Change Calibre Library Location

Using CC V5 or later with Android 5 (Lollipop) or later:

CC V5 supports Android's 'Storage Access Framework', so you can put your books anywhere on the SD card. When you use CC's Settings / Formats and Folders to change where your books are stored, CC opens an Android 'chooser' where you can navigate to where you want to store your books. First open the drawer on the left by tapping the three lines in the upper-left corner or by swiping from left to right, choose which storage to use, then navigate to the folder you want to use. You can create folders in the chooser using the button showing a folder with a '+' in it.

In the Library Locations dialog box, click on Add, navigate to and highlight the folder you want to add to the Library and left-click on Include folder. How to change a Library's default save location in Windows 10. A Library's default save location determines where an item will be stored when it's copied, moved, or saved to the. Calibre Library menu Switch/create Library. You simply click 'Ok' then a popup will open to let you select a new location for empty database or you can point to existing library location to continue using it.

Important:

if you don't see your SD card or main memory listed in the drawer, tap the three dots on the upper right and tap 'Show SD card'.
Do not use the private application folder required by Kitkat (see below). Some versions of Android 5 and later (especially Samsung) have broken access to that folder in very mysterious ways. For info, the folder to avoid is Android/data/com.multipie.calibreandroid/files
CC does not support this feature on devices running Android 4.4 (Kitkat).

Using CC V4 or earlier with Android 4.4 (Kitkat) or later, or using CC V5 or later with Kitkat:

Unfortunately, Android 4.4 Google has made using SD cards very difficult. For a variety of reasons such as preventing one app from tampering with another app's data, the SD card has in effect become 'read only' for all folders except for one specific folder per app. If you click here to do a google search for kitkat sd card support you'll find lots of posts discussing this change, and explaining the pros and cons of Google's decision.

Google added more features in Android 5 (Lollipop) that made it practical again to support SD cards. Those features were not added to Kitkat.
The result: CC can write books only into on the SD card into a private files folder that gets deleted when you delete the associated app. Consequently a) there is only one folder on the SD card where CC can store your library, and b) that your library will be deleted from your SD card if you ever uninstall CC or cleared CC's data. To repeat: if you use Android 4.4 and put your library on an SD card, your books will be deleted if you uninstall CC. There is absolutely nothing we can do about this.
The name of an app's private folder is set by Android. For CC, that name is Android/data/com.multipie.calibreandroid/files
If you upgraded to KitKat and your library is in a no-longer-writable folder on the SD card, then there are three ways to recover:

Assuming you accept the risk of your books being deleted, starting in CC 3.3.5 you can move your books to CC's private folder on the SD card. See the answer How do I choose which formats calibre sends and where the books are stored? for how to move your library. Use the 'SD Card' button when selecting the folder (button only visible on Android 4.4).
You can move your library to your phone's internal memory. It will then work as before. See the answer How do I choose which formats calibre sends and where the books are stored? for how to move your library.
You can root your device and remove the restriction. Not something we'd recommend or can support.

Option 1 also works to move your library from internal memory to your SD card, something you should do only if you accept that uninstalling CC or clearing its data will delete your books.
Important note for options 1 and 2: CC will be unable to delete the files from the old folder on the SD card. You must delete them yourself by putting the SD card into a card reader or using one of the few file manager apps that (currently) can manipulate SD cards.
If you are running a version of Android less than 4.4, you can still put your library in an arbitrary folder on an SD card, although you might not want to do that if your device is susceptible to being upgraded to KitKat. See the answer How do I choose which formats calibre sends and where the books are stored? Using SD cards is explained at the end of the answer.
The following documents one user's experience with option 1, documenting the steps he followed:

Originally Posted by dfrye

Just a followup to V3.3.5 (Thanks chaley!!) for anyone with existing books on the sdcard. To start the conversion process you need to change the default dir for the books (app menu> Settings > 'Book Formats and Folders') Note where the files are currently stored. You will need this info to manually clean up later. Tap on the default folder and get a dialog with a short summary of this thread. Click on the suggested folder name (not the Choose Folder button). The program will copy the existing books to the new folder. Make sure there is enough room on the sdcard for the copied books. It may take a while to copy. Once it is done you will get a error message for each of the books that it was not able to delete the old files. That's OK. At this point Calibre Companion will work normally. The old copy of the books are still on the sdcard. To free up the space you will need to delete the old books using other means. Either use a file manager that knows how to get past KitKat to the delete files on the sdcard or pull the sdcard and plug into a PC.

And another user's experience with adding an SD card to a new tablet:

Originally Posted by kaufman

I just made an interesting discovery that should probably be added the the FAQ. I purchased a new tablet, and moved my SD Card with an existing calibre companion directory of ebooks to it. I deleted all the books with the file manager and tried to copy them again with CC. It didn't work. I needed to uninstall CC, delete the entire CC structure on the SD card and then reinstall CC. It recreated the directory and then everything worked.

Home Page	Calibre2opds User Guide						Developers Guide
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Calibre2opds Installation

This section of the documentation covers the steps required to get calibre2opds installed and running on your system.

