[digiKam-users] How to 'clone' a Digikam installation to another computer?

[Chris Green]

What's the minimum/simplest way to copy a complete Digikam
installation to another computer? (Without rescanning the whole image
collection)

I want to copy an installation from one xubuntu 18.04 computer to
another xubuntu 18.04 computer, i.e.both are running the same OS. Also
the installation (both albums and database files) are in identically
named directories on both systems.

Is it just a matter of changing the entry in the AlbumRoots table?
Can anyone describe what one needs to do?  (I only have a single
album).

--
Chris Green
·

[woenx]

Just copy the four database files to the new installation. If the paths to
the library are different, you can edit the database to point to the new
path. Using SQLite Database Browser (sqlitebrowser.org) or some other
software to edit databases, edit the "AlbumRoots" table and point to the new
path.

You can even add two paths for the same library using this method:
http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digiKam-users-DigiKam-and-multiple-computers-best-practices-tc4705570.html#a4705575
(I don't know if that's officially supported, but it works).

If they already have the exact same path, you don't have to do anything.
Just copy the databases to the new computer and start it.



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[Chris Green]

woenx <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Just copy the four database files to the new installation. If the paths to
> the library are different, you can edit the database to point to the new
> path. Using SQLite Database Browser (sqlitebrowser.org) or some other
> software to edit databases, edit the "AlbumRoots" table and point to the new
> path.
>
> You can even add two paths for the same library using this method:
> http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digiKam-users-DigiKam-and-multiple-computers-best-practices-tc4705570.html#a4705575 
>
> (I don't know if that's officially supported, but it works).
>
> If they already have the exact same path, you don't have to do anything.
> Just copy the databases to the new computer and start it.
>

I've just tried this and it's not quite working.

I simply copied everything in one /home/chris/pictures directory to
the same directory on the other computer.  Digikam runs OK on the
'destination' computer but:-

    I had to say Digikam files are on a 'removable' drive, presumably
    this is because the driveId is different.  Not a problem really.

    Whenever I double-click on a thumbnail I get the message "the
    storage location of this image is not currently available", this
    is rather a show stopper!

So, what have I done wrong?

--
Chris Green
·

[woenx]

You say the path to the pictures is the same in the two computers, right? And
I suppose the pictures are the same in the two computers.

I only tried with pictures stored in network shares. Never had an issue with
DriveId or anything like that. I don't really know.

I tried sharing the same database for two computers, and also having two
computers with two separate databases (syncing only the pictures using
unison), and in both cases digikam managed to detect changes whenever I
edited the metadata.

Maybe someone else has more experience with that?



--
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[Chris Green]

woenx <[hidden email]> wrote:
> You say the path to the pictures is the same in the two computers, right? And
> I suppose the pictures are the same in the two computers.
>
Both computers have all the pictures (just one album) in
/home/chris/pictures.  The 'pictures are the same' simply because I
used rsync to make both /home/chris/pictures identical.


> I only tried with pictures stored in network shares. Never had an issue with
> DriveId or anything like that. I don't really know.
>
So you have/had two digikams pointing at the same network share?
That's not quite the same as I'm trying to do.


> I tried sharing the same database for two computers, and also having two
> computers with two separate databases (syncing only the pictures using
> unison), and in both cases digikam managed to detect changes whenever I
> edited the metadata.
>
So you had two (or more) Digikams syncing with two (or more) sets of
images on remote NAS' and you synchronised from one NAS to the other
using Unison?

--
Chris Green
·

[woenx]

Yep, I have both. I have two computers at my home (one windows, one ubuntu),
and the pictures and the databases are in a NAS. It's not very fast over
wifi, but it seems to work.

In addition to that, the pictures are synced every night with unison to
another NAS at my parent's house, and they use a third instance of digikam
with its own database. The sync is bidirectional, so if they made changes to
the pictures I'll receive those changes and digikam will detect them at the
next startup. And viceversa.

The ideal solution for me would be a client-server version of digikam. The
server would run on one of the NAS and clients would connect to it to access
the database and the pictures. But that's asking too much. Meanwhile, I also
run Filerun (https://www.filerun.com) to access my files from a web browser
and search by tag.



--
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[Chris Green]

woenx <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Yep, I have both. I have two computers at my home (one windows, one ubuntu),
> and the pictures and the databases are in a NAS. It's not very fast over
> wifi, but it seems to work.
>
> In addition to that, the pictures are synced every night with unison to
> another NAS at my parent's house, and they use a third instance of digikam
> with its own database. The sync is bidirectional, so if they made changes to
> the pictures I'll receive those changes and digikam will detect them at the
> next startup. And viceversa.
>

Do you sync databases or just the images?  I find that tag changes in
particualar don't get properly updated when I only synchronise images.

--
Chris Green
·

[woenx]

I just sync the images. The database is updated when digikam is started.

I have had no problems with tags so far. Have you tried the option "update
file timestamp when files are modified"? (it is in settings, configure,
metadata). I personally have it disabled, but may help digikam detect when
changes have been made.



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[digikam-2]

On Wed, 3 Oct 2018 11:18:52 -0500 (CDT)
woenx <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I have had no problems with tags so far. Have you tried the option
> "update file timestamp when files are modified"? (it is in
> settings, configure, metadata). I personally have it disabled, but
> may help digikam detect when changes have been made.

Sorry, but I don't understand.

There's the image file and the sidecar (the xmp). The image file is
supposed to never be changed, only the sidecars are
created/updated...

So if you change the timestamp on the image, what about the exif
data? It won't match anymore. Would that potentially cause problems
down the road?

What are the implication of modifying the image files?

--
Thanks

Syv

[Chris Green]

woenx <[hidden email]> wrote:
> I just sync the images. The database is updated when digikam is started.
>
> I have had no problems with tags so far. Have you tried the option "update
> file timestamp when files are modified"? (it is in settings, configure,
> metadata). I personally have it disabled, but may help digikam detect when
> changes have been made.
>
Yes, I have that set.

--
Chris Green
·

[woenx]

Syv, I do not use the sidecar files, I directly add the XMP and EXIF
information to the image file, modifying the image every time I change
something. While in theory is safer to use sidecar files, it's easier to
modify pictures directly if several people use that picture library.

Among all the dates that a picture file can store (two or three in each
EXIF, XMP and IPTC), I think digikam sets a priority for each one and ends
up choosing one.



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