Photo source connected?

[seablister]

Does the remote HD on which the photos of interest reside have to be connected to the computer for your program to include them? One of the appeals of iPhoto (defunct) and Photo Supreme is that they work with thumbnails imbedded in the computer to negate the need for HD connection and minimize space consumed. Am I missing something?

[Hayo Baan]

As long as you have PM generate the previews when adding the files to the catalog (this is the default), you should be able to remove the disk and still be able to browse/view the images (at full zoom you'll notice that the images is actually of lesser quality than the original, of course, but still very much usable). You just won't be able to adjust the metadata of the “offline” files.

@Kirk, offline files have their green dot removed, I'd have thought it would either have stayed green (files are in a catalog) or at the very least have become e.g. yellow (to indicate file is in catalog but offline). Complete removal of the dot means (to me at least) that it is not part of (any) catalog.

[filrub]

So can I put the catalog files in a cloud and use the same catalog in my desktop and in my laptop (with original photos in the desktop)?

[Hayo Baan]

I'm not sure this works (perfectly), but please try and report back on your findings

[Kirk Baker]

So can I put the catalog files in a cloud and use the same catalog in my desktop and in my laptop (with original photos in the desktop)?

No, Photo Mechanic must have the catalog database files locally available.  PM would not be able to access its database if it were placed on a server somewhere.

Unless I'm completely misunderstanding your question.

-Kirk

[filrub]

Unless I'm completely misunderstanding your question.

I suggested to put catalog files in a cloud (for example gdrive), so I have the same in catalog in every mac (I have gdrive in both my desktop and laptop mac's...)

[Kirk Baker]

Unless I'm completely misunderstanding your question.

I suggested to put catalog files in a cloud (for example gdrive), so I have the same in catalog in every mac (I have gdrive in both my desktop and laptop mac's...)

If gdrive acts completely like a local drive, then I expect that it may work, but I also expect the performance to be terrible.

-Kirk

[filrub]

If gdrive acts completely like a local drive, then I expect that it may work, but I also expect the performance to be terrible.

Gdrive syncs files in every pc. So every pc has his local catalog files.

[Kirk Baker]

If gdrive acts completely like a local drive, then I expect that it may work, but I also expect the performance to be terrible.

Gdrive syncs files in every pc. So every pc has his local catalog files.

What acts as the master source for the files?  What happens if the same file is changed in different ways on two different computers?

-Kirk

[Hayo Baan]

If gdrive acts completely like a local drive, then I expect that it may work, but I also expect the performance to be terrible.

Gdrive syncs files in every pc. So every pc has his local catalog files.

What acts as the master source for the files?  What happens if the same file is changed in different ways on two different computers?

-Kirk

Well, I think you just need to be very careful and never work with the catalog at two different locations at the same time. And when you start working from another machine, make sure you synced the catalog data. This is one of the reasons I prefer a manual sync in these cases…