Important Changes to Camera Bits!

Moving a Catalog


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    When you create a new Catalog, the default location may not be ideal. You can change that location as you are creating the Catalog.

    Tip: See our recommendations about where to store catalogs.


    If you have already created a Catalog and need to move it later on, you can do so with the following 2 steps.


    Note: If you have made changes to the files you have cataloged and not moved the catalog itself, you should use Catalog Sync instead.


Step 1: Move the Catalog

    If you know where your Catalog is, move the Catalog folder and all contents to the new location. 

  1. If you do not know where your catalog is, open Photo Mechanic Plus. 
  2. Go to Catalog > Catalog Management...
  3. Select the triangle next to the name of your catalog. You should see the location of your catalog. Write it down or memorize it. 
  4. Use the Forget button. The catalog will disappear from the list. 
  5. Move the folder containing the catalog to the new location. 


    If you do not use the 'Forget' button when moving a catalog, it will misbehave. It may still show up in your catalog list, but all the files offline.




    Restart Photo Mechanic Plus if this happens to you.  When you relaunch Photo Mechanic Plus, the catalog will fail to launch, and you will not see it in your list of available catalogs.



Step 2: Locate Existing Catalog

   The final step is to tell Photo Mechanic Plus where you've moved the Catalog.


    Navigate to Catalog > Catalog Management and click the 'Locate Existing Catalogs' button. Then navigate to your Catalog folder's new location.

    Once completed successfully, the Catalog should appear in your list again without any need to rescan it.


    If you are moving a catalog from one computer to another, the process is the same. Move the Catalog folder and all contents from the old computer to the new computer. Launch Photo Mechanic Plus on the new computer. Use Locate Existing Catalog to identify the catalog location. 


    You can also use 'Locate Existing Catalog...' if you use multiple computers and store your single Catalog on a removable drive.


Backing-up Your Catalogs

    There is currently no way to back up Catalogs within Photo Mechanic Plus. However, you can use external software or system tools to save backup copies of your files. Keep the following in mind:

  • The minimum file for catalogs is the catalog.pmdb database file, which is often much smaller than the whole catalog folder with image proxies.  If you have space, you can back up the entire catalog folder. 
  • Quit Photo Mechanic Plus before attempting to back up any files. Otherwise, the database is likely to be open and running.

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