Author Topic: Can I move a ThumbsPlus database to a new computer?  (Read 5937 times)

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Laura Shook

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ThumbsPlus databases are not designed to be moved to new computers and many find that beginning with a new database is the easiest path. That being said I have copied information below that describes the process to use to attempt to migrate a ThumbsPlus database to a new computer as well as tips about making it easier to re-create database information for future database moves.

The thumbnails and data, ie;, annotations, keywords, udf's, galleries - that your ThumbsPlus database contains are not stored in the images themselves, but in the database.

ThumbsPlus uses the folder structure and the volume labels of your drives to tell itself where the image resides that the thumbnail represents. What this means (partially) is that if you have a different directory structure on the new computer ThumbsPlus can not match the thumbnails with the images because they are no longer where ThumbsPlus expects them to be. (As the folder has changed, or the volume label(s) are different.)

The easiest way to move the database file, (the default database type is *.tpdb8), is to make sure you have the exact same directory structure with the exact Volume Labels on the NEW system, so the thumbnails and other thumbnail data will match up with the files. If this is not possible, you can open the database on the new computer, and you will see the offline (old) drive with a red exclamation point and/or grey folders. If the directory structure is the same, you can drag the offline drive to the new drive. (The offline drive will have a red ! on it in the folder tree.) If the directory structure has changed you will need to drag the folders individually as long as the CONTENTS of the folders have not changed...even if the folder name has. Again, if you are not concerned with the ThumbsPlus thumbnails and data, it's easiest just to install ThumbsPlus on the new drive and re-create your thumbnails and data.

Please note that here are ways to use ThumbsPlus that makes it much easier to re-create thumbnail data if a database is lost:

* Keywords: Automatic keyword generation from different criteria like image names and folder names and more. If your images and folders are named logically this makes it much easier to automatically create keyword data when making thumbnails. OPTIONS>PREFERENCES>KEYWORDS

* Image Metadata may be a great solution as the Metadata is stored in the images themselves and not in the ThumbsPlus database. Then using ThumbsPlus options, you can automatically create database keywords, annotations and udf's from Metadata upon thumbnail creation. Options>Preferences>Metadata. (If you do use Metadata, not only is the Metadata available in other imaging programs, but creating ThumbsPlus database information from the Metadata makes creating a new database on a new system much easier.)

The attached images illustrate some of these options.

For additional help please e-mail support@thumbsplus.com
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