Folder Names

[Dan__]

Hello all,

There have been numerous questions over the years about how to change the naming convention on the folders in the Calibre Library so that the Author's last name would appear first. Most of the replies have assumed that the questions were related to "changing the folder structure". No one has really addressed, or provided a solution to, the question of how to get the folders to be named "LastName, FirstName".

Various responders have made comments like "Why do you care about the folder structure since Calibre handles all of that".

Since folder naming and folder structure are not the same thing the questions is: Why would someone care about the naming convention?

The answer, for me, is as follows:

- I store my library in Dropbox. I access it from a number of devices. Since there is no version of Calibre for the iPad, I need to find an epub in Dropbox and "open it in" my epub reader.

- I have over 2000 books in my library and, frankly, I don't remember the first names of all the authors. This makes it next to impossible for me to locate any particular book.

- This would be less of a problem if the folders were named Last,First because then they would sort by something that I am more likely to remember.

So I ask those of you who are Calibre experts again:
- What configuration change is necessary to force the folders to be named Last,First?
- What procedure can I follow to get the existing folders renamed Last,First?

Thank you

[theducks]

I believe the folders follow what is in Authors
So you need to do 2 things (AFTER a library backup )

1) Adjust the Preferences: tweaks: # Author sort name algorithm to copy
2) Use the Quality Check PI: Fix: Swap Author... ONLY select those without Commas

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Dan__

So I ask those of you who are Calibre experts again:
- What configuration change is necessary to force the folders to be named Last,First?
- What procedure can I follow to get the existing folders renamed Last,First?

Thank you

The answer is simple and the same as it has been for the 6+ years I have been using calibre: manually change all the author names to be LN, FN. This works because calibre uses the actual author name for the folder name. There is no other way.

There is no way to tell calibre to change new FN LN authors to be LN, FN. Calibre uses the author it is given with the book. If you don't like the result then you must change it manually every time you add a new author to your library.

"Correcting" existing authors is not a configuration change but is instead a data change. If you do it then the author folders will be renamed (a slow operation). How you make the data change is up to you. You could use "Manage Authors" (right-click on Authors in the tag browser) to copy Author Sort to Author (be prepared to wait a long time) then manually correct the mistakes. Or you could do the job manually author by author (e.g., again in "Manage Authors"). Or some other way, book by book. There is no automatic way to do this that will always get it right.

Before doing anything you will want to do as theducks says: set the author sort tweak to "comma" (the default I think) or "copy". And please please make a backup of your library, just because.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by chaley

There is no way to tell calibre to change new FN LN authors to be LN, FN. Calibre uses the author it is given with the book. If you don't like the result then you must change it manually every time you add a new author to your library.
.

The Quality check PI CAN do this, It is fairly fast (20 book groups in seconds)

FIX: Swap. Note This will not fix the case where one Author is Fn Ln and another in the same book is Ln, Fn

[chaley]

Originally Posted by theducks

The Quality check PI CAN do this, It is fairly fast (20 book groups in seconds)

FIX: Swap. Note This will not fix the case where one Author is Fn Ln and another in the same book is Ln, Fn

That isn't an automatic change. You, the user, must choose to run it.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by chaley

That isn't an automatic change. You, the user, must choose to run it.

But it is simple
and a lot easier than doing a book at a time

[Dan__]

I have followed the suggestions, especially manage authors|copy author_sort to author. It did indeed in fact create new directories for many authors however, it left many author names untouched and left behind the old directories with the firstName first. The Library maintenance function does not flag any of these as not in the catalog or as potential deletes. So there is still a lot of manual cleanup required.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Dan__

I have followed the suggestions, especially manage authors|copy author_sort to author. It did indeed in fact create new directories for many authors however, it left many author names untouched and left behind the old directories with the firstName first. The Library maintenance function does not flag any of these as not in the catalog or as potential deletes. So there is still a lot of manual cleanup required.

does the WRONG Author name show in the Tag Browser? that says it still exists some place ( click it to see where )

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Dan__

Since there is no version of Calibre for the iPad...

Just so you know - there's an IOS version of Calibre Companion under development, there's a couple of threats in the CC forum about it

BR

[Dan__]

Originally Posted by theducks

does the WRONG Author name show in the Tag Browser? that says it still exists some place ( click it to see where )

Two unexpected behaviors occurred:

1 - Virtually all of the names that included periods, especially names like A. B. Smith, A. B. with an author_sort of Smith, A. B. got correctly renamed to Smith, A. B ut did not have their folders renamed.

2 - Some authors like Fredrick Douglass with an author sort of Douglass, Fredrick also got correctly renamed but the folder names were not changed.

Others similar to either 1 or 2 got processed correctly.

[theducks]

The quality check PI can:

A) Locate metadata variations
B) reformat initials to a (user) standard pattern

Do explore this PI, it has so many checks and a few fixes, to hammer the metadata into order

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Just so you know - there's an IOS version of Calibre Companion under development, there's a couple of threats in the CC forum about it

What exactly is chaley up to?

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by Dan__

I have followed the suggestions, especially manage authors|copy author_sort to author. It did indeed in fact create new directories for many authors however, it left many author names untouched and left behind the old directories with the firstName first. The Library maintenance function does not flag any of these as not in the catalog or as potential deletes. So there is still a lot of manual cleanup required.

Do you make sure that you have Dropbox syncing paused while running Calibre? If not then Dropbox can interfere with Calibre attempts to rename (or delete) folders and files.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by davidfor

What exactly is chaley up to?

david gets the prize for paying attention



BR