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Post by thewalker on Feb 5, 2022 19:03:41 GMT
The screen shot below displays the outcome of restoring catalog to a new location using "Restore Original Folder Structure". The intent was to create a new folder "OUR PHOTOS" and have no reference to "MY FAMILY PHOTOS". I now realize that this happened because I used the "Restore Original Folder Structure". If I restore with the "NEW LOCATION" command, would I have the intended folder structure with no reference to "My Family Photos"? Will I end up with "PHOTO CORRAL" and all sub folders intact?  |
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Post by BuckSkin on Feb 5, 2022 20:22:08 GMT
A far smarter man than I will soon be along to help you with this.
From what I do see in your folder tree structure --- Program Data and Adobe should not be there, but in C:/Windows, unless you have reasons of your own for them being there.
Another thing I would change: if all of your photos are going to be in Photo Corral, I would move Photo Corral immediately under the drive letter "J:", renaming it to My Family Photos if that is what you desire, eliminating the need to navigate down so many folder levels --- reason being, not only less complicated and much more convenient to navigate; but, Windows also limits the amount of characters in a navigation path that can be moved or copied at one maneuver, including the length of the file name; the characters in the name of every subfolder in the path add into this maximum amount of characters.
Sooner or later, you will get into situations where this maximum limit of characters in a folder path will prevent some operations.
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Post by michelb on Feb 5, 2022 21:26:06 GMT
Just drag and drop the PHOTO CORRAL folder to the OUR PHOTOS in the left folders panel in tree mode.
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Post by michelb on Feb 5, 2022 21:41:07 GMT
A far smarter man than I will soon be along to help you with this. From what I do see in your folder tree structure --- Program Data and Adobe should not be there, but in C:/Windows, unless you have reasons of your own for them being there. Buckskin, My guess is that this tree structure may be the result of a restore with the option to keep the 'original folder strucure'. With this choice, the full path is restored even if some levels are void and redundant. The usual problem with the default 'Pictures' path shortcut under C: in Windows is that it hides intermediate levels like Users. Those are reproduced when moved to another drive from backup and restore.
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Post by BuckSkin on Feb 5, 2022 22:08:40 GMT
A far smarter man than I will soon be along to help you with this. From what I do see in your folder tree structure --- Program Data and Adobe should not be there, but in C:/Windows, unless you have reasons of your own for them being there. Buckskin, My guess is that this tree structure may be the result of a restore with the option to keep the 'original folder strucure'. With this choice, the full path is restored even if some levels are void and redundant. The usual problem with the default 'Pictures' path shortcut under C: in Windows is that it hides intermediate levels like Users. Those are reproduced when moved to another drive from backup and restore.
I agree and that makes perfect sense. You are always very good at explaining things; that is a talent that I often lack --- I know what I am trying to express but it gets lost between my head and my typing. |
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Post by thewalker on Feb 5, 2022 23:48:33 GMT
 Hi Michel As per your suggestion I dragged and dropped the PHOTO CORRAL folder to the OUR PHOTOS and it is now directly nested in Our Photos. Can you offer advice as to what I should do with the 'MY Family Photo" folder and related sub folders under Program Data. Your reply indicates that restoring with "keep original folder structure" might be the issue. if I attempt a second restore but this time just use the "New Location" command and restore to OUR PHOTOS will eliminate "MY FAMILY PHOTOS". I attempted to attach image file, not sure if you will be able to view. THANK YOU |
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Post by michelb on Feb 6, 2022 8:11:16 GMT
Hi Michel As per your suggestion I dragged and dropped the PHOTO CORRAL folder to the OUR PHOTOS and it is now directly nested in Our Photos. Can you offer advice as to what I should do with the 'MY Family Photo" folder and related sub folders under Program Data. Your reply indicates that restoring with "keep original folder structure" might be the issue. if I attempt a second restore but this time just use the "New Location" command and restore to OUR PHOTOS will eliminate "MY FAMILY PHOTOS". Your screenshot shows that the subfolder levels which were skipped are all empty except a for a 'Pictures' folder under 'William'. Have a look at this folder and decide what you want to do with the files in that Pictures subfolder. Maybe move that subfolders elsewhere (I would rename it to avoid confusion with the default system 'Pictures' on the C drive). Or move the photos within that subfolders elsewhere. Once there is no longer any picture in the catalog under 'My family photos', the organizer will no longer display this empty folder branch in the tree view. You would have to select 'Our photos', right click and choose to show empty folders. However, this empty folder branch will still be shown in the Windows explorer, even if it does not use disk space. Before deleting the whole empty folder branch directly from the Explorer, you can check its size in the explorer to be sure there are no other file types left for some reasons.
