[digiKam-users] Moving photos and database files

[Chris Green]

On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 09:26:35PM +0100, Andrew Goodbody wrote:
> On 13/05/2020 20:45, Chris Green wrote:
> > On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 09:18:55PM +0200, jdd at dodin.org wrote:
> > > 
> > > > ...and then in the Album menu we have:-
> > > >       Write metadata to files
> > > 
> > > this one
> 
> No, that is a one off operation not a permanent setting.
> 
> > > > So which option do I tick to ensure that metadata is *always* written
> > > > to the image files?
> > > 
> > > always to  jpg files. Add xml side file for at least any other
> > > 
> > So I have to remember every time I exit from Digikam to open the menu
> > and click "Write metadata to files"?  What happens if my system
> > crashes or if I turn it off forgetting to close down Digikam?
> > 
> > Surely there should be a way to set things up so that metadata is
> > always saved with the images.  Having it only in a (totally separate,
> > maybe even on a different system) database seems very risky to me.
> 
> Yes of course.
> 
> > Which option?
> >
> > In the Metadata section of Settings there's:-
> >     Use Lazy Synchronization
> >     If possible write metadata to RAW files
> >     Update file modification timestamp when files are modified
> >     Rescan when files are modified
> >     Clean up the Metadata from database when rescan files
> 
> In the box above this section which is titled 'Write This Information to the
> Metadata', tick everything. This controls what is written to your images
> unless you have digikam set to write to sidecars only.
> 
Thank you Andrew! The first person who seems to have understood what I
have been talking about all this time! :-)

OK, so ticking these boxes means more than just 'Write This
Information to the Metadata', it means that the information is written
to the metadata ***in the image files***.  It's this that needs
clarifying to my mind, metadata can be written to three different
places:-
    The database
    Sidecar files
    The image files
I think it needs to be much clearer in the configuration set-up where
the metadata is going to be written (if anywhere).

I'm sorry if I've been a bit confrontational about this but it's
something I have had problems with for a very long time and security
of metadata is important.

Thank you everyone for your patience.

-- 
Chris Green