eBooks with Calibre e-book management, OneDrive and Android

by Danilo Ramos

Apr 5, 2023

Introduction

Calibre is an eBooks collection manager, which helps you properly organize your eBooks regardless of the format, or if you have different formats for the same title.

I use Calibre to sync and keep up-to-date my eBooks on all my devices, including my android eBooks (ONYX BOOX Nova Pro). My approach:

  • Calibre on Windows10/11 to manage and organize the eBooks collection
    • As possible, I always buy my eBooks DRM-free (pdf or epub), so my preferred source for books are
    • Google Books: paid books most of them DRM-free
    • My library online branch with OverDrive, although the app Libby is great for borrowing (and works on Android eReaders)
  • OneDrive (or any other cloud storage service should suffice)
    • OneSync: to sync the files with any Android device
  • eReaders: I am a big fan of BOOX Android eReaders, nothing else to say here (I personally recommend a 10.3” or 7.8”, with color)

This setup is generic, so any cloud provider (or local server) with an Android/iOS sync utility should work. You can probably use the cloud provider app, but in my personal experience, the OneSync (paid version) App. has worked so well, without any issues and is so easy to configure that it was worth the cost.

Calibre Install & Setup

  • Install with default options (link)
  • Select Run Calibre at the end of the installation

After the installation,

  • Open Calibre
  • The first time it will ask for the Calibre Library location
  • Set path from Onedrive as: OneDrive\Bibliothek\Calibre\CalibreLibrary (or the folder structure of your preference inside OneDrive)
  • E-book device: Select Onyx

    Don not select manage e-readers with Calibre, we will use the OneSync Android app.), otherwise you will need to plug the device to your computer every time you add new books

  • Click on Preferences Look & Feel
    • Set Enable system tray icon
    • Click Apply Restart calibre now
  • Click on Preferences Sending books to devices
    • set as {#genre:subitems(0,1)}/{#genre:subitems(1,2)}/{#genre:subitems(2,3)}/{#genre:subitems(3,4)}/{#genre:subitems(4,5)}/{title} - {authors}
    • Click Apply Close
  • Click Connect/Share Connect to Folder
    • set as OneDrive\Bibliothek\Books\Calibre
  • Verify that On Device Column is set to Main for all books
  • Done!

Plugins

  • Install DeDRM Tools (link)