It is split into the following main topic areas:

3Installing calibre2opds
- 3.1Using the Install Packages
  - 3.1.3Mac
- 3.2Manual Install (All Platforms)
- 3.3Upgrading via the ZIP package

[edit]Pre-Requisites

You will need to have downloaded the following to be able to install calibre2opds:

Java Runtime Environment(JRE):
calibre2opds is written in the Java programming language. Therefore before you can use calibre2opds you need the Java runtime system installed. This tends to come as standard with Linux and Mac systems but not with Windows systems.
- Calibre2opds 3.5 and earlier requires Java 6 or later
- Calibre2opds 3.6 and later requires Java 7 or later. This only likely to be an issue on old 32-bit systems (e.g Windows XP, Mac OSX 10.6) as all modern systems can be expected to have Java 7 or Java 8.
- The latest version of Java can always be obtained from the Java web site.
- It has been found that on Windows system (especially 64 bit systems that the information to allow the calibre2opds launcher to function correctly is not always set up. It is a good idea if either the Java binaries folder needs to be added to the PATH environment variable, or the JAVA_HOME environment variable needs to be set up. If using Windows 7/Windows Vista, the easiest way to do this is as follows:
  UPDATE: The calibre2opds launcher has been upgraded so that the following steps are now optional although they are still a good idea.
  - Go to the Start Menu and right-click Computer and select Properties from the menu displayed
  - Select the Advanced System Settings option
  - Click the Environment Variables button
  - In the System Variables area, scroll down until you can see the JAVA_HOME environment variable. Click on this to highlight it and press the Edit button if it is shown, or press the New button if it is not shown.
  - If you had to press the New button then give the name JAVA_HOME to the environment variable.
  - Add the Java binaries install location in the value field. It will vary according to where you installed Java, but is typically something like 'C:Program FilesJavajre6. Press OK to accept the changes. You may have to press OK on several times to close down all the dialog.You can check your changes by starting a new Command Prompt window (it must not be an existing Command Prompt window as you need a new one to pick up the change you have just made). Typing SET PATH which will display the current setting of the PATH environment variable with all variables expanded. The path to the Java binaries should now be in the list if you have made the change correctly.

[edit]Downloading calibre2opds

Calibre2opds downloads are now hosted on Google Drive. You can always download the latest available files from there. We also provide information on the latest versions of calibre2opds that is available for download on the Calibre2opds Downloads page.

You can get older calibre2opds releases from the GoogleCode download page which is friendlier than GoogleDrive. However Google have disabled the option to add new downloads to GoogleCode which is why we have switched to GoogleDrive for newer downloads.

NOTE
When using Google Drive we have noticed that if you want the ZIP file then the Google Drive web site seems to default to showing the contents of the ZIP file with the Open link highlighted. You instead need to click on the Download link to the right of that to get such files. Other file types seem to default to downloading so are easier to handle. If anyone knows how to change this behavior we would welcome knowing the details!

For each full release of calibre2opds, there are several packages that you can download :

A .zip file, for manual install on all platforms
A .jar file, which is an automatic installer for all platforms
A .exe file, automatic installer for Windows
A .dmg file containing a Mac application

You should download the version that is appropriate for the system on which you wish to install calibre2opds. The ZIP file version does not include an installation program and requires manual installation steps. This can be appropriate on systems where the system specific installer does not work for some reason.

For beta releases we tend to only provide the ZIP file version. To use this you can either extract the contents of the ZIP file over-writing the previous calibre2opds installation. If you have no previous calibre2opds installation you can follow the process detailed below for a manual installation.

Go to the appropriate section for your operating system for more information on the steps needed to complete the installation.

[edit]Installing calibre2opds

[edit]Using the Install Packages

[edit]Windows

NOTE:

There appear to be problems running the Windows installer on 64-bit versions of Windows. This seems to happen if you are using 64-bit Java on 64-bit Windows. If you are using 32-bit Java then the Installer runs without problems. If you have such a problem then use the NOINSTALLER manual method based on the ZIP file. The main calibre2opds program is quite happy with 64-bit Java - it is only the Installer that doesn't like it for some reason.

The following steps show installing using the calibre2opds Windows package calibre2opds. on a Windows 7 system. Some of the details will differ slightly on earlier versions of windows and the dialogs displayed in the screenshots could look slightly different.

calibre2opds is supplied in the form of a Windows setup program. The exact name may vary according to the release, but is typically something like calibre2opds-2.2-WINDOWS.exe To start the install you run the calibre2opds-2.2-WINDOWS.exe file.

If you have not got Java installed then you will get an error message saying that windows does not know how to handle this file type.

When the install starts up if you are running under Windows Vista or Windows 7 you will get a warning dialog that looks like the one shown below. This is standard when installing software on Windows Vista or Windows 7. This dialog will not appear on Windows XP.

If you are running on Windows 7 and do not get this dialog, then you may have to right-click the .EXE file and select the 'Run as Administrator' option for the install to be successful.

You are then asked to select the language to be used.

