How to display offline or missing files

[kalain]

Hi,

 

Not sure this has already been asked or discussed here but I would like to display all offline or missing (thumbnail) files in order to make some cleaning in catalog.

But didn't find a way for displaying this.

 

Doing "Catalog / Optimize" do not clean or remove all offline or missing file. (That's normal because you can have some thumbnails in external HDD.)

 

"Show Un Synch file" do not display offline or missing file.

[Murat]

Alain, thanks for reminding about this feature - it exists in our feature list (#2530)

 

There are some open questions that prevented from implementing this option because the Offline status can not be saved into the database (although can be cached there) because any file can be offline at any time just because someone ejected an external hard drive from the computer. Where to display the resulted thumbnails: in a separate window or in the same thumbnail view? Will the thumbnails should clear their status after relaunching the program? If no, what if an external HDD will be connected back to the computer: how to reset the offline state of the thumbnails? Launch this command again?

 

Launching this command will be a slow process because we need to check all files imported into the catalog one-by-one to check whether they are offline or not.

[kalain]

Hi,

 

From my point of view "Display Offline" in Daminion has to be improved a lot before to be usable.

 

Why ?

 

Last time I made some modifications in my structure folders where my pictures are stored.

Among all folder restructuration I made, I renamed a folder "Kyte" to "Kite" with Win Explorer or my DAM. (WPG)

When I started again Daminion, it didn't find anymore all pictures stored in 'old' Kyte folder!!! It tells me that pictures are offline.

I discovered that folder tree in Catalog Tag Panel is not automatically updated!!! (Still display "Kyte" folder!!)

 

Well, do not tell me that I have to make a rescan folder (F6) which takes hours and hours.

 

Just to compare with my actual DAM (WPG), all structure folder modification I made are automatically reflected in folder tree. WPG folder tree behave exactly the same as an Win Explorer. It seems also that an dynamic rescan is done while browsing folders.

 

With such feature, Off line or missing file concern only removable or external memory support.

 

Well, sorry to say this but from my point of view a DAM without a real time folder tree scan is not very usable or powerful.

 

I hope this will be improved in Daminion.

 

Regards

[Uwe]

Hello kalain,

if you have renamed the folder from "Kyte" to "Kite" you can use the function "Relink Folder": right click on the old folder name in the Folders Tag -> select Relink Folder -> enter the new path and folder name in the popup window -> ready. The new folder "Kite" is in the folder tree and the old "Kyte" is removed from the folder tree.

My question is: why didn't you use the "Rename" function in the "right-click menu" of the folder tree?

The automatic update of the folder tree is possible if you have the "Auto-Rescan = on". But this is and must be time consuming compared to the Relink function.

Regards, Uwe

[kalain]

Hello kalain,

if you have renamed the folder from "Kyte" to "Kite" you can use the function "Relink Folder": right click on the old folder name in the Folders Tag -> select Relink Folder -> enter the new path and folder name in the popup window -> ready. The new folder "Kite" is in the folder tree and the old "Kyte" is removed from the folder tree.

 

Ok, but when you have made a dozen of folder tree modifications (outside Daminion) you can't remember what you did, except to write it on a piece of paper!

So, doing back this under Daminion as you describe seems to me quite hard job.

 

My question is: why didn't you use the "Rename" function in the "right-click menu" of the folder tree?

I do not use exclusively Daminion for managing my pictures folder, I also use WPG or windows explorer. From my point of view, that's not a good thing if you have to use exclusively Daminion for managing your folder tree pictures. It means, as soos as you started with Daminion you can't use other tools to modifiy these folders!!! No, this is a very big constraint!

 

The automatic update of the folder tree is possible if you have the "Auto-Rescan = on". But this is and must be time consuming compared to the Relink function.

Time consuming, that's the problem. and I use at home a laptop which has an I7 core, 8Gb RAM memory, 1Tb HHD. Do not tell me this machine is out of date!

 

Regards

 

Alain

[Uwe]

Hello Alain,

 

I don't know WPG. Can you send the link here in the forum to the product please to get a better understanding of the product and its functions?

 

Regards, Uwe

[kalain]

Hello Alain,

 

I don't know WPG. Can you send the link here in the forum to the product please to get a better understanding of the product and its functions?

 

Sorry to make some advertising here for another product but this is to improve Daminion as much as possible.

 

WPG : Windows Photo Gallery : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/photo-gallery#photogallery=overview

[Uwe]

Hello Alain,

 

thank you for the link.

From my point of view one can't compare both products because they have a different view.

As far as I understand WPG it works like a file system oriented browser (like XnView) with some feature to handle photos etc. Therefore it's no difference wether you make modifications by the Windows File Explorer or in WPG. They use the same Windows functions on the File System Level.

