Entire Database Has Disappeared

[couponprof]

I do not know what to do. I opened Calibre the other day and EVERYTHING is gone. The only thing here is the Quick Start Guide - it looks like Calibre has been completely reset.

So I tried to restore the database. I chose my calibre library and hit OK.

It says "Restoring database from backups, do not interrupt, this will happen in multiple stages." So I just let it run.

It has been "restoring database" for TWO DAYS! I do not know if it is actually doing anything or if it is just stuck. Should I hit cancel? What should I do?

Help, please!

[BetterRed]

Which operating system and version?
Which version of calibre?
Location of your calibre library?
How many books did you have in your library (roughly)?

BR

[kovidgoyal]

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...libre-is-blank

[couponprof]

Hi. I'm on a Windows computer - Windows 11 I think.
Calibre is version 7.4.0
My library is on my hard drive (is that what you were asking?) - it's in a folder My Calibre Library
Not sure how many books I have but at least 5K I think.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by couponprof

Hi. I'm on a Windows computer - Windows 11 I think.
Calibre is version 7.4.0
My library is on my hard drive (is that what you were asking?) - it's in a folder My Calibre Library
Not sure how many books I have but at least 5K I think.

Whom ar you replying to?
Did you follow the recovery instructions in the Link given by Kovid?

[couponprof]

Originally Posted by theducks

Whom ar you replying to?
Did you follow the recovery instructions in the Link given by Kovid?

Hi theducks! I was replying to BetterRed.

Yes, I did try the instructions in the link.

When I went to library maintenance and tried "Restore database", it went to the new database that has just the one item (the quick-start guide). So that's no help.

When I try to get it to go to the original library, it says the database appears to be corrupted and asks if I want calibre to try to automatically rebuild it. I said yes, and that's what got me "Restoring database from backups, do not interrupt, this will happen in multiple stages" on my screen. I stopped the restore after about 5 days of it just sitting there.

Not sure what to do now. I have literally THOUSANDS of e-books and importing them all back into Calibre one by one all over again is just an impossible task.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by couponprof

Not sure what to do now. I have literally THOUSANDS of e-books and importing them all back into Calibre one by one all over again is just an impossible task.

One thing you can try is making a new database, to re-create any custom columns you had in the old one, then using Add > Add from Folders and Sub-Folders. "Assume all ebook files in a single folder are multiple formats..." set to yes.

It might be better to do this by each author folder in small batches.

[theducks]

5 days IIRC (I have used this 1 time in a decade) this normally does a couple of books per second

Restore starts with building a fresh metadata.db by using metadata_db_prefs_backup.json to recreate your customization/configuration.

Then it recursively reads metadata.opf from each author\book folder it finds. (that is what you see normally in the grid view)

I would start with a (windows) DISK CHECK and make sure the filesystem is intact. That is all I can think about it going off the deep end.

[couponprof]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

One thing you can try is making a new database, to re-create any custom columns you had in the old one, then using Add > Add from Folders and Sub-Folders. "Assume all ebook files in a single folder are multiple formats..." set to yes.

It might be better to do this by each author folder in small batches.

Thanks ownedbycats! I tried that with the first two authors and it seems to be working. Even put the series and numbering that I'd added in. Going to take a while to do this, but much better than having to manually import each book and add in all the metadata again!