Calibre Experts: A question about Calibre tags and Kindle notes

[Linjeakel]

Up to now I have tagged my books on Kindle using the notes feature. I want to use Calibre to amend the Title/Author metadata on my books, both Kindle books and personal documents which are non DRM'd .mobi files.

If I load a book into Calibre and change the metadata, then send it back to the Kindle, will it file over the original, or make a new file? Should I remove it from the Kindle before I send it back? And most importantly, will the notes I made on the Kindle beforehand still be available when I send it back to the Kindle? I need them to still be there because I believe the tags feature on Calibre doesn't work on the Kindle. Are the answers different for Kindle books and other books?

Sorry! There's a load of questions there, but I want to get it straight in my mind what's going to happen to all my notes / tags if I start using Calibre to amend the metadata.

[Linjeakel]

Bump.

Wow, considering how many times Calibre has been mentioned / recommended to me here on KB I'm kinda disappointed no-one can clarify this for me.  

[Luvmy4brats]

This thread should help:

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,24099.0.html

[Linjeakel]

Thank you so much luvmy4brats!

I did a search on KB before I posted but it didn't seem to throw up anything relevant, but that looks like it might just answer my questions. I'll give it a go tomorrow when I have some time. 

[Luvmy4brats]

I edited the metadata on my books yesterday. I don't really use the notes/highlights much, and I never got around to tagging them, so I wasn't concerned if they were overwritten.

I just deleted the books off of my Kindle, edited them, and then added them all back. I'm so tickled that I finally did it. All of my books now sort correctly and I have all of my series display in order from first to last (play with the date published).

[Luvmy4brats]

I just found this over on Amazon, This might help:

"Also, while editing AZW files in calibre, if you edit the title/author info, you have to make the corresponding MPB file match the updated book info.

For example, if the book was titled Empress (Godspeaker, Book 1) and you changed the AZW file to Empress (Godspeaker, 1) you would have to do the same for the MPB file. Make sure to remove that random string of numbers found on the MPB's title!"

Note that there is now an easier way to do this at the most current levels of Calibre. Once you have a book in Calibre, you get Calibre to fetch the old .mbp (or .tan) file and rename it and store it in the proper place on your Kindle.

Here's how:

1. Select Edit Metadata with the book in question highlighted.
2. Make whatever metadata changes you want. In addition, click the upper-right-hand icon in the metadata box to specify that you want to add another format for the book.
3. That will give you a window for choosing the file you want, in this case the appropriate .mbp or .tan file. (It might be either still on your Kindle or else a file on your computer where you've backed up your Kindle.)
4. After you've chosen the file to add, click to complete the metadata editing.
5. Then, with the book still highlighted in the library menu, select the little arrow to the right of "Save to disk". From the drop-down menu, choose "Save single format to disk". That will give you a menu with the file extension, from which you choose "tan" or "mbp", as appropriate. When it prompts you for where to store the file, just press Enter to choose the documents folder on your Kindle.

That procedure saves the .tan or .mbp under the same filename and in the same directory as the book will go to when you specify "Send to device" for it.

Note that even though Calibre knows it has an mbp/tan file for the book, it does not send it when you specify "Send to device" for the book. (From what I've read, they may be considering changing this.)

EDITED: To note that the new file should be stored in the documents folder on your Kindle, which you specify when prompted by simply pressing Enter.

[Linjeakel]

Thank you for finding all that out for me - I really appreciate it. It looks like Calibre can do what I need it to, although it may take a little while to get it done! At least in future I can make sure my books' metadata is correct right from the beginning - before I start tagging/making notes.

[Rie142]

I also thank you luvmy4brats.   I knew it could be done but for the life of me I couldn't figure it out.    I couldn't make my mind wrap around it.   

Thank you once again.

Rie142(Marie)