Simple way to send metadata only

[transmitthis]

Ok, what I want to do is view my books on Calibre Companion with my phone, scroll through them and choose one to read.

Everything works as expected all is great, but then I arrive.

I want to read my books on a E-ink device, not the phone.

Can't really browse covers and details very well on b&w e-ink,
so I use Calibre Companion on phone above to choose a book and then read it on my e-ink device.


What I want to do is not have the actual books on the phone - just the metadata. (space issues)

Anyone here think of an easy way to do this?
is it as simple as searching for the epubs and deleting them?
Maybe I can send empty records?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by transmitthis

Ok, what I want to do is view my books on Calibre Companion with my phone, scroll through them and choose one to read.

Everything works as expected all is great, but then I arrive.

I want to read my books on a E-ink device, not the phone.

Can't really browse covers and details very well on b&w e-ink,
so I use Calibre Companion on phone above to choose a book and then read it on my e-ink device.


What I want to do is not have the actual books on the phone - just the metadata. (space issues)

Anyone here think of an easy way to do this?
is it as simple as searching for the epubs and deleting them?
Maybe I can send empty records?

Create empty TXT formats in calibre (Add books / Add an empty file to selected book records) then send those.

[transmitthis]

That's actually what I had tried last week.
It's just too annoying to add those files to all the books, or even the ones I want to move over.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by transmitthis

That's actually what I had tried last week.
It's just too annoying to add those files to all the books, or even the ones I want to move over.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

You can add the empty txt record to all the books in your with one command in calibre. Hard to see how that is particularly annoying.

You can delete all the formats on the phone. There is no guarantee that calibre won't sometimes try to send them again, and why waste the time to send-then-delete?

[transmitthis]

I have a lot of custom columns and rules some of which reference if a record has a book or not. Honestly I don't want to go and edit those.

Having txt files would just annoy me, I'd have to remember why they were there in 6months time, and they could show up in my phone in searchs or lists or indexing etc - just a headache I don't want (I may be adding several thousand books)

Nice that there is a way to add a file, and thanks for letting me know. But I'm really looking for just empty records just metadata.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by transmitthis

But I'm really looking for just empty records just metadata.

There is no way for calibre to send metadata without sending a format. The wireless driver doesn't support it. It seems that deleting the formats on your phone is the only way to go.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by chaley

You can add the empty txt record to all the books in your with one command in calibre. Hard to see how that is particularly annoying.

You can delete all the formats on the phone. There is no guarantee that calibre won't sometimes try to send them again, and why waste the time to send-then-delete?

How do you add a blank text file to all the books in calibre?

I've been thinking of this topic for a while now, and I've been making do with goodreads on my phone. Kindle doesn't really give me much in terms of library management.

Edit: Scratch that. I was just blind
It's all sorted now

[skillachie]

Originally Posted by transmitthis

Ok, what I want to do is view my books on Calibre Companion with my phone, scroll through them and choose one to read.

Everything works as expected all is great, but then I arrive.

I want to read my books on a E-ink device, not the phone.

Can't really browse covers and details very well on b&w e-ink,
so I use Calibre Companion on phone above to choose a book and then read it on my e-ink device.


What I want to do is not have the actual books on the phone - just the metadata. (space issues)

Anyone here think of an easy way to do this?
is it as simple as searching for the epubs and deleting them?
Maybe I can send empty records?

Could you try the BookFusion Android app with the Calibre plugin and let me know what you think? With BookFusion you will be able to have your Calibre eBook collection accessible on your e-ink device and then optionally choose which one you would like to download and read.

You can then use BookFusion to read or the Open with functionality to read in your preferred reading app. This way you can simply use BookFusion as a Calibre Companion replaced and still being able to use your preferred eBook app to read.


BookFusion App - https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...android.reader

Calibre Plugin - https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre

[Spinningwoman]

If I understand you correctly, I’m using Calibre Sync for this on my iphone. There’s an option not to download covers which saves even more space which I use on my ancient iPad. . It is read only, but for indexing and downloading the books I want on the fly,it’s great. I keep my library in Dropbox to facilitate this, which is maybe not ideal, but as I only access Calibre on one computer and back up regularly, I’m content with it.