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 to maintain the existing folder structure if there is a simple way to automate the process due to my very 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.
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!
I’ve run into exactly the same issue with my large ttrpg ebook/pdf collection (+100k file data hoarding… it’s not a problem, I swear) and I’ve not really found a good option I’m entirely happy with. Calibre duplicates everything and I don’t like the thought of having my collection’s organization tied to a specific piece of software if I just delete my duplicates. Plus I’m elitist and think the UI/logo are gross to look at.
Zotero is the least worst option I’ve found, but it’s geared towards scholarly journals and such, so not great, but serviceable. Not sure if it’s on linux though.
Jellyfin is apparently able to handle ebooks with a plugin, though I didn’t particularly care for it when I tried it months ago.
There’s a handful of other ebook software out there, mostly geared towards comics/manga, so depending on what you have those might be worth looking for.
I’d like to use Obsidian for it and just turn the directory into a vault and let it automatically scan the folders for files, but that doesn’t work great either.
The best piece of software I’ve seen that could potentially handle it is an app called Stashapp… which is unfortunately geared towards adult film. But it’s feature-set if it could be applied to PDFs seems like it would be ideal.
Zotero is on Linux, and it has a LibreOffice plugin as well. Though, I do not like Zotero. Zotero is more geared towards reference management, but it also offers some pdf, epub management. But I find their document management too tedious. It’s just easier for me to just rename files. That served me well for a long time.
Yeah, I’ve tried, both for actual files and for tracking my reading across multiple platforms, and nothing really seems to fit my needs, especially when I want to actually read them on an Android ereader. Anything I choose seems to have a lot of manual effort, frequently, or just a dumpster fire of an actual reading experience.
I feel like I’m eventually going to have to make my own, which is fine, I guess, but I’m definitely not comfortable actually managing a community project or just building up the codebase or documentation to the level someone else would be enthusiastic to use as a jumping off point to manage themselves, so it will probably just stay a personal project that ends up not helping anyone else solve the same problems I have.
Have you tried Kavita? I use it to read comics and e-books on my Android tablet and my Kindle Paperwhite. It also uses OPDS so it has compatibility with some reading apps too, like KOReader, FB Reader, Mihon/Tachiyomi, Moon+ Reader, etc.
Website
Demo - Username:
demouserPassword:Demouser64I’m aware of it and explored it a little, but the folder structure requirements are the opposite of what I’m interested in. I want to dump everything in one place and use the UX of my reader to manually build series, adjust metadata, and do everything else.
Most of the benefits of it are really only useful in its browser based reader, which is also a dealbreaker, and it doesn’t really add anything to Moon Reader because OPDS integration doesn’t actually sync anything, which is the whole reason I’d want a dedicated server over just having everything in a cloud drive.
It’s cool if it works for you, but it doesn’t really solve any of the problems I want solved.
Hm, well, hopefully my other comment helps you then. I don’t think there’s an automated tool for this — though a shell script might do the trick, or at least get you most of the way, if you have basic scripting knowledge.
I don’t want anything automated. I just want to be able to do it manually with a database that handles all of the metadata and organization and literally no folders but the top level one containing every file. Calibre’s insistence on me either having incorrect author information or splitting everything with multiple authors into unique folders for every combination is most of the reason I can’t stand it. The actual bulk editing tools are good. The end result of a mess of folders isn’t.
I’m not OK with folders, especially nested folders.
Okay? My other comment might help you then, you can change in the preferences whether to put your library in nested folders or not.
If all else fails, make a post on the MobileRead forums; there are lots of nice and knowledgeable book people there with tons of Calibre experience.
I’m not trying to get you to do something you don’t want to, so your wall of text doesn’t really make sense to be directed at me. I didn’t make Calibre.
Wall of text?
I answered a suggestion with very clear preferences that something not use a trainwreck of a directory structure and you pointed me to a post on how to make a trainwreck of a directory structure, so I wrote a short paragraph again clarifying that I’m not OK with that.