07-25-2009, 07:44 PM | #1 |
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Confusion about "Save to Disk" and Calibre libraries?
I've been using Calibre for a little while now, but there's something I don't understand. When I started using it, I had all my ebooks in a directory (My documents/My ebooks). I used "Add Books" to add them to Calibre, and when I added a book, Calibre created a new folder (with subfolders) for the book in my chosen directory (My Documents/Calibre ebooks), and copied the book file into the new location (it remains in the old location, but Calibre doesn't care about that).
Okay - that's fine. So then, what exactly is the purpose of the "Save to disk" function? Hasn't Calibre already effectively saved the book to disk, when I "added" it to Calibre and Calibre copied it to my "Calibre ebooks" directory? Why would I ever need to use the Save to Disk function? Is it simply to allow easy backup? I've seen a few things suggesting that saving to disk has something to do with changing book file metadata, but I can't quite figure this out, and I can't find anything in the documentation to help me. Maybe this question is related to something that's confusing me in the thread about the new beta version - people keep talking about loading their libraries into the new version of Calibre, and how long it takes. But when I install a new version, all my books just appear right there. There's no loading time. I don't even think I understand what a Calibre library is - isn't it just the list of book folders and subfolders in my designated Calibre directory? Does this have something to do with Saving to Disk? I feel like I'm failing to understand some important aspect of Calibre, and again, I've not been able to find anything in the documentation that lays any of this out. I'm not even sure I'm formulating my questions correctly, and it may be that the answers are somewhere in the forums if only I knew where to look, but I've failed to find them, so I'd be incredibly grateful if someone who gets it (maybe really what I'm asking is how Calibre works???) could explain to me. Thank you! :-) |
07-25-2009, 07:56 PM | #2 |
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Your calibre library is the 'My Documents/Calibre ebooks' directory. When importing calibre will store the books there. The entire library consists of the book files, covers, and the metadata.db file. Leave the library alone and do not touch anything in it outside of calibre.
'Save to disk' is exactly what it says it saves the file to disk. calibre stores the ebook files in the library but the metadata is stored separately in the metadata.db file. When you use 'Save to disk' it will save the file in your requested location and update the metadata on that file. 'Save to disk' is necessary for instances when calibre doesn't support a particular reader because it still allows you to save books onto it. Also, it allows you to back up your collection without backing up the actual library (just the ebooks with the correct metadata). It is also handy if you want to put a book on say a thumb drive to share with a friend. |
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07-25-2009, 10:13 PM | #3 | |
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It sounds like in order to make the changes to the file metadata, I'd have to do a "save to disk" and then re-import the ebook, which seems strange to me. As for the Calibre library...I understand what it is now. Is there a way to move my entire library? What if I no longer want it in "My Documents/Calibre ebooks" but instead want it somewhere else - can I do that easily? (And I still don't understand about the time for loading a library into a new version of Calibre - although maybe it has to do with this, with moving the library location?) Thank you for your help! |
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07-25-2009, 10:22 PM | #4 | ||||
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07-26-2009, 09:09 AM | #5 | ||
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I think Calibre is absolutely fantastic - only wish the documentation were more thorough. That's not a criticism - I totally get that the developer is busy with other very important things, and I'd even offer to help with documentation myself; I just don't think I have a thorough enough understanding to be the one to do it. But I feel like there are lots of features or aspects of the program that the developer has put time and effort into but that I either don't fully understand or don't even know about, and wish I did so I could take advantage of them (another is the "Series" feature of the Calibre metadata - I read something recently that suggested something happens if you transfer all items in a series to the device at the same time? Maybe I should open a new thread to ask about this...) Anyway, thanks very much for this - I really appreciate your help! |
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07-26-2009, 09:34 AM | #6 | ||||
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If you transfer all items in a series to a PRS-505 or 700 it should create a collection with the books in the series order. If you do them individually it may or may not. Or is it when you transfer all of them it transfers in the order you select the books... I can't remember, it's been a bit since I touched the the 505 and 700 drivers and that was mainly just moving them to use the USBMS driver framework. |
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07-26-2009, 07:04 PM | #7 | ||
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Okay, that's very helpful.
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The fact that you can't tell whether the Send to Device operation will change the metadata on a particular mobi file is kind of a pain - no way to know if you need to do this mobi-to-mobi conversion before sending until you've tried sending and seen that the file on the device has the wrong metadata. But maybe there's no way around that. Or do most people just routinely do a mobi-to-mobi conversion on all their books? Quote:
It's a difficult problem, though, because only the developers know enough to be able to document all the features, and they're the ones who don't have time - or probably interest - in doing it. |
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03-21-2010, 05:48 PM | #8 |
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Sorry to revive an old thread, but I found this while trying to understand the Save To Disk functionality, and am still confused.
So, if I save to disk, is it possible to save to where my library currently is located? Will it mess things up if I do that? I don't want to have to run save-to-disk every time i want to transfer files to my kindle, but if I re-import after saving to disk, wouldn't I then have multiple copies of the same book in my library? |
03-21-2010, 07:08 PM | #9 | ||
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Absolutely. Don't do this. Save to Disk is meant to put a copy of your ebooks to an external device or hard drive... mainly for backups of your library or for devices not explicitly supported by calibre. Quote:
Why would you "save to disk" then re-import? That makes no sense as something you would want to do. BOb |
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03-21-2010, 08:19 PM | #10 | |
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Save to Disk allows you to save ebooks to devices that aren't directly supported by Calibre. For example, I have a Nokia N900 phone that I've installed fbreader on so I can read on the go. Calibre doesn't directly support my phone so I can't use Save to Device. I have to use Save to Disk and point to my phones memory card. Also, say your roommate has their own Calibre installation and you downloaded a great book from MobileRead and want to share it with them. You could use the Save to Disk function to save it to a usb key and give it to them. They can import it and get all the correct metadata that you've already updated. |
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03-22-2010, 01:04 PM | #11 |
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Okay, I guess I was misunderstanding the use of the save to disk functionality. thanks, all!
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