<html><head></head><body><div>There are many ways to skin a cat when it comes to upgrading your copy of Digikam.</div><div><br></div><div>As you are upgrading from a pretty old version, these are the steps >I< would do things in:</div><div><br></div><div>1) make sure you have a current backup of your photos. From your earlier messages, it appears you don't like to write the metadata to your photos as it messes with your backups, so I imagine you are doing incremental backups. Just make sure everything is up do date with your backup first</div><div><br></div><div>2) configure Digikam to write all metadata into sidecar files (.xmp) Once done, sync the metadata for all your photos to disk. This will take a bit of time, and will write a .xmp file for every photo</div><div><br></div><div>3) MOVE your digikam database files and digikam settings folder to a safe place. You want these to be re-created when you run digikam the next time</div><div><br></div><div>4) download the appimage for the current 7.2 release candidate for Digikam and mark it executable (either command line or viewing the properties from the desktop) </div><div> You can find the latest release candidate at <a href="https://files.kde.org/digikam/">https://files.kde.org/digikam/</a> You will want the X86-64 file as you are running a current linux distribution</div><div><br></div><div>5) Run the appimage (double click on the appimage icon from your file browser on the desktop) and perform the first run configuration pointing digikam at your photo library. Once it starts scanning photos, take a break. It might take a while</div><div><br></div><div>6) if everything looks good, uninstall your old copy of digikam, and remove the old database files and settings folder.</div><div><br></div><div>7) In case things don't work, restore your original database files and digikam settings folder and appimage file to revert back to the old version. </div><div><span></span></div><div><br></div><div>8) configure Digikam settings and update for your preferred metadata settings. As .xmp files are quite small, it might be acceptable to write to .xmp files in addition to the database in the future as it won't affect your backup size too dramatically.</div><div><br></div><div>9) for bonus points and if you're bored enduring a COVID lockdown, scan your entire collecton for faces and be prepared to name a lot of people.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Again, this is how I would upgrade my digikam as it gives the ability to roll back at any point until you remove the old database and configuration files. </div><div><br></div><div>Rob</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>On Sat, 2021-01-16 at 15:25 +0200, J D wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex; border-left:2px #729fcf solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Hi, and thanks for quick reply,<br></div><div><br></div><div>I got Digikam 6.4 along with a Linux distro, so updating it may not be that simple.</div><div><br></div><div>Do I have any options in addition to using the migration tool?</div><div><br></div><div>What would be the preferred (hopefully future-proof) solution for this case?<br></div><div><br></div><div>BR,</div><div>angrdtsk<br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">la 16. tammik. 2021 klo 15.13 Gilles Caulier (<a href="mailto:caulier.gilles@gmail.com">caulier.gilles@gmail.com</a>) kirjoitti:<br></div><blockquote type="cite" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex; border-left:2px #729fcf solid;padding-left:1ex"><div>Le sam. 16 janv. 2021 à 14:01, J D <<a href="mailto:angrdtsk@gmail.com" target="_blank">angrdtsk@gmail.com</a>> a écrit :<br>><br>> Hi,<br>><br>> I lately installed a new Linux distribution, and along with that change, got new version of Digikam (4 -> 6.4). How can I import the meta-data created using the old one to the new one?<br>><br>> The meta-data is in a database file. I don't like the idea of embedding it into the picture files because that way, changes in meta-data would mean changes in picture files, and that would complicate making back ups.<br></div><div><br>If you use XMP sidecar files (See option in DK/Setup/Metadata panel),<br>you will not touch image files as well.<br></div><div><br>><br>> I found a dialog for migration in the new Digikam, but got immediately confused, as it seems to require me to move (or copy, that was unclear) the pictures from a directory to another along with the migration. There are roughly 35000 pictures taking 475 GB of space so proceeding with that dialog is not something I will try before I know better what is going happen and why.<br></div><div><br>In all cases, if you use database migration tool, do not migrate to<br>6.4 release, but to 7.2. release candidate available here :<br></div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://files.kde.org/digikam/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://files.kde.org/digikam/</a><br></div><div><br>Best<br></div><div><br>Gilles Caulier<br></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote></body></html>