For your other question, I would still use the 'keep original folder structure' option. Indeed, without that option, the empty subfolders would be discarded, but you'd lose the folder structure. You can see that it's easy and safe to do as described in this discussion.
Just a general note about dragging and dropping folder branches in the left folders panel: that works the same as with the Explorer. If you are moving a big number of files within the same drive or partition, the process will be very fast; the Explorer will simply update the logical folder tree without physically moving files on the drive; the organizer will simply reflect that folder tree change. However, if you move that branch to another physical drive, that will imply moving all files physically which may require hours. Let's say you decide to move your whole master folder of 500GB from the default location on C to J; instead of using backup then restore, you can simply drag and drop it directly under your target master folder on J.
This solution has the following advantages: - you avoid creating useless folder levels from the backup and restore - You can move selectively and progressively different branches to the new drive - If you do that just after a periodical full backup, it takes about the same time as a restore
Needless to say, moving a whole library is something I would not do without a full backup anyway. That said, the move is reasonably safe in the Organizer. I had once a power failure during the process: nothing was lost from the originals; I only had to wipe the already copied files before starting again. There are reports that in Lightroom similar moves may be a bit risky.
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Post by thewalker on Feb 6, 2022 17:16:41 GMT
Followed your advice I deleted photos from "Pictures" folder and now that folder is no longer showing, getting there, but "My Family Photos" is still visible. I expanded "My Family Tree" completely and noticed the last folder "ASSETS" contains six subfolders titled "theme1 to theme6", each theme folder contains one mp3 file. If I delete the contents of these subfolders, will this branch finally be empty and no longer visible.  |
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Post by BuckSkin on Feb 6, 2022 17:26:05 GMT
Followed your advice I deleted photos from "Pictures" folder and now that folder is no longer showing, getting there, but "My Family Photos" is still visible. I expanded "My Family Tree" completely and noticed the last folder "ASSETS" contains six subfolders titled "theme1 to theme6", each theme folder contains one mp3 file. If I delete the contents of these subfolders, will this branch finally be empty and no longer visible. The folders will be visible as long as they exist; make sure nothing vital is in them and then delete them (the folders). Deleting "My Family Photos" will also delete all of the sub-folders below it. |
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Post by michelb on Feb 6, 2022 18:40:01 GMT
Here is how I imagine the folder structure including the 'assets' subfolder with the themes has been created.
This folder branch starting with ProgramData is not intended to store your imported images, it's to store data necessary for the programm to work. You should still see it in its original state on your C: drive. So what you are seeing on J: is a copy. Already note that the program itself will continue to use the original folder on C: and totally ignore the copies on the J: drive. Why such a copy on J: ? Probably if you have imported in bulk or directly from the C root folder. There is no reason to keep those files in ProgramData in a catalog. So, when you do a backup and restore, you also copy those files on J:
Now that they are on J: nothing prevents you to delete entirely the My Family Photos from the Explorer. If those ProgramData files were still on C, of course you would delete them from catalog but not from disk. |
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Post by thewalker on Feb 7, 2022 0:29:56 GMT
Thank you to both Michel and Buckskin. This is the latest screen shot with all the moves and deletions completed, to me the folder structure looks proper, I hope it passes your expert scrutiny. Again thank you for your sharing your personal time and knowledge with me, greatly appreciated.  |
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Post by BuckSkin on Feb 7, 2022 2:21:57 GMT
I hope it passes your expert scrutiny. It looks good to me when it looks good to you. The real expert here is michelb; he is the resident Organizer expert. |
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Post by michelb on Feb 7, 2022 8:08:44 GMT
Thank you to both Michel and Buckskin. This is the latest screen shot with all the moves and deletions completed, to me the folder structure looks proper, I hope it passes your expert scrutiny. Again thank you for your sharing your personal time and knowledge with me, greatly appreciated. All perfect for me.
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