Good (and frequent) question.

My suggestion :

Why not add this information in the catalog manager dialog itself ? It would appear automatically each time you open the catalog manager. In my view it would help new users to understand:

- that a catalog is a folder

- If the catalog is in standard or custom location

- on which drive it is situated if custom

I would also add it in the new 'faq' link which appeared recently in the right panel of this forum.

andaleebfatima1 wrote:

 

Hi Michel,

 

Elements Organizer catalog is a db which only keeps associations of your media in its tables. So basically, a catalog folder is not your catalog in entirety and as such there is no point in copy-pasting it on external drive. Instead you need to take Full backup and consequently Incremental backups of your catalog on your external hard disk, using File >> Backup Catalog meu option present in Elements Organizer. Using this option, all your files are also moved to your external hard disk and as such the catalog can be restored in entirety on another system.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks

Andaleeb

No,

A catalog in the Organizer is not only the main database (sqlite database : catalog.pseXXdb). It is a whole folder containing other files and subfolders like cache, projects, visual similarity and autoanalyzer files.

That's why it is important to understand the difference between the file catalog.pseXXdb and the catalog itself which contains everything you need to organize.

The backup on your external disk is also a folder containing both copies of each backed up media file, but also a renamed copy of the database catalog.buc and a catalog.tly file containing the links between the original files and the copies in the backup. The restore process is able to restore the media files, the catalog and also to rebuild (recalculate) the other subsidiary files contained in the original folder.

That's the reason why incremental backups need to be done in new folders each time.

Try the following if you have your pictures and catalog in your main computer and if you can plug-in an external disk.

Copy the whole catalog folder into a new folder called 'mynewcatalog'. Double click on the catalog.pseXXdb file in the folder copy. The organizer will open the catalog copy immediately without rebuilding thumbnails or anything. You'll find a new catalog named 'mynewcatalog' like the folder name, in custom location.

No doubt the catalog.pseXXdb is the main and more important piece of the catalog, but also consider that even the auxiliary thumbs.5.cache file (storing the thumbnails) is another sqlite database.

Yes, there is always a big risk if users don't understand the way the catalog works.

I like to give this comparison to beginners.

Suppose you are using a pencil and paper note book to write the paths and properties of each one of your media. Whether you keep your notebook in your right or left pocket, the paths will still be true...

With the Organizer there are also different 'traps' and risks, which are well described by John R Ellis with his psedbtool program (not valid since PSE9, but the explanations are still good).

http://johnrellis.best.vwh.net/psedbtool/