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Docker Calibre book manager in Docker

Here’s a tutorial to get Calibre e-book manager running on Docker. I’ll set this up assuming you already have a Calibre database that exists on your NAS. In my case, I synced my PC’s Calibre books to:
/home/media/ebooks

I will use the linuxserver/caliber image, available here:
Docker Hub

Once you launch the image let’s make the following tweaks to the container.

General settings…


Volume settings…
Two entries should suffice. The first is the path to your existing Calibre database

File/Folder: homes/telos/media/ebooks
Mount path: /Calibre_Library

The next entry is used to store our configuration files locally. I use a shared folder “docker” for my docker configs.

File/Folder: docker/calibre
Mount path: /config

Port settings…
Local Port: Auto
Container Port: 3389

Local Port: 27880
Container Port: 8080

Local Port: 27881
Container Port: 8081

The 8081 port will be used by the Calibre server.

Links settings…
nothing here

Environment settings…
Add your PGID and PUID values

We’re almost there… Let’s save those settings and start the container.

Click the container’s “Details” button and open the terminal tab. You should see no errors.

With that… let’s start the GUI…
In your browser’s address bar, enter the local LAN’s IP/Port. For example…


Calibre will start and ask you where its database should reside. The default is config/Calibre_Library… We need to change that. Open the folder navigation and go to /Calibre_Library. Save that.

If you have books already present in your NAS’ folder… in this example,
/homes/telos/media/ebooks

They should appear on the browser screen. If they do not, refresh your browser tab. Alternately, select the Caliber_Library icon and “Switch/Create library…” and point it to “/Calibre_Library”

You should see your full library…
NEXEEIZ.png


We’re not done yet… We need to get the server set…

Go to Preferences>Sharing over the net. We want to set up the server so we can download books to our devices, and if necessary change their format. Make the following settings…

0t3GRRg.png


Next, select the “User accounts” tab to create a server login (otherwise you will be unable to convert formats).
Let’s keep it simple… for Username and Password, we’ll use… “calibre”

Apply these changes then go back to the Main tab, and click the “Start server” button.

OK… we’re nearly done…

In your browser’s address bar, enter the local LAN’s IP/Port. For example…

You’ll be prompted for the server Username/Password you just created. Click the “Calibre Library” button, and select a book. You may either download it or read it on your browser. Alternatively, you may convert its format, edit its metadata, or delete it.

On my tablet's browser, I enter

And select a book for download to my favorite e-reader.

How simple was that :)

If I’ve too hurriedly pushed this out and you have errors, let me know.

If you need remote access to your server, you’ll need to forward the Calibre server port, and use your domain or DDNS (or VPN, and use your local LAN IP).

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Update: 2020/07/23

How do I import additional books to the calibre library...

To do that I mapped an additional folder:

File/Folder: docker/calibre/upload
Mount path: /upload

I then move books to be imported into the "docker/calibre/upload" folder. With Calibre open, I use the hotkey "A" which opens a file navigation box. Working back to root "/", select the /upload folder and the ebook(s) you wish to import. Easy peasy.

After importing, book files will remain in the upload folder, so you will need to manually delete them, after importing.



Latest reviews

amazing and awesome support from Telos
Upvote 0
Thanks for this super helpful tutorial!
Telos
Telos
You are welcome!
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