Large library on PC, looking for the best solution to read on tablet

[bobachoba]

Hello there!
I've been using Calibre for a long time, not a heavy browser of this forum even though I found here some valuable advice on plugins and configuring the software appropriately. I actually own a Kindle Paperwhite which is great for me, though it's not so snappy as my Samsung Galaxy Note Pro tablet turning pages (on Moon reader+) and the whole reading experience on a 12.2 tablet feels great, double pages on screen --> not for the faint of heart!

There are various reasons I'd like to read more on the Android tablet so I started looking for a solution to keep my Calibre library synched, even unidirectionally (PC library as master), simply working with a synced copy on my tablet's MicroSD card. Stumbled on CC and tested not extensively with 50-100 books in wireless mode, not server nor cloud, just wireless connection, it worked perfectly (I assume it could even support synchronization among PC and tablet books), but the major issue has been transferring all my family library (more than 10k books). Lot of disconnections, had to kinda refresh everything restarting the connection and letting CC re-read all the tablet catalog, etcetera. Sure with lot of time and patience, bits by bits (500 books every try), I could even locate all the library to the tablet but I came to the point that it doesn't seem time and attention worthy. Even tried with manual copy structured as CC seems to want the files to be in his folders, forcing him to restructure his library catalog, but at most it perceived 3000 books and no more (that could have been much faster than wireless transferring all, bit by bit).

So I'd be very happy to know if you have actually overcome my same problems or you have particular hints. Please mind that my main priorities are:

1) If possible, to have my entire large library synched among PC and Android stuff. Worst scenario, to be able to store locally my library, raw method copy-paste via usb, even on other devices (no metadata sync, so they have to be improved only on the main PC) conserving at least a good solution to retrieve separately notes and maybe highlighted texts.

2) To have a purposeful solution to highlight and maybe add notes to books I read, at least to be able to export them, so not strictly embedded to the epub/mobi files.

I thought about two possibilities I still have, one is to keep synced with a Cloud (Dropbox seems fine) just a maximum of 200 books and use CC to manage them, reading with Moon reader+ or FBreader... what about the notes? And is the Cloud usage fast enough or I have to wait like 5-10 minutes to load the list of 200 books? Or maybe I should copy all the library locally on the android device and then set the path as the main path for my favorite reader app? Dunno what to try, need some of your deep knowledge of the matter!

Thank you all readers,
boba

[chaley]

CC + Wireless Connection can support massive libraries. There is at least one user with a CC library larger than 40,000 books, and many people have libraries in CC larger than 10,000 books. A 200-book library is minuscule. NB: with a large library you should take a look at our FAQ [Android] I have added a lot of books and now adding books takes forever. What do I do?. The suggestions in that FAQ are especially relevant to CC libraries on SD cards.

Assuming that for some reason the wireless device isn't for you, another possibility is the CC Cloud Local Library connection. You put a full copy of your calibre library onto an SD Card, perhaps using a card reader, then use CC to browse that library to get books you want to read. Our FAQ [Android] I have a copy of a calibre library on an SD card. Can CC use it? might help.

CC does not support upwards-synchronization of books; auto-uploading of changed books to calibre. It does support downward sync; auto-downloading changed books from calibre via the wireless connection.

As for the question about Dropbox speed, I suggest that you try it. Performance strongly depends on your network speed, so no one can tell you in advance what yours will be.

As for the rest, I leave it to others. I am not going to spend much time working out ways for you to avoid using my product.

[bobachoba]

Originally Posted by chaley

CC + Wireless Connection can support massive libraries. There is at least one user with a CC library larger than 40,000 books, and many people have libraries in CC larger than 10,000 books. A 200-book library is minuscule. NB: with a large library you should take a look at our FAQ [Android] I have added a lot of books and now adding books takes forever. What do I do?. The suggestions in that FAQ are especially relevant to CC libraries on SD cards.

Assuming that for some reason the wireless device isn't for you, another possibility is the CC Cloud Local Library connection. You put a full copy of your calibre library onto an SD Card, perhaps using a card reader, then use CC to browse that library to get books you want to read. Our FAQ [Android] I have a copy of a calibre library on an SD card. Can CC use it? might help.

CC does not support upwards-synchronization of books; auto-uploading of changed books to calibre. It does support downward sync; auto-downloading changed books from calibre via the wireless connection.

As for the question about Dropbox speed, I suggest that you try it. Performance strongly depends on your network speed, so no one can tell you in advance what yours will be.

As for the rest, I leave it to others. I am not going to spend much time working out ways for you to avoid using my product.

Thank you so much for the extensive reply. Just pointing to the most appropriate faqs means a lot, I had time to read quite all the basics but didn't do all my homework about the first you mentioned. I discovered the cloud option trick for the external SD card just today, wandering back among faqs. I think I'd just try to set up a new session of downloads of the entire library caring especially about the hierarchy coherence and the option to overwrite old books, I can leave the pc solely working on that, with clean bandwidth, for many (12-14) hours; is it possible to estimate a raw time needed to better organize this job? You say I don't have to concerne about CC being capable of handling correctly a huge library and I totally trust your effort in giving such a great software - I bought it since I first used that, just for how precious the initiative seemed to me for Calibre users. I'm bringing back some good news I hope! Alternatively I'd just stuck with downloading by CC wireless few hundreds of books which I plan to be interested in reading soon.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by bobachoba

I think I'd just try to set up a new session of downloads of the entire library caring especially about the hierarchy coherence and the option to overwrite old books, I can leave the pc solely working on that, with clean bandwidth, for many (12-14) hours; is it possible to estimate a raw time needed to better organize this job?

I used to have my entire 10,000+ book library on my tablet. I transferred them via the CC wireless device interface, but I transferred them about 500 at a time. Once they were all on I used the smart eject plugin to keep the library up to date.

Now I just connect to my library in the cloud. I use Dropbox and typically it takes well under a minute to verify the metadata.db library file and download the updated version if required. With 11,000+ books my metadata.db file is about 28Mb. From there it is simple to grab whatever book I wish to read.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by bobachoba

I can leave the pc solely working on that, with clean bandwidth, for many (12-14) hours; is it possible to estimate a raw time needed to better organize this job?

Assuming

• Your home WiFi network has good performance
• You set up the file templates as described in the FAQ
• Your books are "normal" size, averaging arround 1MB each

then I would expect the average time to transfer each book to be less than 3 seconds, perhaps as low as 2. That works out to between 20 and 30 books per minute. Your mileage may vary.

If:

• you have enough space on Dropbox or some other cloud provider
• are always connected to the net
• the network performance is acceptable
• don't have overly-limiting data metering

then you might be better served doing what DoctorOhh suggests. The time taken for CC's Cloud Connection to start is directly related to the size of the calibre database and how often it changes. If the db hasn't changed since the last connection then CC doesn't download it again. The size of the books has no impact on startup time, but of course will have an impact on download time.

[bobachoba]

Outstanding results achieved simply editing the hierarchy template in the CC library folder, simple as following the faqs suggested by charlie: [Android] I have added a lot of books and now adding books takes forever. What do I do?. I used the third template, {first_author:%1.1s}/{first_author}/{title} - {authors}, and syncing downward the entire library was blazing fast it was like VROOM VROOM but more sci-fi compared to the previous attempts. I suggest everyone with a big library, or just some thousands of books, to read carefully that page. It works brilliantly! Sure you have to check first all the little technical previous steps as suggested above (I did verify all of them at the first install). Thank you again for the substantial contribute!