Daminion, Lighroom and other database oriented DAM are working with their database and objects out of the database do not exist until they are imported into the database.

That means Daminion has a folder tree but this is not the folder tree of the Windows file system. It's the folder tree inside the database, created by the import of the files into the catalog and any modification on Windowes File System level have to be "imported" into the database (maybe by relink folders, rescan folder etc.) or changes in the Daminion database have to be "exported" - the Daminion "Rename Folders" is an adjustment of the database and the Windows File System.

I suggest to use as much as possible the functions of Daminion if you adjust your folder structure to avoid the "synchronizing" between the database internal folder structure and the Windows File System Structure.

Even if there are is a missing function (rename of the file with Daminion to avoid the rescan) it's the much better way.

 

Regards, Uwe

[Murat]

Hi Alain,

 

Uwe, has explained in detail why there are no "live sync" between folders in Daminion (and other DAM solutions) and your existing folder structure And Relinking Folder is much much faster then Rescanning folders.

 

However we, at Daminion Software, understand the importance of adequate reflecting of outside folder/files changes by an automatic or semi-automatic ways.

 

Unfortunately Windows doesn't allow to store metadata in the Folders like we did in images and other media documents. So if you changed a folder by the Windows Explorer we need to exactly identify and locate this folder but with other name. We can hook the Window Folder renaming events, but:

- this will works only for the computer where Daminion or Daminion Server has been installed.

- Windows doesn't allow to hook folder/file renaming events on remote locations, including Linux or Windows based NAS devices

 

Some programs like Picasa love litter by creating thousands of *.ini files on your folders with images, but it's not a good practice when third-party programs garbage folders with their content just because their developers can't found a better solution...

 

What can we try to do here:

1. Mark offline (renamed) folders in the Catalog Tags panel so you could easily check which folders need to be relinked.

2. Add a monitor service to hook folder/file renaming and reduce the amount of manual jobs related to folder syncing (will not work with network locations)

3. Continue experimenting with Advanced Data Stream (ADS) that allows to attach hidden data stream to folders. However many malware programs use these method to attached themselves to your files and there might be some conflicts and warnings from Antivirus programs.

 

Registered as feature #2756

[kalain]

What can we try to do here:

1. Mark offline (renamed) folders in the Catalog Tags panel so you could easily check which folders need to be relinked.

2. Add a monitor service to hook folder/file renaming and reduce the amount of manual jobs related to folder syncing (will not work with network locations)

 

Hi,

 

Thanks (Murat / Uwe) for your detailed explanations.

 

These two suggestions will improve a lot the way to manage off line folder/ file.

 

By now, in 875 build when I browse offline file it's marked by a "?". (Ok, that's a good point) but I didn't find how to display only all off line file! (This is the reason of this topic)

I expected to find such feature in "Saved Search" near "Unsync" choice or even inside "Sync" menu. ("Off line" or "Unsync" status are not too far from each other.)

[Uwe]

Hi Alain,

 

yes, this will help to have an entry of "offline items" in the "Saved Searches" section.

 

Regards, Uwe

[Murat]

 

Thanks (Murat / Uwe) for your detailed explanations.

 

These two suggestions will improve a lot the way to manage off line folder/ file.

 

By now, in 875 build when I browse offline file it's marked by a "?". (Ok, that's a good point) but I didn't find how to display only all off line file! (This is the reason of this topic)

I expected to find such feature in "Saved Search" near "Unsync" choice or even inside "Sync" menu. ("Off line" or "Unsync" status are not too far from each other.)

 

This is not available yet, due to the reason I described above: the real offline status of an image can be differ than the one we could store in the database. Saved searches, and other tags are piece of information from the database. So we could add the feature to locate offline files but it will be very slow process because we need to physically check all your import folders and files.

 

The "?" mark above thumbnail is calculated during thumbnail displaying, and it's easy to do this cause we display a limited number of images at once on the screen.

[Egon]

Murat had posted at August 10, 2013, that the search for offline files exists in the feature list.
Is this function now (1934) implemented. If yes, where?

[Daria Kotilainen]

Hi Egon, 

 

Unfortunately, it does not. A missing file and an offline file show the same - with the question mark - on the background Daminion cannot distinguish one from the other because in both cases it cannot access it by the imported path. An easy way to display offline\missing files is like a stick of two ends: on one hand you can quickly remove the files from the database that are really missing (e.g. deleted in the explorer or renamed), on the other hand you can delete the offline files by mistake, e.g the files that are only temporary unavailable because the USB stick or a network storage where the files are located is not available.

 

At the end we decided not to add this option to the latest version to avoid unpleasant situations when people accidentally delete the offline files from the database

 

Kind regards, 

Daria

[Egon]

Hello together,

this decision is a pity.

 

Greetings

Egon