[Digikam-users] migrated windows digikam to new laptop - databases doubled in size

[Gilles Caulier]

My migration experience have been also done to write digiKam metadata
in XMP and drop all database files. Backporting collections will
recreate automatically all tags in database.

Else, i see some tips about to maintain database contents, in the way
to remove duplicates entries, typically your case.

When moving collection from a computer to a new one, database use HDD
UUID to identify which device is used to store files.

This is typically your case : you have changed your hard-drive.

Normally, when collection disappear, at startup digiKam must ask to
indicate where collection have been moved (to a new disk). here it's
more complicated because i suppose that you forget to copy also all
settings files (RC files) from your home directory (under windows
~/AppData/Roaming/.kde/share/apps/digikam)

So you have multiple way to solve this problem :

- migrate again all collections without database and scan all files to
create fresh database files
- migrate again all collections with database files AND settings
files, and indicate where collection are hosted.
- perform a cleanup of main database file (digikam4.db) following
instructions from mailing list here :

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=322642#c5

Note : thumb database file can be dropped in all cases and re-created
from scratch.

Gilles Caulier

2014-08-19 17:26 GMT+02:00 George Pearson <george at canals.com>:
> I moved my picture collection from my old XP laptop, running digikam 3.2.0, to
> a new Windows 8.1 laptop, where I installed digikam 4.2.0 (-2).  The copy
> included digikam4.db and thumbnails-digikam.db.  It appears that digikam as
> absorbed all of the images again as new ones, as both dbs have doubled in size.
>
> Clearly I must have done something wrong in this migration, but in my defense,
> I have to say that I searched like crazy for advice before starting, but found
> no real advice.
>
> I'd like to give this migration another shot.  Here's what I did the first
> time:
>
> - copied picture collection (including dbs) first, using robocopy to preserve
> date stamps (/MIR option)
> - installed digigam 4.2.0 (-2) for windows on new 8.1 laptop
> - started digikam - NO albums were visible at this time
> - went to add collection - saw old directory there from old laptop (though I
> had set new directory during installation)
> - added collection for directory on new laptop - this, I think, I what probably
> started the duplication of the dbs
> - later, albums started to appear, and the dbs are roughly twice as big
>
> How should I have done this?  (This could be a good FAQ item.)
>
> BTW, I noticed there's a "database migration" menu item, but I saw no
> documentation, and it did no look like it applied to what I was doing.
>
> P.S.  I think digikam is great, and now with the new laptop I should be able to
> take better advantage of it than on my old machine.
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