Uploading folders into /app/data/library/ doesN'T add books to Calibre

[jdaviescoates]

At least it doesn't for me.

The only way I can add books is one by one via the web interface.

(As an aside, it seems when I upload folders their ownership defaults to root - I thought this might be the issue but change the ownership doesn't help).

[nebulon]

As far as I can tell there is no way to upload books directly through terminal or filemanager. At least I couldn't see a way for the app to rescan the library or such to find newly uploaded books.

[imc67]

@jdaviescoates I uploaded months ago 12000 ebooks via SCP because the Filemanager didn’t support unzip by then.

Now since a recent update you can upload a zip with books and unzip in the Filemanager GUI. Didn’t tried it but why shouldn’t it work?

[nebulon]

@imc67 hm in my case the app never picked up the pdfs I put there. But I have to say I don't quite understand how the app works in the first place, the configuration screen is overwhelming

[jdaviescoates]

@imc67 said in Uploading folders into /app/data/library/ doesN'T add books to Calibre:

@jdaviescoates I uploaded months ago 12000 ebooks via SCP because the Filemanager didn’t support unzip by then.

Oh, interesting that that worked at the time. I'm not sure it would work anymore. Perhaps test with just one other file and see if it gets picked up?

@imc67 said in Uploading folders into /app/data/library/ doesN'T add books to Calibre:

Now since a recent update you can upload a zip with books and unzip in the Filemanager GUI. Didn’t tried it but why shouldn’t it work?

Nope, it doesn't work.

It seems at present the only way to add stuff it via the web interface

There must be a better way...

And I guess it used to work, hence this in the docs:

Importing existing calibre database
To import an existing Calibre database, do the following:

Stop the app
Copy the database into /app/data/library using the File Manager
Start the app

But that doesn't not work at present. I've no idea why.

[imc67]

@jdaviescoates @nebulon

In the settings > Edit Basic Configuration > Library Configuration is the path correct?

In my case it’s /media/books/library as I mounted /srv/books as a Volume

[imc67]

@jdaviescoates @nebulon something must have changed indeed! I added a folder via Filemanager and uploaded a pdf (haha the Cloudron invoice) just to check and nothing appears ....

BTW the GUI says there is an update:

0.6.11 New features:

• Swipe support for reader

• Logging of failed opds accesses

• Automatic conversion to kepub on kobo sync

• Webp format to comic reader supported formats

• Title is no longer shortened on book page

Bug Fixes:

• Chinese character language texts are no longer shown for english locale

• logging on database error

• Filepicker option

• reverse proxy login working again

• Detection of invalid email addresses for registering

[jdaviescoates]

@imc67 said in Uploading folders into /app/data/library/ doesN'T add books to Calibre:

@jdaviescoates @nebulon something must have changed indeed! I

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I successfully uploaded folders previous (and then they were displayed). No we can upload multiple folders (using zip/ unzip) but they are no longer displayed.

I guess at some point an update must've broken it.

@imc67 said in Uploading folders into /app/data/library/ doesN'T add books to Calibre:

BTW the GUI says there is an update:

Good spot. I wonder if this update would fix what a previous update broke...

[imc67]

@jdaviescoates @nebulon found this somewhere:

The Calibre-Web is only a web front end to the actual Calibre application/database itself. You still need a Calibre metadata.db file for Calibre Web to function. To get this, you have to install Calibre somewhere and you can move the metadata.db file into your /storage folder.

That’s why it did work for me, my books where already “managed” by Calibre and the Calibre local ‘root’ folder on my computer contained all the folders and files INCLUDING the metadata.db.

I guess the only way for Calibre Web to know there is something new is via it’s own upload.

[jdaviescoates]

@imc67 aha, so perhaps if I do my whole local local Calibre library including metadata.db it will magically work...

[jdaviescoates]

@jdaviescoates said in Uploading folders into /app/data/library/ doesN'T add books to Calibre:

@imc67 aha, so perhaps if I do my whole local local Calibre library including metadata.db it will magically work...

I'm pretty sure it will. I tried just uploading metadata.db to see what would happen and all my books appeared (but all without covers etc because I hadn't actually uploaded any of the files).

[imc67]

@jdaviescoates then that was the solution