[digiKam-users] Problematic handling of file name conflicts when moving files

[Thomas D]

Hi,

When moving a set of photos from one album to another file conflicts may arise. Especially if more than one camera is being used - because they may run into the same number sequence used then naming files.

So moving files from one album to another and experiencing a file name conflict should be a fairly common thing and something that is handled in the best way possible.

What actually happens in Digikam 7 is that existing files in the set are semi silently ignored. A short-lived popup is seen in the lower right corner like this:

saying that "a file or folder named XXX already exist in YYY".

The non-conflicting files are successfully moved.

There are several problems here. 

1: The user is given no options to remedy the situation. There is no dialog showing the user the two photos side-by-side for comparison or giving options as to whether they want to replace, skip or rename the conflicting files. 

2: The user may have spent considerable time selecting the set of photos going into the album. It may be hundreds of photos. When a random subset of these files are moved and the others not, the work the user did by selecting the files is lost.

3: There seems to be no obvious way to abort/undo the partial move operation that just occured. So now a random subset of the files was moved into an album. It should be possible to at least unto the move operation so as to get the moved images back and into the selection.

[Maik Qualmann]

We know the problematic, there is also a bug report and the desire for a dialog. Personally, I have no problems with the current way of working, nor do I like the constant dialogues that ask for anything. We introduced it when renaming files. However, users have actually asked where their overwritten files are. We are now moving them to the trash beforehand. I would be in the target folder for a simple automatic renaming...

Maik

Am Fr., 26. Juni 2020 um 14:20 Uhr schrieb Thomas D <[hidden email]>:

Hi,

When moving a set of photos from one album to another file conflicts may arise. Especially if more than one camera is being used - because they may run into the same number sequence used then naming files.

So moving files from one album to another and experiencing a file name conflict should be a fairly common thing and something that is handled in the best way possible.

What actually happens in Digikam 7 is that existing files in the set are semi silently ignored. A short-lived popup is seen in the lower right corner like this:

saying that "a file or folder named XXX already exist in YYY".

The non-conflicting files are successfully moved.

There are several problems here. 

1: The user is given no options to remedy the situation. There is no dialog showing the user the two photos side-by-side for comparison or giving options as to whether they want to replace, skip or rename the conflicting files. 

2: The user may have spent considerable time selecting the set of photos going into the album. It may be hundreds of photos. When a random subset of these files are moved and the others not, the work the user did by selecting the files is lost.

3: There seems to be no obvious way to abort/undo the partial move operation that just occured. So now a random subset of the files was moved into an album. It should be possible to at least unto the move operation so as to get the moved images back and into the selection.

[Remco Viëtor]

On vendredi 26 juin 2020 15:18:40 CEST Maik Qualmann wrote:
> We know the problematic, there is also a bug report and the desire for a
> dialog. Personally, I have no problems with the current way of working, nor
> do I like the constant dialogues that ask for anything. We introduced it
> when renaming files. However, users have actually asked where their
> overwritten files are. We are now moving them to the trash beforehand. I
> would be in the target folder for a simple automatic renaming...
>

Ideally, a dialog about duplicate files would appear before anything is moved/
written. I think that's what happens with the rename dialog? Undoing something
like a partial move is always a pain.

Otoh, with a setup where you can have identical file names, due to different
cameras especially, you are going to run into problems anyway at one time or
another. I think that points to a fundamental problem with the setup that
allows such duplicate names, for what are different images (as opposed to
different edits/versions of one image).

As for users asking where their *overwritten* files are, well, ... Blackboard,
write, wipe, write again; where's the first text?

Remco