Move Calibre to new machine, keeping all books and settings?

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I originally posted this on MobileRead, but maybe some of you here are experienced with Calibre, too.

I’m switching my laptop from Linux Mint 21.3 to EndeavourOS and need to move my Calibre, including all personal settings and my Calibre library.

How to do that safely?

Is it enough to

  • rsync over the complete Calibre Library folder (called “Calibre-Bibliothek” because I’m on a German-language system)
  • rsync over my ~/.config/calibre with all subfolders
  • then re-install using the Linux install script on the Calibre site
  • or (better) install calibre-bin from the AUR
  • EDIT: Or (even better) install extra/calibre

Or must I install Calibre first, then rsync my data over?

Assume the setup is the same (same paths, same Calibre version, same username, same UID & GID, same folder structure).

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I have done this before just using the 2 rsync steps.

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Yeah, rsync somehow comes naturally to Linux guys and gals… :wink:

But I just found that Calibre’s creator actually provided for this situation by having a full export/import.

So to test this, what I did was:

  • Exported everything on my old machine to my NAS, using Calibre’s Export all Calibre data.
  • Installed extra/calibre. It even reminds you of the import on the welcome screen—nice.
  • Imported everything from the NAS folder, using the new Calibre’s Import all Calibre data.
  • It was complaining about a non-empty folder, because I was re-using the new Calibre’s ~/Calibre-Bibliothek folder. Just cleared that out and tried importing again. Worked this time.
  • Calibre restarted, and all my settings and books are there, like I never changed machines. Nice!
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I’m prefer using isolated installation with calibreup as alias to update whenever I get the notification.

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