Desperate for Help - Accidentally Deleted Folder

[Gilles Caulier]

Hi,

First question before responding in detail: did you register the
digiKam information to the file metadata (or XMP sidecar) ?

Typically, for the interoperability, digiKam always saves changes in
the database, and can backup information in the file metadata
(disabled by default).

https://docs.digikam.org/en/setup_application/metadata_settings.html#behavior-settings

If yes, reimporting the backup of files in your main disk and scanning
again the collection, all database info will be restored as well.

Best regards

Gilles Caulier

Le ven. 18 juil. 2025 à 13:02, Lindsay <luckyme04867 at yahoo.com> a écrit :
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> Hi - I'm not exactly sure how this mailing list works or how to reply if someone answers, but I'm hoping someone can help, as I really need it.
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> I've been using DigiKam for six months now as a replacement for the photo recognition software Picasa which doesn't work on my new Mac. I was working on organizing all my scanned photos from before 2000, I fixed the years, recognized faces, red eye, cropping, etc. It took me absolutely forever to do this for around 5,000 photos.
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> A few months later, I need space on one of my external hard drives and since I have the photos backed up in other places, I deleted the folder with all my pictures before 2000. I completely forgot that that folder was the one connected to Digikam. I still have the pictures saved elsewhere on other drives and I can see the folder and photo thumbnails is still in Digikam (with an X before the folder name), but I'm not sure what to do now.
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> How can I make sure all my hard work isn't just gone? Can I connect the photos on DigiKam with the exact same photos just stored on other drive without starting from scratch? I'm so mad at myself.
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> If there is a way to fix this, clear, step-by-step instructions are requested as I have no idea how to reply. I've never used a mailing list before.
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> Thank you in advance,
> Lindsay
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