So this is just a post to hopefully help Calibre users who face the dilemma of owning multiple e-readers, and/or have conflicting settings.
I have over the years collected two Kobos and now I have three Kindles (however only one kindle will actually be recognized by my computer).
I have long since stopped using Amazon's cloud to download my purchased books since they don't show the series index. My workaround to this was an Amazon account that I registered my Kindles to that has no books in the cloud to download and get mixed up with the side loaded books added using a plugboard to indicate the series before the title.
All Amazon books default download to my Kindle for PC. I funnel them to my Calibre library and then send them to various other libraries as needed.
My biggest problems was the fact that Kobos and Kindles are so different that I was always having to create new libraries or continually go back and change settings for books on one device or another. Having conversion preferences was impossible when I didn't know if I was converting a book for the Kindle or the KOBO. Calibre doesn't allow books to be split into multiple records for each format, so I had to have all the formats in one record, and had problems with covers and formats and other metadata that was needed on one device but not on another. IE, the AZW3 format has a cover too large to fit on my KINDLE but the "metadata" indicates it's smaller. Until I actually check the cover for that format I have no idea. More than one format means more than one cover, but I am unable to select individual covers per format. It's a one-size fits all scenario in some cases.
I could have had two different libraries, one for KOBO and one for KINDLE, and switch back and forth, but I still had the problems with the preferences and tweaks not being device specific. Even simple settings such as the welcome wizard and what device I am using caused me grief when I couldn't choose both.
Solution? Add more user accounts on my computer. Each user account is device specific and each "Calibre" on each account is set up to reflect metadata, custom columns, book formats, even plugin settings and tag mapping rules that are intended to be for one device. I populated each user account with the exported libraries in my "main" account and simply edited, deleted and modified each new library. My "main" account still holds all the major details, and now I don't have to deal with all the extra columns and rules associated with a set up intended to send books to a device. So now my KINDLE library doesn't have the KOBO tags and last read date, as well as having restrictions on output formats. SInce neither library will be associated with Goodreads, I removed all those columns. Goodreads now resides on my main account where I work on the metadata of the library as a whole.
In the end this made Calibre work faster, and saved me so much time from having to deal with switching libraries when I have a device plugged in, and having way too much metadata in one library.
The biggest trick is to NOT link up the libraries. All new books are sent to a folder that I can access from all accounts. This keeps the tweaks and preferences separate. This also saves me from having to weed through a ton of unnecessary metadata when editing each book. I add it to each library and edit it there. I keep a "permanent" copy in my main library on the user account I normally am in.
Ok, I admit this was kind of "show and tell" but I hope that someone out there is able to use this information to make their libraries easier to manage.:bulb2:
I have over the years collected two Kobos and now I have three Kindles (however only one kindle will actually be recognized by my computer).
I have long since stopped using Amazon's cloud to download my purchased books since they don't show the series index. My workaround to this was an Amazon account that I registered my Kindles to that has no books in the cloud to download and get mixed up with the side loaded books added using a plugboard to indicate the series before the title.
All Amazon books default download to my Kindle for PC. I funnel them to my Calibre library and then send them to various other libraries as needed.
My biggest problems was the fact that Kobos and Kindles are so different that I was always having to create new libraries or continually go back and change settings for books on one device or another. Having conversion preferences was impossible when I didn't know if I was converting a book for the Kindle or the KOBO. Calibre doesn't allow books to be split into multiple records for each format, so I had to have all the formats in one record, and had problems with covers and formats and other metadata that was needed on one device but not on another. IE, the AZW3 format has a cover too large to fit on my KINDLE but the "metadata" indicates it's smaller. Until I actually check the cover for that format I have no idea. More than one format means more than one cover, but I am unable to select individual covers per format. It's a one-size fits all scenario in some cases.
I could have had two different libraries, one for KOBO and one for KINDLE, and switch back and forth, but I still had the problems with the preferences and tweaks not being device specific. Even simple settings such as the welcome wizard and what device I am using caused me grief when I couldn't choose both.
Solution? Add more user accounts on my computer. Each user account is device specific and each "Calibre" on each account is set up to reflect metadata, custom columns, book formats, even plugin settings and tag mapping rules that are intended to be for one device. I populated each user account with the exported libraries in my "main" account and simply edited, deleted and modified each new library. My "main" account still holds all the major details, and now I don't have to deal with all the extra columns and rules associated with a set up intended to send books to a device. So now my KINDLE library doesn't have the KOBO tags and last read date, as well as having restrictions on output formats. SInce neither library will be associated with Goodreads, I removed all those columns. Goodreads now resides on my main account where I work on the metadata of the library as a whole.
In the end this made Calibre work faster, and saved me so much time from having to deal with switching libraries when I have a device plugged in, and having way too much metadata in one library.
The biggest trick is to NOT link up the libraries. All new books are sent to a folder that I can access from all accounts. This keeps the tweaks and preferences separate. This also saves me from having to weed through a ton of unnecessary metadata when editing each book. I add it to each library and edit it there. I keep a "permanent" copy in my main library on the user account I normally am in.
Ok, I admit this was kind of "show and tell" but I hope that someone out there is able to use this information to make their libraries easier to manage.:bulb2: