Using Digikam in a Linux/Mac/Windows environment

[Maik Qualmann]

You should not add additional independent network collections on every 
operating system. It is possible to append further base paths to an existing 
network collection.

The following collection was first created as an example on macOS:

/Volumes/photo           <-- main collection
         /mnt/photo          <-- Linux path
        D:\mount\photo  <-- Windows mount path
        \\server\photo     <--Windows UNC path

Maik

Am Mittwoch, 12. November 2025, 21:27:47 Mitteleuropäische Normalzeit schrieb 
jack:
> I couldn't get the "add path" approach to work when one machine is where the
> master database is kept.  Adding a path changes the database, but only on
> the machine you're using.  But that database will be overwritten when the
> master database is next changed.  So you'd have to add the path again every
> time.  Perhaps I'm missing something though.
> 
> 
> /Jack 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Nov 12, 2025, 11:45 AM Maik Qualmann <metzpinguin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> To keep it brief, it's very easy to create different base collection paths
> for different operating systems.
> 
> First, set up a network collection on one operating system (it doesn't
> matter which one). For the other operating systems, simply add (append)
> another path to the ! existing one ! using the plus button in the digiKam
> collection settings.
> 
> https://docs.digikam.org/en/setup_application/collections_settings.html#setu
> p-root-album-folders
> 
> Maik
> 
> Am Mittwoch, 12. November 2025, 20:37:04 Mitteleuropäische Normalzeit
> schrieb
> Jack Haverty:
> > For the usual reasons, our IT environment contains a mix of computers
> > including Linux, Mac, and Windows desktops.  Digikam runs on all those
> > devices, so I've been figuring out the logistics of making it all work.
> > Success!  I figured I'd write it down in case someone else is trying to
> > do the same thing.
> > 
> > We have one machine (happens to be a Mac) which is the "master" Digikam
> > machine.  The actual photos all live on a NAS, which is configured as a
> > network collection.  All changes (adding new photos, tags, etc.) are
> > made on the Mac.  The 4 database files on the Mac (Digikam's .db files)
> > are then copied to each of the other machines.  I use Syncthing to make
> > that easy and automatic.
> > 
> > On each other machine, the goal is to make it possible to use Digikam to
> > search, retrieve, and use the Digikam database, but not to make any
> > changes such as adding photos to the collection or changing tags etc.
> > 
> >   All changes are done on the master Mac.
> > 
> > The challenge hs been dealing with the differences in naming conventions
> > on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
> > 
> > I tried various approaches with the "network collections" features of
> > Digikam, but didn't succeed.  On the Mac, the network collection was
> > acessible as "/Volumes/photo".   On Linux, I could easily mount the NAS
> > photo folder as /Volumes/photo as well, so the Linux Digikam could find
> > photos using the Mac database settings.
> > 
> > On windows however, I could mount the NAS photo collection as a virtual
> > disk (I used P: to indicate Photos).   But there was no obvious way to
> > create a link from /Volumes/photo to P: -- Windows uses \s, but Mac and
> > Linux like /s.   I tried, on the Mac, adding a path to the photo
> > collection for "P:\" but it wouldn't let me do that on the Mac.
> > 
> > ChatGPT gave me the answer, and it actually worked!   The steps are:
> > 
> > On each Windows device running Digikam:
> > 
> > 1/ Mount your NAS photo store as a virtual disk (I used P:), and set it
> > to reconnect when you log in so it's always accessible
> > 2/ Using the command line, as Administrator, create a link -- "MKLINK /D
> > "\VOLUMES\PHOTO" "P:\"
> > 
> > Result - Digikam on Windows, using the database copied from the Mac, can
> > successfully access the photo files from the NAS.
> > 
> > This works, at least for now, because Windows apparently treats \ and /
> > as equivalent when trying to find a file.  So /Volumes/photo (from the
> > Mac database) gets used as \Volumes\photo (on Windows).
> > 
> > ChatGPT pointed me to several other ways to approach this problem. One
> > way was to use a database on the LAN rather than on the Mac.   I could
> > run MySQL, MariaDB, or such on the NAS, and keep the Digikam database
> > there, but I'd rather not complicate the picture with another device
> > needed to use Digikam for basic searching and browsing.   I also wanted
> > to avoid problems with situations such as multiple machines
> > simultaneously using the database, or "browsing" clients able to do
> > things like change tags thath the master put in.
> > 
> > There was another option to directly edit the Digikam database file to
> > add the Windows path directly, bypassing the checks that prevent adding
> > things like "P:\" while running on a Mac.   But that seemed risky and
> > might be undone by some future release of Digikam.
> > 
> > I tried using the new "Remap" feature of Digikam.  That works but only
> > in the case where each Digikam installation keeps its own database.
> > That's useful but not compatible with the approach of keeping a "master"
> > database on some particular machine.
> > 
> > If anyone's interested, my full conversation with the AI is here:
> > https://chatgpt.com/share/6914da04-f3ac-8001-a52b-a68562611b25
> > 
> > There is still one quirk which can be worked around.
> > 
> > Whenever Digikam runs, it apparently changes something in the database
> > files.  So when I run Digikam on a Windows (or any) desktop, the local
> > database files are modified.  Syncthing tries real hard to avoid losing
> > data, and the locally modified database files will not be overwritten
> > when the "master" files on the Mac are changed.
> > 
> > It's easy to tell Syncthing to "Revert Local Changes" which makes the
> > master files overwrite the local ones on the Windows (or Linux)
> > machines.  But you have to remember to do that to avoid working with an
> > old Digikam database that won't have photos, tags, etc., from the latest
> > updates on the master.  I could also solve that problem by avoiding
> > Syncthing and just using rsync to force a copy of the master to each
> > other machine where Digikam will run.
> > 
> > Anybody have a better way...?
> > 
> > /Jack