[digiKam-users] How to reorganize collections

[CB-crew]

Hello!

I have a question about collections.

Currently I have 3 independent collections:

E:\videos\2019
E:\videos\2020
E:\videos\2021

I would like to merge them into one:

E:\videos

which will then contain the 2019, 2020 and 2021 folders.

As soon as I want to create a collection E:\videos, I get this error message

There is already a collection containing the folder "E:\videos".

Is it possible to reorganize collections without deleting them and maybe losing all metadata, annotations, and tags.

Thank you
Best from CB-Crew

[donsam]

I am somewhat confused since my directory structure is like yours, a top
level directory and then by year under that, and then by day under that. I
see them all. I am still building, starting in 2020 and working backwards to
the 1970s.
<http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/file/t377307/dirstruct.gif>




--
Sent from: http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digikam-users-f1735189.html

[CB-crew]

I think in your case you add new subdirectories to existing directory trees.

In my case I want to unite tree existing independent collections together
into one common subdirectory. I start with three collections and want to end
with one.



-----
Hello from Costa Rica
--
Sent from: http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digikam-users-f1735189.html

[Eduard Zalar]

Hi,

you may write the metadata to the images. Then you can remove the three collections and create the one you like.

1. Make sure to write ALL wanted metadata from the database to the images:

1.1. Go to Tools -> Maintenance

1.2. In the "Common options", select "Whole albums collection".

1.3. In the section "Sync Metadata and Database", select "From database to image data".

1.4. Press the "Settings..." button to see which data is written to the metadata and adjust to your needs.

1.5. Click "OK" to run the sync.

2. Remove your three collections.

3. Add the root folder for your desired one collection.

3.1. All metadata which was written in step 1 is read from the images and added to the database again.

Regards

 Eddie

Am So., 25. Apr. 2021 um 18:48 Uhr schrieb CB-crew <[hidden email]>:

I think in your case you add new subdirectories to existing directory trees.

In my case I want to unite tree existing independent collections together
into one common subdirectory. I start with three collections and want to end
with one.



-----
Hello from Costa Rica
--
Sent from: http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digikam-users-f1735189.html

[Jim Dory-2]

I would have just dragged (or moved) all the files into one of the existing folders, deleted the two now empty ones, and renamed the one they are all in. Would that lose data doing it that way?

On 4/25/21 10:38 AM, Eduard Zalar wrote:

Hi,

you may write the metadata to the images. Then you can remove the three collections and create the one you like.

1. Make sure to write ALL wanted metadata from the database to the images:

1.1. Go to Tools -> Maintenance

1.2. In the "Common options", select "Whole albums collection".

1.3. In the section "Sync Metadata and Database", select "From database to image data".

1.4. Press the "Settings..." button to see which data is written to the metadata and adjust to your needs.

1.5. Click "OK" to run the sync.

2. Remove your three collections.

3. Add the root folder for your desired one collection.

3.1. All metadata which was written in step 1 is read from the images and added to the database again.

Regards

 Eddie

Am So., 25. Apr. 2021 um 18:48 Uhr schrieb CB-crew <[hidden email]>:

I think in your case you add new subdirectories to existing directory trees.

In my case I want to unite tree existing independent collections together
into one common subdirectory. I start with three collections and want to end
with one.



-----
Hello from Costa Rica
--
Sent from: http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digikam-users-f1735189.html

[Remco Viëtor]

On lundi 26 avril 2021 00:32:47 CEST Jim Dory wrote:
> I would have just dragged (or moved) all the files into one of the existing
> folders, deleted the two now empty ones, and renamed the one they are all
> in. Would that lose data doing it that way?

That should work from within Digikam. Doing it outside Digikam can lose you
the information contained in the database (tags, descriptions, ...), unless
you use sidecars.

Otoh, I don't think that's what OP wants. I gathered he wants to retain his
current directory structure, but only have one collection pointing one level
above the three (or more?) current ones. Also, from his naming scheme, I
suspect he's using video mainly.

Perhaps, if he can write sidecars for his video files, he could just delete
the current databases, and start over with a new collection. as the sidecars
will be read in on creating the new collection, he shouldn't lose too much
information. This can be time-consuming for a large collection though.
Of course, as a precaution, make backups of the old databases before removing
them...

Remco

[CB-crew]

@remco

Thank you! You said it perfect!

- my files are mainly video files

- I don't want to physically move these files or change the directory
structure. I just want to combine the files and of course all metadata
(tags, comments ect.) that I have entered in Digikam into a new collection.

- Currently I have 3 collections for 3 years. Now one for the year 2021
would be added. The search in 4 collections is cumbersome and so I wanted to
merge these 4 years into one 'big' collection, but this seems very
complicated.

I was hoping there is a tool to manage collections.





-----
Hello from Costa Rica
--
Sent from: http://digikam.1695700.n4.nabble.com/digikam-users-f1735189.html