Deleting book formats created when sending to device.

[sgmoore]

Is it possible to stop calibre from keeping formats it creates when sending books to my kindle?

For example, if I have a book in epub format, calibre needs to convert this to a .mobi format and send the .mobi format to the kindle. But it also keeps the .mobi format around which isn't needed.

I am trying to reduce the size of my calibre library or alternatively to stop it growing so quickly, but rather than deleting books, I was wondering if I could get rid of these temporary book formats which I don't need.

Also is there any way of detecting these books so I can delete them manually. I don't want to delete all mobi books, nor assume that just because there is another format, that I want rid of the mobi format.

[DNSB]

With a Voyage, I would suggest converting to azw3/KF8. It is a better format.

As for the issue with the books being kept, one of my acquaintances who has multiple ereaders keeps ePub in their library and converts to other formats as needed. For their puposes, they enter 'formats:"=EPUB" and formats:"=AZW3"' (remove the 's) in the search bar to select all books where both ePub and azw3 formats exist and then use the Remove files of a specific format from selected books tool to remove the azw3 format files.

If you see all your books with the selected books highlighted, I would suggest going into Preferences => Searching and checking the Show a quick toggle button... checkbox. This will let you see a button next to the Search button to toggle between only showing selected books and highlighting selected books.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by sgmoore

Also is there any way of detecting these books so I can delete them manually. I don't want to delete all mobi books, nor assume that just because there is another format, that I want rid of the mobi format.

No, there is no way to tell how the mobi format was obtained, AFAIK. You just need to go over the books one by one - unless you have a custom column or a tag with the information about where you got your books.

[tomsem]

I would prefer KFX myself, but also in that case there is no way to automatically remove the converted book from calibre library.

With my Kobo it somehow manages to generate KePub without saving it, so maybe it is possible for someone to figure out how to do something similar with Kindles. If ePub was the source, that's really the only format I would like to keep around.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I would prefer KFX myself, but also in that case there is no way to automatically remove the converted book from calibre library.

With my Kobo it somehow manages to generate KePub without saving it, so maybe it is possible for someone to figure out how to do something similar with Kindles. If ePub was the source, that's really the only format I would like to keep around.

The conversion on the fly is done by the KoboTouchExtended driver and basically, converting ePub to kepub is a pretty trivial modification. For other formats, the calibre pipeline converts the book and saves it before sending to the device. calibre could be modified to delete the file after it is sent, however considering the size of the average ebook file compared to a modern hard drive, it does not appear to have made anyone's to-do list.

[sgmoore]

Originally Posted by DNSB

With a Voyage, I would suggest converting to azw3/KF8. It is a better format.

Not sure if I would notice. But what controls this? I thought it was whatever was at the top of the list of available formats when you go to Device/Configure this device, but azw appears above mobi.

Originally Posted by DNSB

... enter 'formats:"=EPUB" and formats:"=AZW3"' ..

Unfortunately that assumes that that I never,ever want to keep both formats, which is not true. And given that there are > 800 books with mobi and another format, I'm not keen on going through them manually.

I tried running ebook-meta against the mobi book and it returns a line like Book Producer : calibre (7.12.0) [https://calibre-ebook.com] for such books.

Unfortunately, some of the books that I have bought from amazon are like this, so I can't assume it was me that created the book (I guess even some book publishers use calibre!)

[Sirtel]

AZW is not AZW3. AZW usually means the old mobi format, while AZW3 is a different format entirely.