Missing many .OPF files

[MontyJ]

Hola!

After moving my libraries due to a disk change, I suddenly have 330+ titles not showing in my library. Doing library maintenance, I get a total of 446 total Extra Titles and Extra Authors listed.

The original folders are there, with .mobi and .epub and cover files, but no .opf. I don't know how they got removed.

I did make a total library folder backup and then deleted the metadata.db file and then ran a library restore. Still not showing those "Extra Titles".

If all is lost, is there a way to import those titles as new ones and go get the metadata for them? I know I can do it one at a time, but with over 300 of them to do, that is a lot of manual work!

Any way to somehow create a "list" of those files and use the "Import List" plugin to make the process go a little faster?

Other ideas?

Thx

Monty

[theducks]

Those OPF ARE what the RESTORE uses to rebuild the DB .
This is a different (and way faster) process that doing an ADD, since the metadata was known.

If they were missing BEFORE the restore, then the DB never built them (this is a background task that chugs along at a OPF every few seconds, when needed. Library Maintenance: Library Backup Status. It will be drop to 0 when caught up after a large amount of changes) . You may have shut calibre down one last time, before your system had time to catch up)

Or the DB had accumulated those errors to begin with.

Now, the recovery invokes Identifying the Unknowns: Dragging them OUT of the Library FOLDER: The Add those normally

[MontyJ]

Originally Posted by theducks

Those OPF ARE what the RESTORE uses to rebuild the DB .
This is a different (and way faster) process that doing an ADD, since the metadata was known.

If they were missing BEFORE the restore, then the DB never built them (this is a background task that chugs along at a OPF every few seconds, when needed. Library Maintenance: Library Backup Status. It will be drop to 0 when caught up after a large amount of changes) . You may have shut calibre down one last time, before your system had time to catch up)

Or the DB had accumulated those errors to begin with.

Now, the recovery invokes Identifying the Unknowns: Dragging them OUT of the Library FOLDER: The Add those normally

Thanks. Library Maint identified them all, and I copied the list to clipboard and saved. It's that "Dragging them OUT of the Library FOLDER" thing I was hoping to make go a tad faster than a one-at-a-time process.

Perhaps that is an option Kovid could consider adding to Library Maint, ie if the books are still there, have an ID number, then optionally pull them back into the library en mass so all that is left to do is go get new metadata. It would save a lot of work, especially for large numbers of titles.

Anyway, thanks!

Monty

[theducks]

Originally Posted by MontyJ

Thanks. Library Maint identified them all, and I copied the list to clipboard and saved. It's that "Dragging them OUT of the Library FOLDER" thing I was hoping to make go a tad faster than a one-at-a-time process.

Perhaps that is an option Kovid could consider adding to Library Maint, ie if the books are still there, have an ID number, then optionally pull them back into the library en mass so all that is left to do is go get new metadata. It would save a lot of work, especially for large numbers of titles.

Anyway, thanks!

Monty

The issue is the ID may now be WRONG. How deep does/did the corruption go now that you need to do a repair??

[BetterRed]

@MontyJ - you can regenerate the book folder metadata.opf files with the calibredb backup_metadata subcommand.

To deal with "Extra Titles" etc, create an empty library with same custom columns as the problem library via the library Create/switch dialogue, then use the Copy to Library (with delete) tool to copy all the books from the 'problem library' to the new one. The books that are left in 'problem library' can be added en-masse using the Add Books one book per directory option.

Review your workflow. Check library errors like extra authors and titles, and missing metadata.opf files are almost invariably caused by using a file manager to add, rename, delete sub-directories and files within in the library directory tree.

BR

[MontyJ]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@MontyJ - you can regenerate the book folder metadata.opf files with the calibredb backup_metadata subcommand.

To deal with "Extra Titles" etc, create an empty library with same custom columns as the problem library via the library Create/switch dialogue, then use the Copy to Library (with delete) tool to copy all the books from the 'problem library' to the new one. The books that are left in 'problem library' can be added en-masse using the Add Books one book per directory option.

Review your workflow. Check library errors like extra authors and titles, and missing metadata.opf files are almost invariably caused by using a file manager to add, rename, delete sub-directories and files within in the library directory tree.

BR

Thanks for the tip! I did that. Did a "move library" to new location. It left behind 80 titles. My original database maintenance said I had 300+ "Extra Titles". I went ahead and imported those 80 into the new library location. Then I ran the Library maintenance again and all the "Extra Authors" were now gone (80?), but I still had the 300+ "Extra Titles" in the new library.