So, I recently went 'all in' with Bookpedia and transferred my 2,000+ book collection from Calibre. I think the features of this program will allow me to do everything I want in a cataloging software...however I'm pretty disappointed in a few things and hopefully they can be rectified.
1. Freezing...constantly. I'm running OSX Catalina and Bookpedia 6.0.1 if that makes any difference. But every few minutes, or after every few operations, it locks up and I have to force quit and reopen. I can't seem to narrow it down to any particular circumstance, it's seemingly random.
2. Duplicate data...when I scrape Doghouse, or Google Books, or really any of the sources, sometimes it seems to put the same metadata for multiple books. This is really unfortunate because I have to keep manually editing the database file to empty those columns completely and start over, and I've yet to NOT have an issue with duplicate data. It's a shame because I'm trying to get release dates and summaries for all of my entries but knowing that it seemingly randomly puts the wrong info in, I'm going without it for now.
Question: Is there any way to allow overwriting of metadata of specific fields when updating via one of the online sources? It might allow for a workaround for my 2nd issue. I could essentially run the 'update from' multiple times on the collection and have it edit the data if it fetches something different than what is already there (without sacrificing the correct data that I already had from my initial transfer).
Side note: I've tried temporarily using Bookpedia 5.7 but that one won't even stay running for a few minutes without crashing.
Ridiculously frequent crashes, and duplicate data retrevial.
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kylecarroll
- Contributor
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2019 7:08 am
Re: Ridiculously frequent crashes, and duplicate data retrev
Thank you for all the details. That should not be the case. Hopefully it's one issue from where all the other ones cascade from and we can narrow it down and fix the issue or the bug. Since there was a big import from Calibre it's likely a incorrect format in the import that is then causing the program to go haywire.
If you don't mind could you please send me your Bookpedia database. You will find the database in your data folder located in your home folder at ~/Library/Application Support/Bookpedia/Database.bookpd. Under Yosemite you must use the Finder "Go" menu and hold down the option key and select the "Library" option. Once there navigate to Application Support/Bookpedia and select Database.bookpd and use the "Compress" command under the main "File" menu. This will create a .zip version that you can then attach to an email message.
Hopefully with the database file installed on my computer I can duplicate the issue and get it fixed. Also don't hesitate to send em any crash logs or freeze logs (can be captured with Activity Monitor and selecting Bookpedia and using the Sample button on the toolbar there while frozen). Could you also have a look at your console log, see if there are any messages from Bookpedia? You can access the console log via the application 'Console', located inside your Applications/Utilities. The newer messages are towards the end of the log.
Designating fields are updatable is on the todo list as it comes up often for fields such as price that fluctuate over time. So might come in a future version, Would also like to be able to update the interface to show you fields that have changed and let the user accept the changes in the edit window when updating via the gear box.
If you don't mind could you please send me your Bookpedia database. You will find the database in your data folder located in your home folder at ~/Library/Application Support/Bookpedia/Database.bookpd. Under Yosemite you must use the Finder "Go" menu and hold down the option key and select the "Library" option. Once there navigate to Application Support/Bookpedia and select Database.bookpd and use the "Compress" command under the main "File" menu. This will create a .zip version that you can then attach to an email message.
Hopefully with the database file installed on my computer I can duplicate the issue and get it fixed. Also don't hesitate to send em any crash logs or freeze logs (can be captured with Activity Monitor and selecting Bookpedia and using the Sample button on the toolbar there while frozen). Could you also have a look at your console log, see if there are any messages from Bookpedia? You can access the console log via the application 'Console', located inside your Applications/Utilities. The newer messages are towards the end of the log.
Designating fields are updatable is on the todo list as it comes up often for fields such as price that fluctuate over time. So might come in a future version, Would also like to be able to update the interface to show you fields that have changed and let the user accept the changes in the edit window when updating via the gear box.
Re: Ridiculously frequent crashes, and duplicate data retrev
Adding to what Conor has already advised may I make some maintenance suggestions that MAY help you solve your problems:
1 - When I am updating App's to a new WHOLE number version or I know that there has been a major rewrite of the App such as with the case of all the pedia's and especially as Conor has rewritten them solely for 64bit technology, I do a complete uninstall of the old version prior to update. I acheive this by using a FREE program called AppCleaner which you can download from here. On using this App place a check mark IN ALL the boxes EXCEPT: ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia , which is the second line down from the top. This is where your data base is located. Ensure that is NOT ticked. You will loose your Preference settings though but they only take a couple of minutes to redo. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR YOUR macOS
2 - There is also one other thing you can do and that is to use, what I call a "Grease & Oil Change" maintenance program called Onyx. This is a FREE program that is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more. I always use it prior and post system OS updates and about once a month. Also especially in this case concerning the new macOS 10.15.* Catalina which has dropped support for ALL 32 bit App's.
This program is available here: Titanium Software - Onyx. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR YOUR macOS
3 - Also there are some hidden menu tasks that you can perform: "hold down the option key and click on the main Help menu in each program once and select - each in turn: 'Verify Database', 'Remove Orphaned Covers' and 'Clean Duplicates in Fields' these may not solve your problems but it wont hurt either.
4 - And finally if your particular pedia is actually crashing do check for the Crash Logs. You can find the relevant logs in your Home folder under: ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/
Send them to Bruji Support: support@bruji.com
AND of course always carry out a general machine BACKUP first. Remember that all the pedia's also have the ability to create individual data base backups: File > Export Collection > Backup > Location of your choice
Hope you find these Tips & Hints helpful
1 - When I am updating App's to a new WHOLE number version or I know that there has been a major rewrite of the App such as with the case of all the pedia's and especially as Conor has rewritten them solely for 64bit technology, I do a complete uninstall of the old version prior to update. I acheive this by using a FREE program called AppCleaner which you can download from here. On using this App place a check mark IN ALL the boxes EXCEPT: ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia , which is the second line down from the top. This is where your data base is located. Ensure that is NOT ticked. You will loose your Preference settings though but they only take a couple of minutes to redo. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR YOUR macOS
2 - There is also one other thing you can do and that is to use, what I call a "Grease & Oil Change" maintenance program called Onyx. This is a FREE program that is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more. I always use it prior and post system OS updates and about once a month. Also especially in this case concerning the new macOS 10.15.* Catalina which has dropped support for ALL 32 bit App's.
This program is available here: Titanium Software - Onyx. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR YOUR macOS
3 - Also there are some hidden menu tasks that you can perform: "hold down the option key and click on the main Help menu in each program once and select - each in turn: 'Verify Database', 'Remove Orphaned Covers' and 'Clean Duplicates in Fields' these may not solve your problems but it wont hurt either.
4 - And finally if your particular pedia is actually crashing do check for the Crash Logs. You can find the relevant logs in your Home folder under: ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/
Send them to Bruji Support: support@bruji.com
AND of course always carry out a general machine BACKUP first. Remember that all the pedia's also have the ability to create individual data base backups: File > Export Collection > Backup > Location of your choice
Hope you find these Tips & Hints helpful
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kylecarroll
- Contributor
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2019 7:08 am
Re: Ridiculously frequent crashes, and duplicate data retrev
I've completely deleted my database and started fresh with a new csv export from Calibre. I used Calibre to scrape all the data first and then transferred everything to Bookpedia. So, as of right now, my database is complete and functional and therefore I can't replicate the crashes (I don't want to risk ruining the database by using Bookpedia's web scraping now that it's complete). As I add new entries though, I'll use the built in scraping tools and if the issues persist, I'll send the crash reports and logs.