Cannot add any books to Calibre

[kimberlynorton]

I cannot get Calibre to add books. Trying to add the .epub book titled The Swift Programming Language by Apple. I get the error message:

calibre, version 3.16.0
WARNING: Errors while adding: There were problems adding some files, click "Show details" for more information

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Failed to add the file /Users/kimberlynorton/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/22651C84B5200231F2568B76D294EC4E.epub to the book: /Users/kimberlynorton/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/22651C84B5200231F2568B76D294EC4E
With error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/add.py", line 430, in add_formats
File "site-packages/calibre/db/cache.py", line 1410, in add_format
File "site-packages/calibre/startup.py", line 122, in local_open
IOError: [Errno 21] Is a directory: u'/Users/kimberlynorton/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/22651C84B5200231F2568B76D294EC4E.epub'

I am running macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.3. Note: I can launch Calibre, I just cannot add an ePub book to it.

Sorry, but I am new to the forum and lost on what I am doing, so posting all over the place.

[KevinH]

I think the real error is this:

IOError: [Errno 21] Is a directory: u'/Users/kimberlynorton/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/22651C84B5200231F2568B76D294EC4E.epub'

which means that iBooks has unzipped the epub into a folder whose name ends in ".epub". So you are asking calibre to try to load a folder and not a real zipped up epub file.

I have no idea why iBooks does that (giving a .epub extension to a folder).

Perhaps try dragging and dropping that folder onto an epub zip tool and try loading the result?

[DoctorOhh]

I did a search in this forum for "[Errno 21]" and found this response by Kovid, which is exactly what KevinH stated.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Ibooks stores epub files as directories, not actual epub files. calibre cannot import those. A bit of googling will get you some scripts you can use to convert the directories back into actual epub files which you can them import into calibre.

[KevinH]

And after a quick search of MR you can find a free, drag and drop tool for Macs to properly create an epub from a folder that holds an epub's contents.

Here is the link:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...49&postcount=1

Download and install the ePubZip/Unzip tool then drag or drop the folder with the .epub extension inside iBooks onto it, and it shoudl create a real .epub file you should be able to load in Calibre.

[kimberlynorton]

Hi everyone, thanks for your help. The EPubZip does the trick!

Here is what I had to do for anyone else interested.
--Install the ePub Zip app.
--Launch iBooks.
--Drag the iBook icon (from inside iBooks) on top of the ePub Zip app.

Note: you do not double click the ePub Zip app to launch it, you just drag the icon onto the app file. Also, you are not dragging the epub file from the finder folder, you are dragging the actual icon of the book from inside iBooks.

If you cannot install ePub Zip because of security, then do the following: Apple, System Preferences, Security & Privacy, General tab, select to allow from this developer.

Here is the link to the ePubZip again:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...49&postcount=1

Again, thanks, ~Kim

[gamcall]

Originally Posted by kimberlynorton

Hi everyone, thanks for your help. The EPubZip does the trick!

Here is what I had to do for anyone else interested.
--Install the ePub Zip app.
--Launch iBooks.
--Drag the iBook icon (from inside iBooks) on top of the ePub Zip app.

Note: you do not double click the ePub Zip app to launch it, you just drag the icon onto the app file. Also, you are not dragging the epub file from the finder folder, you are dragging the actual icon of the book from inside iBooks.

I couldn't get this to work in Books on MacOS Mojave as per this post; i.e. dragging the ePub book's icon from Books onto EPubZip. What I had to do was:
- make a duplicate of the ePub book's entry from the ePub's folder in the Finder (which has to be opened from Terminal, b.t.w)
- move the duplicate to another (temporary) folder
- remove the .epub extension from the duplicate file (otherwise the utility will just delete it). This will then show as a folder in the Finder
- *then* drag the renamed folder onto the utility which will yield the importable epub file.

Regards,

GAM

[Polgs]

I couldn't get this to work in Books on MacOS Mojave as per this post; i.e. dragging the ePub book's icon from Books onto EPubZip. What I had to do was:
- make a duplicate of the ePub book's entry from the ePub's folder in the Finder (which has to be opened from Terminal, b.t.w)
- move the duplicate to another (temporary) folder
- remove the .epub extension from the duplicate file (otherwise the utility will just delete it). This will then show as a folder in the Finder
- *then* drag the renamed folder onto the utility which will yield the importable epub file.

Thanks gamcall, that fixed my problem. I'm on macOS Catalina and calibre 4.13.