Can we stop storing metadata in the filesystem please?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Don Edwards

If Calibre could refrain from doing this, it would also be more compatible with other software that has its own requirements for filesystem use. Such as Nook, which is useful for downloading files from Barnes & Noble but cannot handle subdirectories and gets confused if the name of one of its files - which includes a catalog number - is changed.

You can edit the preferences in the sending books to device and change the save template so it doesn't have a /. Also edit the device preferences to not use subdirectories. I have a nook STR and it does not mind subdirectories. Also, the filenames do not need to need to have the catalog number as part of the filename.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Don Edwards

And still, on a day-to-day basis I'd have to have two copies of my entire library on my Windows box: one for Calibre and another for my Android devices to sync with. With no easy way of automatically keeping them in sync.

When you connect calibre to your Android device simply right click on the device icon and configure the device. There is no need for a separate library to sync to Android devices, everything going to your device is fully configurable. That is why folks using the Barnes and Noble App, or Kindle App or any other app are not complaing about how calibre sends books to their device.

Originally Posted by Don Edwards

But it's okay. Calibre does what the people who wrote it intend for it to do, which just happens to be a poor match for most of my needs. There's lots of software out there like that. I'll happily use it for where it does meet my needs.

Put a little effort into conveying your needs so folks can help you. The calibre library structure in no way prevents any other reading software from working. Folks were confused because of false assumptions you made.

[LadyKate]

Originally Posted by Don Edwards

Mantano Reader doesn't run on Windows.



It can't put the original file names back. So it's incompatible with the Nook software. (To the extent that I've looked at the Kindle software, it's similarly lame, so I suspect the same applies there; but I haven't looked at this particular issue.)

And still, on a day-to-day basis I'd have to have two copies of my entire library on my Windows box: one for Calibre and another for my Android devices to sync with. With no easy way of automatically keeping them in sync.

But it's okay. Calibre does what the people who wrote it intend for it to do, which just happens to be a poor match for most of my needs. There's lots of software out there like that. I'll happily use it for where it does meet my needs.

Please explain to me what is "preferable" about a hardware that requires a file to be named something that tells me nothing on looking at the name?

I looked at the kindle and at the nook and found the cryptic filenames to be too hard to deal with. When I see friends with kindles try to find the next book in a series it is painful to watch.

Too much of a control freak here to want to deal with that. Calibre is so much easier to deal with and using save to disk I set up my library with a structure and naming format that suits my current needs. If my needs change, I then save them under another set of names.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

^^This, regarding the whole "Kovid is nice and lets us use the file browser in a pinch", also ensuring that calibre is not the only program that can ever read your data.

It would make his life easier regarding support/questions if he used a black-box format.

Well, the way calibre puts files where it wants, might as well be a black box, the folders are unusable.

That's precisely my problem , I want an other program (namely the good old file browser) to be able to use my books too.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Well, the way calibre puts files where it wants, might as well be a black box, the folders are unusable.

That's precisely my problem , I want an other program (namely the good old file browser) to be able to use my books too.

Yeah, whatever you say.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_box#Examples look at #2

The fact that you don't like the manner of accessibility does not make it a black-box design.

You would've been right, if you had appended "for me"... but then you couldn't bash on calibre as an inherently evil product, hmm?

[LadyKate]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Well, the way calibre puts files where it wants, might as well be a black box, the folders are unusable.

That's precisely my problem , I want an other program (namely the good old file browser) to be able to use my books too.

I just don't understand why people have a problem with the calibre file structure as a database that happens to be readable without the database program.

Treating the calibre library folder set as a database and calibre as a library management tool that is used to maintain tags, authors and series and whatever other info you need allows you to then save your ebooks to disk using whatever naming convention you desire, in whatever folder structure you want.

So you end up with two copies of the book. Great! that's one backup taken care of.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

I just don't understand why people have a problem with the calibre file structure as a database that happens to be readable without the database program.

Treating the calibre library folder set as a database and calibre as a library management tool that is used to maintain tags, authors and series and whatever other info you need allows you to then save your ebooks to disk using whatever naming convention you desire, in whatever folder structure you want.

So you end up with two copies of the book. Great! that's one backup taken care of.

All this has already been discussed all over the place, including this very thread.

At this point, we need to just give up and internalize that some people are simply allergic to having their opinions contradicted. Reason need not apply.

[LadyKate]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

It is for this exact reason that I have a custom column called "Original Filename". So I can always replace the original copy on my Kindle Touch cleanly, preserving annotations and pagenumbers.

I would be even happier if reading metadata from filename would fall back on reading from the file contents for metadata fields not named in the regex. That way, I could have the filename automatically imported. Even so, as part of my obsessive cleanup and normalizing routine, it doesn't take long. Small chunks at a time is the key to metadata control.

That's a good idea. Some of the weird names and authors that are in metadata are a pain. In particular, it's a great idea for importing pdf files.

While in the past I used to spend tons of time converting pdf's to epub, with decent pdf readers for android, it isn't worth my time BUT I still like to have them in my calibre in order to set tags and rename the files in the same way I do my epubs for ease of use on my android.

I just wish I could find a means of updating metadata on a pdf file.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

I just wish I could find a means of updating metadata on a pdf file.

@LadyKateTry - did you try Embed Metadata - ctrl/cmd+e

BR