[Digikam-users] Update, clean, and move database?

[Jean-François Rabasse]

Hello,

On Wed, 8 Jan 2014, Peter Albrecht wrote:

> Hi Jasper,
>
> I try to use the digiKam db only as a fast cache for image
> meta information.
> -> I configured digikam to store all important info (for me:
> Tags, Comments, Rating) in the JPG's metadata (EXIF/XMP).
>
> At my last migration from 32 Bit to 64 Bit, I started with a
> fresh digikam installation and copied only the jpg files to
> the new installation.
> Digikam db and thumbnail db were recreated well.
>
> I did not copy digikam settings, but went through all of
> them again. Once in a while, new interesting settings are
> added, which I wouldn't have found otherwise.
>
> This worked well for me. Maybe other people with other
> settings/conditions might have problems with this way.

I totaly agree with Peter.
This may seem a somewhat rough method, but it's safe and portable
for any environment changes, Digikam versions changes, etc., without
having to cope with - possibly - migration problems and - possibly -
metadata losses.

I work exactly the same way. The only - minor - drawback is that
rebuilding all from scratch may take a couple of minutes. Not really
a problem when the operation is done once a month or every two months.

And, as says Peter :
> I try to use the digiKam db only as a fast cache for image
> meta information.
Digikam database is an application specific, working data format.
It's fast for images filtering or collections searching, but should
not be considered as a reliable, long lifetime, metadata archiving
system.
And, as all can be rebuilt via « Read metadata from images », it's
not to be considered as critical information.

(Also, metadata into images files is the only way to share informations
with family, friends, and any people who are not Digikam users.)

Regards,
Jean-François