Linking Calibre to an existing library on a new MacBook

[Josieb1]

Hi, I have a new MacBook and I need to link Calibre to my existing library which has been downloaded to the Mac. I can’t do it. I keep getting error messages saying that the location already holds a calibre library.

Can anyone help me please

[BetterRed]

This should help



BR

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

This should help

Attachment 214257

BR

Hi BetterRed, thank you, but that is what I am doing. If I select Joanne Documents (calibre folder is within Joanne Documents) I get the error message “There is no existing Calibre Libary” and if I select Joanne Documents/Calibre I get the error message “Calibre Library contains the current calibre library”.

I’m completely flummoxed, I just don’t know what to do.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Hi BetterRed, thank you, but that is what I am doing. If I select Joanne Documents (calibre folder is within Joanne Documents) I get the error message “There is no existing Calibre Libary” and if I select Joanne Documents/Calibre I get the error message “Calibre Library contains the current calibre library”.

I’m completely flummoxed, I just don’t know what to do.

Dropbox and any similar service is a "Networked drive".

See ==>> I am getting errors with my calibre library on a networked drive/NAS?

I suggest you copy the library from Dropbox to a local drive and see what happens there.

BR

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Attachment 214260

Dropbox and any similar service is a "Networked drive".

See ==>> I am getting errors with my calibre library on a networked drive/NAS?

I suggest you copy the library from Dropbox to a local drive and see what happens there.

BR

Thank you again, but that can’t be the problem. Although Calibre is in Dropbox it is downloaded to the Mac so the entire library including all the db files are on my MacBook.

I have three PCs all linked to the same Calibre Library in Dropbox. There isn’t a problem with those PCs. I need calibre to be accessible on those three PCs as well as my Mac so moving it to a non-network drive is not an option.

I just need to understand why calibre can’t actually see the library when it knows where the library is?

[Josieb1]

Is there anywhere else I can get help as I have to get this working?

[BetterRed]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre

Make reference to this tread

BR

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre

Make reference to this tread

BR

Thank you again

I have raised a bug report. It’s probably something I am doing wrong but I am at a loss to understand it.

[DNSB]

The issue would appear to be that you copied your old library to the same location on your new MacBook. That location is calibre's default location for it's library. I would suggest renaming the old library directory from "Calibre Library" to "Old Library" and copying it to a location outside a documents directory that is synced with DropBox. Then try the Use previously existing library at new location tool to add it to calibre.

I must agree with BetterRed that having your library 2 way syncing with DropBox is a very very bad idea.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The issue would appear to be that you copied your old library to the same location on your new MacBook. That location is calibre's default location for it's library. I would suggest renaming the old library directory from "Calibre Library" to "Old Library" and copying it to a location outside a documents directory that is synced with DropBox. Then try the Use previously existing library at new location tool to add it to calibre.

I must agree with BetterRed that having your library 2 way syncing with DropBox is a very very bad idea.

I didn’t copy my library over to my Mac it downloaded to my Mac from Dropbox. It’s in the correct location as per my Dropbox folder I just don’t understand why I can’t link to it. I had no issues each time I linked to the other three PCs, which are all windows PCs. I had a MacBook before and again I had no issues. It should be quite simple.

I need Calibre in Dropbox as I use Calibre Sync.if I have to put it on my MacBook on the internal storage, and not within the Dropbox folder, it will be difficult to manage as I will essentially have two Calibre Libraries and every book I load will need to be loaded on both of them.

Calibre IS on my MacBook it’s just the folder is prefixed Dropbox. It’s not offline in the cloud, it’s on my MacBook.

[BetterRed]

What happened to your launchpad post, did Kovid respond?

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

What happened to your launchpad post, did Kovid respond?

Yes he did, he thinks the metadata.db file is corrupted. I have been into Dropbox and restored the file from earlier yesterday, before my Macbook arrived. I’m going to check on my Windows laptop this morning that everything is okay, then I will turn on my MacBook and let the file sync. Then try again.

If I still have issues I will copy Dropbox to a folder on my MacBook that is outside of the Dropbox folder and see if that works.

If it still doesn’t I will update the bug report.

[Josieb1]

Everything is fine this morning, Calibre correctly showed my library as soon as I opened it up, after I made sure the metadata.db file had updated.

I think I caused the the problem because I tried to link my calibre before all the files had down loaded from Dropbox and somehow I corrupted the metadata.db file.

I am now making a backup of Calibre on an external hard drive.

Thanks you both for your help

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Everything is fine this morning, Calibre correctly showed my library as soon as I opened it up, after I made sure the metadata.db file had updated.

I think I caused the the problem because I tried to link my calibre before all the files had down loaded from Dropbox and somehow I corrupted the metadata.db file.

That would explain it… maybe Dropbox does block mode synchronisation.

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I am now making a backup of Calibre on an external hard drive.

BR