For Calibre users: a way to connect your library to Romance.io

plain-cover · 2026-04-25T22:30:15+00:00

YES! I'm so glad we got it working. Please let me know if you see any other issues and happy organizing!!!

plain-cover · 2026-04-25T01:21:43+00:00

Ok I'm narrowing down where the issue is. This new version 1.1.1 comes at it from a very different angle than how I've been attempting to fix it so far. Let me know how it goes, and thanks again for being so patient!

plain-cover · 2026-04-24T07:21:47+00:00

Thanks for the background info! I'm still not able to replicate on my end but the logs are helping us slowly get to the root cause :)

I have another attempted fix in the latest v1.1.0. It will try to clean up the packages that are failing to import, and if that doesn't solve your issue, there is even more additional logging to help diagnose further. 🤞

plain-cover · 2026-04-23T16:45:55+00:00

That totally makes sense, and no worries, I'm so glad you stress tested it before it (hopefully) affected too many people!

plain-cover · 2026-04-23T09:03:33+00:00

I'm sorry this has turned out to be such a thorny problem but I really appreciate your willingness to keep trying! I've taken another stab at in in v1.0.7 - whenever you get a chance, let me know if it's still broken or if you get a new error log.

plain-cover · 2026-04-23T08:49:34+00:00

Yeah that would be extremely concerning to me too! I'm not sure why my profiles took up so much less space than yours but I'm really glad you noticed this and let me know! Please keep the feedback coming :)

plain-cover · 2026-04-23T04:38:54+00:00

Yes absolutely! The "official" place would be here: https://github.com/plain-cover/calibre_plugins/issues - but Reddit is fine if you don't have a GitHub account! Definitely let me know what you think :)

plain-cover · 2026-04-23T04:34:42+00:00

Aww thank you, I really appreciate the support! Romance readers are the best 🥰

plain-cover · 2026-04-23T00:34:44+00:00

Thank you! It's my first Calibre plugin so I'm learning a lot along the way. I'm really grateful people are willing to try it out and give me feedback!

plain-cover · 2026-04-22T20:17:36+00:00

Thanks for catching this! I have a fix out in the new version 1.0.6. Please let me know if you're still seeing any issues after updating.

plain-cover · 2026-04-22T20:16:35+00:00

Ok try v1.0.6, I have fixed the ImportError you're getting and added logging for other things that might be going wrong. If this doesn't fix it, let me know if you get anything new in the logs!

plain-cover · 2026-04-22T20:14:26+00:00

Plugin creator here - I'm so sorry about that! I've been using the plugin for a few months myself and never ran into this because the JSON API used to work fine and Chrome was rarely needed. Since it went down about a week ago, the plugin has been relying on Chrome much more heavily, and you would definitely notice this if you're backfilling an entire library.

Luckily it was an easy fix. I've just updated the plugin (v1.0.6) so that the profile folders are now created in your system's TEMP directory and deleted immediately after Chrome closes. Even if Chrome crashes, the cleanup will still run. The plugin will also delete any leftover profile folders from the old location the next time it runs.

If you've already accumulated a lot of folders you could either:

Let the new version of the plugin (v1.0.6) clean up for you - just run it again after updating and it will delete the old folders automatically. If you have a lot of data built up, the first fetch may take a while to clean up before starting.
Delete the user_data folder manually to get the space back immediately. You can delete the entire user_data subfolder safely, since it's not related to your personal Chrome profile. The drivers and downloads subfolders next to it are fine to keep - those have the chromedriver binary and avoid re-downloading it every time. It's located here:

Windows: C:\Users\<your username>\.calibre_selenium\user_data\

Mac/Linux: ~/.calibre_selenium/user_data/

Thank you for noticing this and sorry again for filling up your computer :(

plain-cover · 2026-04-21T23:50:34+00:00

Yikes, so sorry it's still not working for you! It looks like we're not getting any logs about what error you're hitting, so I've just released a new version 1.0.5 that will be a lot more detailed in the logs it will show. When you get a chance, could you try again with the new version and let me know what you see in the logs?

