Title not changed with Bulk Editing

[stormsh]

Hi there,
so far I could help myself with the FAQ or this marvelous forum, but now, I'M STUCK.

I simply want to change the title by adding the "series_index" of the series I am reading to the title (eg: 03 - Hello Dolly instead of just "Hello Dolly").
After I've applied the changes in the bulk Metadata Editor, everything seems to be fine in calibre. Titlename is 03 - Hello Dolly.
Everything is changed as I want it, BUT when I open a book and have a look in the metadata (little "i" button on the lower left), the title is still without the series_index.

It worked a while ago, because I did it before. But know I can't find where to change it correctly. Is there another Title info in the metadata I don't know of? Or is it a bug? Or has the files metadata a "write protection" (if something like that exists)? Can anyone help? plz?

I'm using Android device with Aldiko-Ebook-Reader (the app is not the problem).

Thx 4 F1.

s.h.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by stormsh

After I've applied the changes in the bulk Metadata Editor, everything seems to be fine in calibre. Titlename is 03 - Hello Dolly.
Everything is changed as I want it, BUT when I open a book and have a look in the metadata (little "i" button on the lower left), the title is still without the series_index.

The book inside the calibre library does not automatically have it's metadata updated, your changes are just part of the GUI database. The metadata in the book is updated when the book is either exported from calibre using any of the following calibre built in features: Send to device, Save to disk, Content server or e-mail -- or -- To update the book in the library database itself you can use the modify epub plugin or the polish feature.

Additionally you can leave the title alone and use the Metadata plugboards to update the Title metadata on fly during a Send to device operation.

[stormsh]

@DoctorOhh: It worked.

The metadata in the book is updated when the book is either exported from calibre using any of the following calibre built in features: Send to device, Save to disk, Content server

This information is the key. I took the books with d&d out of calibre. Seems last time I saved them to disk or whatever and didn't remember it.
But is there a reason why the books metadata is not updated when the books are d&d out of calibre?

On the other hand the aldiko reader could just support the series_index (which would be the easiest way, I think I'll write a feature request) but hey, it worked and I know how. Thank you very much.

s.h.

[Adoby]

Calibre implements "lazy" update of the books.

Without this feature it can be estimated that at least 24.7 percent of all calibre users would have to be hospitalized due to extreme anxiety combined with panic attacks and high blood pressure, or at least have to take some form of psychotropic medication. As it is now only around 16.3 percent of new calibre users make the same mistake as you did, and think they can "look under the skirts" of calibre and copy directly from the library, without using the save to disk function. However that mistake is only made once, after that this quirk of calibre is learned. It can be estimated that 63.2% of users figure this out from reading the manual or from posts on this forum.

The reason for this quirk, or optimization, is that without lazy updates calibre would become very, very slow. Every little minor change to metadata for a book would mean that the book had to be opened/unzipped/exploded, updated and closed/zipped/packed and finally replaced. If you changed several books, then every book would have to be updated. And to ensure data integrity this update would have to be done separately for every individual change.

As it is now only the entry in the calibre database metadata.db has to be updated. This is very fast. The books inside the calibre library NEVER have to be updated or changed. They don't even have to be accessed. They can stay exactly identical to the original book that once was added, except for the filename. For some users this is important.

Unless you want to update the metadata. If you do a conversion, for instance epub to epub, then the metadata in the book is updated. Also polish and update epub can be used to update the books inside the calibre library.

[stormsh]

Thanks for the info. To sum it up: File integrity of the original book and the calibre work experience aka speed are the main reasons. I can live with that.

It can be estimated that 63.2% of users figure this out from reading the manual or from posts on this forum.

I apologize to bother you with such trifle, but sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees from the treetops of the internet. And from high up here I certainly don't try to " "look under the skirts" of calibre " as you described it.
But I ensure you that I will have a closer look at this obviously magnificent feature.
Hopefully in a better future no one will need this forum anymore, because everyone can solve their problems on their own, using only time and manuals.
But is this future really better? I am not so sure about that!

sh

PS:

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Adoby

Calibre implements "lazy" update of the books.

Without this feature it can be estimated that at least 24.7 percent of all calibre users would have to be hospitalized due to extreme anxiety combined with panic attacks and high blood pressure, or at least have to take some form of psychotropic medication. As it is now only around 16.3 percent of new calibre users make the same mistake as you did, and think they can "look under the skirts" of calibre and copy directly from the library, without using the save to disk function. However that mistake is only made once, after that this quirk of calibre is learned. It can be estimated that 63.2% of users figure this out from reading the manual or from posts on this forum.

The reason for this quirk, or optimization, is that without lazy updates calibre would become very, very slow. Every little minor change to metadata for a book would mean that the book had to be opened/unzipped/exploded, updated and closed/zipped/packed and finally replaced. If you changed several books, then every book would have to be updated. And to ensure data integrity this update would have to be done separately for every individual change.

As it is now only the entry in the calibre database metadata.db has to be updated. This is very fast. The books inside the calibre library NEVER have to be updated or changed. They don't even have to be accessed. They can stay exactly identical to the original book that once was added, except for the filename. For some users this is important.

Unless you want to update the metadata. If you do a conversion, for instance epub to epub, then the metadata in the book is updated. Also polish and update epub can be used to update the books inside the calibre library.

I know you are being a bit facetious here or at least I hope so. I know that in the [past calibre took a long time to even change the title in the books. Now with newer versions it seem much faster. When I change my metadata I always either polish or convert. Takes 1.5 seconds typically for polish. Takes me more than that to select the polish options

I'd like to see an automatic polish tweak. Or an automatic convert tweak. Then the user could decide. Mostly I convert the books although it is slower. I like my books formatted way but I polish if the book has already been converted.

I look "under the skirts" (although I just hate to even use such cutesy cutesy terminology that is often used to chastise new users). When I want to put a book on a non android tablet for instance, but for other reasons as well. Easy to spot some author aberrations in metadata by looking at the author directory list for me. Never managed to do any damage this way.

I do think you may have got your statistics reversed though

Helen

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by stormsh

@DoctorOhh: It worked.

Glad to see you have it sorted out.

Originally Posted by stormsh

But is there a reason why the books metadata is not updated when the books are d&d out of calibre?

All of your metadata changes that you enter into calibre are stored in the metadata.db file until, from the calibre GUI, a book is exported, converted, polished or a plugin like modify epub is used to alter the status quo. This is handled this way to speed things up.

If you drag and drop you are using the OS file manager to export a book from the calibre database. If you had previously converted the book the internal metadata and cover may be updated but otherwise you are circumventing calibre's ability to update the book's metadata.