Desperate for Help - Accidentally Deleted Folder

[Daniel Bauer]

There are many question marks, maybe you are lucky...

- did you delete the files within Digikam or with a file manager? If you 
deleted them within Digikam, they were also removed from the database.

- if you deleted them outside of Digikam, have you opened Digikam again 
since then and updated the database? If so, they might have also been 
removed from the database.

- Do you have a backup of the database files?

- do you save the meta data in the photo files or as sidecars? (I don't 
do this, but some do)

Before you do anything, make a backup of the Digikam albums including 
database files!

With Dikigam switched off, not running:

If the entries in the database are deleted, copy your backup database 
files to their location.
Copy the backup photo files back to their original location.
If the files in your backup are the same and have the same name as the 
deleted ones, everything should work again.

If you don't know whether the entries in the database have been deleted 
or not, try copying the image files back. Maybe you are lucky and the 
data in the database has not been (completely) deleted.

If you do not have a database backup but have saved the metadata in the 
files, you can copy the images back to their original location and have 
the metadata read in.

If you have neither an unchanged database (or backup) nor metadata in 
the image files, you're out of luck as far as I know, except sombeody 
here knows something I don't know. Then you now know from bitter 
personal experience how important complete, regular backups are...

Am 18.07.25 um 04:32 schrieb Lindsay:
> 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.
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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.
> 
> Thank you in advance,
> Lindsay
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Málaga
Twitter: @Marsfotografo (often explicit nudes)
https://www.patreon.com/danielbauer
https://www.daniel-bauer.com (nudes)