I am seeking advice regarding my ebook collection on a Linux system, which is stored on an external drive and sorted into categories. However, there are still many unsorted ebooks. I have tried using Calibre for organization, but it creates duplicate files during import on my main drive where I don’t want to keep any media. I would like to:
- Use Calibre’s automatic organization (tags, etc.) without duplicating files
- Maintain my existing folder structure while using Calibre
- Automatically sort the remaining ebooks into my existing categories/folder structure
I am considering the use of symlinks if there is a simple way to automate the process due to my large collection.
Regarding automatic sorting by category, I am looking for a solution that doesn’t require manual organization or a significant time investment. I’m wondering if there’s a way to extract metadata based on file hashes or any other method that doesn’t involve manual work. Most of the files should have title and author metadata, but some won’t. I am not in a rush to solve this issue since I can still locate most ebooks by their title without any organization.
Has anyone encountered a similar problem and found a solution? I would appreciate any suggestions for tools, scripts, or workflows that might help. Thank you in advance for any advice!
In regards to another reply, there are multiple options of dealing with duplicates in calibre. From merging to deleting them.
It’s been a while since I had to do any library setup with calibre and Im kinda confused by what you are saying with “but it duplicates files when importing in a different drive where I don’t want ebooks”
Do you have multiple libraries in calibre?
Are you using multiple library managers?
Why not just use calibres folder structure?
And also if you don’t know about it - mobileread forums has been around a long time and has a whole section on calibre where you could probably get more specific help.