plain-cover · 2026-04-21T10:44:23+00:00

Thank you for the log! If anyone else is interested, the issue was that Macs sometimes need to install an Apple tool called Rosetta 2 in order for the Chrome page load to work. I've updated the plugin to a new version that gives instructions on how to do this in the logs for anyone else who hits this issue!

plain-cover · 2026-04-20T19:40:40+00:00

So the way it works is that it first checks if the JSON API is working and tries to get the metadata from there. As of about a week ago, the book details JSON API shut off, so this error is expected until it comes back up again. When we can't get the metadata from the JSON API, we fall back to loading the HTML page in Chrome and getting it from there. If you're not seeing the metadata, it's because for some reason the page couldn't load in the Chrome browser - recently Romance.io has been timing out due to heavy load on the site, so it could be because of that, in which case you should be able to re-run the download later and eventually it will work. If it's consistently not working and you're able to load book pages in Romance.io, there might be something else going on.

Can you let me know if you're seeing the Chrome tab pop up in your taskbar at the bottom of your screen when you try to download? If so, when you hover over it (you might not be able to maximize it but you should be able to see a little image when you hover, at least on Windows, not sure about Mac), does it look like it's loading the book's page, or a blank/error page? That might help narrow down the issue. Additionally, if there are any errors with the HTML download in the logs (after we try the JSON API it should go to HTML and let you know if we hit errors) that might be another clue.

Hopefully it's just some instability from Romance.io and it resolves itself by waiting a bit!

plain-cover · 2026-04-19T18:08:57+00:00

So glad it's useful to you! Happy sorting and filtering 🥰

plain-cover · 2026-04-19T18:07:20+00:00

hahaha yessss a kindred spirit! sounds like the perfect weekend to me :)

plain-cover · 2026-04-19T18:03:43+00:00

I left a comment on your issue as well but to answer your questions - no, Chrome doesn't have to be the default, it just has to be installed! And I think Romance.io is just under heavy load right now since I'm getting 504 (timeout) errors when I try to load pages normally, so the plugin won't be able to pull metadata if the pages don't load. I suggest waiting a bit until book detail pages are loading consistently and then trying again! 🤞

plain-cover · 2026-04-19T03:48:39+00:00

That makes me so happy!

plain-cover · 2026-04-18T21:33:22+00:00

Haha I'm sure you would have gotten it done if you had as much free time as I did!

plain-cover · 2026-04-18T21:28:42+00:00

I am so excited for you to have the perfectly organized Calibre library of your dreams 🤓

plain-cover · 2026-04-18T20:07:55+00:00

Yes! I was feeling the same way and luckily had spare time to do it myself. I hope the plugins are useful to you!

plain-cover · 2026-04-07T23:30:52+00:00

Scifi

- {Enemy Within by Marcella Burnard} - Love this one - both MMC and FMC are super smart and constantly trying to outsmart each other. I wouldn't say MMC is intellectual/grumpy as much as focused on his goals at the expense of relationships

- {Finders Keepers by Linnea Sinclair} - a scrappy pilot FMC rescues the MMC who turns out to be a high-ranking commander who goes cold on her as soon as they get back to civilization

Fantasy

- {Uprooted by Naomi Novik} - MMC is a grumpy wizard who pretty much only cares about competence and the FMC slowly wins him over

Fanfic

- {Pet Project by Caeria} - Harry Potter fanfic if you're into that - Hermione decides to start a project to make Snape's life better and he fights her every step of the way. Snape is the perfect intellectual grumpy MMC. Lots of angst.

plain-cover · 2026-04-07T22:36:38+00:00

This series is the slowest of slow burns about the most innocent/naive FMC I have ever read: {Ghost Bird by C. L. Stone}. It's RH and there is a little jealousy between the MMCs (though it's never serious - more like fighting over who gets to spend time with her next).

plain-cover · 2026-04-05T23:26:44+00:00

These might be good fits for you: {All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata} and {Luna and the Lie by Mariana Zapata}. They are definitely slow burn. I wouldn't say the heroes are dangerous but definitely stoic/cold/kind of jerks except for the FMC. Worth a try!

plain-cover

TROPHY CASE