I am seeking advice regarding my ebook collection on a Linux system, which is stored on an external drive and sorted into categories. However, there are still many unsorted ebooks. I have tried using Calibre for organization, but it creates duplicate files during import on my main drive where I don’t want to keep any media. I would like to:

• Use Calibre’s automatic organization (tags, etc.) without duplicating files
• Maintain my existing folder structure while using Calibre
• Automatically sort the remaining ebooks into my existing categories/folder structure

I am considering the use of symlinks if there is a simple way to automate the process due to my large collection.

Regarding automatic sorting by category, I am looking for a solution that doesn’t require manual organization or a significant time investment. I’m wondering if there’s a way to extract metadata based on file hashes or any other method that doesn’t involve manual work. Most of the files should have title and author metadata, but some won’t. I am not in a rush to solve this issue since I can still locate most ebooks by their title without any organization.

Has anyone encountered a similar problem and found a solution? I would appreciate any suggestions for tools, scripts, or workflows that might help. Thank you in advance for any advice!