi format. You can do that using tree structure on the left side of the Calibre main window. You might have to click on the left side to open the sub-window.
Then perform a bulk convert.

[Big Library Guy]

Many Thanks to ALL who gave assistance with these issues.
I have some new issues in a week or so and will post as new threads.