how to export books with same title?

[Eidfjord]

Hello,
I am completely new to Calibre which I downloaded in Ubuntu 16.04 through the repository (I have the following version: 2.55.0+dfsg-1).
It works great so far, but now I encountered a small problem, and I hope there is a solution for it. I downloaded a book, which exists of three volumes (all epub). In the description on the download site (internet archive) the three volumes are mentioned by 1, 2 and 3. But when trying to get the books into Calibre and then export to my ereader (Kobo Aura H20), a message pops up saying that the books are already there (well, one of them at least). Somehow the files have the same name. And it did not help to change the filename.
I managed to get all the files into Calibre, but not to my ereader. I do hope this explanation about my problem is a bit understandable and I appreciate if someone can come up with a solution.

Thanks on beforehand from Norway.
Eric

[kovidgoyal]

Filenames on the reader are based on the title and author of the book in calibre, by default. You can either change that in Preferences->Sending to device by changing the save template and adding, for example {id}

Or simpler, just adjust the titles of the books to include the part number.

[Eidfjord]

Thank you for your swift reply. I will try the first solution.
When I understand you correctly, in the second explanation you just change the names (and add the volume number). That's what I did (in the Calibre library on my computer) and still it didn't work. Can I change the name of the file when they are on the screen in Calibre?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Eidfjord

Thank you for your swift reply. I will try the first solution.
When I understand you correctly, in the second explanation you just change the names (and add the volume number). That's what I did (in the Calibre library on my computer) and still it didn't work. Can I change the name of the file when they are on the screen in Calibre?

In Kovid's second suggestion I'm pretty sure he is referring to the Title as seen within the calibre library manager application.

Calibre uses a library's database (metadata.db) as its primary point of control. The names of author and book folders and the files they contain are derived algorithmically from the values in the Authors and Title columns. The algorithm is such that the file-path to your copy of 'Méditations Métaphysiques' by René Descartes could be different to mine.

A consequence of this is that you should not add, change, or delete anything in a calibre library with your file manager - see Want to change folder structure or file names in the Calibre library?.

Over the past 10 years this issue has been discussed at great length, a great many times, both here at MR and elsewhere -- it ain't going to change. Most of us had our doubts as to whether everything could be done within the calibre application - but most of us have discovered it is true. And, unlike most such things, there is an alternative, which is to use calibre's Command Line Interface

BR

[chaley]

It is quite possible that the Kobo is using the data inside the book to determine whether it is a duplicate, in which case the book must be "polished" or otherwise updated with the changed title before sending it. A Kobo expert will know more.

[theducks]

Would the plugboard help (tie break)?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Eidfjord

Hello,
I am completely new to Calibre which I downloaded in Ubuntu 16.04 through the repository (I have the following version: 2.55.0+dfsg-1).
It works great so far, but now I encountered a small problem, and I hope there is a solution for it. I downloaded a book, which exists of three volumes (all epub). In the description on the download site (internet archive) the three volumes are mentioned by 1, 2 and 3. But when trying to get the books into Calibre and then export to my ereader (Kobo Aura H20), a message pops up saying that the books are already there (well, one of them at least). Somehow the files have the same name. And it did not help to change the filename.
I managed to get all the files into Calibre, but not to my ereader. I do hope this explanation about my problem is a bit understandable and I appreciate if someone can come up with a solution.

When do you see the duplicate message? If you use the KoboTouch driver to send a book to the device, it doesn't care if the book is already on the device, it will simply replace the file. If the duplicate error is when you are adding the book, then you need to add them one at a time and fix the title of the book before adding the next.

If sending one book replaces a book already on the device, then, as Kovid said, you need to adjust the save template. Kovid pointed to the default in the preferences, but if you have changed the driver configuration, you will need to change the save template in the driver configuration.

[Eidfjord]

I am not exactly sure what you mean. The duplicate error pops up when I add the book(s) in Calibre. And when I then "send to device" Calibre sends just one of them, since they somehow have the same name. I changed the filenames on my computer after downloading and before "adding" into Calibre, but this didn't help.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Eidfjord

I am not exactly sure what you mean. The duplicate error pops up when I add the book(s) in Calibre. And when I then "send to device" Calibre sends just one of them, since they somehow have the same name. I changed the filenames on my computer after downloading and before "adding" into Calibre, but this didn't help.

That all means that everything is working as designed, and that Kovid's first reply was the solution.

The duplicate error was because you added a book to calibre which matched to an existing book. The options then are to merge the books, or add a duplicate - same title and author as an existing book.

When you send the book to the device, the "save template" is used to generate the path and file name. The default for this is something like:

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}

That means that a directory will be created with the authors name in the format "LN, FN". The book will be put inside with a file name of the title followed by the authors names. So, for an epub version of Stephen Kings, "The Stand", the path will be:

King, Stephen\Stand, The - Stephen King.epub

If I had duplicate copies of this book in the library, sending both to the device would generate the same name, and the second one I sent would replace the first.

To avoid this, you need to either change template to generate a different file name, or change the metadata. Kovid's suggestion for changing the save template was something like:

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}-{id}

That adds an integer into the file name. The integer is a unique identifier for the book in the calibre library.

The alternative is to change either the title or the author. From you first post, the books aren't actually the same, so adding something like "Volume 1", "Volume 2" and "Volume 3" to the title once the books are in the calibre library would solve the problem.

If you decide to change the save template, it needs to be change in one of two places:

• The default is on the "Sending books to devices" page of the preferences. This will be used for all devices if the device configuration hasn't been changed.
• The other place is in the driver configuration. If you change anything here, it copies the default save template and saves it with the rest of the driver configuration. For the Kobo devices, this is the KoboTouch driver. You can find it in the Plugins page of the preferences, or by right clicking on the device button when the device is connected.

[Eidfjord]

PROBLEM SOLVED.
Thank you for your help. I changed the save template as proposed and this worked.