Preview images not available

[Giorgio]

Hi I have created my first catalouge from an external HDD, 350.000 photos, the catalogue is about 5gb, but when the hdd is offline if I do a search I don't see the previews in my search. When the HDD is connected I see them, what am I doing wrong? My system is win10
Giorgio

[Kirk Baker]

Giorgio,

Hi I have created my first catalouge from an external HDD, 350.000 photos, the catalogue is about 5gb, but when the hdd is offline if I do a search I don't see the previews in my search. When the HDD is connected I see them, what am I doing wrong? My system is win10

When you built your catalog, did you have proxy generation turned off?

In the Catalog Management window, for each catalog, there is a checkbox with the label "Generate preview & thumbnail proxy images for offline or remote use (recommended)".  If that checkbox is off then there will be no thumbnails or previews available when your drives are not connected.

-Kirk

[Giorgio]

Hi Kirk, that option was tagged.
Giorgio

[Kirk Baker]

Giorgio,

Hi Kirk, that option was tagged.

OK.  You said that the catalog was 5GB in size.  That seems small for a catalog of 350k images if previews and thumbnails were generated.  How did you determine catalog size?

-Kirk

[Giorgio]

I found it here:
C:\Users\User\Documents\Photo Mechanic Catalogs

[Giorgio]

I have done a new catalogue with  a small folder, i did a search and the result is attached.

[Kirk Baker]

Giorgio,

Would you mind taking the screen grab again but show the status bar so that I can see the path of the selected image, please?

Thanks,

-Kirk

[Giorgio]

ok , it actually shows where the original is located.

[Kirk Baker]

Giorgio,

Thanks.  Can you select one of the images that does show its thumbnail and take a screen grab showing the status bar and post it here, please?

-Kirk

[Giorgio]

You spotted on my fault. My second test wasn't correct because I had connected two external had drive in a dock station with the same files in them. I made the catalogue of one of them but curiosly the software reed xmp of both. The previews were from the selcted Hdd those missing from the other. I retry to scan the first catalogue and I'll report back in the few days.

Giorgio

[Giorgio]

I rescanned the external disk and now apparently works great. It took more than two days to build up.The catalogue size is 115gb from this is a lot even because I have other five disk to catalouge, I can't keep all them on C .
Since I'not going to use the catalouge everyday can I store it on an external hdd?
How can I move the catalouge from the actual position to the external hdd?
Thank you

[Kirk Baker]

Giorgio,

I rescanned the external disk and now apparently works great. It took more than two days to build up.The catalogue size is 115gb from this is a lot even because I have other five disk to catalog, I can't keep all them on C .
Since I'm not going to use the catalog everyday can I store it on an external hdd?

Yes.

How can I move the catalog from the actual position to the external hdd?

1) Quit Photo Mechanic Plus
2) Move the catalog to the external drive.
3) Open Photo Mechanic Plus
4) Open the Catalog Management window (Catalog->Manage Catalogs...)
5) Click on the "Locate Existing Catalog..." button and use the dialog that appears to find the catalog on the external drive.

That should do it.

Though, now that you've done this, the proxies will never be used and don't need to be there because in order to use the catalog, the drive will have to be connected, and if it is connected, then your images will be online while you're using the catalog.  And you'll also lose the ability to search for images on that drive when it is disconnected, because the catalog won't be available.

-Kirk

[Giorgio]

Thank you Kirk,
I think I will add another internal Hdd to the pc just for the catalouges, I want have access to all of them every single search.