[Digikam-users] Metadata of photos when moving between collections

[Andrew Goodbody]

On 18/09/13 19:32, Wolfgang Mader wrote:
> Using the collection and database from an additional Digikam installation:
> Now I configured a second client with a Digikam installation also using the
> same shared folder and the mysql Database on the server. The photos showed up
> immediately, but the metadata again were missing. I had to re-read them from
> files and sidecars.
> And here is the question: Why do I have to re-read the metadata? It is present
> in the database which is configured in Digikam but Digikam does not use this
> information.
>
> Thank you for reading this lengthily post.
>
> Best,
> Wolfgang

Digikam stores the path to the root of the collection in the database. 
If this is a local HDD then it can include the UID in this information. 
I am not sure quite what happens with a shared drive but I suspect that 
your two installations of digikam are seeing different roots to the 
collection. Making the path look the same to each system may not be 
enough to convince digikam to treat them the same.
To work around issues such as this it is possible to do a database edit 
to add multiple roots to the collection but there is no UI to do this at 
the moment AFAIK.

For what it's worth, I think that having the root path to the collection 
in the database is a mistake. This information should live in the 
digikamrc file and make sharing collections between systems easier. It 
is a machine dependant configuration not an attribute of the photos.

Andrew