Setting Up a Calibre Library on an SD Card

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Epsilon Rose

Needing to use compatible file systems is not some weird or insurmountable problem. You just format the card in a format all of the OSs you want to work with understand, and that's pretty easy to do when you just want to work with windows and android.

No you don't.
If Calibre for Windows, the card must be NTFS.
If Linux, ext4. If calibre for Apple, then whatever that Apple is using.

It's pointless saving of storage and risking messing up the library. The library isn't just the ebooks, but the database and program.

Penny wise pound foolish.

Yes, I said earlier it can theoretically be done, but it's crazy. Put the Calibre library SYSTEM on the computer of choice and pretend those ebook files don't exist. That's WHY Calibre can connect to USB MS, USB MTP (devices), mount a disk/sd-card/folder as if a device or save (export) to disk. There is even a content server option with Web and OPDS interfaces.

You've got a fixed obsession with only having ONE copy of the ebooks. That's not how a proper library system, or Calibre works.

Calibre just about works on a RPi4B with only 2G RAM and mate Desktop at QHD or even 4K (tested 6500 ebooks and about 500 PDFs) on an SD card, but it's the SD card for the Linux OS. Madness to take it out and stick in tablet, even if it accepts ext4 format.

I don't think you've understood anything much or you wouldn't be still arguing it will work and be fine. It's not absolutely impossible, but reckless.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Epsilon Rose

Also, explain to me how ejecting the SD card is going to break the copy of Calibre stored on the SD card. Please keep in mind that it won't be running while the SD card is not in the computer and while it is running the SD card won't be ejected.

Presumably not intentionally.

You came and asked for advice. Feel free to get the tablet to accept the format that the computer uses (NTFS if Windows) and rebuild the library when it's broken.

You can have any arbitrary structure and any Filestystem (exFat, Fat32 etc) on an SD Card that Calibre saves/sends/exports to. Calibre's own file names and directory structure can't be changed and must be using the OS's NATIVE format, not a compatible format. Calibre's files can't be edited or deleted except by the Calibre program.


You do also make backups?

Edit:

Also SD cards are much less reliable than SSD or HDD and fail without warning. I don't have anything on any SD card that's not on my computer. Any extra content is backed up to a named directory (folder) for that gadget.

Now I'm backing up the computer.

[BetterRed]

AFAIK a calibre library can be on any file system that the host OS supports, and Calibre for Windows (Portable) is the same, here it is on a FAT32 drive:



Would I recommend it? Only as a one off short term solution to address a specific issue.

BR

[Epsilon Rose]

Originally Posted by Quoth

No you don't.
If Calibre for Windows, the card must be NTFS.
If Linux, ext4. If calibre for Apple, then whatever that Apple is using.

Originally Posted by Quoth

You came and asked for advice. Feel free to get the tablet to accept the format that the computer uses (NTFS if Windows) and rebuild the library when it's broken.

You can have any arbitrary structure and any Filestystem (exFat, Fat32 etc) on an SD Card that Calibre saves/sends/exports to. Calibre's own file names and directory structure can't be changed and must be using the OS's NATIVE format, not a compatible format. Calibre's files can't be edited or deleted except by the Calibre program.

What? Why would Calibre care about being in on a drive with some sort of "native" file format? exFat works fine for both devices and if Calibre has some random problem with that, then it's indicative of more serious flaws with Calibre

I don't think you've understood anything much or you wouldn't be still arguing it will work and be fine. It's not absolutely impossible, but reckless.

You haven't actually said anything compelling. You've bragged about how big your library is, said some weird things about file systems, and insisted it can't be done, but that's about it.

Yes. I came to this forum to ask for advice in setting up something that should be pretty basic. It's unfortunate that you seem more interested in bragging about the side of your library, but there you have it.

[pdurrant]

Data kept in one place is data that will be lost.

Keeping your manually updated and corrected metadata about your ebooks only on a single SD Card is foolish.

It might just work, although the interface in any ereader to books in a calibre database is unlikely to be pleasant.

Your best option is to keep your calbre library on your main computer storage (which I hope is being backed up), and use the export function to write the books to an SD Card in a folder structure that will best suit using it in your chosen ereader.

SDCards are cheap. I would expect that you feel your time spent organising the metadata of your ebook collection is not.

Stating that those who try to give advice in response to your question are bragging is rude. Please try not to do that on MobileRead.

[Quoth]

FAT32 and ExFAT (vs NTFS):
no file permissions.
more risk of corruption due to no journalling.
more than 8.3 file names is a fudge. Main ExFAT vs FAT32 change is larger files.
Limited entries in root. Note the long file names use multiple +1 FAT entries, so easy to hit the limit.
More limited character support.
Other issues.

Windows NT always used NTFS: 1993 NT 3.1, NT 3.5x, NT 4.0, Win2K & XP (NT 5.x), Vista, Win7 (Vista SP), Win 8, Win10, Win11.

FAT32 was last on Win9x & WinME, which couldn't use NTFS.

You should only use FAT32/ExFat for copies of information and only when you have to.a

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Epsilon Rose

You haven't actually said anything compelling. You've bragged about how big your library is, said some weird things about file systems, and insisted it can't be done, but that's about it.

Yes. I came to this forum to ask for advice in setting up something that should be pretty basic. It's unfortunate that you seem more interested in bragging about the side of your library, but there you have it.

No, I've not bragged. Many people have far larger libraries and 90% of it is PD, mostly collected since 2002. Project Gutenberg started in 1971.

I've said NOTHING weird about Filesytems. Internally most phones, tablets and ereaders (except Apple) use ext4. MS Surface uses NTFS.
No current serious operating system uses FAT32 or exFAT, because it's not very good. SD cards and USB sticks for portable transfer are essentially disposable and should only be copies as they are unreliable.
Any database system not using the OS native file system is unprofessional. All will Export or Send To, or Save on any version of FAT/exFAT.

I've pointed out that you can't have your own folder/directory structure for Calibre, but other than that, you can use an SD Card, but FAT32 or exFAT causes problems. Has to be the native fs, though possibly NTFS would work on Linux. Some tablets might read ext4, but not NTFS (except Surface and other Win1x), but Windows can't easily do ext4, though I've an ext2 driver on XP.

I wrote that it's possible, but difficult and also unreliable.

People have reported issues with USB SSD and HDD using FAT32/exFAT drives for Calibre on Windows and these went away when reformatted as NTFS.

[Sirtel]

For what it's worth, I once had a copy of my library on a flash drive. Endless problems - it was very slow and Calibre constantly complained about corruption, so I soon gave it up. Maybe you'll have more luck. Still, I would never keep the master copy of my library on a flash drive or a SD card, let alone the only copy without any backup - they're far too unreliable.

[theducks]

HD usually give some warning (indications not all is well. Frequently ignored by many. Same for their cars )

OTOH a Pen Drive / SD card just Stops working (happened more than once)

Besides, they are slow if you need to do many writes at a time. (based on my experiences when I first joined MR and got my EZReader)