Once you have done that you are shown the welcome dialog.

Change Calibre Library Location

Press Next to proceed. You are now shown the ReadMe pertinent to this release. This gives general background information about calibre2opds

Press Next to proceed. You are now shown the Release Notes pertinent to this release of calibre2opds. You are strongly advised to read them before you proceed.

calibre2opds is licensed under the Open Software Foundation GPL license so this is displayed for you to read and accept.

You need to accept the license before you are allowed to proceed. Press Next to accept the license.

You are now asked to specify the install location for calibre2opds.

If the default is not what you want change it to the desired value. Press Next to proceed.

NOTE
On Windows 7, Windows 8 and Vista you may get warnings about not having relevant access permissions to the folder that you have specified should be used for installing calibre2opds. If this occurs then create the desired program folder manually, and then set the access permissions so that ordinary users have Full Control.

If the folder already exist then a warning dialog is displayed:

This is standard if you are upgrading calibre2opds. Press Next to proceed.

You are now asked to confirm some details about the installation:

Set them to the desired values. Press Next to proceed.

NOTE
If the option to set 'All users' to have the shortcut is not selectable then this means you do not have Administrator privileges.

Installation of the calibre2opds files will now start. While they are being installed a dialog like the following will be displayed:

When they have completed the following dialog will be displayed:

Press Done to exit the installation program.

calibre2opds is now installed and ready to be used.

[edit]Linux

The following steps are

Downloaded the .jar file as mentioned above

Run the downloaded .jarfile. This should invoke the java based installer

The dialogs that are displayed during the install will look like those shown for the Windows install above.

As there are many variants of Linux, if you have any problems with the Linux specific install package of calibre2opds that is supplied, then you can try the Manual install method mentioned in the previous section which is operating system agnostic.

In particular there are a very wide variety of alternative Desktops on the various Linux variants, and it is quite likely that the installer may fail to setup the menu entries required to start Calibre2opds. In such cases you will need to set up any wanted menu entries manually. The section below on the manual install may help with how to do this.

[edit]Mac

[edit]Installing with an image disk

Install on the Mac is very easy

Download the .dmg file as mentioned above

Change Calibre Library Location Download

Open the disk image and drag the application icon to your Applications folder.

Note that for MacOS X 10.7 and newer, there are a few security barriers and other issues that must be circumvented or worked around as follows:

The *.dmg file for version 3.3 (current release) is damaged. This is easily repaired using the Disk Utility app found in /Applications/Utilities. Just select the *.dmg file and click Repair Disk.
Because the Calibre2OPDS application is not signed by a 'known' developer, it cannot be opened in the usual fashion (double-clicking). Instead, one must Control-click the repaired *.dmg file. This will invoke a dialog where you will be able to explicitly give permission to opening this suspect app without changing security settings. Read more about Apple's Gatekeeper here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
The Calibre2OPDS app expects to be run from /Applications and nowhere else for some reason, not even a subfolder of the Applications folder.

[edit]Adjusting memory

When running calibre2opds you may sometimes get an error message saying there is not enough memory to generate an image thumbnail.

If you have chosen a manual install, you can fix this by increasing java heapspace memory :

locate calibre2opds script : run.sh

change the command line inside the script like this:
java -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -cp ./OpdsOutput-3.0-SNAPSHOT.jar Cli $*

( ajust memory values ( here 512 and 1024) if necessary.

Execute again run.sh to build the OPDS catalog.

[edit]NAS

If you did put your calibre library on a NAS disk, you should access your library using a file network protocol that supports locks. Otherwise calibre2opds won't be able to generate the OPDS catalog.

The following setup had been tested on Snow Leopard ( MacOS 10.6.X), using NFS to mount the NAS folder.

Suppose your calibre library is on NAS folder called /DataVolume/bibliotheque , shared through NFS with read/write access granted to everyone without authentication.

Open a terminal :

list your NAS shares

create a mount point ( for example /Volumes/bib )
>mkdir /Volumes/bib
mount the NAS folder
> sudo mount -t nfs -o locallocks nas_ip_address:/DataVolume/bibliotheque /Volumes/bib/

If you prefer to use a graphical tool to mount the share see this post. Don't forget to put locallocks in the options field.

[edit]Manual Install (All Platforms)

This version of the install should work on all systems, but it does require a number of manual steps and a little understanding of how to do things at the Operating System level.

The steps involved are:

Unpack the calibre2opds ZIP file that has been downloaded to a folder of your choice.

The calibre2opds GUI can now be started by running the appropriate rungui file. The rungui.cmd file should be used on Windows based systems, and the rungui.sh file on Linux or Mac based systems. These are simple text based command files so if you want to you can use a text editor to look at their (very simple) contents.

You can then (optionally) set up a shortcut to run the calibre2opds program. The easiest thing to do is to set up a shortcut to the rungui files mentioned above to provide the appropriate setting for such shortcuts.

If you re-use an existing folder, then make sure that it is empty of any files from the previous install. If you do not do this then you may encounter issues when system components are updated and you end up with both the old and new versions of the system component in the install folder.