[digiKam-users] --> Migrating from Photos to digiKam

[Alex Antão]

Hi,

  I have a huge Photos Library (not iPhoto), it has about 800Gb of data, more then 100.000 photos and more videos.

  I'm planning to migrate everything to digiKam, but need something more pratical. 

  I've been searching and found some material for migrating from iPhoto (like iphoto2xmp), but nothing from Photos.

  Does anybody has some guide, or script or any information ? 

thanks.....

[woenx]

In theory, you don't have to do anything special.

I have never worked with Photos before, but if all the metadata is already
written in the pictures or in sidecar files, you just install digikam, tell
him in which folder you store your pictures, and wait until it scans your
library. All the information (Tags, People, etc.) will be populated
automatically.

If Photos didn't save that information to the picture (or xmp sidecar files)
then you would need to export it somehow.

But in any case, just try to import your picture library into digikam, and
if you see some information missing, then try to figure out how to export
that info from your previous picture management software.



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

[Alex Antão]

Thanks, but it does not work. 

I tried to import just one directory from my Library, and it jus copied all structure just as it was.

I'd like to import all metadata, including Events (I have a lot of then), tags, etc...

I really like Photos, but the way it is today, I can't continue to use it, it is very, very slow on my old Macbook, very buggy, does not often update, loose some photos and I don't know that (just when I need them) and it is not multi plataform. If I change to another SO, I'll loose anyway. But I don't want to loose all information I have today, it would take yaers to catalog all photos again.

I like the way it abstracts everything, but it tends to hide some problems. I like control. 

Thanks.

---- Ativado Qua, 04 set 2019 10:54:41 -0300 woenx <[hidden email]> escreveu ----

In theory, you don't have to do anything special.

I have never worked with Photos before, but if all the metadata is already
written in the pictures or in sidecar files, you just install digikam, tell
him in which folder you store your pictures, and wait until it scans your
library. All the information (Tags, People, etc.) will be populated
automatically.

If Photos didn't save that information to the picture (or xmp sidecar files)
then you would need to export it somehow.

But in any case, just try to import your picture library into digikam, and
if you see some information missing, then try to figure out how to export
that info from your previous picture management software.



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

[woenx]

Ok, then the next step would be to check if indeed the metadata is each file.

Why don't you upload a picture that you know contains tags/keywords to this
website, and check if the tags are still there?
http://exif.regex.info/exif.cgi

It's possible that Photo only saved the keywords and other metadata to its
internal database. In that case, you'll need to export it somehow.

By the way, what exactly are "Events"?





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

[Alex Antão]

It is very very possible that the data is stored only on database.

Sorry, events are the old way iPhoto named the albuns. The correct term would be Albuns. 

I've just found an interesting tool that shoud do that: https://github.com/orangeturtle739/photos-export

I'll take a look closely on that script... seems good...

thanks.

---- Ativado Qua, 04 set 2019 11:29:09 -0300 woenx <[hidden email]> escreveu ----

Ok, then the next step would be to check if indeed the metadata is each file.

Why don't you upload a picture that you know contains tags/keywords to this
website, and check if the tags are still there?
http://exif.regex.info/exif.cgi

It's possible that Photo only saved the keywords and other metadata to its
internal database. In that case, you'll need to export it somehow.

By the way, what exactly are "Events"?





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

[Rob D]

Photos on OSX will allow you to export your metadata as a XMP sidecar.

To test, select a photo and select Export from the File menu. Before you export, make sure you check the "Export IPTC as XMP" option. Once exported, add the folder to digikam as a library folder and re-scan your library. You should see the photo with all it's metadata.

If that works, select "My Albums" and export your photos in the same way. You might want to select a subfolder format to keep things a little organized on disk.

Rob

On Wed, 2019-09-04 at 11:13 -0300, Alex Antão wrote:

Thanks, but it does not work. 

I tried to import just one directory from my Library, and it jus copied all structure just as it was.

I'd like to import all metadata, including Events (I have a lot of then), tags, etc...

I really like Photos, but the way it is today, I can't continue to use it, it is very, very slow on my old Macbook, very buggy, does not often update, loose some photos and I don't know that (just when I need them) and it is not multi plataform. If I change to another SO, I'll loose anyway. But I don't want to loose all information I have today, it would take yaers to catalog all photos again.

I like the way it abstracts everything, but it tends to hide some problems. I like control. 

Thanks.

---- Ativado Qua, 04 set 2019 10:54:41 -0300 woenx <[hidden email]> escreveu ----

In theory, you don't have to do anything special.

I have never worked with Photos before, but if all the metadata is already
written in the pictures or in sidecar files, you just install digikam, tell
him in which folder you store your pictures, and wait until it scans your
library. All the information (Tags, People, etc.) will be populated
automatically.

If Photos didn't save that information to the picture (or xmp sidecar files)
then you would need to export it somehow.

But in any case, just try to import your picture library into digikam, and
if you see some information missing, then try to figure out how to export
that info from your previous picture management software.