version 4.17 Manage Authors no longer copies from author sort to author

[Edmund Brinkis]

version 4.17 Manage Authors no longer copies from author sort to author category. it blinks, generates no errors, returns to main screen, but nothing changes.

[Charles Haley (cbhaley)]

Works for me on Windows 10.

What exactly are you doing to make it fail?

[Edmund Brinkis (ebrinkis)]

Windows 10, 64 bit Calibre 4.17

Usually I have Epubs set up Author First Last and Author Sort Last,First
When I convert to AZW, I want to change Author to match Author Sort
In every version, except now 4.17, I highlight a group of books in the main screen (though I don't think that is a necessary step), right click on Authors in left hand column which brings up the selections. I click on Author management, then the button at the bottom of the new window that pops open that says Copy all author sort values to author. The window closes, the jobs spinner rotates, and after a short pause, all the entries in the author column in the main window change from First Last to Last, First. Now in version 4.17, when I try this process that has worked all along, everything proceeds as before, only when the author management window closes, the job spinner does not move, and the First Last author listing remains unchanged.

[Edmund Brinkis (ebrinkis)]

When I uninstall and go back to version 4.16, it works correctly as it always has.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

Fixed in branch master. The fix will be in the next release. calibre is usually released every alternate Friday.

 status fixreleased

[Frans van den Berg (fjkm)]

Still doesn't work in 4.18, not through the metadatapanel

[Charles Haley (cbhaley)]

It works for me.

Steps I did to try it:
1) right click on authors in the tag browser
2) select Manage Authors
3) Click the button "Copy all author sort values to author"

at this point several authors show the "quill" icon indicating they have been changed.

4) press OK

The authors with the "quill" are updated in the book list.

I also tried it from "Edit Metadata - Single". It took a few seconds for the edit metadata screen to update, and the change was made in the database.

What are you doing that is different from the above?

[Frans van den Berg (fjkm)]

I've never used your first method, i.e. right-click on Authors in the tag browser. But it works !!!

The second method, from within the Medadata-panel, works also, but takes a lot more time than version 4.16 and before. (I think I'm a little bit impatient ??) In my case up to 5 minutes before the "Manage author-panel appaered.
Its also the first time I saw the "quill-icon".

[Frans van den Berg (fjkm)]

In addition to the above :
The quill-icon is new to me. Was there a change in the author-database, that makes the first time so lengthy ?

I Have some 125.000 authors in my Calibre.

[Frans van den Berg (fjkm)]

The second time via the metadatapanel, I waited more than 12 minutes after the first click. A second click resulted in the crashing of Calibre.

[Charles Haley (cbhaley)]

Please run calibre in debug mode and post the log

[Frans van den Berg (fjkm)]

A second time, I tried to sort the authors via the Metadatapanel, I clicked on the author"head" and waited for 13 minutes. A second click resultud in the crashing of Calibre.
After restarting Windows, I tried the first method described as above. Result: Calibre crashes.

[Charles Haley (cbhaley)]

Please run calibre in debug mode and post the log

[Charles Haley (cbhaley)]

Note: I cannot investigate this problem without the log. All I know now is that with a *massive* number of authors, something goes wrong. I have no idea what that "something" is.

[Charles Haley (cbhaley)]

I looked at the code and found a very inefficient search loop that in your case would make nearly 8,000,000,000 comparisons. I improved it to make around 125,000 comparisons, the same as the number of authors. I hope this fixes the problem for you.

The fix is in source now, and probably will be released in 2 weeks.

[Frans van den Berg (fjkm)]

Hi, Sorry for my late reaction. I went back to 4.16.

I'm willing to go to 4.18 again, but you have to explain how I have to run in "debug" mode.

[Charles Haley (cbhaley)]

Lets wait for the next release (4.19) to see if my performance changes fix it. If they do then good. If they don't then we can try getting a log.

Thanks for being willing to help.